TW Council - UPDATED w/ structure

[qan]

TW Council
Legislation within TW

We've had a formation meeting to decide the initial state of the Council. The Council can modify its own rules using standard procedure, as necessary. Its purpose is to promote deliberate, well-reasoned change within the zone, as a collaboration between staff and players.
(Yes, this is going to be a very dry read.)

TW Council will consist of 9 players (elected) and 9 members of staff (selected by department heads). Current staff:

Sysop: M_M God
Sysop: Demonic
Sysop: Beasty (replacing WingZero)
Dev: ThePAP
PR: Shaddowknight
Events: Willby
TWL: Tiny
TWD: Nurse.
Chairman: qan

• Meetings will be conducted using Robert's Rules of Order, with minor alterations to make it compatible with SS.
  • Short 2-page guide: http://www.abateofaz.org/pics/Simpli...lesofOrder.pdf
  • Long guide, but still simplified: http://corp.sbay.org/board/rules-of-order/ubc-sroo.pdf
  • Full text: http://www.robertsrules.org/rror--00.htm
  
  
• A majority vote = 55% of the voting members (not simple majority). This is 10 out of 18 (10v8) if the full Council is in attendance.
• Quorum, the minimum number of members required to conduct business, will be 55% attendance. 4 staff Council members and 4 player members also must be in attendance.
• Players may join the Council by running for an available position (or positions). Players will not represent a specific area of the zone (as will most staff members), but they will be encouraged to run for Council from all areas of TW.
• Players running for Council will have a formalized opportunity to detail exactly why they should be picked for Council, to appear in a forum thread. This thread will be advertised via zone message on TW before elections begin. Players are also encouraged to talk in-game to others in order to garner support.
• Rather than voting for a specific player or players, every person voting will have the opportunity to vote YES, NO or UNDECIDED on each player running for Council. This will provide a +1, -1 and 0 vote modification, respectively. The players with the highest ending vote "score" will win the Council position.
• A verified login will be required to vote, voting can be done only once, and votes may not be changed once entered.
• Both players and staff will serve for a 6 month term, or until they resign, or do not show up for 3 meetings consecutively, or at the discretion of the chairman based on the recommendation of the Council.
• Both staff and players can run for consecutive terms, but will need to be re-elected (in the case of players) or re-assigned by the department head (in the case of staff). Staff may eventually be voted in by their department as a whole, or a vote may taken to provide a recommendation for the department head.
• As the spirit of fair play is absolutely essential to the proper proceeding of the Council, unethical conduct related to the Council from members of staff or players both part of and not part of the Council will be dealt with severely and on a case-by-case basis.
• The scope of Council is not explicitly defined, allowing for a wide margin of legislative potential. Given this allowance, any motion passed within a Council meeting may afterward (outside of the meeting) be vetoed by two current zone sysops. This is to be used only in the instances where protecting the zone from adverse harm requires it, and not to advance any personal or special interests. Sysop members of the Council will not have any special authority or deference within meetings or other Council proceedings.
• Meetings will be conducted when there are items on the agenda to decide and discuss. Any Council member may add an item to the agenda for discussion. The frequency of meetings is likely to be about once every two weeks. A time limit will be set on each meeting.

If you're interested in participating, contact me by in-game PM, via ?message or by :MessageBot:!lmessage qan:msg if you have any questions, or are interested in running for Council. We're in need of more player candidates.

A thread will open up soon to allow those who are running to demonstrate why they should be chosen to represent the zone. When all candidates have had a chance to post (and the dev work is done to make it happen!), the polls will be open, and Council meetings will begin shortly thereafter.

[Crescent Seal]

this sounds great. few names for consideration:

kthx
ephemeral (not sure if staff?)
izor
rasaq
jessup
that one guy who makes threads about pub

[Morh]

Yea this will save the zone without a doubt. Nine staffers that will always vote what the SysOps say or else get axed. Eight players that will argue over everything, and even if they had any good ideas would be ignored by the staffers. A bot to moderate the meetings... This is gonna be awesome.

[zidane]

i'll consider it if my vote counts as like 5 or 6 votes, thats how important i am

[Adman]

this could work.

[PH]

morh's second sentence says it all

[zidane]

should be 50/50 or this serves literally no purpose as morh/ph already said

[kthx]

8 players 9 staffers, each vote counts for one. This is literally an insult to the players you bring on to this. There should be 10 player and 9 staff slots open to avoid collusion. The fact your tossing this out means even staff knows its toxic and needs help to make things better, yet you fix the system so that staff can't truly be forced into saving the zone from themselves. I doubt anyone who respects themselves would accept this invitation but if you correct the problem I would say ease and Ph if either still plays.

