Constitution

The constitution below has been compiled largely from the text of decisions made at Community Meetings. It is not immutable, and proposals for amendments or additions to the Constitution shoould be made at Community Meetings.

1. General Statements
1. The sim will be run as a participatory democracy where 'Voting Members' of the community elect community members to the Player Assistance Team and Story Team and approve, amend or disapprove proposals made by community members at a monthly Community Meeting.
2. A Voting Member of the community is defined as:
1. A member of the Dune Roleplay at Splintered Rock Group who has previously attended one Community Meeting in the previous 12 months. The Chair of the meeting shall adjudicate where there is disagreement on the record of attendance
2. Anyone listed as currently renting property on the Splintered Rock RentServer
3. Community Members may only vote using one account. Any community member who is found to have used a alternate ('alt') account to obtain extra votes will be deemed to have brought the community into disrepute and a proposal will be made at the next community meeting to eject them from the community.
2. Procedure for Administration of Elections
1. All elections are to be announced at a Community Meeting and will take place no sooner than two weeks after the announcement. Nominations for candidates will close one week before the date of the election.
2. At the time of announcing an election the community will appoint a Returning Officer (RO) to administer the election
3. The RO may not vote in the election that they are acting as RO for.
4. Before the elction is held the RO will review the Register of Electors.
5. The Register of Electors shall consist of all Members having Voting rights at the time of the Election.
6. The Register of Electors must be publically viewable by all community members. The list will include the following information:
1. name of Community Member (main SL account)
2. the name of the RO adding them to the list
3. any alternate accounts declared
4. those refused or removed from membership and the grounds for that refusal or removal
5. the names of any community members who have confirmed their eligibility
7. On the date of the election the RO will conduct the vote using either the in-built SL group voting system, forum voting system or email or any other method which is acceptable to the community.
8. The RO shall ensure as far as possible that the voting preferences of community members shall not be made public.
9. Unless the community has decided otherwise, the determination of the result of the election shall use single, non-transferable voting with a simple majority only being required to win. That is to say every voter may cast only one vote and if their preferred candidate is eliminated their vote is not transferred to the voter's next preference.
3. Specifc Procedures for Administration of Player Support Team Elections
1. Any member of the community can stand for election to the Player Support Team, if publically nominated by another member of the community. Existing Player Support Team members can also stand again without limit.
2. Voting Members of the community may vote "Yes" or "No" on each candidate, stating either that they support the nomination or object to it. Abstention on each candidate is also an option.
3. The individual votes should be private, but the totals should be public.
4. All candidates who exceed a 2:1 ratio of "Yes":"No" votes will join or rejoin the Team, so long as they have at least six "yes" votes.
4. Procedure for running Community Meetings
1. The Owner will chair meetings of the community or nominate another to do so. If the owner is not present, a volunteer acceptable to the community members present will do so.
2. The Chair will ensure that the decisions of the community will be recorded on the wiki as minutes, and a log of the meeting will also be recorded.
3. Wherever possible, proposals should be submitted in advance to the agenda on the wiki, and discussed there and on the forum.
4. Within the meeting, the Chair will direct discussions towards the details of the proposals at hand; Members holding discussions in public chat which are deemed by the Chair to be off topic from the details of the proposal will be asked to continue the discussion in private IM channels.
5. All members of the community are welcome to attend Community meetings.
6. Those new to the community may also attend, but may be asked by the chair to hold off contributions and questions until they're more accustomed with certain aspects of the sim and its procedure.
7. The Team Leaders - defined as those delegated by Teams to speak at council - will be asked in particular to attend Council Meetings to deliver reports for their teams.
8. Those present are encouraged to make constructive points, or ask questions to clarify issues. Those present may also voice their dissent if they strongly object to a proposal.
9. On each proposal, the chair should seek consensus before entering it into the minutes.
10. Where a proposal does not find consensus, all present should seek amendments to satisfy.
11. Where there continues to be division, the chair may call for a vote. Each Voting Member of the community will have one vote (which may not be cast by proxy).
