Post by Kaine Chandler on Nov 24, 2013 4:29:02 GMT -8
Hello!
Thank you all for voting! We had an amazing turn out 106 people voted.
Unfortunately, there was not a clear majority. No single option got 50% of the vote. So, we're going to have a revote on the top two options only.
These are option 2 and option 4 (see below for details) which is basically possible mandatory fees vs xp for money.
It is essential that everyone participate in the revote. We had such a marvelous turn out, and the revote needs a similar number of votes to be valid. If less than 80 people vote, the vote will not be counted, and we will go with the option that had the most votes from the first vote.
This is because I and the staff all agree that we want to adopt the option that the most players have voted for (currently the top option had 41 votes). And furthermore, we really want that to be a clear majority of game. So please please please vote again.
PROXY/ABSENTEE VOTES
If you will not be at game NOVEMBER 30, please submit your vote via email to proxy at emeraldchronicles dot com.
include:
Your Name:
Your Sphere:
Your Character Name:
Your vote choice (option 2 or 4 only)
CLARIFICATION ON OPTION 2:
Several people seem to be confused on a point. As the option is currently stated, once the NOTR fund drops below 700$, mandatory fees kick in UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Please be aware however that we can change that later on with another discussion and vote. Many of you have suggested that the mandatory payment should only take effect until we are "in the black". That is a perfectly acceptable idea, and one I think should be addressed in the future. But I don't want to change the options in the middle of this vote, so please be aware that the current option is "once the NOTR fund drops below 700$, mandatory fees kick in UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" and that we are more than happy to entertain a discussion and vote for revision if option 2 is the majority choice.
VOTING OPTIONS:
2) Initiate Mandatory Dues / Admission Fee
Short Version: Everyone would have to pay, earn or have paid for them the $2/night TO GAIN ADDMISSION TO THE PAID VENUE (not pay to play). There will be options for people who feel they cannot afford to pay for whatever reason (see the long version). This would go into effect automatically if the NOTR bank balance ever dropped below $700. First month free to new players.
Long Version: If the NOTR bank balance drops below $700 (one month’s rent), this plan goes into effect automatically, so you the player base can prevent this from happening by simply never letting that happen. This means that we can stay donation based as long as donations happen, and have a back up plan without having to do this crazy emergency voting thing again.
The other version of this option was just to initiate Admission Fees Dec 1, but we thought this might be easier to swallow, since it would ONLY take effect if donations can’t keep up with rent, so we have pre-placed consent to do this in order to keep the roof over all our heads.
This would be to gain admission to ANY venue that we have to pay rent to use. It is not pay-to-play, as you can still have a character, run midweek scenes, email staff, etc, and of course, any time we are not in a paid venue, no admission fees would be required. The first month would be waived for new players.
Those who cannot afford to pay have options.
1) Volunteer to work at the table collecting/tracking said admission fees. One 2 hr shift at the table would be a month’s admission for the volunteer. This can accommodate up to 16 people most months, as there are 4 2hr shifts each night. (most months have only 4 Saturdays). These positions will be awarded based on need as much as possible, but will require skill and trust as well, since these ppl handle the money and track the donors.
2) Have a friend pay for them. Your friend can simply tell the table volunteer, “Here’s 4$, for me and so-and-so.” And you both are recorded as paid for the night.
3) Hope for an anonymous donor. Those who wish to donate more than their minimum, but don’t have a specific benefactee in mind, can simply put their extra money toward anyone who needs it. Each week, the extra donations would be noted for use on a first come first serve basis for the following week. So if last week we got $20 of anonymous donations, this week, the first 10 people who can’t pay, are covered by that money. There is not really a fair way to determine who gets the anonymous donations, except by first come first serve, because we do not wish to require proof of financial hardship from anyone.
Everyone would be stamped each night upon payment of admission fee (or other means of coverage) so that they could leave and re-enter easily, and so that any who try to sneak by can be easily identified.
