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Member Rights and Charter Summary

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Mayor
Post subject: Member Rights and Charter Summary
Posted: Sat 25 Jun , 2005 4:56 pm
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This first post contains your Member Rights and Responsibilities, found in Article 2 of our Charter. A summary of the rest of the Charter follows in the second post, and the full Charter can be read and downloaded here -> Charter of B77.
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Member Rights and Responsibilities

Some rights and responsibilities are enforceable by procedures and penalties outlined in the Charter; others rest on the determination of all members to observe them. All are essential to our purpose of building a vibrant, diverse, supportive community where both conversation and signature pictures reflect our personalities, our humor, our genuine opinions, our artistic appreciation, our creativity, and above all our mutual friendship.

¶1: Rights and responsibilities enforceable by procedures and penalties outlined in the Charter

A. You have the right:

To post under one registered screen name if you are 13 years of age or older.

To create and register characters for use in the There and Back Again forum (a role-play forum). They must be recorded in the RP Character Registry.

To post in our Thinking of England forum (a forum restricted to those who are 18 years of age or older) once you have met the eligibility requirements.

To address personal disputes in the Bike Racks forum, and in other forums to post free of disruptions caused by the personal disputes of others.

To post in languages other than English in threads, ranks or signature texts.

To post without confronting advertising spam, pornographic pictures, sexually explicit conversation outside of the age-restricted forum, and pictures or conversations of an offensively violent or distasteful nature.

To a Hearing if you are accused of violating the by-laws; to appeal a Hearing under certain circumstances; to petition for the reversal of a ban under certain circumstances. You must abide by the decisions of our juries and use proper procedure when contesting the decisions of Rangers or jurors. Refer to Article 4 of our Charter for a full explanation of your rights under any dispute procedure.

To petition the Rangers for redress if you believe that your other rights have been violated.

B. You have the Responsibility:
To provide a valid email address and to state truthfully your age for board access or entry into any forum with age restrictions.

To refrain from personal attacks or intentional insults that target another member's nationality, ethnicity, religion, native language, gender, age or sexual orientation, to remove any unintentional insults of this nature upon request, and to refrain from using a foreign language to conceal insults of this nature.

To role-play within the guidelines set by the story originator, and in a way that does not prevent other characters from participating or unnecessarily stifle the creative options of other posters.

To post prudently in the Thinking of England forum and not expose yourself to unnecessary harm. That forum should be free of ridicule, provocation, or demeaning posts and you should report violations to the Rangers. You must also refrain from maliciously spreading information posted by others in that forum.

To keep your posts free of gratuitous advertising, spam that would annoy any reasonable person, and pictures that would disgust or dismay any reasonable person.

To refrain from inflicting damage on the board or the internet access of its members, either deliberately or through negligence, by hacking or introducing viruses.

To refrain from using PM capability to harrass other members of the board.

To refrain from soliciting or encouraging the participation of members in illegal activities; but this does not impinge on your right to speak freely about the shortcomings, ethical or practical, of any given law.

To refrain from threatening real life violence or other criminal acts against other members.

¶2: Rights and responsibilities that rest on the determination of all members to keep Board77 a pleasant place for all to post but are not enforceable by procedures and penalties outlined in the Charter.

You have the right:

To be treated with courtesy and respect by all posters regardless of their status, and the responsibility to treat others likewise.

To express your thoughts on any topic, as long as you post with respect, forbearance and consideration for the context, the feelings of others, the value of contrasting viewpoints, and without making personal attacks against other posters.

To use adult language that is generally acceptable in written media or adult conversation, along with the responsibility to refrain from unnecessary cursing or obscenities. We encourage everyone to use language that is clear and contributory (not spam or netspeak) without our having to restrict the expressions that are generally found in adult conversation.

To address a personal dispute with another member in the Bike Racks forum if the other member agrees. You are also entitled to mediation. It is your responsibility to resolve your own personal disputes in a productive fashion, and not to interfere with other members who are doing the same.

To serve as a Ranger, Mediator or Juror and to run for elected office. It is also your responsibility to participate in the governance of the board whether simply by voting when a quorum is needed, or by serving in some official capacity.

Last edited by Mayor on Sun 26 Jun , 2005 6:56 am, edited 4 times in total.

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WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MEMBERS! mayor_b77@yahoo.com


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Mayor
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Posted: Sat 25 Jun , 2005 5:05 pm
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Summary of Our Charter

Full Charter.

OUR MISSION
Board77 is a democratically governed internet community where members from around the world gather to cultivate friendships and engage in discussion. Our conversations cover any topic of interest to our members, from current events and philosophy to fine arts and the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. We aspire to maintain a culture of respect, equality and openness.

