Roger Winters' retirement & thank you

[James Bryce Clark <jamie.clark@oasis-open.org>]

Even though it's from a distance, let me second the sentiments
below, from John, one longtime friend and respected leader in public
sector standardization, about Roger, another important one. Roger is
a hard-working, insightful expert who's long given generously of
his time to help our communities develop a practical, effective,
powerful future for court documents. We tremendously appreciate his
contributions and vision ... and the practical, constructive, and
optimistic tone he's consistently set, in projects that are lucky to
have his presence.

Thank you again, Roger, and best wishes for the next phase of your
life.  We hope to stay in touch.  Our thanks also to King County for
kindly supporting your expert contributions to many communities for
the betterment of legal administration, including ours.

Regards Jamie

~ James Bryce Clark
~ Director of Standards Development, OASIS
~ http://www.oasis-open.org/who/staff.php#clark

John M. Greacen wrote:
> 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 <mailto: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 * * *