One World by Night Bylaws

Updated 11/15/07

One World by Night (OWbN) is a network of international Live Action Role Play (LARP) chronicles. These chronicles are brought together for the purpose of sharing a broad and colorful story that extends past each city’s borders. We believe in the sovereignty of each chronicle, so far as it does not impugn upon the cohesiveness of the organization as a whole. We further believe that treating each chronicle, and by extension each player, with respect is the bedrock upon which sound cooperative Storytelling takes place.

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Administrative Bylaws

1) Chronicles

A) What is a Chronicle?

i) A chronicle is a geographically localized body of players, including STs and a Council Member. The Council Member is assumed to represent the will of the chronicle to OWbN, however the Council Member is not assumed to have the ownership of the chronicle, which is assumed to belong to the body of players as a whole, including the STs and Council Member. Players may also be members of multiple chronicles.

B) Chronicle Boundaries and Control

i) Chronicles have full control over the events inside of their boundaries. These boundaries are registered with the archivist, but should be well known to surrounding chronicles. Storytellers wishing to run scenes in another chronicles boundaries must first obtain permission from a Storyteller from that chronicle.

C) Plot

i) Chronicles may not direct STs or players that events in other chronicles did not happen in their local chronicle continuity. Events in OWbN chronicles are part of the OWbN continuity, and must be accepted as valid IC events for all OWbN, unless redlined by the originating STs or Council. Chronicles may, however, lessen or change any effects that outside events might have on their local chronicle as long as these changes do not fundamentally alter or end the plot. This does not apply to OWBN Council approved plot, which must be run as passed.

D) Denying Entry

i) The storytellers of individual chronicles have the right to ban any player or character from their game if s/he would upset game balance or plot. Alternatively storytellers may ask a player to temporarily alter their sheet or item cards to be allowed entry into the chronicle. If a player accepts the changes to gain entry then they must follow Character Regulations Bylaw Twelve. Any player or character that is banned from a chronicle must be announced on the OWBN-ST and OWBN-Council lists, included in the chronicle report, and the player should be notified if possible.

E) House Rules

i) The Storytellers have the right to craft a set of house rules for their chronicle; these rules should primarily clarify or re-interpret the core rules books of their genre. House rules may also be defined to set the style of play within the game. The core rules books will be used, except when specifically disallowed by these bylaws.

(1) House rules may not contradict the OWBN specific rules as specified in the bylaws or genre packets. House rules may address areas that are not covered in either of these places.

(2) House rules must be easily accessible. They should be placed on the web and/or at the check-in desk of games.

F) Following the Bylaws

i) All members of OWBN are responsible for adhering to theOWBN Bylaws, Genre Guidelines, Rules and Regulations. However when related to chronicles, the Storytellers and Council Members will be responsible for the actions of their Chronicles.

ii) For a bylaw, genre document, rule and regulation to be binding, it must be on the OWBN website. The HC and/or AHC are responsible for ensuring all applicable documents are on the OWBN website.

G) Discipline

i) Chronicle discipline is the province of the Chronicle Staff, however disciplinary actions passed by Council must be enforced by the Chronicle Staff.

ii) Every chronicle must have a written disciplinary policy. These policies must be made available either on the chronicles’ website or at the check-in desk.

iii) Reporting

(1) The chronicle will submit any chronicle disciplinary actions to the elected Archivist via their quarterly chronicle report, who then will compile and maintain a record of all members given chronicle disciplinary actions. This list will be available to any ST, Council Member, or Coordinator within OWBN. They may ask the Archivist for the list of players, or may inquire after a particular member in that regard.

(2) A Storyteller from the chronicle that submitted the disciplinary action may have said action removed from the Archivist’s list.

H) Withdrawal

i) A chronicle may always withdraw from OWBN.

ii) When a chronicles is expelled or withdraws from OWBN, players from that chronicle may transfer their characters to other active chronicles, if their transfer is accepted by another active chronicle.

2) Council

A) The Council of One World by Night is considered the governing body of the network and shall consist of:

i) One (1) voting representative from each full member chronicle. A voting representative may serve as a voting representative for only one full member chronicle at a time.

ii) The Head Coordinator and Assistant Head Coordinators who shall hold one (1) vote each. They may not hold any other votes on the Council, such as being the Council representative of a chronicle.

B) All administrative and genre Coordinators may be present on the Council list and at Council meetings, should they occur, in order to provide information and input to the Council. They are considered to be non-voting members, unless otherwise stated in the Coordinator bylaws.

3) Proposals & Voting Procedures

A) Proposals

i) Submission

(1) Only voting members may submit proposals to the Council unless otherwise noted in subsequent bylaws.

(2) Include in the subject line of the email [PROPOSAL] and a short description of the proposal.

