RFR Board Elections in 2022

Announcements
1

An RFR board election is coming!

Two board seats are open for election this year. Beth A has stepped down after many years with RFR and Jerrod’s seat is up for election under the tenure policy outlined in this other post. (Jerrod and Joy flipped a virtual coin to see which of them would be up for reelection.)

When
We will be holding the election after the Spring 2022 events in June, during a two-week window from Friday, June 24 to Friday, July 8, so that we can include any new community members in the election.

How
Please stand by for more detailed information on how to vote. We will be using an online tool that supports ranked-choice voting.

How To Participate In The 2022 Election

Board Election Participant Eligibility - Pandemic Update

Under regular circumstances, eligibility for voting in a Red Feather Roleplaying election is determined by participation in at least two (2) of the weekend-long RFR events within the prior year (i.e. prior two game seasons) either as a player or as a volunteer (NPC, staffer, other volunteer).

At a prior board meeting, the board resolved to “pause time” for the pandemic, so that anyone who was eligible to vote at the beginning of 2020 would remain eligible. As games are now resuming, the board will revisit this for subsequent elections.

For this election, we will be considering people eligible to vote or run for the board if they participated in at least two (2) full-weekend RFR events in 2019 through the end of the Spring 2022 season. The Witchwood weekend-long virtual event in 2020 does count. Shorter social events, including the Winter Feasts, Port Katherine picnic event in 2021, and short online social gatherings for Witchwood do not count.

To vote:

  1. Please make sure you have an up to date email address in the Witchwood or Port Katherine website site (now, or by Monday, June 20th).
  2. If you are using two different email addresses or wish to specify a different one, feel free to email kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com to let me know what email address to use when including you in the voting system.

Candidates:

  1. Get 5 people in the voting population to nominate you by Monday, June 20.

You can collect nominations by either:

a) having five eligible RFR voters sign a paper nomination form ( RFR_ElectionNominationForm - Google Docs ), then emailing a scan/photo of the completed form to kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com

b) having five eligible RFR voters email kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com saying “I nominate [candidate name] for the RFR board” and stating their name. People nominating via email should use email addresses corresponding to the ones they use in Port Katherine or Witchwood systems.

  1. Let me know how to handle your candidacy when applying the election policies for gender balance of the board described in this other post, specifying “man” or “not a man”. Specifying on the endorsement form is fine, or you can contact me directly at kep@redfeatherroleplaying.com.

We will take you entirely at your word, but this will be helpful in determining how to apply the board gender-balance policy to people who are agender, trans, non-binary, genderfluid, etc., because there are people for whom both “I am a man” and “I am not a man” may be true. Someone who is assigned male at birth and nonbinary may run as “I identify as man and I also identify as non-binary; for the purposes of the election, if the board has many men on it, please skip my place in ranked-choice voting and take the next highest candidate who is not a man” or “I am not a man; I am nonbinary”.

No one will be required to provide any legal documentation of asserted gender.

  1. Recommended: Post a self-introductory statement on the forums (https://forums.witchwoodroleplaying.com/ and https://forums.portkatherine.com/) by Monday, June 20.

Board Responsibilities

Red Feather Roleplaying is the parent organization that produces Witchwood and Port Katherine; it makes administrative decisions regarding budget, campsite rentals, insurance, policy, etc. As a board member of Red Feather Roleplaying you will be required to attend no fewer than two (2) board meetings per year. Meetings last approximately three hours and are attended remotely via video conference.

At these meetings it is your duty to civilly discuss the issues on the agenda and to vote in good conscience in what you believe to be the best interests of Red Feather Roleplaying. You may also submit items to be included in the agenda.

Originally, Board members were also primary investors in the corporation. All of the original investors have since been paid out, and we do not require any sort of monetary buy-in or investment from the newly-elected board member. It is our hope that whoever is elected to the vacant seat will be sufficiently invested in the well-being of the community as to make a financial stake unnecessary.

Sincerely,
Kep, Ombudsperson for Red Feather Roleplaying

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3

I’ve gotten some follow-up questions about what being a board member entails, so I will post some more info here.

1. More info about board meetings
There are two board meetings per year, one during the summer (usually July/August), and one during the winter (anytime December-early April, usually). Once in a blue moon we will have another board meeting outside of these two, such as when we reviewed the results of the diversity readings of our games with our hired reader. Meetings are scheduled via doodle poll, whenisgood, etc. to accommodate the schedules of everyone who will attend.

Meetings last approximately 3 hours, though they can be shorter or longer. They occur completely over zoom, and occur on weekends or evenings.

2. Roles of a board member
In addition to attending the meetings, board members are also required to be active on email. Discussions and even some votes happen outside of meetings, over email. Email is often used to vote on routine issues or time-sensitive ones.

Board members often assume a specialized role within the board, e.g. camp liaison (that’s me), childcare coordinator, community outreach, webmaster, Safety Lord, etc. This is not a strict requirement, but if a new topic comes up and we need a point person and you don’t have an official specialization on the board yet, we might look at you…

3. Agenda topics
The board agenda can include such topics as: officer reports/updates, finances, changes to covid policy or event pricing, diversity, approvals of new games, banning seriously problematic people from RFR games, approving rulebook changes, etc.

I send out a link to a blank agenda in advance of each meeting, and board members can add any topics they’d like.

4. Requests of new board members
I do have two informal/personal requests of incoming board members:

First, that you answer email! I will hound you to answer emails if need be, but I’d really rather not.

Second, as much as possible, when you act as a board member, I request that you act with RFR’s best interest at heart, rather than coming into the role trying to push a personal agenda that may not reflect the best wishes of RFR, its games, and the broader community. Act in good faith! This helps keep discussion productive.

Signed,
Joy Perkinson, your friendly RFR President

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