People who wish to pay in advance rather than nightly would receive stamped cards with the dollar amount written on them. When you arrive, simply present your card, and a hole will be punched to indicate each $2 Admission. When all the money is used up, you start again. Cards can have your name on them for security, or may say “Bearer” so that the same card might be used by anyone, should you wish to have a card others may use.
4) XP for Paying
Short Version: Everyone who pays gets some xp (1xp/$2 up to 5xp or $10). Every month we make our $800 goal, everyone who that month gets 5 bonus xp, for a maximum of 10xp per paying player per month.
Long Version: This is the most blatant form of bribery possible. No longer do we ask you to pay the minimum just because you appreciate the value of an indoor play-space, but we are bribing you to be responsible contributing adults.
Alternatively, this is the most egalitarian option, so that everyone has a chance at the rewards no matter how little they can afford to give, even those unfortunates who cannot give more than ¼ of the suggested donations can earn up to 7 extra xp each month if they give that bare $2 and others pitch in more (and an earn up to 10xp for doing so) if we reach our monthly goal.
The caps are in place because we don’t want this to get out of hand, or create some kind of crazy class system by which the richer players can buy hundreds of xp every month and win by money. It’s a small incentive/thank-you that shouldn’t unbalance the game.
For those with TIME instead of money, you have options, too. You can donate in lump sums less frequently, we prefer up front rather than delayed, but we take what we can get. You can alternatively run a fundraiser yourself and donate the proceeds to NOTR and get the xp bonus, after all, you did the work. (fund raiser ideas include bake sales, art auctions, costume or prop creation, etc). The same monthly caps apply to fundraisers, however if you’ve done a fundraiser and the $800 monthly goal is reached already, you can always hold on to it until the next month so you get the rewards. XP from fundraiser donations can be split between several players, so feel free to work with a friend. And if you can demonstrate that your fundraiser took exceptional work, or longer than one month to put on, you can appeal to your ST for an exception to the monthly cap.
The monthly goal is higher than rent because we would like to accrue a cushion to help survive lean months, and maybe even one day be able to pay for things like the website and the snack bar again.
Thank you all for voting! We had an amazing turn out 106 people voted.
Unfortunately, there was not a clear majority. No single option got 50% of the vote. So, we're going to have a revote on the top two options only.
These are option 2 and option 4 (see below for details) which is basically possible mandatory fees vs xp for money.
It is essential that everyone participate in the revote. We had such a marvelous turn out, and the revote needs a similar number of votes to be valid. If less than 80 people vote, the vote will not be counted, and we will go with the option that had the most votes from the first vote.
This is because I and the staff all agree that we want to adopt the option that the most players have voted for (currently the top option had 41 votes). And furthermore, we really want that to be a clear majority of game. So please please please vote again.
PROXY/ABSENTEE VOTES
If you will not be at game NOVEMBER 30, please submit your vote via email to proxy at emeraldchronicles dot com.
include:
Your Name:
Your Sphere:
Your Character Name:
Your vote choice (option 2 or 4 only)
CLARIFICATION ON OPTION 2:
Several people seem to be confused on a point. As the option is currently stated, once the NOTR fund drops below 700$, mandatory fees kick in UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Please be aware however that we can change that later on with another discussion and vote. Many of you have suggested that the mandatory payment should only take effect until we are "in the black". That is a perfectly acceptable idea, and one I think should be addressed in the future. But I don't want to change the options in the middle of this vote, so please be aware that the current option is "once the NOTR fund drops below 700$, mandatory fees kick in UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" and that we are more than happy to entertain a discussion and vote for revision if option 2 is the majority choice.
VOTING OPTIONS:
2) Initiate Mandatory Dues / Admission Fee
Short Version: Everyone would have to pay, earn or have paid for them the $2/night TO GAIN ADDMISSION TO THE PAID VENUE (not pay to play). There will be options for people who feel they cannot afford to pay for whatever reason (see the long version). This would go into effect automatically if the NOTR bank balance ever dropped below $700. First month free to new players.