(3) The email must include the name of the person making the proposal, the chronicle name, chronicle location and an e-mail address where an Assistant Head Coordinator may contact that person for additional information. The message body must contain the detailed proposal and how it should be integrated into existing bylaws, if passed.

ii) Discussion

(1) Discussion on said [PROPOSAL] shall begin immediately and the proposal shall be posted on the voting page for record keeping.

(2) To suggest a formal change to the proposal, in the subject of the message include [AMENDMENT] and in the body of the message include the description of what is suggested.

(3) The original author of the [PROPOSAL] may accept or reject amendments at their own discretion, if a change is accepted it should be sent to an Assistant Head Coordinator to update the [PROPOSAL] on the website.

iii) Second to the Proposal

(1) A Council member, the HC, or an AHC must second the proposal before it can proceed to a vote.

(a) To second a proposal, post with “[SECOND] [PROPOSAL] Proposal name” in the subject line of the message, where ‘Proposal name’ is the title of the draft proposal. In the body of the message, include the statement, ‘I second this proposal.’

(b) A proposal that fails to gain a second within one week of the end of the discussion period is considered to have failed and is removed from the voting system.

iv) Sneaking in under the gun

(1) Should a proposal to amend or add to the OWbN bylaws be put forward to Council, no proposal or character types related to the amendment/addition shall be open for discussion until the closure of the amendment/addition vote. Notifications and votes that were in progress before the amendment/addition proposal(s) will be considered exempt from this rule.

B) Voting

i) Formatting

(1) A call for voting is posted to the Council with the changes and options to the proposal included.

(2) All options presented in the proposal shall be made available to the Council at time of voting.

(3) All votes must include “Abstain” and an option to reject the proposal.

(4)If it is possible for more than one option to be acceptable this must be stated in the proposal.

(5) Council members are required to use the online Vote Management System found at http://www.OWbN.org/ when casting votes.

(6) “While it is the duty of every member who has an opinion on the question to express it by his vote, yet he cannot be compelled to do so. He may prefer to abstain from voting, though he knows the effect is the same as if he voted on the prevailing side.” ~ Robert’s Rules of Order

ii) Timeframe

(1) Proposals shall have a voting period of one week from the completion of the discussion period unless otherwise noted in subsequent bylaws.

(2) The Head Coordinator may extend any vote by twenty-four (24) hour increments or multiples thereof by informing Council no later than twenty-four (24) hours before the extension. Extensions may not exceed a total timeframe of fourteen (14) additional days without a mandate from the Council.

(3) The Head Coordinator or Assistant Head Coordinator may close the vote prior to the official date if the outcome is a mathematical certainty.

(4) After the closing date for voting, the votes are counted and posted. The Head Coordinator and Assistants are responsible for changes being incorporated into OWBN.

C) Quorum Definition for Council

i) Resolutions before the Council pass if they receive a majority of votes cast, unless otherwise noted in the bylaws.

ii) The Head Coordinator can change the Quorum definition for any vote on a case-by-case basis.

D) Player Base Notification

i) Rules, organizational, and/or game mechanics proposals shall be posted in their entirety to the OWBN-OOC list and on the public OWBN web site for review by the OWBN player base.

(1) This shall be done by an AHC within twenty-four (24) hours of the notification sent to the Council and ST lists that a proposal has been opened for discussion.

(2) The Head Coordinator may also indicate additional locations that proposals may be posted.

ii) Any vote results, including comments posted on the online Vote Management System, that relate to a rules, organizational, and/or game mechanics proposal shall be posted in its entirety to the OWBN-OOC list server and on the public OWBN web site for review by the OWBN player base.

(1) This shall be done by an AHC within twenty-four (24) hours of the notification sent to the council and ST lists that a vote has closed.

(2) The Head Coordinator may also indicate additional locations that proposals may be posted.

iii) If there should be any question on whether or not the proposal is appropriate for player viewing, the Head Coordinator shall have final adjudicating authority on the posting of said proposal, and may call for an immediate vote from Council re: same. This will put the proposal on hold until that vote is finalized.

E) All proposals that meet the requirements to automatically pass shall be recorded on the online Vote Management System as a single vote in favor of the proposal with the comments section noting, ‘Automatically Passed due to Lack of Objection.’

F) General Consensus Vote and Autopass Procedure

i) The Head Storyteller of a game, or its Council Representative, may petition the Executive Team for a General Consensus Vote on an issue that has little impact or significance on the organization as a whole but would technically require a vote per the bylaws.

ii) The Executive Team may then choose to Propose this issue as a "General Consensus Vote" to Council. If it is not objected to in the (1) one week timeframe of normal discussion period, then the issue is considered to auto-pass as a Coordinator Proposal and be logged into the voting log system. If a designated Council Representative formally Objects to the "General Consensus Vote" then it shall go through the normal voting procedure.

