Charter of the Micras Cartography Society

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The Charter of the Micras Cartography Society

Part A: The Society

  1. The Micras Cartography Society (the “MCS”) exists to document territorial claims on the planet Micras.
  2. The MCS is formed of all member states that hold claims on Micras.
  3. The MCS has a Council of six members, which acts as the main decision-making body of the society.

Part B: The Council

  1. The Council consists of the Administrator-General, four ordinary Council members and one Junior Council member. A person may only hold one role at any given time.
  2. The Administrator-General is the leader of the Council.
  3. Council members may vote once each on claims, modifications or removals (collectively “Claims”) submitted in the “Claims” subforum.
  4. A vote is either “AYE”, in favour of the claim, “NAY”, opposing the claim, or “ABSTAIN”, neither for nor against the claim. Variations on the wording are allowed if it is clear what the intention is. A Councillor announcing that they are unable to vote, or is choosing not to vote, is not a vote.
  5. A Councillor is not allowed to vote on any claim where they hold citizenship of the claimant state or any states involved in that claim, or on any reduction claim of a state that directly borders any of their own states.
  6. The Junior Council member is only allowed to vote on a Claim when any other Council member is disqualified from voting as above, when another Council member states that they are choosing not to vote, or when another Council member is absent.
  7. An ordinary Council member, or the Administrator-General, is deemed to be absent if they have not posted on any claim request in the “Administrative Council” section within the previous 14 days, or they have given notice of their absence in the “Council LOA requests” thread.
  8. The Junior Council member is deemed to be absent if they do not vote on any Claim within 14 days of another Council member being absent.
  9. The 14 day period will be paused if there are no Claims available to be voted on over seven consecutive days.
  10. Voting is conducted publicly in the “Administrative Council” subforum. For Claims, a simple majority of more than half of voting Council members is necessary.
  11. The Council must provide an unbiased and equal service.
  12. The Council has the power to determine the outcome of any situation not covered by the Charter, or related to the interpretation of the Charter. In important cases, the Council’s decision will be added to the Charter.

Part C: Appointment of the Council

  1. When an ordinary Council member role becomes vacant, the Junior Council member is appointed.
  2. When the Junior Council member role becomes vacant, a nomination period of up to seven days will begin, where the Council will select a new Junior Council member.
  3. The method of selecting a new Junior Council member is decided by the Council.
  4. When the Administrator-General role becomes vacant, the Council will select a new Administrator-General by majority vote. The outgoing Administrator-General may nominate a candidate to take up the role.

Part D: Dismissal and resignation of Council members

  1. When a Council member is deemed absent, they will be given a notice period of seven days.
  2. If the Council member continues to be absent for the seven days, without providing notification in the “Council LOA requests” thread and does not post on any active claim in “Administrative Council”, they will be dismissed.
  3. A Council member can resign the role at any time, by giving a seven-day notice period to the Administrator-General. This notice period exists to allow the Council time to select a replacement member.
  4. The Administrator-General can resign at any time, by giving notice to the next-most-senior Council member, or by announcing their resignation to the Council as a whole. There is no fixed notice period for the Administrator-General.
  5. A Council member may be dismissed if a majority of all MCS member states vote that they do not have confidence in them.

Part E: Membership

  1. A state may submit a claim to the MCS if they:
    1. are independent from every other MCS member, and
    2. will have had a documented online presence for a minimum of 30 days, prior to the scheduled publication of the next Claims map (the following Sunday).
  2. States which have not yet reached the 30-day limit can submit a reservation request, which will be voted on by the Council once the limit is reached.
  3. No more than three states led by the same person can be simultaneously claimed.
  4. A member state can terminate their membership at any time, by submitting a removal claim.
  5. Each member may have as many representatives as they wish. Representatives are responsible for submitting Claims, internal development and international collaboration.
  6. Representatives are obliged to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner, as would be expected in any professional environment. Failing to do so will mean disqualification from acting as representative for a time decided by the Council, which will be confirmed to the representative in writing.
  7. Claim requests submitted by a disqualified representative will not be acknowledged.
  8. Members agree to abide by the MCS Terms of Service.

