BCD Staff Advisory Council Policy
Policy information
Status
Created: 2022-04-26
Last updated: 2022-11-28
In force from: 2023-01-01
Expires: 2023-04-01
Versions
Table of contents
- Part 1 - Introduction
- Part 2 - The BCD Staff Advisory Council
- Part 3 - General elections
- Part 4 - Departures from the SAC
Part 1 - Introduction
Sect 1 - Statement of purpose
This Policy describes the structure and purpose of the BCD Staff Advisory Council, and the process under which elections for the BCD Staff Advisory Council should be carried out.
Sect 2 - Definitions
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.
Chair refers to the chairperson of the Staff Advisory Council.
general elections are elections of the Staff Advisory Council where all available positions are contested.
by-elections are elections to the Staff Advisory Council where a number of positions fewer than the total are contested.
Part 2 - The BCD Staff Advisory Council
Sect 3 - Purpose
(1) The SAC is an advisory body charged with representing the interests of BCD's members in matters of policy, discipline and governance of the server.
(2) The SAC is required to participate in major decisions, as is set out in the Governance Policy.
(3) Likewise, the SAC may also make recommendations to the staff team regarding interpretation of BCD's policies.
(4) Where a disciplinary action by a staff member is called into question by a member, the SAC may aid in determining whether the action was fair and just. If an action is not deemed to be fair and just, the SAC may then aid in determining whether any correction or modification to the original action is required.
Sect 4 - Structure
(1) The number of positions filled on the SAC must be no more than the current number of staff members, and no less than half that number, at any given time.
(2) If the number of positions filled exceeds the current number of staff members, the SAC must choose by popular vote a member from their ranks to resign their position on the SAC. This process must continue until the number of SAC members no longer exceeds the amount of staff members.
(3) Alternatively, the Administration unit can choose to appoint one or more existing SAC members to the staff team to maintain the balance.
(4) If the number of positions filled is lower than half the current number of staff members, a by-election must be held for the appointment of as many members to the SAC as the Administration unit sees fit to make up the shortfall. By-elections are detailed in s13 of this Policy.
Sect 5 - Chair
(1) The Chair is a member of the SAC appointed to lead the SAC in its deliberations.
(2) The Chair's vote has a weighting equal to the vote of any other member of the SAC.
(3) In the event that any vote wherein members of the SAC participate results in a tie, the Chair's vote will be worth two votes.
(4) The Chair's position is vacated immediately following any general election of the SAC, or if the member in the position departs from the SAC.
(5) For a member of the SAC to be appointed as Chair, they must have an absolute majority of votes from other SAC members. To achieve this:
- Any members of the SAC interested in the position of Chair should nominate for the position by expressing their interest in the relevant channel.
- In the first round of voting, all members must then vote for the nominee of their choice.
- The nominee with the least amount of votes is then eliminated from contesting the position of Chair.
- Further rounds of voting in this manner should ensue until one nominee has the votes of at least half of the current members of the SAC.
(6) When the position of Chair is vacated, members of the SAC must appoint a new Chair.
(7) If no Chair is appointed within a reasonable period, the Administration unit may declare all positions of the SAC vacant and call a general election.
(8) A sitting Chair may be removed from their position by a majority vote of the Staff-in-Council, or by the Administration unit if the Chair is considered to have failed in their duties.
(9) In the event that a Chair is removed, the process in (5)-(7) must be followed.
Sect 6 - Authority of members
(1) Members of the staff team have authority over SAC members, but cannot interfere with them carrying out their functions as SAC members (which functions are detailed in s3 of this Policy).
(2) All members of the SAC, with the exception of the Chair, should be seen as equal in rank to each other.
(3) Members of the SAC generally serve in an advisory capacity, and have little or no authority in decision-making save as one component of the Staff-in-Council.
(4) Likewise, members of the SAC generally have no permissions beyond that of any ordinary BCD member. However, they may be given special permissions by the Administration unit in the event of an emergency, or if requested by one of the units of the staff team.
(5) Members of the SAC are bound by any relevant sections of the Staff Code of Conduct.
