Charter for alt.holoworld.rpg
This document has been put into action by general membership vote
April 27, 1996, as ammended, and is considered the club's constitution.
1. All matters affecting the whole club requires to be presented in the form of
a proposal and is not implemented before being passed by the Membership.
In the case of elections for administration, or passing of proposals,
the Council Representatives act to collect the votes of their units
and pass them along to the ombudsman only. The exception to this is
when the ombudsman is running for any post, in which case the votes for
the post for which the current ombudsman is running are sent to the fleet
CO. That is, administration and proposals are voted in on a one
person one vote basis, with the Council Representatives passing on the
vote counts for the unit and each individual voting only with the one unit
they have declared they will be voting upon (or character their
voting character -- VC).
In the case of appeals and vetos called by the ombudsman or council awards,
the Council Representatives do the actual voting as outlined below.
Matters of administration that do not affect the whole but only a smaller
group of players are to be put to a vote if the independent ombudsman
decides that the complaints of a significant number of players, affected
by it or not, warrant a veto against the decision (Details in section 3).
2. Administration is the executive branch of HoloWorld
2.1 Under administration count all players of characters with direct
directional authority over players and player groups and the bearers
of warrant duties (Game Masters and Canon Keepers).
2.2 Members of the administration with directional authority are elected
by the membership and tallied by the Council Representative and then
the ombudsman.
Other members of the administration are appointed and relieved through
the elected members.
2.3 The administration is answerable to the Council at all times and to the
Ombudsman in a veto situation.
2.4 The administration supports discussion on matters of general interest
(doesn't include the selection of command personnel, GMs and warrant
officers) and invites contributions to them to prepare them for council decisions.
2.5 The administration serves the club and supports all role playing
opportunities, setting the requirements for the environment to form
a coherent club background for all players to make safe assumptions
while drawing from it.
2.6 The administration makes the day-to-day decisions and forms policy
concerning single players, characters and units.
2.7 Details, as far as required and useful to be fixed, are regulated in
Section 5/6.
3. The Council is the legislative branch of HWF.
3.1 The Council is composed of members of HWF elected by their unit. The
detailed procedure is regulated in Section 5.
3.2 General elections for representatives take place every 6 months,
covering one session immediately following the election of unit
representatives.
For single representatives who leave the group they have been elected
from during an election, a replacement election takes place. If the
group itself ceases to exist, the period of representation for the
delegate ends with the dissolution.
3.3 The Council has two (2) regular sessions every year, every six months,
not exceeding one week of duration each, starting the 15th of the
month (May 15 and November 15)
3.4 The Council submits the tallied votes for their units that
elect persons into offices and submits the tallied votes on or
dismisses proposals back to discussion until its next session.
Discussion of proposals takes place ahead of and out of the Council
by the general membership.
Proposals not submitted to the Council until the opening day of a
session will not be considered for vote at this time.
3.5 The Council submits the membership votes for the voting members on
their unit that elects half of the administration members for positions
in supervisory roles with direction authority (listed separately),
every 12 months and on special elections when called.
3.6 A simple majority of Council members can relieve the administration
as a whole or single, elected members from duty (vote of no
confidence), regardless if the office was up for re-election or
not.
This measure requires a quorum of 2/3 of all representatives.
3.7 All Council decisions require a simple majority and a quorum of
1/2 of all representatives (or membership for regular elections)
to become effective.
4. The Ombudsman is the independent controller of the HWF administration.
4.1 The ombudsman is solely answerable to the Council.
4.2 The position is elected every 12 months. The person holding the office
of ombudsman cannot hold an office, either elected or appointed, within
the administration.
4.3 The Ombudsman controls the administration. To this end he has the right
to review justifications and veto single decisions of the administration
if there are a significant number of player complaints against it. The
term significant is left at the discretion of the ombudsman but must be
justified before the Council, if challenged.
As a first step the veto requires justification and reconsideration of
the decision by the responsible administration.
As a second step the Ombudsman can suspend the decision and require a
Council vote on the subject if the administration does not alter its
initial decision. To this end the Ombudsman will initiate a discussion
on the problem and conduct the formulation of a proposal to the Council
to resolve the subject, including the players submitting the complaint
and the member of administration responsible for the initial decision.
4.4 The Ombudsman has the right to chair discussion groups if the
participants do not adhere to the rules of common courtesy in their
discussion, or if his presence has been requested by any of the
participants of the discussion.
The duties and rights are outlined in Section 7.
4.5 The Ombudsman can be called as a judge in player-player disputes, but
has the right to dismiss the decision to the Head of the branch
administration.
4.6 The Ombudsman collects and presents the finished proposals to the
Council on its next session and serves as vote counter. If the Ombudsman
is running for a position, the votes for that position only are sent
to the Fleet CO instead to avoid a conflict of interest.
5. Representation
5.1 Each group of players in HoloWorld of 6 to 11 members elects one among
them as their voting representative into the council for a term of
office of one session (May or November). All representatives are elected
at this time.
Representatives are elected by their groups with simple majority.
Only players who are voting on the units, ie, have their voting
character there, should vote for this representative.
Should no candidate achieve this in the first turn of election,
the candidate with the most votes in the second turn will be
considered elected.
To allow an equal representation, larger player groups are divided
into groups of 6, filling them up if possible (more below)
Elections take place three weeks prior to the opening of the Council
sessions of March and end one week prior to the opening
day.