12. All Voting Members are expected to vote "Support", "Object" or "Abstain". A proposal passes if support exceeds objection, with the exception of proposals concerning the sim's finances, in which case, two thirds of community members present must support, and the Owner must agree to the measure for it to pass.
13. It is understood that the Community will take into account the views of those with significant expertise or investment in the sim. Nevertheless, the Owner may veto proposals if they object, presenting their reasons.
14. As an alternative to calling for a vote, the chair may make a proposal that an issue (or part thereof) be considered at a later date. This should not be done to put off a decision that is inevitably difficult, but should be reserved for situations where a later gathering will have access to better information. A proposal to defer will still follow the pattern of seeking consensus or amendments, and voting.
5. Vending
1. All items sold on the sim should be 'Dune-themed' and usable in Dune roleplaying.
2. Vendors on the sim are categorised in two ways:
1. General: This means the vendor contains general Dune-themed objects for sale to anyone visitng the sim.
1. general vendors are located in the 'Duty Free' area of the sim arrivals Skybox and in The Bazaar on the sim surface.
2. A minimum of 50% of any sales must be paid to the sim owner by the owners of these vendors.
2. Faction-specific: This means the vendor contains only items specific to a particular faction (known as a faction vendor).
1. faction vendors are located on a faction controlled area on the sim surface.
2. The full sale price of all items on faction vendors is given to the sim owner.
3. The following options are available for those who wish to sell items themselves on the sim:
1. A general vendor may be set up in the OOC skybox area.
1. The intention of the vending area in the OOC skybox is to create a space where all Dune items in SL can be found in one spot, therefore these vendors will always be the most 'premissive' in terms of allowing 'Dune-themed' or 'faction-themed' items for sale.
2. A property may be rented and items placed inside that property may be set to 'for sale'.
1. Placards may be placed on the outside of these properties to advertise their wares.
2. The placards should be in keeping with the background of Dune. Owners may be asked to modify the appearance of the placard if the community feels that they are out of place.
3. There is NO requirement to pay a percentage of the sales to the sim owner for sales made within a rented property.
3. Items may be set to 'for sale' or placed on a Vendor in the Bazaar.
1. A number of 'prime location' stalls will be set aside for renting.
1. Items placed on the stall by the renter may be set to 'for sale'.
2. There is NO requirement to pay a percentage of the sales to the sim owner for sales made on these stalls.
2. All other stalls may be 'reserved' by any community member.
1. 'Reserving' a stall is not the same as renting, there is no cost to 'reserve' a stall
2. Items placed on that stall by the 'reserver' may be set to 'for sale'.
3. The sale price of any item set to 'for sale' may be no greater than 10 Linden Dollars.
4. There is NO requirement to pay a percentage of the sales to the sim owner for sales made on these stalls.
3. A 'Shop' will be made available in the Bazaar area which will contain general vendors
1. The vendors should be in keeping with the background of Dune. Owners may be asked to modify the appearance of the vendors if the community feels that they are out of place.
2. The definition of 'Dune themed' and useable in rolepaying will be more strictly applied to items sold on these vendors.
4. Faction heads may request that an item is withdrawn from a general vendor or withdrawn from sale on a market stall if they feel that having this item on sale or even on display to non-faction members is damaging to their roleplay.
1. Each such request will be reviewed by the sim owner on an individual basis and the sim owner's decision is final.
6. Community Ownership
1. The method of empowering community ownership of the sim shall be by share ownership.
2. The initial owner of all shares shall be the sim Owner of Record, which is to say the owner of the account that Linden Lab record as owning the sim.
3. 100 shares shall be created, each share having a nominal value of USD 20.00.
4. The shares are non-transferable except to or from the Owner of Record. Any transaction of shares between two shareholders where one of them is NOT the Owner of Record will not be honoured or acknowledged by the Owner of Record.
