HWG February 1997 Newsletter

February 1997 HWG NEWSLETTER

This is the htmlized version of the February 1997 Newsletter.



FEBRUARY 1997 HWG NEWSLETTER     

You are reading the HTML Writers Guild February 1997 Newsletter 
because your email address is in our membership database. If you do 
not wish to receive this newsletter, please read how to remove 
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Topics

HWG has members in 101 countries!

1. Announcing: HWG Paid Membership Classes
2. Vendor Discount Program
3. HWG Town Meeting on IRC: 2/18/97
4. New GB member
5. GB News - View topics of GB discussion, Membership Count
6. Mailing List Program: Promotions and Congratulations!
7. HWG has a new Web master
8. Utilities Collectors Group
9. HWG to attend WWW6

Administrative Issues
 - Why did I get this mail?
 - How do I unsubscribe?
 - Comments?

Membership Count

Drum roll please! The Guild has  41,649 members in 101 nations 
worldwide as of February 9, 1997! We have passed the 100 country 
mark!

1. Announcing: HWG Paid Membership Classes

On Sun Feb 2 1997, the HWG Governing Board concluded voting on a motion regarding the
creation of additional membership classes. 

The motion read as follows:

"Moved: That The HTML Writers Guild establish a series of membership
classes as outlined in the document located at: 

http://www.hwg.org/member/indiv.html
http://www.hwg.org/member/corp.html

"Further move that the implementation dates for the new classes be 
as follows: 

"Institutional/Corporate Memberships to start 01 March, 1997 
Individual Memberships to start 08 April, 1997 "

The motion passed with a final vote count of  8 in favor, 0 opposed, 
0 abstaining, 1 not voting.

Voting were: 

Bill Spurlock shadow@mindspring.com
Gerald Oskoboiny gerald@hwg.org
Heath Rezabek hrezabek@fiat.gslis.utexas.edu
John Miller jmiller@virtualholland.com
Kathy Gill kegill@halcyon.com
Kynn Bartlett kynn@idyllmtn.com
Patrick Wiseman pwiseman@mindspring.com
Roxanne Reid-Bennett rox@hwg.org

The above referenced URL gives an overview of the plan, and gives a
breakdown of the costs of the membership classes and the benefits
associated with each class.

The question we expect all members to ask is:

Will there still be a free HWG membership?

The reply there is a resounding YES! 

The current free HWG membership open to everyone is now called
"Basic" membership. Included in this membership class are all the
benefits members currently receive, with the exception of the Mentor
program. The Mentor program currently under revision will be moved
to the paid membership classes to allow its expansion into a
professional program. At the same time, a new program, the Vendor
Discount Program (VDP) is under development to offer all HWG members
a wide assortment of discounts on goods and services. 

The Governing Board and HWG's volunteer staff have worked hard to 
create what we believe is a fairly priced program to benefit all HWG
members at whatever membership class they join. Anyone may join any
class of membership, regardless of their skill level. 

In anticipation of your questions, we have created  an 
auto-responding email address that will send you additional 
information about the new membership classes.  To use this HWG 
service, send email to:

membership-info@hwg.org

You will automatically receive an HWG Member Classes FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) by email that will provide additional information 
about the new program.

****PLEASE NOTE****
If you wish to comment on the new membership classes - you may do so, but 
ONLY on hwg-ops, the Guild's Operations mailing list. This subject is off-topic for
all other Guild mailing lists and the List Guides will enforce the 
Netiquette Guide to keep our lists
on topic and of the quality our members expect. 
To subscribe to hwg-ops, please go to:
http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-ops/

2. Vendor Discount Program

The HWG has voted to implement a Vendor Discount Program, which will
allow members to take advantage of discounts given by various vendors
in the Internet market.

There will be a mailing list set up soon, where vendors can post 
press releases for new products and where the VDP Team will be 
posting information on various vendors taking part in the program.  
Details on this new (read-only) list will be announced on hwg-ops. 
To find out how to join hwg-ops, visit 

http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-ops/

We are currently searching for team members who wish to help 
administer the discount program.  Anyone interested should email 
Kelly Jensen, the Volunteer Coordinator, at kellyj@snowcrest.net.  

Please tell her you're interested in the VDP team.

If you represent a software company that might have an interest in 
participating in the Vendor Discount Program, please email John J. 
Miller, the Governing Board contact for the program, at 
jmiller@hwg.org.  John will be happy to provide details and work 
out arrangements with you.

