BCD Governance Policy

Policy information

Status

Created: 2022-04-26

Last updated: 2022-11-28

In force from: 2023-01-01

Expires: 2023-04-01

Versions

Current version

Part 1 - Introduction

Sect 1 - Statement of purpose

This Policy details all processes and regulations relating to the governance of BCD.

Sect 2 - Definitions

Under this Policy:

BCD, the server, or the guild means the Bonk.io Community Discord server.

member, or user, refers to a person who is in control of a Discord account that exists or has existed in BCD.

SAC refers to the Staff Advisory Council of BCD.

administrator refers to a person who is a current member of the Administration unit of BCD.

Part 2 - Governance structure

Sect 3 - Staff team

(1) The staff team is charged with the governance of BCD.

Sect 3A - Three-unit structure and functions

(1) The staff team is organised into a three-unit structure, detailed as follows:

The Administration unit is charged with making executive policy decisions regarding the day-to-day operations of the server, and overseeing the smooth operation of the staff team.
The Moderation unit is charged with policing the server and enforcing its rules to the best of their ability. They may also make recommendations on server moderation policy.
The Events unit is charged with conceptualising, organising and facilitating all of the server's events.

(2) Staff members can be part of multiple units if they wish to take on different duties within the staff.

(3) The hierarchy of these three units can be imagined as a triangular shape, with the Moderation and Events units forming the base. The Administration unit is placed above them, connecting the staff team together and leading it.

Sect 3B - Appointments to the staff team

(1) The staff team and SAC will jointly decide when appointments to the staff team should be made, and how many positions should be filled on the staff team.

(2) Once this has been decided, a formal announcement will be made that an opening or openings on the staff team are available.

(3) To enter the BCD staff team, any potential candidates must first meet all of the following criteria:

Must have served at least one uninterrupted term on the SAC, or an equivalent uninterrupted period on the staff team
Must not have had any major disciplinary actions taken against them in the three months preceding the appointment; here, 'major' is defined as a mute of duration greater than or equal to three days, a kick, or a ban
Must have registered their interest in becoming a staff member with the Administration unit, and certified that they have met all of the above criteria, within seven days of the announcement of openings for new staff members

(4) Once a list of candidates has been compiled according to the above criteria, the Administration unit of the staff team is charged with facilitating an application process to narrow down the list of candidates to, at maximum, the number of openings available on the staff team.

(5) The Administration unit must then decide which candidates, if any, will be chosen to fill the openings, and publish its decision.

(6) The number of candidates accepted to the staff team does not need to be equal to the number of positions available, but cannot exceed this number.

Sect 3C - Departures from the staff team

(1) If a staff member wishes to retire from the staff team, or has been found guilty of three breaches of the Staff Code of Conduct or Member Code of Conduct in the last three months, the Administration unit is charged with facilitating their departure from the staff team.

Sect 3D - The Administration unit

(1) The Administration unit is the highest executive body within BCD.

(2) The Administration unit must have no less than two and no more than four members at all times.

(3) Members of the Administration unit are treated exactly the same as any staff member under the Staff Code of Conduct.

(4) To enter the Administration unit, a staff member must meet the following criteria:

have been a staff member for a consecutive period of at least eighteen months;
have made a significant contribution to improving the server over their career as a staff member;
have distinguished themselves from other staff members in terms of genuine dedication to the server;
not have been found guilty of any breaches of the Staff Code of Conduct for the last 365 days; and
have the greatest merit of all staff members that meet the above criteria.

(5) Any member meeting these criteria must also have at least 67% of votes in a vote involving at least 80% of the Staff-in-Council before being appointed to the Administration unit.

Sect 4 - Staff Advisory Council (SAC)

(1) The SAC is a democratically-elected body of representatives charged with advising the staff team on issues of server policy, as well as oversight of disciplinary actions taken by members of staff.

(2) The structure of the SAC is described in detail in the Staff Advisory Council Policy.

Sect 5 - Server owner

(1) The server owner is charged with the duties of:

Ensuring that all matters relating to the governance of BCD are conducted in accordance with this Policy and any other related policies;
Ensuring that the staff of BCD operate in accordance with BCD policies at all times; and
Using their executive authority to manage the movements of staff members into and out of the Administration unit of the staff team.

(2) The server owner does not have to be a member of the staff team or SAC.

(3) However, if they are not already a member of the staff team or SAC, the server owner may choose:

to run for election to the SAC when elections are held, or
to be a member of the staff team if they meet the requirements for admission into the staff team, and/or
to be a member of the Administration unit if they meet the requirements for entry into the Administration unit.

Part 3 - Decision-making

Sect 6 - Groups

(1) Different decisions fall under the purview of different groups in the governance of BCD.

(2) The groups are as follows:

Each individual unit of the staff team (Moderation, Events, Administration)
The staff team as a whole
The Staff Advisory Council as a whole
The Staff-in-Council

Sect 6A - Staff-in-Council

(1) This term is used to describe the staff team and the SAC collectively.

(2) For certain decisions, such as a change to any BCD Policy, all members of the Staff-in-Council have the right to vote.

Sect 7 - Brief summary

(1) Each individual unit of the staff team is responsible for decisions that fall within the purview of their functions as outlined in s3a (1) of this Policy.

(2) The SAC works in conjunction with the staff team, either as a strictly consultatory body, or as part of the Staff-in-Council. As a result, the SAC is typically not solely responsible for any decisions and by itself has little authority.

(3) The Staff-in-Council is responsible for many major decisions, the most important being changes to the wording or content of any BCD Policy.

