The Constitution

[Barak]

Hey everyone,

A joint announcement from the BFA for you all:

A number of members have, over the years, come to the BFA with concerns that the rules governing our fleet are complex, confusing, and all together annoying. In looking them over, we agreed. The biggest issue was that it over the years of amending and changing the document, things got messy, loopholes were created, and it generally became hard to navigate.

So in going through the document, our goal was to streamline out redundant language by replacing multiple instances of the same language with simple blanket declarations and to consolidate information on any one subject in one single area. In addition, existing rules that pertain to the same subject have all been moved to the same place in the rules, no more having to look through the entire constitution and several By-Laws to find one particular rule about a simm or another. However, there are some additions and changes to existing procedures included, however nothing that's really sweeping in how it changes the operations of the fleet.

So without further ado, the new documents:

Bravo Fleet Constitution
New Version: http://bfinfobase.org/index.php/BF_Constitution
Old Version: http://bfinfobase.org/index.php?titl...on&oldid=37883

Bravo Fleet By-Laws
New Version: http://bfinfobase.org/index.php/BF_Bylaws
Old Version: http://bfinfobase.org/index.php?titl...ws&oldid=40710

We're left with a Constitution that's 1400 words shorter then it is currently, and a list of By-laws where we're down from 28 to 18. All in all, streamlined and simplified.

Article II - The Constitution
This is basically a new article that combines things from other existing articles. It outlines what the Constitution is, which is now the basic road map of how the fleet is set up and governed as opposed to day to day rules. The first part outlines the procedure for amending the document, which is basically the same as what we have now elsewhere and stipulates that amendments must be publicly announced so no big changes. The next two sections take the By-laws and Executive Orders Articles and roll them together with the Constitution Article given that they're both ways to expand upon or modify the Constitution. By-laws under the new system become specific rules as opposed to over arching structural and procedural ideas, so the Constitution and By-laws under the new system have much the same relationship as the US Constitution and laws passed by Congress. It also stipulates that By-laws must be announced publicly. The section on Executive Orders is unchanged save for the aforementioned requirement of public announcement.

Article III - Member Rights
This Article is a direct analogue to the existing Article III, however it is one that sees the most changes. Most of those changes as you'll probably notice looking at it are in what it leaves out as opposed to new inclusions. The individual duties of positions have under this new system all been moved to a By-Law, and the Constitution focuses on those rights that our members have as opposed to what person needs to do X, Y, and Z. The duties of said positions are instead included in the By-laws. Some of the language has changed to be written as rights granted as opposed to actions prohibited, such as the following:

All players have the right to own their own characters, the right to have their characters respected by others, and the right to not have those characters used without their approval.

In addition, some other language has been added specifically addressing member rights: (in no particular order for reference)

• Bravo Fleet recognizes and acknowledges that, first and foremost, the organization is an amalgamation of its members. The most important aspect, as well as the most valuable resource is the membership. The first goal of the fleet’s leadership should always be to protect and serve the members, followed closely by a drive to meet their needs and wants as much as possible.
• Every member is valuable, and has a right to be treated as such, free of undue bias and disregard. So long as they desire to remain a valuable addition to the organization and do not abuse the right, then every member has the right to be here.
• All members regardless of rank or position shall be held accountable under the same standards of conduct. All indictments, trials and subsequent punishments will make no distinction between members based on rank, position or tenure within Bravo Fleet.
• Every member has the right to a fair and impartial system of justice.
• Any member may approach his superiors with issues and complaints he is currently facing without harm. Complaints can always be sent to the direct superior of the member. If the complaint involves that superior, the complaint should follow the chain of command.
• Every member has the right to be adequately acknowledged and rewarded for time, activity and efforts, and shall not be denied adequate and timely recognition based on personal bias and prejudice of their superiors. All rewards and recognitions are given according to merit.

In looking at the Simm CO rights, it is similar in how we addressed the player rights section. For example, instead of saying the player is prohibited from starting a new plot without the CO's consent in the player section it has been changed to say that the CO is the only one with the right to start a new mission and added it to the CO section. In general, it is simply the substitution of positive language for negative, prohibitive language that is currently contained in the document.

Article IV - Structure of the Fleet
This article is analogous to the current article II. The biggest change is that what a simm is has actually been defined now. In addition, many former By-Laws that governed simm or Task Force related matters have been included in their respective sections. The only other change is omitting the BFA section, as that will be covered in the BFA Article.

Article V - Bravo Fleet Admiralty
This is probably the article that's seen the most change, though the vast majority of that change is simply consolidating things from other areas of the Constitution and By-laws into the BFA article. As far as membership, it dictates what the BF Senior Staff is which hasn't been outlined before. It also shows what people are voters or partial voters on stuff, etc.