The Ombudsman keeps a list naming the representatives, groups and the
date of election to avoid confusion and makes sure the mailing list
for the session is set up correctly.
5.2 Should a player group not have 6 players, it joins with another RP
group for the purpose of electing a representative.
The same applies for unassigned or single players and by splitting of
groups significantly bigger than 6 players.
The Ombudsman presents a list of the player groups one week prior to
the start of elections, naming the groups and players in them.
5.3 Members of the administration are not members of the Council unless
elected by a player group. They are required to stand answer to
questions from the Council; those may be filed from the time of their
election as representatives until the end of session and are required
to be answered in public within 7 days after submission.
5.4 Members of the administration do not have the right to vote in council
unless elected as representatives by a player group.
5.5 Players cannot be elected as representatives of more than one group. The
votes tallied by the Representatives for administration and proposals
will be sent by the council representatives to the ombudsman who will
tally the votes and notify the general membership of the results at the end
of the voting period. Each council representative's tally of votes as
well as their own votes on strictly council matters such as council awards
or vetos is public information. The ombudsman will compile all of the
votes into one document which will be available upon request by any person.
It is the ombudsman's responsibility to maintain this document for a minimum
period of 3 months. This document of votes may also be placed on the
official web page at the discretion of the web team.
Each player, not character, has a single vote. The individual players
send their votes on proposals and the election of administration to their
Representative who then tally them and send the tallied numbers
(that is, the number of votes for each proposal or admin position on
that unit) to the Ombudsman for counting. A player's Representative
would be the ship Representative on the ship where they have their stated
primary character or unit on which they have chosen to cast their vote
(ie, their voting character of VC).
5.6 Ballots are cast on a list of proposals at a time. They can be YES,
NO, ABSTAIN or DISMISS for acceptance, denial, abstintion or
dismissal back for further discussion.
5.7 Proposals for election into offices are gathered just as ordinary
proposals by the ombudsmen. Players nominated have to confirm their
willingness to conduct the office for the nominal term before
they are accepted on the list of candidates.
A ballots is cast for each office. Should more than one candidate
be nominated for a position, the selected candidate is marked with
YES while all other candidates remain unmarked.
Should no candidate be nominated for an office, the officer next in
administrative rank and seniority fills the position in an acting
function until a nominee is forthcoming.
Elections are held on March 1. All proposals and officers will be
up for election then. If an administration post is replaced between
elections, a special election should occur within the second month after
the appointment, or in March if the appointment takes place in
January or February.
5.8 All discussions and council decisions as well as election results
are made public and accessible to the whole memberships
6. Members with directional authority (elected by the Council)
*Ombudsman
* Fleet Admiral (Commander of the Fleet)
* Fleet Executive Officer
* Commodores (additional Operational XOs)
+ Head Instructor
+ Fleet Personel Officer
All elected on March 1
7. Members with warranted duties (selected by the administration)
Game Masters
Canon Keepers (culture coordinators/branch deputies)
8. If required, discussion on a proposal and integration of the points made
will be under the direction of the Ombudsman as elected by the last
Council.
8.1 The Ombudsman is required to assign a designator to a proposal, all
contributions to the proposal are required to show the designator in
the subject line to allow organized discussion and easy reference.
8.2 The discussion has to take place in a forum accessible to the general
membership, preferrably a mailing list with free subscription
capability
8.3 The Ombudsman organizes the participants of the discussion on a
proposal:
8.3.1 He appoints one of them as it's writer and will submit the
proposal to the council after the participants find a majority
for a version they worked out.
Finished proposals enter the queue of pending business for the
next council session in the order of their completion.
Should several proposals aimed at the same subject be made, they
will be grouped together for one to be selected from, similar to
an election proposal. None of them has to be approved, though.
8.3.2 The Ombudsman has the right to decide to preside a proposal
committee if the discussion gets out of hand. Any of the
participants can call the ombudsman to this purpose.
8.3.3 Should the Ombudsman preside a committee:
* He can call participants to order if they disgress from the
subject discussed in a manner that damages the discussion.
* He can request votes to help shaping parts of proposals
* He can exclude participants with three calls to order
* Exclusions can be overruled by a committee vote
8.3.4 The Council will be presented with a list of all submitted
to the voting members of their unit, usually through their
nrpg list.
8.3.5 The delegates will collect votes on each of the proposals on the
list and submit the whole list for counting to the ombudsman
8.3.6 The accepted proposals will be included into the official
documents within 2 weeks after the council adjourns.
9. Graphic representation of the structure:
elects answer to answers to
+---------> HW Council <------------------------+ +---<---------------+
| | | | |
| | elects | | select |
| +-<-------+------->----+------------> Head Admins ------>----+ |
| | | control | |
| | elects | votes on | |
| | | | |
| Ombudsman ------------> Proposals -----> club policy ---> Administration
| | | moderates | |
| | | | execute | create
| | | | |
| | +--------------------x---------------------------> service
| | controls by veto | cast-to-case decisions
| | | |
| | | |
| | complaints contributes |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
| | | |
+----+--------<-------- Membership <-------------------------------+
(C) Holoworld Fleet alt.holoworld.rpg.startrek 1996-2006
(
geocities.com/holoworldfleet)