G) Withdrawal and Revising an Immediate Re-Proposal

i) If a Proposal is made and Withdrawn during its discussion period in order to alter, fix, or otherwise
adjust the proposal, and is then re-Proposed within one (1) week of the Withdrawl, the author will now substitute "[Re-Proposal]" in the subject line of the email instead of "[Proposal]" (per 3.A.i.2).

4) Coordinator Elections

A) Head Coordinator Elections

i) The Head Coordinator shall be elected every October and shall serve until the end of elections the following year.

ii) Nominations for the position shall open on October 10th and close at the same time on October 17th.

iii) Voting will last until October 31st . In the case of a tie, voting will be held November 1st through 7th with the former Head Coordinator serving during the interim. No other proposals may be passed or introduced during this run-off.

iv) No proposals relating to this election, election process, or the voting procedure may be proposed nor ratified within seven (7) days of the beginning of the voting period until the end of the election(s).

B) Other Coordinator Elections

i) The Head Coordinator will nominate all other Coordinators.

ii) The Head Coordinator will accept applications for nominations for a minimum of two (2) weeks from the time the application procedure opens, which must be posted to the Council, ST, OWBN-OOC, and mailing lists in addition to the OWbN website.

(1) The Head Coordinator must nominate any applicant who has the support of 5 or more member chronicles of OWBN.

(2) Each candidate must list prominently on their application from where their support is coming.

(a) Chronicles may support more than one candidate in this manner and they do not have to vote for the candidate(s) they supported.

iii) Should only one person submit an application for a given position, then the Head Coordinator may nominate that one applicant without a second applicant on the same ballot or extend the time for collecting applications as the Head Coordinator sees fit.

iv) The Head Coordinator may indicate which nominee is preferred.

v) The Ballot will be presented to Council seven (7) days before the voting period begins for discussion, but no later than December First (1st ) without a ratified proposal granting the Head Coordinator an extension.

vi) The Ballot will be posted on the Council, ST, and OWBN-OOC mailing lists at the beginning of the vote discussion period.

vii) The vote will open at on the day after the seven day council discussion period, and close at the same time fourteen (14) days later.

viii) The nominee carrying the majority vote of Council shall become Coordinator.

(1) In case of a tie, the Head Coordinator may either break the tie or hold a run-off election between all tied parties.

(2) For a run-off election, only the candidates who were tied will be on the ballot. The option to reject all candidates will be removed. The option to abstain will remain.

(3) If the election is still tied after the run-off vote, the HC will break the tie.

ix) Coordinators will serve beginning two weeks after the election vote for their election closes, including any run-off election that may have taken place. The current Coordinator will be expected to brief the Coordinator-elect during these two weeks on issues and events relating to the particular Coordinator position being assumed by the Coordinator-elect.

x) No proposals relating to elections, election process, or the voting procedure may be proposed or ratified from the time the Council discussion of the ballot begins until the time all elections end.

xi) The Assistant Head Coordinator and Second Assistant Head Coordinator positions shall be treated as the same position for application and election purposes, with the nominees carrying the highest and second highest number of votes becoming Coordinator. This vote shall have multiple acceptable options equivalent to the number of AHC positions available. Thus each Chronicle will receive a number of votes equal to the number of positions available.

C) Special Elections

i) Should any Coordinator position become unfilled during a term, a special election must be held.

ii) The Head Coordinator may appoint someone to fill the position until the special election is completed.

iii) The appointee will be treated as an Elected Coordinator, except that the appointee will only serve until the Special Election is complete.

iv) The Head Coordinator will announce the Special Election on the Council, ST, and OWBN-OOC mailing lists and will accept applications for fourteen (14) days.

v) The vote will then proceed following the bylaws in Administrative Bylaws, Section 4, Subsection B, Other Coordinator Elections.

vi) Should the position become vacant within one (1) month of the Head Coordinator Election, an appointee may serve until elections are complete.

5) Finances

A) Statement of Dues

i) The Finance Coordinator, on behalf of the network, shall collect dues, from all full member North American chronicles for the fees associated with the domain and server maintenance.

ii) All dues collected will be used for the sole purpose of the server unless a three-quarter (¾) majority vote of Council is passed for alternate uses of the OWBN funds.

B) Definition of Chronicles

i) A full member chronicle is defined as a chronicle that has all the rights and privileges of membership in OWBN. Applying chronicles and chronicles on probation prior to becoming full members of OWBN are not required to pay dues. Chronicles that are on probation due to disciplinary reasons are not exempt from dues. Any chronicle may apply for an exemption, for past or current dues.

ii) New Chronicles who have passed into full membership shall be required to pay dues on the next quarters due date. (E.g. Voted in as a full member on Feb 5, dues then become payable as of April 1). Should a chronicle leave OWBN for any reason other than as a result of disciplinary actions, they may apply to have the remainder of dues paid to the network refunded. Dues refunded are prorated to the time they officially leave. Chronicles leaving for disciplinary actions forfeit all dues paid.