5. The Owner of Record may offer shares to other community members.
6. The number of shares made available to a community member is completly at the discretion of the Owner of Record.
7. Purchase of a share shall be by payment of the nominal value to the Owner of Record.
8. Purchase of a share entitles the holder to one hundredth of the income received by the Owner of Record from rental or leasing of parcels on the estate, sales tax imposed on vendors on the estate and donations made to support the Estate.
9. By purchasing a share the holder agrees to be liable for one hundredth of the amount of monthly tier payment.
10. Schedule of payments:
1. The Owner of Record will pay the total tier payment for the sim on the 19th of the month;
2. Shareholders should make payment of the total amount of tier which they are liable for plus any outstanding amounts by the last day of the month or they will be considered 'in arrears'.
3. The Owner of record will make payment of all Linden Dollar income to which shareholders are entitled for the last monthly period since tier payment (ie. from 19th to 19th) on the first day of the month.
11. Any shareholder who is 'in arrears' when the share of Linden Dollar income is paid shall forfeit their share of income.
12. If the amount by which a shareholder is 'in arrears' ever exceeds the total nominal value of all shares held then the shareholder immediately forfeits ownership of all shares held and the ownership of these shares reverts to the Owner of Record.
13. The Owner of Record shall maintain a record of the ownership of all shares which is available to community members through the forum or the wiki.
14. The Owner of record shall announce the payments made to shareholders and the amount of all arrears for each shareholder. The purchase of shares implies consent on behalf of the shareholder for this imformation to be made public.
7. Leasing of Parcels and Premium Features for Factions
1. Faction leaders on the sim may pay a monthly fee and in return receive access to several features and permissions that will allow them to customise the sim in ways appropriate to their faction
2. The fee is calculated based on the prim allowance of the parcel that is leased by a faction
1. The monthly fee (in Linden Dollars) is calculated as follows:
1. Total prim allowance for the parcel PLUS ( THREE TIMES the available prims )
1. The available prims are assumed to be the number of prims available for rezzing after all group deeded prims on the parcel have been deducted from total prim allowance
2. The Faction Leader is solely responsible for payment of the fee and will be invoiced directly by Vooper Werribee on the 20th of each month
1. Payment to be made in advance
3. The following features are offered in return for the fee:
1. Lease of a parcel of land
1. The exact parcel will be determined in consultation with the faction leader and every effort will be made to provide an area of that sim that is suitable for the faction being created.
2. The parcel will remain owned by the Dune Roleplay at Splintered Rock group.
3. Faction leaders may refuse the use of faction parcel for events.
4. There will be a prim allowance for faction members to use to freely rez items on the faction parcel
5. Faction leader may specify the following on the parcel:
1. Name and Description of the parcel
2. Teleport Setting
3. Avatar Ban list
4. Search Setting
5. Picture
6. Media Streaming
6. Faction Leader may request Build Team to modify group deeded buildings or even terrain on the parcel.
7. Faction Leader may nominate a member of the faction to become a member of the Build Team.
1. Any such nomination is subject to approval of Build Team and Community.
8. Faction Leader may authorise any vending on the faction parcel.
1. Such Vending is NOT subject to any 'sale's tax' or other fees.
9. Faction Leader may sublet any areas of the faction parcel as they see fit.
2. Creation of a 'role' in the Dune Roleplay group
1. Faction leader controls who is given access to this role.
2. All members of this role will have rez permissions on the faction parcel.
3. Faction leader may decide on the name of the role.
3. DCS Games Master rights
1. Faction leader may nominate a member of the faction to be a Games Master (GM) in DCS.
2. Faction leader may authorise the creation of one race in DCS for their faction.
1. The starting stats should still have an average comparable to all other races
3. Faction leader may authorise the creation of two DCS abilities which will only be available to faction members.
1. The faction abilities are subject to approval by the Systems Team.
4. Mailing List
1. A Second Life Instant Message Mailing List may be set up for the faction.
2. A Mailing List joining terminal may be set up on the faction parcel at the request of the faction leader.
3. Faction leader will be given manager rights on the mailing list.
4. Faction leader may authorise any other faction members to have manager rights on the mailing list.