CON:Membership (Rewrite)

From 118Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Do not make any changes to this area unless you are part of the Constitution Rewrite Committee.
Unauthorized changes will be reverted.
NOTE: These documents/proposed changes are drafts and are NOT in effect.
For the current Constitution that governs our group, visit UFOP Constitution.

Constitution Rewrite series

Edit this nav


Preliminary Statement: Given that UFOP:SB118 is composed by and for the members, it is herein stated the composition and behavior of said membership is of the HIGHEST CONCERN to the UFOP:SB118 and that concerns so related are of primary importance. It is SPECIFICALLY desired that at no time shall the membership act in a way which avoids, nullifies or offends this CONSTITUTION or any part of it.

It is also SPECIFICALLY noted that, left unchecked, clandestine operation of multiple identities may allow artificial collection and use of power to affect the UFOP:SB118 and its members, and, to the extent possible given considerations of due process and fairness, such practices are to be strictly proscribed by this article and relevant articles.

  1. The group shall be open to membership by any person of any race, creed, nationality, religion, health status, culture, form of birth, educational level, age, genetic heritage, sexual orientation, or native language, provided that they meet and satisfy, and continue to satisfy, the criteria of admission and performance herein related and otherwise established in documents not inconsistent with this CONSTITUTION, such as by-laws or administrative regulations.
  2. Membership shall formally begin after a candidate shall have completed a training period conducted by a designated training officer and obtained the rank of ensign. Whatever the source of the contact with UFOP:SB118, the member candidate must complete whatever application forms are applicable and complete the training to be deemed an active member in good standing and to avail themselves of the rights, privileges and responsibilities of membership.
  3. All UFOP:SB118 members shall have a rank at all times, though they may serve in capacities other than officers on vessels or installations, or may perform administrative tasks of various types. Such officers shall be, regardless of rank or station, members in good standing. If for whatever reason a member desires an identity regarded as "civilian" that person shall still carry an unused but official rank as they continue to participate. (i.e.- a civilian engineer character may be a Lt. or a Commander for purposes of determining their rights, disciplinary issues, etc.)
  4. Nothing in this article shall be deemed to preempt those portions of this CONSTITUTION which shall apply to dealing with the real people attached to character and officer ranks.
  5. No real person who maintains a member identity within UFOP: SB118 shall maintain an active character on more than two ships at any given time, under any circumstances whatsoever. If such a condition is discovered the primary character identity of the member shall be disciplined in accord with relevant articles of this CONSTITUTION. No person shall have more than one active and full time character of the rank of captain or higher at any given time. No real person may ever have more than one character of "flag" rank, irrespective of active or not active status. The only exception to this section is related in section 6.
  6. From time to time, vessel command needs or administrative needs or simulation conditions may require the "creation" of a character identity of whatever rank is necessary to deal with said condition. If the member so creating already maintains two active character identities on two ships, the third shall be made known to all full captains and flag officers immediately. The character so created shall specifically be deemed temporary and shall cease operation as soon as is practicable given the needs which created it. In no event shall it ever be passed to another player or inherited. The matter of secondary civilian or familial characters on a ship shall be left to the sound discretion of the captain or acting captain, which discretion shall neither be abused nor be exercised in a manner inconsistent with this CONSTITUTION.
  7. In no event shall a character identity be passed from one real person to another real person of lesser rank other than a temporary basis, such as where a real person is retiring from service and wishes another real person to assume the character. Such transfers must meet with the approval of the captain or acting captain. Said new real person may create a related character and in all ways call attention to that relationship between the new and old characters if so desired. The intent of this section is to prevent a real person from inheriting a rank beyond that currently attained or held by his highest ranking character.
  8. A member character or real person who maintains a character on a PBeM or RPG group who’s community it is deemed has acted inappropriately towards the UFoP may be asked to choose between the UFoP or Membership of the other group.
  9. At no time is it permissible for a member of the UFoP to recruit (poach) players from the UFoP for another PBeM or RPG. Likewise, UFoP members should not recruit new players from other Star Trek PBeMs or RPGs.
