Fwd: [OWBN-Council] [PROPOSAL] - Amendments to Administrative Bylaw 5 (Finance / Dues / Server budget)

[Amy Begnoche]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	[OWBN-Council] [PROPOSAL] - Amendments to Administrative Bylaw 5 (Finance / Dues / Server budget)
Date:	Sun, 21 Sep 2014 15:34:15 -0500
From:	Jessica Karels <jessica...@gmail.com>
Reply-To:	OWBN Council <owbn-c...@mail.owbn.net>
To:	OWBN Council <owbn-c...@mail.owbn.net>

I, Jessica Karels, as Head Coordinator for One World By Night, propose the following changes to our Administrative Bylaws:

FROM:

5. Finances
1. Statement of Donations
1. The Finance Coordinator, on behalf of the network, shall collect donations, from all full member chronicles for the fees associated with the domain and server maintenance. Fees associated with the maintenance of the PayPal and Bank accounts shall be paid from OWBN funds.
2. All donations collected will be used for the sole purpose of the server unless a three-quarter (¾) majority vote of eligible chronicles is passed for alternate uses of the OWBN funds.
2. Definition of Chronicles
   1. An eligible chronicle is defined as a chronicle that has donated the full suggested donation or better and has all the rights and privileges of full membership in OWBN. Applying chronicles and chronicles on probation prior to becoming full members of OWBN are not eligible. Chronicles that are on probation due to disciplinary reasons are not permitted to vote on any financial matters.
   2. New Chronicles who have passed into full membership are eligible to donated and vote on financial matters.
   3. Only chronicles who have paid the full donation are eligible to vote on financial matters. The Financial Coordinator must keep a record of those chronicles and provide it to the Executive for tabulating votes.
   4. Chronicles who have paid the suggested donation are also eligible to host their websites on www.owbn.org for no charge.
3. Account requirements
1. The Financial Coordinator shall maintain the PayPal account under fin...@OWbN.org for the chronicles to send donations, and the payment of server fees.
2. 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 yearly report.
3. PayPal is the preferred method of payment for chronicle donations. Cash; cheques, credit card payments and money orders are acceptable as well.
1. If a cheque 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 cheques.
4. Amount of Dues
1. Suggested Donations are ten ($10) US Dollars per calendar year.
5. Server Fees
1. The current cost for the maintenance of the server will not exceed $400.00 USD per year to be paid as invoices are received.
6. Reporting requirements
1. The Financial Coordinator shall make an annual report and it shall be due Dec. 1 for the year. The Financial Coordinator may request extensions for these dates from the Head Coordinator.
2. Reports shall include a listing of all chronicles that have paid, costs for the year and current funds available and locations of funds (IE paypal or bank account).

To:

5.       Finances

A.      Statement of responsibility

i.         The Finance Coordinator, on behalf of the network, shall collect all dues and donations.  Fees associated with the maintenance of Paypal and Bank accounts shall be paid from OWBN funds.

B.      Account requirements

i.         The Financial Coordinator shall maintain the PayPal account under fin...@OWbN.org for the chronicles to send donations, and the payment of server fees.

ii.       The Finance Coordinator shall also establish one or more bank accounts 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 yearly report.

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

1.       If a cheque 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 cheques.

C.      Dues and Allocation

i.         Dues shall be set at $20 USD per chronicle per year.  Dues will first be set aside for the yearly OWBN server and banking/paypal costs.  Dues must be paid by January 31st of each calendar year.

1.       Probationary chronicles are not required to pay dues if they are in their admissions process.  Chronicles placed on probation after already having achieved full membership in OWBN are still required to pay dues.

2.       Altering overall dues requires a 2/3 majority vote.

3.       Council can discount dues for a single given chronicle due to extraordinary circumstances, international exchange difficulties, or similar reasons with a simple majority vote.

ii.       If there is additional money remaining after the yearly server costs, additional revenue will be added to a Server Reserve fund.

D. Server Fees

i. The cost for the maintenance of the server will not exceed $1500.00 USD per year, to be paid as invoices are received.

E. Reporting Requirements

i. The Financial Coordinator shall make an annual report and it shall be due Dec. 1 for the 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, costs for the year and current funds available and locations of funds (IE paypal or bank account).

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For some time, we have been at the tipping point when it comes to our website/server resources. For the past several years, all of our sites (the main OWBN site, wiki's, clan sites) have been on a single shared server. As we've been implementing sites that rely content management systems rather than hard-coded HTML, we've been hitting server load limits. Add in that we're centralizing data in order to aid in transparency + accountability + connectivity, and we're continuing to exceed server limits.

From a technical standpoint, we need to migrate to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) which will boost our available memory/processing power + give us more space to grow. This will include the ability to have player accounts on the OWBN.net site where they can track which R&U's on their characters are logged (to prevent administrative oversight) along with other features that are on the pipeline.

Increased funds would also mean having an emergency fund to handle issues like an emergency migration to another web hosting company or to hire legal professionals, or for us to create/distribute marketing materials (especially for chronicles who may not have the finances/means of doing so due to low player counts)