Sect 8 - Framework

(1) If a decision is not supported by all members of the responsible group, the members of the responsible group must agree to take a vote on the decision.

(2) If any member(s) of the responsible group feel that some concerns have not been adequately addressed, and wish to discuss further within the responsible group, a vote should not be taken until those concerns have been discussed.

(3) The below table contains requirements for selected common decisions to be carried out.

Decision	Responsible group	Authority required to execute
Disciplinary actions	Moderation unit	Individual members of the Moderation unit only
Overturn of or amendment to disciplinary actions taken by Moderation unit	Staff-in-Council	51% majority vote involving at least two-thirds of Staff-in-Council members
Launching an event	Events unit	General acknowledgement and agreement from majority of involved members of Events unit
Creation of new channel	Various	Depends on group which has requested the new channel, but generally subject to approval by the Administration unit
Change to wording or content of any Policy	Staff-in-Council	67% majority vote involving at least 80% of Staff-in-Council members
Number of positions to be filled by general election or by-election of the SAC	Administration unit	Assent from all members of Administration unit
Number of appointments to be made to staff team	Administration unit and SAC	51% majority vote from involved members
Removal of SAC Chair	Staff-in-Council or Administration unit	51% majority vote from Staff-in-Council, or at discretion of Administration unit
Appointments to staff team	Administration unit	Assent from all members of Administration unit

Sect 9 - Other cases

(1) For cases not listed in the table above, the authority required to make and execute a decision shall be determined at the discretion of the Administration unit.

(2) The Staff-in-Council may vote to add further cases to the table above, under the criteria listed in the table above (change to wording or content of any Policy).

Sect 9A - Emergency powers of the Administration unit

(1) The Administration unit shall at its discretion have the power to effect changes to any BCD Policy or take action without the necessary approvals set out in s8 of this Policy.

(2) This power should only be used where there is no clear agreement on the topic in question within the Staff-in-Council, and the Administration unit believes it is more important to implement such changes in a timely manner than to wait for an agreement to be reached.

(3) The Administration unit must justify any such actions in accordance with s10 of this Policy.

Part 4 - Transparency

Sect 10 - Reporting obligations

(1) Certain changes to the server must, when placed into effect by the staff team, be communicated to the members of BCD.

(2) This must be done via the #administration-updates channel in BCD.

(3) Examples of decisions or actions that must be reported under this section include, but are not limited to:

New policies
Changes to any existing Policy or its wording, regardless of how minor the change
The results of any investigation into a formalised complaint made against a staff member
SAC election results
Appointments to the staff team, changes in which unit(s) a staff member is part of, or departures from the staff team

(4) Such decisions or actions cannot come into force until they have been reported in accordance with this section.

(5) Failure to report such decisions or actions will result in their being null and void.

(6) Similarly, any actions taken in accordance with a new or changed Policy will also be null and void until the proper reporting has been undertaken.

(7) Everyday staff actions do not need to be reported. These include:

The creation of new channels and roles (although these may optionally be reported)
Disciplinary actions taken by the Moderation unit, or emergency moderation actions taken
Events
Changes to the server's custom bots

Part 5 - Breaches of the Staff Code of Conduct

Sect 11 - Reporting process

(1) There is a set procedure if any member of BCD wishes to report a breach of the Staff Code of Conduct by a member of the staff.

(2) Only the server owner and members of the Administration unit have the authority to receive and investigate breaches of the Staff Code of Conduct.

(3) The breach reporter must first determine an appropriate person to report the breach to, as follows:

If the staff member in question is not a member of the Administration unit, or is the server owner, the breach should be reported to any member of the Administration unit.
If the staff member in question is a member of the Administration unit, the breach should be reported to the server owner.
The subject of the report cannot be the recipient of a breach report.

(4) A report cannot be investigated unless it is made to an appropriate person as in (3).

(5) A formal report of a breach of the Staff Code of Conduct must be sent via Direct Message to an appropriate person (as decided by the criteria above), with the wording 'This is a formal report of a breach of the Staff Code of Conduct.', followed by the details of the alleged breach.

(6) Breach reports must be made no more than 7 days after the occurrence of the breach, except in the case of an extreme violation of the Staff Code of Conduct.

(7) Breaches may not be reported to the same member making the report, even if they are an appropriate person as in (3).

(8) If the process detailed in (1)-(7) is followed, the person receiving the report is obligated to put in motion an investigation into the alleged breach.

(9) All breach reporters, even members of the SAC or staff team, are bound by this process. This is to ensure there will be no confusion regarding the validity or seriousness of a report.

Sect 12 - Investigation process

(1) The person to whom a breach is reported shall be in charge of its investigation by default, but they may hand over the investigation to another 'appropriate person' with the consent of the reporter.

(2) As, under s11 (2), this person in charge must be the server owner and/or a member of the Administration unit, they may proceed at their own discretion with investigating the breach.

(3) As long as one other appropriate person (under s11 (3)) exists that is not accused of a breach, the person in charge of the investigation must inform at least one other appropriate person of the details of the breach and the investigation.

(4) The breach reporter is entitled to regular updates on the progress of the ongoing investigation.

(5) The investigation must be concluded within a reasonable timeframe.

Sect 13 - Findings process

(1) The investigator must compile a brief report of findings to be submitted to the Staff-in-Council.

(2) In addition to findings, the investigator must also make recommendations as to appropriate corrective actions as a result of the breach, if any are deemed necessary.

(3) These recommendations will be implemented at the discretion of the Administration unit, taking into consideration the advice of the Staff-in-Council, excluding any staff member(s) under investigation.

(4) Upon conclusion of the investigation, the findings and actions taken must be published in full, under s10 of this Policy.