OUR KEY PRINCIPLES
Free Exchange of Ideas
Diversity
Fellowship
Transparency
Self-Governance

OWNERSHIP OF BOARD77
It is the intention of board77 to eventually become a member-owned messageboard community and to file the necessary papers to form a non-profit corporation, organized under the laws of the State of California. ¶1

It is anticipated that the corporation will have voting members consisting of all persons who register a primary screen name at board77 and are eligible to vote for the Mayor under the by-laws regarding a binding vote of the membership. The Board of Directors would consist of a single director, the current Mayor, elected by the voting members, and the Mayor would fulfill the roles of the officers of the corporation as these cannot take action that affects the community without the authorization of the voting members. ¶2

It is our intention to collect no membership dues but to have a donation fund from which miscellaneous expenses will be paid. ¶2

Before the corporation is actually formed and ownership transferred to it, a comprehensive plan will be presented to the then-current membership for approval. ¶3

OUR ADMINISTRATIVE AND GOVERNANCE PROCEDURES

Article 1:
Board77 is a member-moderated board.

Article 2: Member Rights and Responsibilities
[Posted in full in first post of this thread and can be read HERE ]

Article 3: Rangers (Administrators)
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

We have five to seven full Rangers, depending on needs of the board. There are also Rangers-in-training, two at a time, who may exercise routine powers while supervised. ¶1

Terms of office are three months long, and appointments are staggered to ensure the presence of an experienced Ranger all the time. ¶1

Members who are 18 or older are eligible after 6 months of contributory presence on the board, at which point they may volunteer to enter the Ranger pool and may begin training. ¶1, ¶2

The Mayor keeps track of member join dates and eligibility, contacts potential volunteers, schedules terms of office, and maintains other details concerning the activity of Rangers. ¶2

Entrance into the pool of Rangers-in-training is posted in the Mayor’s forum, and the Charter provides for a private objection process in ¶3

Members serve terms in the order in which they entered the pool. Exceptions to this, and the informal guidelines used in the selection of Rangers are in ¶3

Rangers have Routine Powers listed in ¶4, and they have Special and Emergency Powers listed in ¶5. Members should read these in full.

There is a Ranger code of conduct ¶6 which volunteers read and agree to when they enter the pool.

The Charter also contains provisions for contesting Ranger decisions, ¶7, and removing Rangers from office, ¶8.

Article 4: Office of the Mayor
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

The Mayor is elected once a year in a membership-wide election. Candidates must be registered members for at least six months and be nominated by one other member.

The Mayor’s duties include record keeping, notification to members and Rangers, verification of eligibilities, scheduling Ranger terms of office, designating spokespersons, greeting new members and presiding at boardwide functions.

For official matters, the Mayor posts under the screen name “Mayor.” Mayor’s records, including The Ranger Pool and the roster of new entrants to the this pool are kept in Michel Delving. Any member with news or a concern that affects the whole board and wishes to alert the Mayor should post it there.

The Jury Pool is maintained by the Mayor and posted in the Jury Room. Mediators are posted in the Bike Racks. All of these forums are subfora of “Outside”.

Penalties and complaints are maintained by the Mayor but not posted publicly.

Article 5: Dispute Resolution in the Outside Forum
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

The Bike Racks Forum ¶1
We do not intervene in disputes of a personal nature between members. Instead we provide The Bike Racks forum where members can resolve disagreements.

If one or more members are disrupting a thread, the Rangers can split off the disruptive posts and send them to a new thread in the Bike Racks, but posters cannot be compelled to participate there.

Posters in the Bike Racks can ask for mediation. Mediators are members of the Jury Pool who have said they are willing to mediate as well as serve on juries. Thread participants must agree on one mediator.

Jurors ¶2, ¶3
Members are eligible to serve as jurors after 3 months and 100 posts. The Mayor informs members when they become eligible.

Six jurors serve to decide a hearing. Jurors are selected in the order in which they entered the pool, given their availability (and age, if the violation occurred in the age-restricted forum). Members involved in a hearing are allowed to contest two jurors, so a sufficient number of jurors are assembled at the beginning to allow for objections and for one alternate juror. A current Ranger assembles the jury.

Hearings ¶3, ¶4, ¶5, ¶6
Hearings are held for violations of the by-laws, or to remove a Ranger or elected official from office. In cases that do not involve banning, jurors are allowed to impose penalties subject to restrictions set by the charter and listed below. In the case of a banning of indefinite duration, members at large afterwards vote whether to uphold the decision of the jury.