  10. A member character or real person may be disciplined up to and including expulsion in accord with other articles of this CONSTITUTION. While acknowledging that the nature of the UFOP: SB 118 and the manner in which it functions day to day cannot effectively prevent such people from re-entering the group under a different identity, such practice is undesirable and considered dishonest in the extreme. If such is discovered and brought to the attention of the relevant arms of UFOP: SB 118, such SHALL be cause for immediate discipline irrespective of the conduct of said person otherwise. If the real person who, having been expelled or deemed "forced retired" for whatever reason, wishes to re-enter UFOP: SB118, they must do so in accord with section 9, below, not by clandestine creation of an apparently unrelated identity.
  11. A member expelled for cause or deemed retired by operation of sections 12 and 13 below shall at all times have the opportunity to place before the EC either directly or indirectly, however practicable, a petition for re-entry, which shall contain in addition to any other information offered an explanation of why the reasons resulting in the earlier termination have either ceased or shall not repeat themselves. The EC shall act on the petition within 20 calendar days and resolve the matter by majority vote. In such vote, the commanding officer of the petitioner at the time of his leaving UFOP: SB 118 :SB118 shall also have a vote. If said commanding officer is not available, any commanding officer who wishes to do so may comment upon said petition but shall not take part in the vote. The EC must make every effort to identify and inform said officers of this opportunity. A majority of EC members (including the commanding officer) must vote for the vote to be binding, and a majority in favour will effect reinstatement of the petitioner. The petitioning member shall be notified of the decision in writing within five days of the issuance of same, either directly or by the most expedient method available. The reinstatement, if allowed, may be full reinstatement of the character at the departing rank, a lower rank, or as a new character identity, as the EC dictates in its discretion.
  12. When a real person properly maintains more than one character of differing ranks, the real person, for purposes of voting and in all other matters shall be deemed to have the higher of the several ranks.
  13. Nothing in this section shall limit the right of a captain to destroy or otherwise eliminate a second character on the same ship when discovered if heretofore concealed.
  14. The UFOP: SB 118 recognizes that non-UFOP: SB 118 priorities require, from time to time, leaving active duty on a short or long term basis. In such eventualities, every effort should be made to: (1) encourage attention to such non-UFOP: SB 118 priorities by allowing leave without actual or apparent penalization and; (2) provide for the smooth and orderly re-integration and re-activation of said officers who properly take leave.
    1. The UFOP: SB 118 also recognizes, however, that officers of all ranks must be encouraged to take leave in the Constitutionally mandated manner (as supplemented by by-laws or administrative regulations), and not otherwise.
    2. For purposes of re-integration to active duty of characters who leave active duty, the following terms and definitions apply to ARTICLE V of the UFOP: SB 118 CONSTITUTION. This by-law does not affect the powers of the former command officer of a character returning from leave or the powers of the EC concerning voting on the character's return as discussed in ARTICLE V EXCEPT as discussed hereafter.
    3. To take leave in GOOD STANDING a character must send an e-mail message (not an IQC or IM) to his current command officer, to Admiral Wolf, and to EITHER the EC, the CC OR any individual member of either of those groups (redundancy being desireable over misdelivered messages). The candidate for leave must ALSO complete any on-line forms or follow any other on-line procedure the CC and/or EC may designate. The message MAY also, at the sender's option, be copied to any other UFOP: SB 118 member he feels should see it. The message, to be a valid leave-taking, MUST state AT LEAST the following elements:
      • A. The reason for leave (for informational purposes only, the reason's 'weight' will not be used against the character in any way or at any time);
      • B. The expected duration (for informational purposes only, the character will not be held to the time);
      • C. The effective starting date of leave;
      • D. The awareness of the character that the leave must be updated within one calendar year of the effective leave date for it to remain valid (at the initiation of the leaving character) or the leave will automatically be deemed a resignation (note that this shall not obviate the right of the former command officer to initiate contact himself prior to the one year date).
    4. GOOD STANDING means that the character SHALL return to active duty when the character wishes at their former rank, subject to no objection to the contrary by any party (although any command officer retains the option of not allowing placement on his or her ship, which power is discretionary and absolute, subject only to charges of abuse or dishonourable exercising of said discretion).