Part 3 - General elections
Sect 7 - Timing and process
(1) General elections of the SAC should occur no sooner than 90 days after the appointment of the current SAC and no later than 120 days after the appointment of the current SAC at the discretion of the Administration unit.
(2) The only exception to this rule is a situation in which s5 (7) of this Policy is invoked.
(3) The number of positions to be filled on the SAC should be determined by the Administration unit prior to the notice of elections, according to s4 of this Policy.
(4) Elections must be announced publicly by an administrator in the conventional channel for announcements in the server.
(5) Upon the election announcement, a period of one week will begin during which any potential candidates must register their candidature with the Administration unit.
(6) The registration period expires exactly one week from the announcement time. The period expires automatically and does not need to be announced. No registrations made after the close of the period will be considered valid.
(7) The Administration unit then has a further week to prepare an appropriate voting mechanism that is accessible to all current members of BCD and complies with s9 of this Policy.
(8) As soon as possible, the Administration unit must then announce the start of a two-week voting period.
(9) During this period, all persons eligible to vote under s8 of this Policy must be given the opportunity to vote using the voting mechanism prepared in (6).
(10) Once the voting period has ended, the Administration unit must count the votes (as described in s10 of this Policy) and declare the results (as described in s11 of this Policy) as soon as is reasonably practicable.
Sect 8 - Eligibility to vote
(1) Any person who is a member of BCD for at least 24 hours before the voting period begins and remains a member during the voting period, regardless of rank or past disciplinary actions taken against them, is eligible to vote only once in an SAC election.
(2) In the instance that the Administration unit suspects that any person may have contrived to vote more than once in any election, or that any person voted without being a member of BCD at any time during the voting period, they may treat any vote(s) from that person as null and void.
Sect 9 - Voting mechanism
(1) The voting mechanism must be constructed in such a way that it allows every voter to submit a response that signifies their order of preference for all candidates.
(2) In creating the voting mechanism, the Administration unit must do everything reasonably practicable to ensure the integrity of votes.
Sect 10 - Counting of votes
(1) Where a voter's intention is not clear, the vote is null and void.
(2) Where a vote is incomplete, with no preference expressed for at least one candidate, the vote is null and void.
(3) A vote may not be declared null and void for any reason save for the ones expressed in this Section.
(4) All remaining valid votes should be weighted equally.
(5) Votes must be counted according to the following process:
- In the first round of voting, all first preference votes for each candidate are totalled.
- The candidate with the least first preference votes is eliminated from contention.
- Each vote that had the eliminated candidate as the first preference is now counted for its second preference.
- These second preferences are distributed to the remaining candidates and added to their first-preference totals.
- The candidate with the lowest total votes is eliminated from contention.
- This process continues until the amount of candidates remaining in contention is equal to the amount of places available in the SAC.
Sect 11 - Declaration of results
(1) Results must be declared in a timely manner and in accordance with s10 of the Governance Policy.
Sect 12 - Entering the SAC
(1) Once results are declared, the Administration unit may immediately remove the old members of the SAC whose terms have expired, and add the successful candidates to the SAC.
(2) If any of the successful candidates were already serving members of the SAC, they can remain on the SAC with no change.
Sect 13 - By-elections
(1) The process for SAC by-elections is identical to that of general elections.
(2) By-elections differ only in name and by the fact that the number of places to be filled in a by-election is less than the total places on the SAC.
Part 4 - Departures from the SAC
Sect 14 - General case
(1) If a member of the SAC:
- wishes to retire from the SAC,
- leaves BCD at any time during their term,
- is deemed by a majority of the other members of the SAC and staff team not to have contributed to their fullest ability to the SAC, or
- has received three or more disciplinary actions equal to a warning or higher due to breaches of the Member Code of Conduct in the last 31 days,
the Administration unit may remove them from the SAC without further investigation.
(2) This must be reported in accordance with s10 of the Governance Policy.
Sect 15 - Special removal by the Administration unit
(1) If a member of the SAC is found by the Administration unit to be impeding or working contrary to the proper functions of the SAC, the Administration unit may remove them from the SAC.
(2) The Administration unit must then provide notice to the remaining members of the SAC that they have taken this action.
(3) This must be reported in accordance with s10 of the Governance Policy.