C) Account requirements

i) The Financial Coordinator shall maintain the PayPal account under finance@OWbN.org for the chronicles to pay dues, and the payment of server fees.

ii) The Finance Coordinator shall also establish a bank account for the sole purpose of holding OWBN funds.

(1) Fees associated with the maintenance of the PayPal and Bank accounts shall be paid from OWBN funds.

(2) The Financial Coordinator will include copies of receipts for transactions and bank statements in their quarterly reports.

iii) PayPal is the preferred method of payment for chronicle dues. Cash; checks, credit card payments and money orders are acceptable as well.

(1) If a check is returned for any reason the financial coordinator will charge the defaulting chronicle an additional fee equal to the bank accounts fee for any dishonored checks.

D) Amount of Dues

i) Dues are fifteen ($15) US Dollars per year.

ii) OWBN uses the calendar year as our fiscal year, and it is divided into 4 quarters: 1st quarter is Jan 1 - Mar 31; 2nd quarter is April 1 - June 30; 3rd quarter is July 1 - September 31; 4th quarter is October 1 - Dec 31.

E) Schedule of Payment

i) Dues may be paid in one of the following schedules:

(1) Annually; due by midnight January 1 ~ $15.00 total.

(2) Bi-Annually; due by midnight January 1 and July 1, ~ $7.50 each.

(3) Quarterly; due by midnight January 1; April 1; July 1; October 1. ~ $3.75 each.

ii) Alternative payment arrangements made at the Financial Coordinator’s discretion and reported to Council.

F) Failure to pay dues

i) Failure to pay dues will result in the following disciplinary actions.

(1) One to two weeks after the due date has passed, the Financial Coordinator shall send a private email, to the Head Storyteller and Council Representative of the overdue chronicle, requesting action on the part of the Chronicle.

(2) One month after the due date, the Financial Coordinator shall send a message to the OWBN-Council and OWBN-ST e-mail lists. This message shall include a list of chronicles that have not paid and shall request immediate contact from those chronicles.

(3) Requests for contact shall continue until three months after the due date. If the dues remain unpaid three months past the due date the chronicle shall no longer be eligible for plot from Genre Coordinators, including Non-Player Character appearances at major events. The Financial Coordinator is responsible for notifying Coordinators of the status of delinquent chronicles and working out methods to compromise plot problems should it prove necessary.

(4) From six months past the due date and beyond, with no attempt made to set up a reasonable payment schedule, and no request to the OWBN Council made for an exemption, the chronicle will be put on probation. The chronicle will lose all voting rights, but will not be removed from any e-mail list(s).

(5) Nine months after a chronicle has completely failed to make dues payments or any arrangements for either delayed payment or exemption, the chronicle will be expelled from OWBN.

ii) These measures are cumulative; meaning that while the chronicle is on probation it is also not eligible for plot from the Genre Coordinators. All measures short of expulsion are immediately ended upon full payment of back and current dues.

iii) A chronicle may request an extension from the Financial Coordinator who shall accept and grant such request at his/her discretion. Such requests shall not be considered if the Chronicle provides false information.

(1) Failure to meet an extended due date granted by the Financial Coordinator causes the process to resume where it left off.

(2) A Chronicle may also request an exemption from the OWBN Council, at any time, including during the disciplinary procedure outlined above.

(3) Exemptions granted by the OWBN Council give the chronicle the right to not pay dues for the duration outlined in the granted exemption.

G) Server Fees

The current cost for the maintenance of the server is $90.00 USD per month.

H) Reporting requirements

i) The Financial Coordinator shall make quarterly reports one month following the end of each fiscal quarter. An annual report shall be due Jan 15 for the prior year. The Financial Coordinator may request extensions for these dates from the Head Coordinator.

ii) Reports shall include a listing of all chronicles that have paid, those who are delinquent in payment and all payment arrangements made. It shall also include copies of receipts for transactions and bank statements for the prior quarter.

6) Disciplinary Policy

A) Board of Inquiry

i) Council shall preside over any disciplinary case that involves more than one chronicle and/or an elected Coordinator, or breach of the OWbN Bylaws by a member chronicle, should any involved bring it to Council through a proposal.

B) Issuing a OWBN Disciplinary Action

i) To initiate a OWBN Disciplinary Action a proposal must be submitted to Council proposing an action against a member, where a member is defined as an individual who participates in OWBN. The proposal should specify a sought duration for Probation and Temporary Ban Actions. If no duration is specified for these actions, the duration will be six (6) months.

ii) The member to be issued with an OWBN Disciplinary Action must be sent notification within twenty-four (24) hours of the beginning of the discussion period of the proposal. The member is permitted to state a case in their defense.