    5. GOOD STANDING shall attach to said leave for one year from the effective date of the leave and SHALL continue to attach for the duration of the leave in perpetuity as long as EACH of the following conditions occur or continue:
      • A. The character does not do anything which would subject him to discipline during the leave (or in the manner of taking leave, such as a command officer leaving his ship in extremis without making arrangements to deal with the situation) which would, if discipline were meted out, prevent the character from retaining his rank under active duty conditions (in other words GOOD STANDING and the resultant right to retain rank is not a defence to conduct which would otherwise strip rank) AND;
      • B. The character provides a written update via email within/on the one year anniversary of their effective date of leave, said update providing at least the desire that the leave remain effective (or that the character wishes to resign) and providing that the character will continue to provide such updates during/on each year the character is on leave (as well as new email contact information if that information changes during leave).
    6. Recognizing that, while on leave, the character shall have no further affirmative obligation to UFOP: SB 118 other than those above discussed, it SHALL NOT reflect badly or in any official way on said character if, during the course of the year of leave, the character cannot be reached. In other words, non-contact (other than providing the yearly updates to leave status) shall not be used against the character on leave.
    7. Taking -- or continuing -- absence from active duty in any other way other than that proscribed above shall be deemed leave NOT IN GOOD STANDING (AWOL or RETIREMENT). Once it is determined that AWOL or RETIREMENT status attaches to a character departure, that status SHALL so remain UNLESS the character involved can demonstrate to the EC's satisfaction (determined by majority vote) that the AWOL or RETIREMENT status was the result of mistake (electronic or human error); ie, the character did send messages to activate leave in good standing, but those messages did not arrive, they were not read, etc.
    8. The EC magistrate or other designated record keeper shall maintain at all times a list of characters that enjoy leave in GOOD STANDING. Since maintaining a list of AWOL or RETIRED characters is deemed prohibitive, ANY character NOT in GOOD STANDING (and thus on the list) is considered AWOL or RETIRED.
    9. Determination of AWOL status is left to the discretion of the command officer under whom the involved officer serves, but the MINUMUM requirements for AWOL status are as follows (in other words, AWOL cannot attach until the following conditions are met):
      • A. The character has been out of email contact for no less than 30 days without reason or warning OR;
      • B. The character email address is non-responsive for the same period.
    10. It is recognized that, consistent with the pertinent specific and general sections of the CONSTITUTION, ship commanders are granted significant powers, among them this power to determine AWOL status. Since AWOL status fundamentally affects the rights of characters and since said status cannot be reversed (except for the conditions of section 9, above) once applied, the determination of AWOL status by a ship commander is bounded only by the following:
      • A. The ship commander must exercise in determining AWOL status that same degree of honour, professionalism, fairness, compassion and integrity which is required of all ship commanders and which is implied in the covenant of that responsibility AND
      • B. While this by-law establishes the MINIMUM requirements for determination of AWOL status, nothing shall herein proscribe the rights of ship commanders to allow MORE than the time set forth in section 11, if they so choose AND
      • C. A ship commander must do everything within her power to advise characters of their rights regarding leave-taking so that the character is able to properly invoke those rights, up to and including a ship commander's right to unilaterally alter the manner of leave-taking herself if she feels that a character mistakenly or negligently failed to properly place themselves on leave (such as when the player is experiencing emotional duress by real world concerns) in order to preserve GOOD STANDING.
    11. For purposes of the EC's power (and that of the former command officer) to allow the return to active duty and GOOD STANDING a character who has not been on leave in GOOD STANDING as discussed in ARTICLE V of the CONSTITUTION, 'AWOL' and 'RETIRED' shall have the same administrative effects. HOWEVER, the manner of departure (ie, AWOL or properly and honourably retired) SHALL be taken into DISCRETIONARY consideration for purposes of any vote which determines EITHER the character's right to return OR the rank upon return (in that AWOL shall mitigate unfavourably and proper retirement shall mitigate favourably).
    12. There shall be no limit to either the length of leave (as long as proper updates take place) or the number of leaves in a character's career. There shall be no official or unofficial effect on the character's standing or rights as enjoyed in UFOP: SB 118 and under the CONSTITUTION, such as promotion rights, rights to awards and honours, rights to appointments to administrative positions, etc.


This article incorporates bylaw 5 (which replaces outdated info)