Finally, the appointment section. The big change here is that no person will automatically assume the post of BFCO. Instead, they will be voted into their position by the BFA as is any other BFA'er. This has actually been the method used in the last couple of BFCO change overs as it was decided to vote anyway, but the BFA decided to codify this rule.

Article VI - Judge Advocate General
As you might imagine, the lion's share of this article remains unchanged as the JAG code has already been redone. The only change is the removal of the idea of there being "committees of the fleet", with JAG being one. Any committees we form now are generally handled under OPS, so there's no need for them to exist constitutionally. Remove that, and all you're left with under that Article is JAG, hence the new article name.

By-Laws
The Bravo Fleet By-laws needed some major house cleaning. The way By-Laws are sorted now is confusing, as many member complaints have illustrated. So the BFA totally re-designated the categories the By-Laws are separated into. Instead of the current divisions, there are now the following:

• 1 Structural Bylaws - Things that cover any structure that's not in the Constitution. This basically means the TF list, position duties, and the OPS departments.
• 2 Regulatory By-laws - This is regulation for what is and isn't acceptable basically. What ranks you can have, what species are ok, etc. They regulate stuff.
• 3 Proceedural By-Laws - These bylaws show specifically how to do a certain thing. How do you accept new CO's, how to use graphics, how to add stuff to BF Canon, etc. The procedure of how to do X, Y, or Z.
• 4 Affiliate By-Laws - Any affiliate By-Laws. Decided to not include these in the structural by-laws because nobody ever reads them, so might as well put them at the end so they're not in the way.
• 5 Sister Fleet By-Laws - For if we ever get any.

The bylaws are also numbered by section, so 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, etc. That way somebody isn't looking for By-Law 1 and then is confused because it's at the END of the list of By-laws as is the case currently.

In addition, the following By-Laws have been removed because they're no longer in place anyway or because they've been moved to the Constitution:

• By-law #6 - Inactive simms JMing with bases (Part of Constitution revision)
• By-law #12 - Rating of Simms(Part of Constitution revision)
• By-law #16 - Uniform Code of Military Justice (removed since it's already gone)
• By-law #3 - Additional BFA members (removed since it's already gone)
• By-law #7 - Persons eligible to succeed the BFCO (Part of Constitution revision)
• By-law #13 - BFA voting procedures (Part of Constitution revision)
• By-law #25 - Rank of Fleet Admiral (removed since it's already gone)
• By-law #2 - Size of Task Forces (Part of Constitution revision)

Bylaw 26 has been removed and the Director of GFX made an OPS staffer. In addition, the By-law that outlines the procedure for Joint Missions (#18) has been removed. The idea here is that the BFA doesn't need to be policing how people want to write together. If you want to simm with another ship, you can just do so with no red tape involved. Also, By-law 19 has been removed because having an overly complex procedure to forward things up the CoC that reads like tax code isn't really needed. Just use common sense when waiting for replies and we're all good, no need to create rules to punish people for not waiting long enough or going in the “correct” order. The remainder of the old bylaws are basically the same, save a few juggles of stuff from one to another. Finally, the new bylaw 1.2 is the position description stuff from the Constitution.

We hope these changes make matters easier for everyone.

Thanks.

[Kitahashi]

Welcome changes, indeed. Good job to the BFA on making the rules and regulations of the fleet more understandable and logical!

Kit

[B. Harrison]

Originally Posted by Kitahashi

Welcome changes, indeed. Good job to the BFA on making the rules and regulations of the fleet more understandable and logical!

Kit

Couldn't agree more with you on that one Kit. It is fantastic to see such a proactive BFA willing to make the rules more easier to understand. It is an honor to serve in this fleet where things like this can happen. Well done to all who had a hand in making things easier

[Capierno]

Good job everyone. Especially to those who worked hard on writing the changes themselves.

[Aldovar]

Thanks for taking the time to revise, clarify and consolidate, hopefully more people will read, understand and appreciate what the document has to say.

[SiriuS]

The BFA has really out done themselves on this and should be commended for working together to resolve these issues.

Thanks for all you do.

[BlackWolf]

Nice update =)

[Nikki Wade]

Good Job People, now its time for a cold one!!!

[sero]

Yay us!

Would rather have a hot chocolate. Fecken cold here >.<

[B. Harrison]

Originally Posted by sero

Yay us!

Would rather have a hot chocolate. Fecken cold here >.<

Agreed. I'll have a nice hot chocolate while reading over the new constitution and by-laws