The actual procedure for a Hearing is described in ¶4. Jurors may request that a Loremaster oversee a Hearing to ensure that proper procedure is followed. The role of Loremaster, like that of Mediator, is a voluntary additional function of members of the jury pool.

The board-wide voting provisions for a Hearing on a Ban are described in ¶5; and the provisions for a Hearing to Remove a Ranger are described in ¶6. (We do not yet have a procedure for removing elected officials.)

Appeals ¶8
Decisions made by a jury and penalties imposed by a jury can be appealed. A panel of former Rangers hears the appeal.

Offenses that Merit a Penalty and Maximum Penalties a Jury May Impose ¶9
Hearings can only be held for violations of the by-laws recognized by the charter; and juries are limited in the penalties they can impose for particular violations.

In general:

• An immediate ban can be imposed for spamming the board with ads or pornography, hacking the board, refusing to abide by the decision of a jury, threatening real life violence, or deliberately introducing a virus. Immediate bans do not specify a duration, and the member must petition to have the ban reversed. (The petition process is contained in Article 3: Rangers (Administrators), ¶5: Special Powers)

• A temporary ban of specified duration can be imposed for persistent posting of objectionable content or pictures, using the board for illegal purposes, repeatedly exposing other members to viruses through negligence, and using PM’s or email to harass or defame other members.

• For other violations, first offense penalties are restricted to temporary suspension of posting rights in specific forums.

Archives ¶10
Interesting cases can be summarized and posted in the Archive Forum with the names of the posters removed.

Article 6: The Age Restricted Forum
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

We have an age-restricted forum which contains topics unsuitable for children. The title of the forum is Thinking of England; it is visible in the Index but readable by permission only. Posters must verify that they are 18 years of age or older to gain entry.

Posters may request permission to join this forum after they have been a member for 3 months and have made 100 posts. Requests for entrance are posted in the forum and existing members do have the right to deny entry for cause.

Posters are asked to be especially vigilant in that forum, and to report to the administrators any posting patterns that appear abusive, exploitive, demeaning or designed to take advantage of the youth or vulnerability of other posters.

Article 7: Binding Votes and Initiatives of the Membership
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

For a vote on any issue to be binding on the membership a certain procedure must be followed. The vote must be proposed in the Business Room and a Committee must be formed there to consider the necessity of the vote and to draft a ballot. There are quorum requirements and majority requirements for the initiative to pass.

We have a regular voting cycle that require votes to be held during the first week of the month so that members will know when to watch the Business Room. Votes can also be taken at other times if the Mayor declares the issue an emergency.

Requirements for the composition of committees and the types of voting allowed are detailed in the full Article.

Article 8: Policy on Thread Deletions
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

It is our policy not to delete threads. The only routine exceptions to this policy are threads that resulted in an immediate ban of the member because of their content and Hearing threads which participants may ask to have deleted.

If some compelling reason exists to delete another kind of thread, a binding vote of the membership must be held to do this.

Article 9: Policy on Forum Readability
[Full Article can be read HERE ]


In keeping with our principle of transparency, this Article provides that any new forums authorized after the ratification of the charter be created as read-and-write forums for the registered members and read-only for the public. No additional hidden forums or member read-only forums will be authorized except by a binding vote of the membership.

Article 10: Goals
The Board will develop goals once a year and post them where all members can read them.

Article 11: Standing Committees and Ad hoc Committees
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

We have five standing committees that can be convened any time they are needed. These are: Committee for Amendments to the Charter, Committee for Binding Votes and Initiatives, Election Committee, Committee for Technical Support, and Committee for Business Matters.

The purview and composition of each committee is detailed in this Article. All committees are formed in the Business Room and may conduct their business in the Jury Room. ¶1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Any committee other than these five is formed as an Ad Hoc Committee whose size and composition can be determined by the Rangers.¶6

color=red]Article 12: Ratification and Amendments[/color]
[Full Article can be read HERE ]

For ratification of the original Charter, members discussed each article for ten days and voted for a minimum of ten days, two weekends inclusive. A quorum of 39 voting members was required, and each article had to be confirmed by a 2/3 majority of the voting members. ¶1

Amendments to the Charter are handled by the Standing Committee for that purpose. The size and composition of Amendment Committees, quorum requirements, and majority vote requirements are detailed in this Article.¶2

RESOLUTIONS OF THE MEMBERSHIP:

It is resolved that our Goals for 2005 are:
1. To open the board to the public
2. To decide whether to move to our own site
3. If we move, to resolve the related ownership issues by the end of the calendar year. [June 27, 2005]

Last edited by Mayor on Mon 07 Nov , 2005 7:43 pm, edited 3 times in total.

_________________

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MEMBERS! mayor_b77@yahoo.com


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