Part F: Claims

  1. Members and applicants can not claim any part of the map other than land.
    1. Land includes islands too small to be displayed on the map.
  2. Members are not allowed to place marks on any territory not claimed by them.
  3. Members are not allowed to place offensive markings on the map, as judged by the Council.
  4. A Claim may only use the approved symbols displayed in the key.
  5. Text must be in 8-point Times New Roman, with no anti-aliasing.
  6. Symbols and city names will usually be in red, except where this would be unreadable, then yellow is used instead.
  7. Regional names are in black.
  8. Borders are black, solid lines, one pixel wide. Regional borders are black dotted lines, also one pixel wide.
  9. Claims submitted must provide all required information in a clear format.
  10. Claim images must be of a standard consistent with the rest of the map.
  11. An applicant may request somebody else to organise or draw their initial claim for them. The applicant must provide an indication of where they would like to claim, and any cities to be included in the claim.
  12. Disputed claims will not be adjudicated on by the Council, however the Council reserves the right not to recognise a disputed claim, for example, in cases where the claim is made spitefully or without realistic rationale.

Part G: Voting on claims

  1. The Council, in addition to all other powers granted to it, can:
    1. Reject a Claim where the submitted map is not of the expected standard
    2. Reject multiple Claims made in quick succession, for example, multiple expansion claims made within 30 days of each other
    3. Reject claims for territories designed to be merged into an existing state.
    4. Request an amendment to a submitted Claim, including requesting that the submitted map be redrawn
  2. When voting on Claims, the Council will consider, with no specific order of preference or weighting:
    1. Cultural development
    2. Internal government
    3. International collaboration
    4. History
    5. Use of current claims, and
    6. Geographic realism
  3. The Council will not vote on claims that it deems to be a “simple modification”. This is any modification that does not alter the external borders of a member. These requests will be automatically accepted, unless one or more Council members object to the request.

Part H: Reduction and removal

  1. Any Council member can submit a “Notice of Reduction” request in the “Administrative Discussion” subforum, when they believe that a member has not sufficiently developed land that they claim for at least 90 days.
  2. The Notice of Reduction will be served publicly to the member state in the event of a majority vote by the Council.
  3. The member state then has 14 days to inform the Council which part of the claim is to be reduced. The submitted reduction will be subject to a vote by the Council, who will have the power to reassess unreasonable requests. If the member does not submit a request in that time, then the Council will determine which part of the claim will be reduced, considering the proximity of the land to both the capital and other unclaimed land.
  4. A member may receive further Notices of Reduction at least every 90 days if they continuously fail to develop their claim. The 14-day period above is included as part of the following 90 days.
  5. The Council can submit a Notice of Removal when a member has not developed their claim at all in at least 90 days.
  6. Land that becomes unclaimed as a result of either a Notice of Reduction or Notice of Removal will be reserved for 30 days and may only be claimed by the previous owner in that time.

Part I: Maps

  1. The MCS is primarily responsible for production of the claims map, marking all territorial claims.
  2. The copyright for all maps is held by their original authors.
  3. Members may reproduce the map for any not-for-profit purpose, while they remain a member of the society.
  4. A reproduction of more than three quarters of the original map must credit every substantial contributor to production of the original map.
  5. This section only applies to published maps, and not to any other logo or publication of the MCS.
  6. No claim to copyright can be made against any name or word used on any map.
  7. Where a member terminates their membership, the MCS will retain the full, unrestricted right to leave any:
    1. Names
    2. Cities, or
    3. Other marks

    on any already-published maps and any subsequent maps.

Part J: Amendment

  1. This charter may be amended by either:
    1. A majority vote of at least four-fifths of Council members or, if requested by one or more members,
    2. A majority vote of over half of the Society members
  2. If a majority vote of Society members is requested, the proposal will be:
    1. Posted in the “Regulations Discussion” subforum
    2. Notified to all members of the MCS
    3. Voted on by one representative of each member
  3. Any amendments made to the Charter will be notified to every member of the MCS, by an announcement in the “Notices” subforum.
  4. This Charter repeals all previous Charters, policies and regulations of the MCS.
  5. If the Council is required to decide a matter regarding something omitted from the Charter, or the interpretation of the Charter, then the four-fifths majority will still be required to update the Charter to reflect the decision made.

Amendments

  • 7 December 2020: Society renamed "Micras Cartography Society", Charter updated to reflect that. Ric (talk) 17:53, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
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