[kthx]

To expand my thoughts a little, staff has been filled with like minded individuals who agree with each other to a fault. The player committee should be the opposite of how staff has recruited, get people from different squads, different ships and who have different ideas on how the game should he ran. Only then will you get healthy disagreements on subjects and that is the only way you know if something will actually work. If 10 people who dislike each other agree o do something one way its a winning decision. If staff hadn't been filled with yes men and people willing to bend over to get more space power this wouldn't even be necessary.

[beam]

buncha newbies in that list

[Oranje]

Nominating:
Kthx
Lf
Cres

Obviously random order

[Crescent Seal]

this should have been implemented years ago when we brought it up. a little too late really because i doubt it will do much good. i can predict situations where some decisions won't allow player consultation. still a step in the right direction I feel. too many sheep on staff so not sure if the 9 to 8 would even work.

list:

kthx - pretty vocal. ex-staff. experienced in making staff realize they are putrid.
jessup - good relations with the newbie/pub population. easy to work with.
rasaq - a newb himself. offers good insight
lf - experienced ex-staff.
ph - experienced ex-staff. one of the best twl ops in history. x
ease - experienced twl veteran. ted mosby.
izor - experienced player. pub insight.
ephemeral - generates ideas. master of essays

staff should approach these people personally.

p.s. qpr u done...ppl like u and me not meant 4 structure. we chaos.

[Ephemeral]

IMO this is a major step forward for the zone. Ideally all positions, both the staff and players, would be elected positions. This would then make everyone responsible for the decisions they make but I guess the ‘good ol boy’ staff culture won’t allow this.

Many, many details have not been revealed on how this will work so it is hard to pass judgment on it. While the 49%-51% split is a bit worrisome I have been in several partnerships where it worked out because all parties were good people. While it can be abused it will be quite obvious when it is. I know several people on staff that do actually have balls/backbones and I cannot imagine that they could be strong-armed into voting a certain way if they really felt strongly on the topic.

Of course there is no information on how long people are allowed to hold these positions of influence or how they might be removed (surely people would not be axed because they voted certain ways). Although I understand Qan's reservations about meetings I am still unsure how topics get presented, opinions solicited, and how the voting takes place. For example; is voting held open for several days to make sure everyone votes? How do people come up to speed on the topics? Can people abstain from a vote? What happens in cases of ties (people not present or have abstained)?

The first step in improving the existing staff structure has now taking form. It may or may not be too late but it certainly can’t hurt at this point. Instead of folks all bitching about it let ask good questions and get this thing flushed out the best we can.
eph

[qan]

9th player slot added, bringing the balance to 50/50 staff/players. A majority will be needed to pass anything.

Nurse. will be representing TWD on the staff side.

Nine staffers that will always vote what the SysOps say or else get axed. Eight players that will argue over everything, and even if they had any good ideas would be ignored by the staffers.

I realize this is probably what a lot of people think this is going to be (and why)... but it's a pretty unique set of circumstances that made this possible. There's been a lot more honesty lately. In some respects, the air's been clearer in staff than it's ever been in the decade I've been upper staff on and off. Lately I've told sysops some things that in older times would not just get me axed, but also shipped in a box in little pieces around the globe. There's contention, yes... but it's been good for the zone. Things are happening that I haven't seen happen in way too long. I'll agree that it may be too little, too late. But it's what we have and I'll be damned if we aren't going to try to make it work, to sidestep the inner megalomaniac in us all.

There will always be sycophants. There will always be toadying. This is the nature of politics. But this is a step away from that -- or it's my sincerest hope that it is. I believe in this. That's not to say that, from the darkest recesses of human behavior, a corrupt staffer still would not be able to remove someone from Council (ostensibly for something else) if they don't like how they're voting. That sort of thing happens all the time outside of spaceland ... we'd be naive to think it doesn't sometimes happen within it. There will be pressure, sure. Maybe a bit of scheming. Plotting, even. We are all human. We can only hope all that nonsense is kept to a minimum. We're just trying to get to a place where it's more fair than before. That's all. This is a chance for those who still want to improve things, even at this late hour, to have a shot at doing it.

[Crescent Seal]

okyo> ey me should be in tw council
okyo> funy

i nominate okyo for 9th spot