(1) This defense must be given within seven (7) days of the beginning of the discussion period of the proposal.

(2) The Head Coordinator may extend this period up to twenty-one (21) days by to a total of twenty-eight (28) days from the beginning of the discussion period. Any further extension requires a council vote. The voting period shall not begin until the discussion period has passed.

(3) If no response has been received from the member within the allotted time, then the member shall have forfeited the right to a response.

iii) Head Coordinator (HC) and Assistant Head Coordinators (AHCs) may seek further information as they see fit for the case. Should it be necessary, the HC and AHCs may appoint a team of members to act as their Sub-coordinators for the length of the proposal process to investigate the situation.

iv) The results of the investigation and supporting evidence must be made available to the Council for assessment before the voting periodbegins.

v) The Disciplinary Action must be ratified by a majority vote of the Council. The Head Coordinator breaks ties in all Disciplinary Actions.

vi) If the member’s behavior is a violation of OWBN rules and values as decided by the Head Coordinator (HC), the Head Coordinator may order an immediate ban of that member from OWBN, whether or not that member has already been disciplined by a chronicle for that behavior.

(1) Following this ban, the Head Coordinator must initiate a disciplinary proposal to council proposing the ban action within fourteen (14) days. If this vote fails or the proposal is not made, the ban is reversed and all effects of the ban are removed from the member.

C) Treatment of Old Strikes

i) All OWBN level strikes given by OWBN prior to February 26, 2003 shall be subject to the restrictions, conditions and duration in effect for strikes at the time the strike was given.

D) Disciplinary Actions

i) OWBN Condemnation

(1) This action is to allow Council to condemn an action that does not deserve other punishment. A Condemnation action will stay on the Archivist’s records unless it is successfully appealed.

ii) OWBN Censure

(1) A censure may be called with or without any combination of other disciplinary actions.

(2) Consequences of OWBN Censure

(a) No member holding any OWBN Censure shall be permitted to hold any un-elected position within OWBN at the organizational level.

(b) Should any member receive three OWBN Censures, that player will be treated as though having received an OWBN Strike.

iii) OWBN Strike

(1) A strike may be called with or without any combination of other disciplinary actions.

(2) Consequences of OWBN Strikes

(a) No member holding any OWBN Strikes shall be permitted to hold any position within OWBN at the organizational level. Organizational Level positions are: Coordinators, Sub-Coordinators, Council Members, and Portraying NPCs for Coordinators or Sub-Coordinators.

(b) Should any member receive three OWBN Strikes, that player will no longer be eligible to play in any OWBN Chronicle, nor hold any position within OWBN.

iv) OWBN Probation

(1) Upon ratification of the action and notification of the member, the member receiving a Probation Action is restricted to interacting with a single chronicle. The member is not permitted access to the national e-mail lists of OWBN for the duration of the probation, neither may they serve OWBN in any organizational level position during this time.

v) OWBN Temporary Ban

(1) A ban action may be combined in the disciplinary proposal with a probation of the same duration to begin after the ban ends. During that probation the member may serve in no position, at either the chronicle or OWBN level.

(2) Upon ratification of the ban and notification of the member the member will not be allowed to interact with OWBN in any capacity for the duration of the action.

vi) OWBN Indefinite Ban

(1) This Disciplinary Action grants three (3) OWBN Strikes in one (1) action and will be recorded as the member having received three (3) OWBN strikes, which will be treated as separate actions for reversal.

vii) Removal from Office

(1) This action may be combined with any other action or combination of actions.

(2) This action may only be taken against a Coordinator mentioned in the Coordinator Bylaws Section 1 or a sub-coordinator of one of those positions.

(3) The proposal containing this action against an elected Coordinator must pass with a two-thirds majority without the support of the Head Coordinator. With the support of the Head Coordinator only a simple majority is required.

(4) Upon ratification of the removal the member will no longer serve OWBN in the position previously held. This action may not be reversed.

E) Process for appeal or reversal

i) Reversal of OWBN Disciplinary Actions

(1) Any member who has received an OWBN disciplinary action may apply for a reversal of the action through a proposal seeking reversal of the action from a Council Member, AHC or the HC after one half (1/2) the assigned duration or six (6) months in the case of a strike. Only one action may be reversed per proposal.

(2) Only one such proposal on behalf of a member will be considered per three hundred sixty five (365) days beginning at the ratification of the first action given to the member.

(3) If the reversal would reduce the number of strikes held by the member to two (2), the Head Coordinator must make the proposal and the member will receive a Probation Disciplinary Action for a duration of six (6) months.