3. HWG Town Meeting on IRC: 2/18/97

There will be an IRC Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, February 18, 1997 at 
9:00 PM EST where HWG President Bill Spurlock will be available to 
take questions on the new membership classes. For more information 
about how to attend an HWG Town Meeting, please visit the Guild's 
web site:

http://www.hwg.org/irc/

4. New GB Member

The Governing Board would like the membership to join them in 
welcoming John J. Miller jmiller@virtualholland.com as the newest 
member of the GB. John replaces Duif Calvin duif@jaderiver.com who
recently stepped down from the board. John is responsible for the 
Vendor Discount Program as mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter.

5.View GB topics of discussion

To provide the membership with more information about the issues 
under discussion by the Governing Board, the GB has set up a web page 
with pending motions for the membership to view. As of the date of this 
newsletter, the only pending motion is "Relaunch the Mentor/Apprentice 
Program". Past motions include the Complaint Process Policy and the 
creation of a sub-contracting bid service area.

You may visit the pending motions page at:

http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/motions/

If you would like to comment on pending motions (NOT "expired" 
motions please), all such discussion belongs on hwg-ops, the Guild's 
Operations Mailing List

6. Mailing List Program: Promotions and Congratulations!

We are pleased to announce that we have several promotions in the HWG 
mailing list program!

Kynn Bartlett kynn@idyllmtn.com has stepped down from his position 
as Mailing List Manager and is now serving as the Governing Board 
Contact for the Mailing List Program. Kynn has been serving  as MLM 
and GBC for several months, a nearly impossible task. Kynn has picked 
up additional duties for the Guild including guiding the development 
of a new mentor program.

Brian Catlin lurch@radix.net has been promoted to serve as our new 
Mailing List Manager (MLM). Brian is our former List Guide Manager 
and has worked hard with the mailing list team to create a 
successful program stressing fairness and professionalism. 

Mike Ricker mnmike@future.net has been promoted to List Guide 
Manager (LGM). Mike has been a valuable member of the Mailing List 
team serving as a guide and as the assistant LG Manager in the 
past.  

The GB is confident that Kynn, Brian, and Mike will continue to serve 
the Guild well in their new positions. Congratulations!

7. HWG has a new Webmaster

Michael Dickey md@tsdc.com has been named as the Guild's new 
webmaster. Michael, a long time Guild member, is also the 
owner of the hwg-business and the hwg-ops mailing lists. We are 
all looking forward to working with Michael as the Guild 
enters its new era.

The Guild's Web master position  has been filled by a number of people 
over the last few years and we would like to publicly thank them for 
their efforts on behalf of the Guild: Bill Spurlock, Cindy Svec, 
Gerald Oskoboiny, Darren Stalder, and Julie Meloni have all formally 
held the title at one time. Many others have served on the web site 
team over the past few years providing both content and maintenance - 
your efforts have been greatly appreciated.

8. Utilities Collectors Group

The Utilities Management Team creates, organizes, and maintains all 
the utilities pages containing links to tools, templates, and 
tutorials useful for web development.

We really need the membership to assist with the collection of 
suitable utilities. You  may join the Utilities Team or just send 
your recommendations for specific tools to the Team. To learn more 
about what resources this HWG team is looking for, visit:

http://www.hwg.org/utils/

Help us help the Guild membership and tell us your best tricks and 
tools for web site design and development!

9. HWG to attend WWW6

The HTML Writers Guild has been invited to be a part of The 
6th International WWW Conference to be held April 7-12, 1997 at the 
Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. The theme 
of this year's conference is "Everyone, Everything, Connected". With 
that theme in mind, we will be hosting a series of presentations and 
meetings on Monday, April 7th on topics relating to Accessibility of 
the World Wide Web, Promoting Quality in Web site Design, as well as 
general information on the HTML Writers Guild including a roundtable 
discussion on the future of the Guild. This program will be free; 
however, it is limited to registered conference attendees. Current plans 
call for a HWG meeting on the evening of Tuesday, April 8th  at the 
Santa Clara Convention Center that will be free and open to all HWG 
members living in the San Francisco/San Jose area and any members 
attending the conference, as well as those wishing to learn more about 
HWG. If at all possible, please make plans to attend. We look forward 
to meeting you there!

ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

- Why did I get this mail

    You received this newsletter because you are a member of 
the HTML Writers Guild. This message came from hwg-news, the 
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information about hwg-news, please see the List Charter at:

http://www.hwg.org/lists/hwg-news/index.html

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-  Comments? 

    Comments on this newsletter should be sent to: <cindy@hwg.org>.
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Copyright 1997 HTML Writers Guild
URL: http://hwg.org/opcenter/newsletters/0297.html