Definitely good to hear.  At least my donation won't be wasted like it was before *grumble grumble*

Didn't manage to back out of it? Stop payment? Anything?

I donated through Amazon..  and when I went to cancel it, the transaction record was deleted (AKA he already removed the donation funds, probably because a few donations were removed, and he wanted to keep what he could)

Sorry for your losses, Onion-ole-pal.  For what it's worth, I appreciate your help with the portraits... as do many others that pass their gratitude through 'portraits@rpol.net'.  Any money you decide to donate as well is doubly appreciated.

Heres a question:

Is FoRPoL going to expand?  As in get more people to take donations and stuff?

I'm pretty sure you guys could handle it, but, it'd place less burden on you if you had more volunteers, to do the paperwork and stuff.

*Note:  No, I'm not volunteering.*

I have no idea why, but, I was curious for some reason.

We have deiberately  written the rules and constitution so that  we can expand later, for three main reasons.

The first, is to help people who can't make credit card payments.  At the moment  we can take payment by cheque (check) in US Dollars, and are opening an account to take UK sterling.  We might be able to take payments in Euros through the UK account but I am not  sure.   However, those accounts  will only  be able to take funds in the designated currencies, as the commission that we would pay on currency exchange through the banks will (in some cases) almost  cancel out the value of the donation.  Ideally we want people to  contribute via Paypal, because our commision rates  will be lowest that way -  and more of the onation  will actually  get to Woof to help fund the site.

Secondly, we  want to be able to help Woof with other things.  There is  scope for more  work to be done on the FAQs, the F-RPoL website etc, and there is no way that we can do all of that.

Third, we want redundancy.  If  something happens to  any of us, we need cover so that things don't fail.  Eventually, I  hope there will be enough people involved that  should someone leave  we  get  seamles  cover for the role they perform for us.  Eventually, I am  sure, all of us  will move on to other interests and games -  BUT  hopefully that  will be many many years in the future.

HOWEVER, we want to  make sure the systems that we have are working properly before we do that.  We have tried to set up systems that are transparent, and secure -  which  will make  sure that  your  donations do go to the right place at the right time.  Once  we are  happy with  what  we  have got  in place, then  we  can  start looking at ways to get other people involved.

If we have different country representatives... shouldn't they have a means to talk to their country members?  Should we dedicate some messagebases to them here in this game/forum?  One for US players, one for Canadian, one for UK, one for Aussie, one for ... um... Timbuktu... etc. etc.

I am not sure we  have a large enough community, ATM, for  country discussion boards -  but that is certainly  something we can look at.

However, I  tend to see Country Reps as the people who carry out administration for  FoRPoL in those  countries rather than as representatives of the members in those  countries.  After all, Country Reps are appointed by the Committee to  do its  work, rather than eleced by the country's users  to represent them on the committee.

Well, they do things differently over there with the Queen's right hook so close at hand.

I've got a US Embassy made up for Group 1.  I have Kabin and Despyzer added ... and any other Americans want in, they're going to have to ask... cuz I don't have EVERYONE's address.

Actually, I rather hoped that  we could all be one big community, there is (IMO) way to  much national politics  goes on in the big wide world, for us to  have to  have it  here, we are after all one big community.

Country Reps are only liable to be in place for those countries where we have a financial interest in having a country rep. ie there are  enough people  who  need to  contribute by Check.  Who represents people from countries where we  don't  have Country reps?

BUT -  IF you are  going to  go  for  democracy, then it needs to be done properly, Reps need to  be  elected -  and I will argue strongly against constituencies being organized on nationalitic lines, as I  really don't think they are appropriate here.

The purpose of the Country Reps is to vote on the matters at hand, not just for the financial benefit.  I re-read the description of the Country Rep.  When items go for a vote, the reps vote on it.  When new board members are elected, the reps vote on it.

If you don't want reps to be identified nationally, then they shouldn't be called Country Representatives. Simply "Player Representative" would suffice, and then keep the "Country" associated with the "Treasurer" title.

Scratch that US Embassy idea.  I've been vetoed.

And seeing as how I do not understand what a Country Rep is... I'm going to resign from that title.  But I'll gladly remain Secretary.
This message was last edited by the GM at 08:04, Fri 27 Sept 2002.

Vetoed?  Thats a bit  harsh ...  Stil perhaps  Country Rep is a misnomer.  I always  saw it  as Representing FoRPol in that  country -  rather than representing that country to  FoRPoL.

Originally the role was called a 'Prefect', after the Roman tax collectors and French/Swiss regional administrators.  BUT that was vetoed after lots of  people said it was confusing and sounded too much like an English School  ...

So  what is the right title  for someone to carry out the business of FoRPoL in a country?  Any offers?

Sub director?

Sub collector

how about commitee rep zone x   (where x = a country number)

Country Contact would be fine no?

Particularly if you explained it was only for the purposes of depositing money into a bank account held in that country before sending the money on to the main account?

John, you can call it whatever you want.  A representative to us in America is someone who votes on issues based on what their state's concerns are.  We vote those suckers into office quite often... and vote them out if they don't represent us well.

You are having only 'Country Representatives' voting on issues in the meetings.  If they aren't voting for their country, then they aren't representing their country.

If it is solely for the monetary benefits that you are seeking these people, then I'm a bad choice for that position anyway, as you well know.  I'm not into politics, John.  I'm very opinionated, and sometimes extremist.  I wouldn't be a good representative of my country unless I got their input.

So, considering I've been voted Secretary, and I'm leading the Portrait affairs, that's plenty on my plate.  Get someone else for this representative slot.

You are going to have to update your web page definition for that term... whatever it ends up being.  And you need to decide who's voting on what anymore if all these representatives are for is for collection purposes.

Maybe you should open those meetings up to the public and let the players who are interested vote on the topics that go before the board.

out of curiousity - what issues are we expecting to come up with that require democratically elected national representation?

I mean isn't our job to make woof's life easier, collect the money, and pass it onto him so the site keeps running?

I must be missing something here, but I just can't see why we need to have an admin engine that seems to be creating work and problems for itself

Isn't it better to work the bugs out of the system before you HAVE to rely on it for something important?

John, why not just call it a board member?

I just worry that we're losing sight of the end game in the details.

There are more important things to worry about. Like me getting more players in my game. Through threat of violence if necessary ;)

Board member sounds good to me.

And, personally, IF there are any votes to be cast, I'll be considering what others have to say about it and not just my own opinion.  (assuming that I'm voting).  I also think that anyone here should be able to voice his/her concerns about any FRPOL issue however they want.

I don't think we need to worry too much about all this - let's not complicate things and stir up the buncha hoopla that 'elections' *shudder* seem to create.  If there's an issue, get it out there and talk about it.  Compromise, to me, is better than voting any old day.  And, quite frankly, I don't expect to be voting on a lot.

If things come up that cause me to resign (or be 'removed') as treasurer/collection rep (whatever), I have the responsibility mindset that will make sure I give enough notice that a smooth and easy transition can be made with whoever picks up it up.

Now ... I vote with Jhael.  Let's not complicate things any more than is ABSOLUTELY necessary. :P

I'm not complicating a thing.  I was seeking to clarify the position.  Now it doesn't matter.  Problem solved.

Dollsy ... *sigh* .... No, leaving annoyed feelings, which is definitely what I'm 'hearing' in your post, isn't problem solved.

Guess that I'll just go back to my collecting and holding funds til woof gives me a yell as to what to do with them.