Long Version: If the NOTR bank balance drops below $700 (one month’s rent), this plan goes into effect automatically, so you the player base can prevent this from happening by simply never letting that happen. This means that we can stay donation based as long as donations happen, and have a back up plan without having to do this crazy emergency voting thing again.
The other version of this option was just to initiate Admission Fees Dec 1, but we thought this might be easier to swallow, since it would ONLY take effect if donations can’t keep up with rent, so we have pre-placed consent to do this in order to keep the roof over all our heads.
This would be to gain admission to ANY venue that we have to pay rent to use. It is not pay-to-play, as you can still have a character, run midweek scenes, email staff, etc, and of course, any time we are not in a paid venue, no admission fees would be required. The first month would be waived for new players.
Those who cannot afford to pay have options.
1) Volunteer to work at the table collecting/tracking said admission fees. One 2 hr shift at the table would be a month’s admission for the volunteer. This can accommodate up to 16 people most months, as there are 4 2hr shifts each night. (most months have only 4 Saturdays). These positions will be awarded based on need as much as possible, but will require skill and trust as well, since these ppl handle the money and track the donors.
2) Have a friend pay for them. Your friend can simply tell the table volunteer, “Here’s 4$, for me and so-and-so.” And you both are recorded as paid for the night.
3) Hope for an anonymous donor. Those who wish to donate more than their minimum, but don’t have a specific benefactee in mind, can simply put their extra money toward anyone who needs it. Each week, the extra donations would be noted for use on a first come first serve basis for the following week. So if last week we got $20 of anonymous donations, this week, the first 10 people who can’t pay, are covered by that money. There is not really a fair way to determine who gets the anonymous donations, except by first come first serve, because we do not wish to require proof of financial hardship from anyone.
Everyone would be stamped each night upon payment of admission fee (or other means of coverage) so that they could leave and re-enter easily, and so that any who try to sneak by can be easily identified.
People who wish to pay in advance rather than nightly would receive stamped cards with the dollar amount written on them. When you arrive, simply present your card, and a hole will be punched to indicate each $2 Admission. When all the money is used up, you start again. Cards can have your name on them for security, or may say “Bearer” so that the same card might be used by anyone, should you wish to have a card others may use.
4) XP for Paying
Short Version: Everyone who pays gets some xp (1xp/$2 up to 5xp or $10). Every month we make our $800 goal, everyone who that month gets 5 bonus xp, for a maximum of 10xp per paying player per month.
Long Version: This is the most blatant form of bribery possible. No longer do we ask you to pay the minimum just because you appreciate the value of an indoor play-space, but we are bribing you to be responsible contributing adults.
Alternatively, this is the most egalitarian option, so that everyone has a chance at the rewards no matter how little they can afford to give, even those unfortunates who cannot give more than ¼ of the suggested donations can earn up to 7 extra xp each month if they give that bare $2 and others pitch in more (and an earn up to 10xp for doing so) if we reach our monthly goal.
The caps are in place because we don’t want this to get out of hand, or create some kind of crazy class system by which the richer players can buy hundreds of xp every month and win by money. It’s a small incentive/thank-you that shouldn’t unbalance the game.
For those with TIME instead of money, you have options, too. You can donate in lump sums less frequently, we prefer up front rather than delayed, but we take what we can get. You can alternatively run a fundraiser yourself and donate the proceeds to NOTR and get the xp bonus, after all, you did the work. (fund raiser ideas include bake sales, art auctions, costume or prop creation, etc). The same monthly caps apply to fundraisers, however if you’ve done a fundraiser and the $800 monthly goal is reached already, you can always hold on to it until the next month so you get the rewards. XP from fundraiser donations can be split between several players, so feel free to work with a friend. And if you can demonstrate that your fundraiser took exceptional work, or longer than one month to put on, you can appeal to your ST for an exception to the monthly cap.
The monthly goal is higher than rent because we would like to accrue a cushion to help survive lean months, and maybe even one day be able to pay for things like the website and the snack bar again.
