by Horatius Piscinus on Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:20 pm
Salvete omnes
In order to keep us focused on our purpose, last night I drew up a draft for our regulae. OK, so it isn't only one page, but we might be able to edit it. I tried to include thoughts already expressed in the Concilium, and considered how we have actually been doing things during the past few years. I don't think it actually changes anything in how we have been actually running the Societas, except that our separate officers are now combined in the curatores who now share in the same duties and responsibilites that were earlier divided among the various officers. Anyway this draft hopefully gives us a framework to continue our discussions and complete our assigned duty.
Regulae Fundamentalis
Societatis Via Romana
Prologia: We, the sodales, joined together in friendship by our deeply-felt sense of Romanitas, sharing in a common spiritual identity that defines us, do hereby re-establish the sodalitas to be known as the Societas Via Romana.
I Statement of Purpose
1. The Societas Via Romana is an international fellowship and internet community of people sharing a common interest in all aspects of ancient Rome and the heritage that its people brought forth for Western Civilization. The Societas therefore acts as an educational organization among its members to discuss and learn together the various aspects of ancient Rome, its cultures, languages, history, religions, arts, and sciences.
2 The Societas provides and maintains forums via the Internet and/or a chatroom(s) whereby its members and like-minded people may meet to discuss their common interests.
3 The Societas also maintains a website to provide information to its members and to the general public with regard to the Societas itself and the interests of its members. The website provides a common webspace where members of the Societas are invited to post essays, book reviews, travel logs, and other materials related to the interests of the Societas and its members.
II Membership
1 Any subscriber to the forum of the Societas may apply for membership. Upon acceptance by the officers of the Societas a member shall be known as a sodalis and shall partake fully in any benefits extended to sodales of the Societas. In order to remain a member, a sodalis must register with the officers of the Societas in a census held biennially.
2 Individual sodales have to the following rights within the Societas.
A. Access to any and all forums maintained by the Societas.
B. The right to submit essays as contributions to the website maintained by the Societas. Sodales retain full editorial privileges over any essays they submit for posting to the website of the Societas. Once an essay has been posted to the website, the sodalis who authored the essay may request from the officers of the Societas that it be removed and the officers of the Societas may not refuse to comply with such a request. A sodalis may also request before the Comitia that an essay authored by another sodalis be removed from the website, and in this case the officers of the Societas must comply with the decision of the Comitia.
C. The right to vote in the Comitia in any elections held by the Societas, and the right to seek and/or hold any elective office of the Societas.
D. The right of initiative to propose to the Comitia measures and/or policies that he or she desires the Societas to adopt.
E. The right to propose before the Comitia that any or all officers of the Societas be recalled from office.
F. The right to appeal before the Comitia that any decision of an officer or a collective decision of the officers of the Societas be overturned. This right also applies in the case where officers of the Societas have decided to take a disciplinary action against a sodalis in the course of performing their duties of moderating the forums of the Societas. In this special case the right of appeal before the Comitia shall be known as provocatio.
G. A sodalis may be moderated, expelled from the Societas, and/or disbarred from the forums of the Societas by the officers of the Societas due to his or her misconduct. Being placed on moderated status is at the discretion of the officers of the officers of the Societas and goes into immediate effect, but may be appealed before the Comitia. A decision of the officers to expel a sodalis from membership in the Societas and/or to disbar a sodalis from its forums must be posted to the Comitia. The sodalis then has one week to claim his or her right of provocatio, appealing the decision of expulsion and/or disbarment before the Comitia. The decision of the officers to expel or disbar a sodalis does not go into effect until one week has past from the date when their decision was posted to the Comitia, or until the Comitia has made a final determination on such a disciplinary measure in response to an appeal of the sodalis.
III The Comitia
1 All authority within the Societas Via Romana rests with the Comitia. The Comitia shall be composed of all sodales in good standing in the Societas.
2 The Comitia may elect and/or recall any officers to act on its behalf to administer the website and forums of the Societas. Officers are elected by a simple majority of those sodales who vote in an election. Officers may be recalled by a two-thirds majority of those sodales voting in such a recall election.
3 The Comitia may adopt policy statements for the Societas and/or administrative measures by a simple majority of those sodales voting in an election.
4 The Comitia may amend the Regulae Fundamentalis by a two-thirds majority of those sodales voting in an election.
5 The Comitia may, at the initiative of any sodalis, overturn any or all decisions made by the officers of the Societas, to include any disciplinary decisions appealed by a sodalis through his or her right of provocatio.
IV Officers
1 The Comitia may elect officers to act on its behalf to administer the Societas, its website and the forums of the Societas. These officers shall be known individually as a curator.
2 No less than three and no more than seven curatores may hold office at any one time.
A. Curatores are elected by the Comitia, each curator needing a simple majority of those sodales voting in the election in order to attain his or her office. Each curator holds office for two years and may seek reelection as often as he or she may desire.
B. If a curator resigns from office and should then decide to withdraw his or her resignation within nine days of announcing the resignation, the curator must await a decision of the Comitia before returning to office. In effect, the curator appeals to the Comitia to overturn his or her own decision to resign.
C. A curator may be recalled from office by a two-thirds majority of those sodales voting in Comitia, acting upon the initiative of any sodalis.
3 The curatores are to collectively manage and maintain the forums, chatrooms, and a website for the Societas. They may appoint assistants to perform the technical work needed to maintain the website. They may approve or reject any essay submitted by a sodalis as a contribution for posting to the website. They may remove, rearrange, or edit any material on the website, with the one exception that may not edit an essay submitted as a contribution by a sodalis without the author’s permission.
4 Curatores are to maintain a decorum in the forums and chatrooms of the Societas, and thus may moderate any and all subscribers to the forums and users of the Societas’ chatrooms.
5 The curatores are to oversee any elections held in the Comitia. They may appoint any assistants needed to conduct such elections.
6 The curatores are to maintain a list of all current members of the Societas, and conduct a biennial census, registering sodales who wish to renew their membership. The curatores may set any procedures needed to conduct the census. They may appoint any assistants to perform the census. The curatores are responsible for maintaining the privacy of the members of the Societas and the security of any information about its members, collectively or individually, collected by the curatores for the internal use of the Societas.
7 The curatores are authorized to establish administrative procedures to be used in the Societas and its Comitia, propose policies for the Societas, grant honorary titles to any sodalis and/or awards of recognition to its members or others. Such collective decisions of the curators are to be arrived at through consensus rather than by majority vote among themselves. Any and all decisions of the curatores are subject to review of the Comitia and therefore must be posted to the Comitia. At the initiative of any sodalis, such decisions of the curatores may be subject to the approval or rejection by a vote of the Comitia.
V (???)
M Horatius Piscinus
Sapere aude!