RE: [legalxml-courtfiling] Roger Winters' departure from our ranks

[John Messing <jmessing@law-on-line.com>]

End of an era. Best of luck Roger.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: RE: [legalxml-courtfiling] Roger Winters' departure from our
> ranks
> From: "O'Brien, Robert" <Robert.OBrien@cas-satj.gc.ca>
> Date: Mon, April 28, 2008 4:16 pm
> To: "John M. Greacen" <john@greacen.net>,
> <legalxml-courtfiling@lists.oasis-open.org>
> 
> 
> The very, very best to Roger, the epitome of that phrase, "a scholar and
> a gentleman".
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John M. Greacen [mailto:john@greacen.net] 
> Sent: April 28, 2008 7:01 PM
> To: legalxml-courtfiling@lists.oasis-open.org
> Subject: [legalxml-courtfiling] Roger Winters' departure from our ranks
> 
> Please read the email below from Roger Winters.  
> 
>  
> 
> Roger has been one of the TC members of longest standing.  We will miss
> his contributions and him personally.  The way that we can best honor
> Roger in the future will be to continue to pay attention to his most
> constant issue and concern - one that is reflected eloquently once again
> in this farewell email - that our documents need to be accessible and
> understandable to court lay people.
> 
>  
> 
> I ask Robin Gibson to initiate a nomination and election process to
> select a successor to Roger as our TC's representative on the LegalXML
> Member Section Steering Committee.  I originally used "replace" in the
> previous sentence but realized its inappropriateness; no one will every
> replace Roger Winters.
> 
>  
> 
> From: rwinterswa@gmail.com [mailto:rwinterswa@gmail.com] On Behalf Of
> Roger Winters
> Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 11:20 AM
> To: john@greacen.net
> Subject: Changes
> 
>  
> 
> Dear John:
> 
> I am writing you in your role as Chair of the Electronic Court Filing
> Technical Committee. With regret, I must resign as Editor, as Steering
> Committee Representative for the technical committee, and as co-chair of
> the Documents Subcommittee. It has been an honor to serve in those
> capacities.
> 
> I recently reached the decision to retire from King County. Why? Because
> I realized I could! I have always carried a very full plate of
> activities, in my job, in related work (like OASIS LegalXML and ARMA),
> and in my community. It has been increasingly difficult to give myself
> fully to my work in all those areas. For all too long, I have lacked
> time and energy for important personal priorities. 
> 
> I want to say that, as Editor, I reviewed nearly all of version 4.0 of
> the technical committee's specification. I found it to be a well-written
> piece and I congratulate Jim Cabral and the technical committee for its
> overall quality. I did not have the opportunity to discuss the document
> with Adam Angione, as we had hoped, so I leave it to him to add his
> comments and suggestions independently. For me, 4.0 gets a "Do Pass"
> recommendation with one caution: I continue to find it difficult to
> relate the specification directly to the work of court clerks or
> administrators who may not have much experience with such technical
> material. I think there are a couple of ongoing challenges: to promote a
> "generalist's" understanding of the technical standards, and to help
> court leaders visualize how the standards will help them to develop
> their own systems more successfully. I recommend a strong
> cross-reference to the "Standards for Electronic Filing Processes
> (Technical and Business Approaches)," for its excellent introduction to
> the subject (at least through page 47). The outreach on which the
> technical committee plans to work this year is very important to keep
> momentum going. 
> 
> The technical committee may now wish to reconsider its plan to meet in
> Seattle in August. You might contact Superior Court Clerk Barbara Miner
> (barbara.miner@kingcounty.gov) about King County's plan for an
> electronic court records conference at approximately that time. Do not
> count on my being involved; it is too soon for me to know.
> 
> Regarding my goals relating to the Court Documents Subcommittee, I came
> to feel it would take more time and energy than I could give it even if
> I were to remain on the job for another two years. A great deal can be
> done by showing how to use existing standards and metadata to bring some
> level of automation to the "Clerk Review" process. The potential for
> most court savings may lie here, given that a great many courts have not
> been able to let go of keeping paper records when introducing electronic
> filing and document imaging. I believe there is potential for much more
> efficiency from initiatives that preserve and use the digital qualities
> of court documents that are destroyed by printing them or that are left
> unused when treating them as "electronic" papers. I think Rex McElrath
> understands what I hoped to foster by co-chairing that subcommittee and
> I encourage the technical committee to encourage his efforts to give
> more attention to the court document as a data container as well as a
> record.
> 
> After an adjustment period, I expect to involve myself again in work
> about which I care the most. That could include OASIS and LegalXML. For
> now, I'm drawing no conclusions. I am re-booting myself (so to speak)
> and I will discover what I want to do next. I would like to share what I
> have learned from my 20 years with court records, paper and electronic,
> but I do not yet know how that might happen. I am glad to have the
> opportunity to reconsider possibilities. I feel I still have much to do;
> I do not intend to be invisible.
> 
> Please convey my warm regards to the technical committee and feel free
> to share this e-mail as you see fit. My contact information is below and
> I welcome my friends and former colleagues to be in touch whenever they
> will. 
> 
> Very truly yours,
> 
>        Roger
> 
> Roger Winters
> 601 S. Washington St. #309
> Seattle, WA 98104
> (206) 755-2526
> rwinters@seanet.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
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