(4) Any strikes reversed in this way shall be noted as reversed in the Archivist’s record.

ii) Appeal of OWBN Disciplinary Actions

(1) Should new evidence about a disciplinary action become available, a Council Member, an Assistant Head Coordinator or the Head Coordinator may introduce a proposal to appeal the original vote.

(2) If the appeal is ratified, the appealed action is nullified and will be treated as though that action’s vote failed.

F) Archiving

i) The elected Archivist will compile and maintain a record of all members given OWBN Disciplinary actions.

(1) This list will be available to any ST, Council Member, or Coordinator within OWBN.

(2) They may ask the Archivist for the list of players, or may inquire after a particular member in that regard.

ii) Following the reinstating of full member status, all positions denied through Probation or Temporary Ban Actions [see section 6.d Disciplinary Actions] are again available to the member. Also, record of the action will be removed from the record of Disciplinary Actions.

iii) The result of an OWBN Disciplinary Action Vote must be announced on the ST and Council mailing lists.

iv) If the result of an OWBN Disciplinary Action is the banning or striking of a member OWBN wide, it must be announced on the OWBN and OWBN-OOC lists.

v) At any time during the duration and within seven (7) days after the end of the Probation or Temporary Ban disciplinary actions, the Council Member of the chronicle with which the member is interacting may file a report on the member’s conduct and a recommendation to grant another disciplinary action equal to the one ratified by council.

(1) If probation follows a ban, the additional option of granting another ban of the same duration as the original is available to be recommended.

(2) If there are no objections to this recommendation within one (1) week, the recommendation will be executed as though it were a successful vote.

(3) If an objection is made, the recommendation may either be withdrawn or resubmitted as a proposal.

(4) If neither a withdrawal nor proposal happens within seven (7) days of the objection, then it will be treated as though no recommendation had been made.

(5) Should no recommendation be made, the member will be reinstated to full membership status. The duration of this action will be the duration of the original proposal.

G) Local Disciplinary Matters

i) Chronicle discipline is the province of the chronicle staff, however the chronicle staff must enforce however disciplinary actions passed by Council.

ii) Visitors to a chronicle are subject to the disciplinary procedures of the chronicle that they visit, just as their characters are subject to the actions of the game under Character Regulations Bylaws Twelve.

7) Chronicle Admission

A) Minimum Requirements for Application of Membership into the network

i) Be active as a chronicle for a minimum of 6 months or 12 game sessions within a one-year period, whichever is longer, prior applying to OWBN for membership.

ii) Complete all applicable sections of the OWBN Admission form and submit it the Admissions Coordinator. Please refer to the OWBN website for the Admissions Form and the current e-mail address.

(1) Include a copy of their written disciplinary procedures with their Application.

(2) Include a copy of any house rules.

B) Application Review

i) The Admissions Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative will be assigned to the Application to review it and work with the prospective chronicle to work out any questions or

concerns from the Genre Coordinators.

ii) The Admissions Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative will then work with the prospective chronicle to shift/adjust any plots that need to be modified to fit into the OWBN structure.

C) Probationary Vote

i) The Admissions Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative will then submit the Application for a “Probationary Admission’ vote to the OWBN Council for the discussion period and Admission Vote.

(1) Possible results for the initial Admissions Vote are:

(a) Admission to OWBN for a 6 Month probation

(b) Denial of admission.

ii) Admissions Votes require no Second.

iii) If during this time there are concerns raised by Council about the application, the Admissions Staff will work with the prospective chronicle to work out any questions or concerns from Council as well.

iv) Once this has been completed, the Admissions Coordinator will inform the applying chronicle of the results of their vote.

D) Probationary Period

i) If admitted to OWBN for trial membership this means that the Probationary Chronicle for a period of no less than 6 months.

ii) Probationary Chronicles have the following rights and responsibilities to the network:

(1) Adherence to all OWBN Bylaws, Genre Guidelines, Rules and Regulations.

(2) May not transfer any characters that exceed the guidelines of Sections 2, 4, 9, or 10 of the Character Regulation Bylaws to any other OWBN chronicle without an exemption vote by Council.

(3) Is allowed to have their Storytellers on the OWBN Storyteller e-mail list and their Council Member on the OWBN Council e-mail list. However, the chronicle does not gain voting privileges until they are considered a Full Membership chronicle within OWBN.

(4) Is allowed to have interaction with other chronicles in the OWBN shared-universe and have OWBN PCs interact with their game.

(5) May put up characters to Council for R&U Notify and/or Vote.

iii) During the 6 month Trial Period, the Admissions Coordinator, a Sub-Coordinator, or a duly appointed representative shall be assigned to work with the newly voted chronicle to help them adjust to membership in OWBN.

iv) Any OWBN Council Member or Coordinator may post an objection to the Admissions Coordinator to bar the chronicle from being automatically granted full membership. The Admissions Coordinator will then notify Council of the details of the objection.

