Kinship Charter: Purpose, Structure, and Code of Conduct

“THE SORROW OF THE FIRSTBORN”
A Kinship of Arkenstone
Kin Purpose, Structure, Hierarchy, Raiding, and Code of Conduct
Written By: Nreldrad, Eldarestalo, and the Senate of Officers
Written: 5.22.2011
Version: 8.2.2011

PURPOSE

The purpose of this kin is to provide a casual, helpful setting to up and coming members, and also to provide Instance and Raiding experience to End-Game players.

STRUCTURE

Although the design is intended to engender camaraderie, and all requests and recommendations will be brought to the Senate of Officers’ attention, The Sorrow of the Firstborn is formated as a Roman-Styled Dictatorship; i.e. one Leader, a Successor, and the Senate. This style is due to the single leader style of kins in The Lord of the Rings Online. Final decisions concerning kin activities, member roster and promotions, division of labor among officers, character expulsions and other major changes to the kin will be made by the current kin leader. The kin leader has the right to veto any proposal put forward by the kin Senate of Officers, and the right to relinquish the membership status of, or demote, any kin recruit, member, or officer within reason. Member well-being and input will ALWAYS be taken into consideration during kin decisions.

HIERARCHY

Recruit:
Description: Recruits are the newest members of the kin and must serve a mandatory amount of time (between 3 days and 2 weeks depending on activity) during which time they will be under review by Promotion Officers for possible membership, unless given leader dispensation or already own a promoted character in The Sorrow of the Firstborn.
Promotion Information: To be promoted, at least level 20 must be achieved and the recruit must have no miscreant marks, no complaints from kin members, and must show dedication to the Kin and what it stands for. Promotions to member from recruit are monitored by, at minimum, 2 Promotion Officers, the Kin Successor, and the Kin Leader.
Other Requirments: Recruits must also set the character note to either 'Main' (for the main character) or 'Alt of ________' (for additionals). Officers are available for assistance in reading or setting character notes. All recruits and members should also read the New Member Guide (To Be Posted) so they know what to expect.
Member:
Description: Members are the primary core of The Sorrow of the Firstborn and have been promoted because the Senate and/or the Leader believes that they embody the core morals of the kin. The Member position, like the Senate position, is a privilage, not a right, which can and will be revoked if the Code of Conduct is broken.
Acitivity Requirements: Members must maintain a level of activity (logging in at least once every 50 Days) to maintain this status, or will be demoted to recruit in order to maintain an active listing.
Other Requirements: Members must also have their character note set, to either 'Main' or 'Alt of ________' as described for Recruits. Officers are available for assistance in reading or setting character notes. All recruits and members should also read the New Member Guide (To Be Posted) so they know what to expect.
Membership rights include: Access to Kinship Chests, the confidence of the Leader and Successor, and also availability to be put forward for officership.
The Senate of Officers:
Description: The Senate of The Sorrow of the Firstborn is the embodyment of the kinship purpose, comprised of the kin officers, the Kin Successor and the Kin Leader, and assist in administrative functions such as recruitment, Charter changes, and starting/participaing in kin instances and raids.
Amount of Officers: Not including officer's alternate characters, The Sorrow of the Firstborn prefers to keep the number of officers to a ratio of 1:7-10. This ratio helps to assure that there is an officer online at almost all times, and also helps to keep an appropriate ratio of officers to members during the most active periods of a day.
Activity Requirements: All officers are expected to maintain as much activity as they can. The Kinship Leader and Sucessor both understand that many officers have many characters in many kins, however, major activity on officers helps for kin morale. Also, officers are required to log into the kinship forums and check the officer forum at least once a week to keep up to speed on past, current, and upcoming changes to the kin.
Promotion to Officer: Senator Candidates are selected by the Kin Leader and/or Sucessor, and then observed for a few weeks by the Leader and Sucessor to see if they are truly officer worthy. Officers are then brought before the Senate to be voted on for promotion. Officers will be informed of their promotion and asked if they wish to have the position. They are also required to have read the Charter and be prepared to take a short quiz on it to be assued that they have read it. The leader reserves the right to temporarily promote officers for recruitment and other needs for a time of two weeks until a Senate vote officially approves or vetos the promotion. Members and recruits may sumbit a request to be promoted to officer, but they should be aware that posistions are rare to come by, and should not expect to be promoted to officer based upon period of kin membership, relationship to kin Senate members or personal experience. Officer positions are assigned based upon assessment by the Leader, Sucesssor, and at least 50% of the Senate and determination of appropriate qualities for the position, including outstanding Kin loyalty, willingness to take part in all kin events, and regular activity in-game.
Roles of all Officers: All officers are expected to Recruit, participate in officer meetings and instances/raids, assist the leader in administrative decisions such as merging of other kins into The Sorrow of the Firstborn, planning raids, assisting members in quests or instances, and locating difficult to find quest items. Officers are also expected to uphold the principals and rules stated in the kinship Charter. Lastly, officers are expected to regularly moderate the kin and immediately inform the leader of any deficiencies or disturbances which need to be addressed, such as improper member behaviour, officer abuse of members, falling kin morale, etc. to name a few.
Other Officer information: Officers have the right to promotion of their active alternate characters to officer status. Officers are also given Moderation powers on the kinship forums.
Description of Officer Positions:
Many Officers have assigned positions as well as their main roles. These positions are all voluntary, and an officer may give up their position at any time, having the Leader and/or Sucessor reasign them. Current Officer Positions are as follows:
Raid Captain: Along with the Kin Leader, sets up raid dates, leads the raids, and assists the leader in prioritizing characters for raids. Must be proficient in taking charge of individual raid instances, and must know the entire instance, including the roles of all raid members.
Raid Lieutenant: Assists the Raid Captain (and may act in his stead if the Captain is absent) in leading kin raids. Confirms raid participation in advance of the raid itself.
Promotion Officers: These officers assist the Kin Leader and Sucessor in promoting Recruits to Members when they deem that they are ready.
Raid Loot System Caretaker: Creates and maintains the Suicide Kings Loot system lists.
Webmaster: Helps maintains and upgrades the forum and/or the website, also is responsible for overseeing and/or creating new web or forum graphics.

