Council Charter

The Member Societies of the British Council agree to uphold the Charter as laid out below. This charter forms the rules of the council and has been kept as simple as possible.

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Council Staff

 * The Council Speaker is 
 * The Council Secretary is 

Council forum moderators


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{| style="width:100%" ; style="vertical-align:top; ! width="60%" align="Left" | {| style="width:100%; border:solid 1px; background:#f3f5f7;" The following charter forms the backbone of the Council. This charter may be added to or amended after a successful vote, after which it will be updated by the Secretary.
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The Council Charter
1 Each member society will elect 1 voting member to vote on council matters. They may re-elect a new voting member as required, not more often than once every 14 days.

2 Official matters will be decided with a simple majority vote. Each member society will uphold the results of a Council vote or withdraw from the Council.

3 Societies pledge to support other member’s operations in game when ever possible. Using a single Vent server and Nation Chat.

4 Each member society will be responsible for policing it’s own members, if disciplinary action is required against a player it will be handled by that players society not the council.

5 Societies will agree to uphold any official treaties contained on the Council Treaties page. Societies are responsible for their members actions and will be expected to pay any repatriations agreed in the treaty should their members break any treaties.

6 A society may withdraw from the council at any time. In addition new societies may be invited to the council after a successful vote. Member Societies may also be voted out of the council.

Voting
Votes are always by secret ballet, there is no way at all to tell how someone has voted, or even who has / has not voted. Votes should be use to make major decisions, treaties, accepting new societies and removing problem societies. It can also be used to plan overall strategy.


 * Discussion


 * This is carried out on the forums, a thread is opened discussing the motion. Time allowed for discussion should vary, but no less that 24 hours and no more than 5 days.


 * Vote


 * A poll is added to the forum topic, calling for a vote. The options should be Yes / No. The poll should run for a minimum of 24 hours, and voters should be allowed to recast their vote. Discussion may continue while the vote is run. A screen shot showing how to set up a poll is shown below (click on image for full size view).
 * Poll Sample.png


 * Resolution


 * The poll will automatically close and the results can then be collected. The Speaker may break a tied vote. Votes are always won by a simple majority (most votes wins)

I. General rules
1. According to the Council Charter, the Speaker is voted in at the start of every map, or on the resignation of the previous Speaker. This vote shall be held in the form of an election following these rules.

2. Every player belonging to a member society of the Council and registered on these forums (British Council Captain) can stand for the office of Speaker.

3. A British Council Captain is to be listed as a candidate in the election if he has announced on one of these forums his willingness to be Speaker no longer ago than 4 weeks before a nation is declared winner of the map by the game (end of the map) and no later than the map reset, 24 hours after the end of the map. The current Speaker is considered a candidate unless he has announced on one of these forums that he will not stand for office again.

4. Immediately after the end of the map any MP can post a list of the current candidates in the British Parliament forum. The posting should also ask every MP to add candidates if they find any missing, within a period of 48 hours (2 days) after the posting. Within this time the list of candidates can be completed by MPs by replying to the original candidate list posting, but only with candidates qualified under number 3 of these rules.

5. After this period any MP can open a poll for the election of the new Speaker with all the candidates as options, lasting 3 days. 5a. If one of the candidates wins the absolute majority of the votes cast (not of the total number of MPs), he is elected Speaker. 5b. If none of the candidates wins the absolute majority of the votes cast, a MP opens a poll between the two candidates who got the most votes, lasting 2 days. The winner of that poll is elected Speaker. 5c. If more than two candidates get an even number of the most votes, those will be the only remaining candidates; back to step 5.

6. The elected Speaker's office begins immediately. At the same time the previous Speaker's office ends.

7. These rules shall apply to all future elections of the Speaker, until changed.

II. Special cases
8. If the Speaker resigns (not only announces that he will not stand for office again), then "3 days after the resignation announcement on the forum" will take the place of "the end of the map" in these rules for that election.

9. If there is only one candidate, then instead of the procedure under number 5 of these rules there will be a regular yes/no vote on the candidate, lasting 3 days. If the candidate fails the vote, there is no new Speaker and the previous Speaker's office ends.

10. If an election fails in that way or if there are no candidates, a new election for that map can only be called by Parliament vote. Until a successful vote there will be no Speaker for that map.

Officers

 * Speaker


 * Voted in at the start of every map, or on the resignation of the previous Speaker. The Speaker acts as a figurehead of the Council and oversees council meetings.  The Speaker decides tied votes.


 * Secretary


 * Manages the Council website and forums. The Council may vote in a new Secretary if required.

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 * '''Member of Parliament (MP)
 * Each member society has 1 voting officer, selected by the society. This officer may cast his society's vote.  Societies may select a new Voting officer as required but not more often than once every 14 days.


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