(1) An objection may be withdrawn at any time. If the objection is not withdrawn, the chronicle’s admission shall be taken to vote at the end of the probationary period.

E) Full Membership

i) If a chronicle’s admission as a full member of OWBN must go to vote

(1) The Application must be updated with the chronicle’s current information as necessary

(2) Voting options shall be as follows:

(a) Full Membership

(b) Extended Probation for an additional 6 months

(i) After one year of probation a Chronicle must either receive Full Admission or be denied membership. If denied Full Membership, chronicles may re-apply for membership to OWBN no less than 12 months after the close of their most recent Admissions vote.

ii) Once admitted to OWBN as a Full Members, the chronicle shall be responsible for paying their quarterly membership donations, starting with the first full quarter after they are admitted to OWBN as a Full

Membership Chronicle (See Section: 5 Financial Bylaws).

8) Administrative Responsibilities

A) Disciplinary Policy

i) Every chronicle must have a written disciplinary policy which must be made available either on the chronicles’ website or at the check-in desk.

ii) Chronicles who do not have a web site must submit their disciplinary policy to the Archivist.

(1) The copy on file with the Archivist is considered the current, official policy of the chronicle.

(2) It is the responsibility of the local chronicle to submit updates or revisions of disciplinary policies to the Archivist.

B) House Rules

i) Local House Rules must be made available either on the chronicles’ website or at the check-in desk.

ii) Chronicles who do not have a web site must submit any local House Rules to the Archivist

(1) The copy on file with the Archivist is considered the current edition.

(2) It is the responsibility of the local chronicle to submit updates or revisions of disciplinary policies to the Archivist.

C) Item Cards

i) As of May 12th, 2003, no item card shall be valid for play in OWBN unless it has clearly written or stamped on it the date on which this approval was given, the name and chronicle of an OWBN ST who has approved it and will take responsibility for its existence in the network.

ii) The ST who originally approves an item card for play in OWBN may be held accountable to Council for its existence. Items that may be more then they appear should have distinct marking instructing the user to contact that ST for further information or simply limit the use of the item to their own chronicle.

iii) STs may refuse to allow cards they do not approve of to enter play in their game. If an ST feels that a card may be very damaging to the network, he or she may confiscate the card from the visiting player, and return it directly to the responsible STs.

D) Reporting

i) All reports are out-of-character information except as specifically and mutually agreed between Storytellers and Coordinators for the sake of story, plot or continuity.

ii) Chronicles that do not speak or write English as a primary language are encouraged to maintain contact with OWBN as above, as best they can. The Council understands that reports may not arrive in English.

iii) Chronicle reporting

(1) Each member chronicle of OWBN is required to report to the Archivist, Head Coordinator (HC), and Assistant Head Coordinators (AHC) either in writing via email, or via the appropriate Internet submission form on the OWBN website.

(2) The report may be written by any member of the storytelling staff of each chronicle, but must be submitted by either the HST or Council Member, to ensure its validity. These reports shall be due on the first day of March, June, September and December.

(3) Chronicle reports are to be submitted in order to:

(a) Keep track of your Chronicle so we know you’re still operational.

(b) Track who is supposed to be on which global administrative lists.

(d) Log any issues the chronicles may have.

(e) Encourage interaction with less vocal chronicles.

(f) Maintain an approximate census of our population.

(g) Keep record of major events within chronicles.

(4) Historical Report

(a) This report shall consist of:

(i) Chronicle Name/Appellation/Location.

(ii) List of Council Member and storytelling team (including e-mail addresses and/or phone number for emergency access).

(iii) Current chronicle web page address.

(iv) Dates of game(s) played that month.

(v) Approximate attendance.

(vi) In-character (IC) events that may affect the plots of other chronicles.

(vii) Inter-chronicle interactions that affect the plots of any other member chronicles.

(viii) Other matters the reporter feels are relevant.

(ix) Inner-chronicle activity consisting of:

(a) Death or Administrative Removal of prominent characters
within the chronicle.

(b) Political changes within chronicle. Ex: Camarilla domain changing to Sabbat domain, the Tremere killing all of the Toreador, the Prince banning an entire clan, Etc…

(d) Fame x4 or Fame x5 level actions. Ex: Famex5 character
publishing a book nationally.

(e) Strange and unusual events. Ex: Vampire being changed
into a mortal.

(f) Any major plotlines being run by STs that Coordinators need to be made aware of that concern their genre.

(5) Disciplinary Report

(a) The chronicle will submit any chronicle disciplinary actions to the elected Archivist via their quarterly chronicle report, which then will compile and maintain a record of all members given chronicle disciplinary actions. This list will be available to any ST, Council Member, or Coordinator within OWBN. They may ask the Historian/Archivist for the list of players, or may inquire after a particular member in that regard.