All Officers are all considered equal in this kin, regardless of the post held.

LIST OF CURRENT OFFICERS:
Current Leader: Nreldrad
Current Successor: Eldarestalo
Ceede, Raid Captain
Fannarth
Gildian, Temporary
Grur, Promtion Officer
Hathson, Promotion Officer
Haydienth
Nimrandel/Rodheling
Rondorf
Styxos
Xtina, Raid Loot System Caretaker

Abuse of Position: Though rarely encountered, officers that abuse their position will be held accountable, and such abuse will not tolerated in this kin. Abuse such as practical jokes are frowned apon and will be warned against. However, repition of similar actions will result in immediate demotion. Abuse such as unwarranted expelling of members, participating in officer-wide jokes to humiliate a member, or other actions of such magnitude will result in immediate demotion to recruit for a period to be decided by the Kin Leader in keeping with the severity of the incursion.
Successor and Leader: The Successor is the head of the Senate of Officers, and may call kin meetings, parties etc... The Successor also has many of the same privileges and responsibilities as the Kin Leader, and answers only to the leader. The Successor's main job is to assist the leader in making administrative decisions, such as punishments, raid and/or party dates, officer assistance, and most importantly maintaining the absolute highest amount of activity possible. The Leader must also maintain the highest activity possible, and holds final responsibility for kin maintainence. The Leader possesses all final decision-making capacity and can overrule any Senate decision without need for explanation. This said, the Leader is expected to be the ultimate role model for the kin, engendering the same sentiments in all the kin's members. Unfair rule, tyranny and rude behaviour will not be tolerated by any member, least of all the kin Leader.
Other Promotion Information: You MUST read the CoC to be promoted from Recruit to Member and from Member to Officer. A short, 3 question quiz will be given at each of these, the Officer quiz being harder than the Member quiz. Please make sure to read the rules, as failure to get 66% on the quiz excludes promotion.

