Draft copy of the society costitution

nzLARPS
#1

This document is up for discussion before being ratified by the society in February.

It’s still in a draft stage, but has come past the central committe as the first checking process. The committee does not necessarily endorse the constitution in this exact form, but it’s mature enough for feedback from the rest of the society.

docs/core/

It’s a 13 page document that has not been written with entertainment in mind.
Print it out, prop your specs on your nose, and go through it with a highlighter out on the deck, a cold drink in your left hand. Aye, this is the summer of legalese.

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#2

There will be a meeting in early Feb to confirm the constitution where we want as many members to come along and provide feedback.

You don’t have to wait till Feb to comment through, any concerns, feedback, opinions etc post here.

#3

Just so people know, there’s still a month for you all to provide feedback and for us to make any necessary amendments before the final version is posted in preparation for the AGM.

Please, although small spelling errors and minor formatting problems should be fixed, try to keep it to pointing out any big problems, omissions, or flaws. We could spend ages on this if we get bogged down with minutae.

Steve

#4

On the whole it’s very good. I have no problems with the spirit of the vision, or descriptions of purpose, powers, members, projects and affiliates.

A few issues:

[ol][li]The name given on the title page and elsewhere in the document (including in the headers) is “New Zealand Live Action Role Play Society Incorporated”. Why is it “Play”, instead of “Playing” as it is elsewhere? I prefer “Playing” because “role playing” is a better recognised term. “Role Play Society” sounds awkward to me. [/li]
[li]Could part B of the vision be “To hold activities and workshops to develop skills, equipment and venues for Role-play games.”? Props & costume are just types of equipment, and venues are another important category. [/li]
[li]“Live Ac tion Role-Play” games is used frequently in the text. LARP is generally used to stand for “Live Action Role Playing”. Why are we fighting convention on this, and why the hypen?[/li]
[li]I’m still not convinced of the need for lifetime members. [/li]
[li]It’s a little sad on principle that we’ve used legalese text (“To promote branches of the Society at such places and localities as may from time to time be decided and to assist such branches either financially or otherwise” could be written with half the words), but the document isn’t really for common use so it won’t matter. [/li][/ol]

#5

(My personal opinions, as opposed to an official committe response)

  1. I prefer New Zealand Live Action Role-Playing Society myself, but I don’t really care about which version of the name is chosen.

  2. I have no problem with this, it doesn’t really change anything to my mind.

  3. See 1.

  4. And you’re the first (and - so far - only) one of them! It’s intended to be a special honour the Society can award in exceptional cases (such as for the founder member). I wouldn’t envision making very many of them at all, but it’s good to have the tools in your bag even if they don’t get used.

  5. It’s a legal document, so you use legalese. Also, it’s based on the constitution of the NZADA, which was written in legalese and extensively checked by several lawyers for problems. Since the majority started out in legalese, the additions were kept to the same style… At least this way, we cover ourselves for future problems.