(b) The permanent banning of a member from a chronicle under Section 1.d or by the chronicle’s disciplinary procedures must be announced by said chronicle on the ST and OWBN-council mailing lists.

(c) A Storyteller from the chronicle that submitted the disciplinary action may have said action removed from the Archivist’s records.

(6) Rare and Unique Updates

(a) Chronicles will report change of status in rare and unique characters in order for the Archivist to update the record keeping. This will include all deaths, removal from play, and transfer to another chronicle. The information provided will include:

(i) Character Name
(ii) Player Name
(iii) R&U Category (Clan/Bloodline/Rogue/etc..)
(iv) Type of Change in Status
(v) If transferred - the name of the new chronicle

(7) Failure to report for a six-month period may, at the discretion of the HC, result in a Council vote to suspend or expel a chronicle.

iv) Coordinator Reports

(1) All Coordinators must submit a report of their interactions and activities within and around the chronicles to the Head Coordinator and Assistant Head Coordinator. This report shall be submitted every three months, or more frequently in periods of high activity. This report should include at least the following information:

(a) Coordinator and Position Held (along with email address).

(b) Personal Home Chronicle.

(d) List of active interactions with chronicles since the prior report.

(e) Any other information the reporter feels is relevant.

(2) Failure to report within a six-month period may, at the HC’s discretion, result in a Council vote to remove the Coordinator from office.

9) Internet Presence

A) Official Site

i) OWBN.ORG shall be recognized as being the official website of this organization, and that it shall be the primary representation of our organization to the public, insofar as a presence on the World Wide Web.

(1) The ownership of the domain shall belong to the Council who will designate an individual as the registrar of the domain name. This registrar acknowledges that the domain shall be turned over to whomever Council deems necessary in the future.

ii) Fees for the current domain and registration of any future domain names on behalf of OWbN shall be approved of by Council and paid by the Finance Coordinator from funds collected under Section 5

iii) Content on any site hosted by OWBN.ORG shall belong to the network, or White Wolf, Inc. unless otherwise noted.

(1) Content on web space allocated to a member chronicle shall belong to that chronicle, unless otherwise noted, and as such assume full liability for said content.

B) Web site administrator

i) An official Webmaster for OWBN.ORG be appointed with the responsibilities to maintain and update the website in a timely manner.

(1) This person will be required to maintain regular communication with the Head Coordinator, Assistant Head Coordinator and Admissions Coordinator in regards to any additions or corrections required for the website and will approach them for approval in regards to any information that may be submitted from a source other than a OWBN Council Member.

ii) The webmaster will work alongside the person responsible for the maintenance of the server used by OWbN to ensure regular upkeep of the site, maintain scheduled backups of the site to avoid loss of data, and to facilitate the access of others in terms of website facilities as provided by OWBN (such as online mail, website hosting, etc.).

iii) The Webmaster position will not be a Council or storyteller position (or equivalent, such as that given to some degree by other Coordinator positions) and will not carry any vote on the OWBN Council.

iv) The Webmaster will not be permitted access to information carried on the secured Council and storyteller core lists other than that distributed to them in the course of their duties (such as Council decisions, press release information, etc).

v) Any member of the Council or storytelling teams may approach the Webmaster for information relating to his/her duties.

vi) That the Webmaster will be responsible for the development and maintenance of an official OWBN web policy in regards to representation of our organization via the Internet in terms of linkage, whether via text, banners, buttons and other linking graphics, and the observation of linking sites in regards to this policy.

vii) The Webmaster will be responsible for maintaining reciprocal links where necessary (either official links for member pages or unofficial links for external pages linking to OWBN as a reference).

viii) That the Webmaster will be responsible for ensuring that any and all membership sites are given an opportunity to link to, be linked from, and/or be hosted by OWBN.ORG

ix) That the Webmaster will be responsible for tracking the proliferation of e-mail lists present in OWBN and keeping a list of the e-lists, their purpose and their moderators (and applicable OWBN authority figures, if necessary) for reference when wanted by the Council and the storyteller teams. Any official OWBN e-mail lists must be registered with the Webmaster.

C) Email Lists

i) Due to the mature themes portrayed in OWBN, all organizational lists not specifically designated by their moderators as ‘safe for children’ are restricted to those members of the organization who are no longer minors as legally defined by their governments.

ii) A Council Member may petition a list moderator on behalf of one of their underage players, who may or may not make an exception for that player. Whatever method the Council Member uses to determine whether they will petition on behalf of a player is left to the chronicle.

10) Conclaves

A) Local Conclaves

i) Requirements to Host a Local Conclave