Dear Members (and especially our newest members),
Here are the final pieces of our Charter for ratification.
HERE IS HOW THE PROCESS WORKS
All registered members may discuss and vote in this thread.
In this thread we are voting to approve all necessary corrections to make the Charter internally consistent. The corrected text is shown in this thread.
For these changes we will have the usual ten-day discussion period so that everyone will have a chance to read them, but we really must approve them or else parts of the charter will refer to processes that were eliminated by other parts of the charter.
At the end of the discussion period, the vote opens and remains open for ten days, two weekends inclusive. The vote takes the form of a poll in this thread, where you vote either yes or no to approve these changes to the wording of Charter.
The vote will remain open until Monday, August 8, 11:59 pm Greenwich Mean Time.
(Translation: voting from July 29, ~8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time or ~5:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time until August 8, ~8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time or ~5:00 pm Pacific Daylight Time. )
Amendments to Make the Charter Consistent Throughout.
In order to ratify these amendments, 39 members must cast votes, and of those who vote, two-thirds (67%) must vote in favor.
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No actual rules or processes have been changed. Only the words used to describe what is happening, for example, there are no longer arbitrations, only Hearings.
Minor changes are not listed, for example insertion of serial commas, capitalization of the names of positions and forums, etc., but wherever words had to be added or altered, those are shown.
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Cosmetic Changes for consistent and correct grammar, syntax, punctuation and spelling, correct names for positions and forums, and correct number of Article references. These changes have already been made. Examples are:[/color]
• The word ‘administrator’ was changed to ‘Ranger’ throughout
• Reference to arbitrations was either eliminated or changed to Hearings where appropriate
• Bullet points before clauses were eliminated except for lists; double bullets points on sublists were replaced with numbers
• In Article 2, “unnecessarily stifle†was changed to “stifle unnecessarily†to preserve parallel sentence structure
• In several paragraphs of Article 3, lists and sublists were reformatted to make them uniform
• In Article 6, unnecessary paragraph designations were removed and remaining paragraphs were titled.
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Changes on which the committee voted
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Article 5, ¶3, under Jurors are selected in the follow manner, the following clause is moved from ¶3 to ¶2
“No juror may be a current administratorâ€
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Article 3: ¶2, ¶3, ¶4, ¶5 and ¶8:
References to arbitrations and to Rangers being excluded from certain juries are removed because they were made obsolete by Article 5. References to Hearings, bans and penalties are corrected to reflect the actual terms of Article 5. New wordings are as follows:
¶2
• A member may not begin a term of office if they are currently involved in any capacity in a Hearing
• Registered members as of March 12, 2005 are eligible to serve as Rangers providing they have spent enough time on the experimental board to demonstrate an ability to perform the routine functions of a Ranger, and are not currently involved in any capacity in a Hearing or under a penalty.
¶3
Service as a Ranger is entirely voluntary. A member who has agreed to serve as a Ranger and has entered the pool may withdraw their name at any time. (reference to arbitrations eliminated)
¶4
Edit or delete posts or lock threads without permission of the originator unless the originator has engaged in conduct that warrants a Hearing or an immediate ban
¶5
Hearings on a Ban are convened and conducted as described in ¶4
¶8
Failing to convene and oversee a Hearing when required
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Article 3, ¶3: In Michel Delving it proved necessary to put new entrants and Rangers-in-training on separate lists because new entrants are only shown for ten days whereas Rangers can remain in training as long as they wish. The language of Article 3 was changed to reflect that:
volunteers will remain on a roster of new entrants for at least ten days.
While volunteers are listed as new entrants, all members are responsible for reviewing the roster, etc.
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Article 3, ¶5
The clause concerning Ranger powers associated with the Invite Forum is removed and the other clauses are renumbered
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Article 3, ¶5, under Extraordinary Powers of Rangers: the name of the committee that will review extraordinary powers is now known.
Such measures are temporary by their nature and subject to review by the standing Committee for Charter Amendments.
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Article 3, ¶7: How to Contest Decisions of a Ranger, reference to nonexistent provisions of Article 2 is corrected and the intended provision is stated in this article instead.
If a Ranger has convened a Hearing, then the member will explain their side of the issue at the Hearing.
Ranger decisions made while exercising routine powers (such as edits, moving threads, etc.) may be contested in the following way:
(followed by existing list)
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Article 5, ¶5 was corrected for clarity as to how the member must contact us:
• Convene a Hearing to reverse a ban if the following three conditions are met:
1. if the duration of the ban was not specified;
2. the banned poster has requested a new Hearing in an email sent from the email address used to register;
3. at least one month has elapsed since the ban went into effect; Rangers can postpone a requested hearing longer but not more than three months.
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Article 11: Standing and Ad Hoc Committees is currently up for ratification. So is Article 7: Binding Votes and Initiatives of the Membership and Article 12, ¶2: Amendments to the Charter.
In Article 11, it states that a Committee for Charter Amendments convenes under two circumstances, but Articles 7 and 12 have added a third circumstances under which this committee would convene. If all three articles are ratified, Article 11 will be corrected post-ratification to read:
¶1: Committee for Amendments to the Charter
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The committee will convene under three circumstances:
• A Ranger has exercised Extraordinary powers requiring review in accordance with Article 3, ¶5. The committee will decide whether the circumstance is anticipated to occur again with sufficient frequency to justify an Amendment to the Charter;
• An Initiative to amend the Charter is brought by the Mayor, or by two current Rangers, or by five members regardless of their status;
• The quorum as calculated from a moving average falls below 20% and the board must reconsider participation requirements for Binding Votes and ratification of Charter Amendments.
In order to ratify these corrections, 39 members must cast votes, and of those who vote, two-thirds (67%) must vote in favor.