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