RAIDING AND INSTANCING

Raiding:
About Our Raiding: Our kin has established raiding rules to insure that raids go forward with little interruption. Our kin has established a Suicide Kings Loot System, using a randomly generated list. You are added to this list when you achieve Level 56. If you do not see yourself on this list, please contact the Raid Loot System Caretaker.
Description of Suicide Kings Loot Style: When in a raid, you generally find yourself with the problem of what style of loot shall a kin use. Suicide Kings, or more commonly known as SK, is a type of loot system where players are put into an ordered list (or lists) These lists are usually based on random roll (ours are), or translated from a former DKP system. Multiple lists may be used, as they are in our case. When a player needs to be added to the list(s), the Caretaker of the list will 'Roll' them in by adding up all the players on the list, adding another, using in-game ./roll, and whatever number you get is where you start. When loot is dropped, the person who wants it and is nearest the top of the list when the loots, and 'Suicides' to the bottom of the list. Players who aren't in the current raid do not move up or down the list. If no one suicides for the item, it will be ./rolled for. This system also rewards those who participate in, and complete, any scheduled raid. Participation moves you up one spot on the list, while completion moves you up another spot. (Note: Raids that are PUGed or are raids such as Turtle or Helegrod for Marks do NOT count in this sytem).
Signups: There will always be 17 open slots for 12-man raids and 30 open slots for 24-man raids. Signups will be posted on the forums aproximently 2 weeks in advance to provide sufficient time for signup. In order to sign up for a raid it is mandatory that you have a forum account. 5/17 Slots in 12-man raids and 6/30 slots in 24-man raids are alternate slots. Raid looting system will be set to Master Looter with Free-For-All on rare (or 'Purple-Backed') items, so that the loot system is not changed during the raid. Raid loot will always take place at the END of a raid, so that all who participate have a fair chance at getting what they want. Lastly, TSotF raids can only be started by the Leader, the Successor, or the Raid Captain to ensure the raid leader has control of the raid itself as well as the looting.
Raiding With The Sorrow of the Firstborn: Characters from outside our kin are welcome to raid with kin, but here are a few things they should know. Raids are covered by SK, so they will be added into the lists. Characters are never removed from the SK lists. Also, they should come with all the requirements (This will be a link to a future post) stated by the kin, and also should contact the Leader, Successor, or Raid Captain to be put on the lists and given information about the raid(s) they wish to sign up for. Lastly, they should treat everyone as they would their own kinsmembers, as if this was their kin's raid.
Other Information: In the event of SK list stagnation (All people or most people on the SK lists are waiting to suicide for one item), the lists will be regenerated. We wish to keep people interested in doing raids, no matter which raid, and want all to feel rewarded for doing so, but if all are waiting for one item, people lose interest.
Instancing: Instancing with The Sorrow of the Firstborn is very simple. The loot system will be set to Master Looter with Free-For-All on rare items so that people who do not need items cannot roll against those who do. No SK slot ups are given during instances, and instances may be started by anyone, and may bring in others from outside the kin. In the future, TSotF Instances may be governed by SK, like our raiding is now.

THE CODE OF CONDUCT

Behavior: All members of The Sorrow of the Firstborn are expected to follow The Lord of the Rings Online's CoC, which can be read here, and also are expected to follow our kin's specific Behavioral rules to help in creating a friendly, active, and casual atmosphere: No exessive swearing, no serious fighting in kinship chat channels including officer channel, no inappropriate comments, and no kin pranks aimed at a specific person(s). (As an example, if a member convinces other members or officers to be rude to another member, such that the member in question leaves the kin because he/she feels hated). Failure to adhere to these basic rules will result in consequences that will be stated below. Sexual harrassment, verbal threats of a grevious nature, obvioiusly racist, sexist or hateful remarks of any kind are strictly prohibited and will result in immediate expulsion from the kin without reprieve.
Disciplinary Actions: Disciplinary Actions, to be stated below, may be carried out by the Leader and/or Successor when they so deem. Discipline will be dealt to fit the offense. Options for disciplinary actions include: verbal warnings via in-game message, in-game mail, or forum private message; demotion to either member or recruit temporarily or permanently; and/or permanent expulsion from the kin depending on the offense committed.
Petitions: A petition for the addition or removal of a kin rule or change to the kinship charter can be made to disuade the leader and supporters of the rule. A petition of 75+% of active members is required in cases of unanimous rejection of the kin leader’s decision in order for such a decision to be considered for overruling. This petition must be made by in-game IM of Massive Forum Post (in which the leader is not allowed to post on), and one MUST be online to be added to the list of petitioners. If petition rules aren’t adhered to, the petition becomes invalid. No petition can force the kin leader to resign the post and petitions will not represent automatic overruling, only strong opposition.
Inactive Members: Inactive members will be demoted if they don't come online in their active time area (Officer: 30 Days, Member: 50 Days), or expelled if they are offline for 90 days. Members expelled because of inactivity may rejoin the kin but will have to start from recruit again.
Multiple Kins Policy: Though The Sorrow of the Firstborn acknowledges the fact that people do have the right to have characters in other Kins, we also believe that having characters in multiple kins may create a conflict of interest between kins and cause confusion. All alternate characters or "Alts" have the right to join The Sorrow of the Firstborn, and will be welcomed happily.

MISCELLANEOUS RULES

Forum Rules: Same as kin chat rules, keep the swearing, inappropriate talk and such to a bare minimum. Please don’t continue reposting if you are only updating a previous post.
Addition of new rules: The Leader and/or Successor may update the rules list at any time if anything is seen as needing a change, or an officer meeting .
Reproduction/Copying of these rules: Reproduction and copying of these rules is prohibited by The Sorrow of the Firstborn Senate of Officers. If you wish to receive a copy for personal use or to use as a template for your own kin’s CoC, please contact the kin at thesorrowofthefirstborn@gmail.com for a Microsoft Word copy.

These rules are meant to maintain the purpose of the kin, and though many think that rules may be unnecessary, we (The Leadership) believe that it Is necessary to keep the kin going smoothly for years to come.

Version: 3.1
Last Updated: 8.2.2011
Reason For Update: Typos and clarification on a few sections.

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