CARTOGRAPHIC CLAIMS VOTING PROCEDURE
As Adopted on August 17th, 2020
Map claims shall be added to the map by majority vote of the Cartographic Staff. The Cartographic Staff shall consist of the Roleplay Administrator, the Roleplay Moderator, and all those appointed as Cartographers who are currently in active status
Map claims may be brought to vote by any member of the Cartographic Staff. The Staff should aim wherever possible to vote on claims within 72 hours of the claim being made. When brought to a vote, voting shall be open for a period of 12 hours. Each member of the staff may vote AYE or FOR if in favor; NAY or AGAINST if opposed, or may ABSTAIN from voting. Members of the Staff must abstain when claims they themselves have made are brought to vote. Members of the Staff must vote fairly and impartially, considering only information directly relevant to the claim at vote, when determining if a claim should be approved.
A quorum (the number of participants in a vote required for a vote to be valid) shall be a simple majority of the total number of Cartographic Staff members who are in active status. If, at the end of the 12 hour period, a quorum has not been reached, the vote will be held open for a further 12 hours. Upon the end of the second 12-hour period, a quorum will be considered to have been reached in all cases except in the case where only one person has voted, in which case the claim shall be brought up again on another day. A voting period may be closed sooner than 12 hours ONLY in the event of a mathematically insurmountable result in favor or in opposition.
All members of the Cartographic Staff shall have one vote each. A simple majority of those present AND voting shall be required to approve a claim, meaning that abstentions count for purposes of determining quorum but DO NOT count for determining the outcome of the vote. A majority of those present and voting shall be required in all votes. A tie vote indicates rejection of the claim.
Voting shall be conducted within a designated Discord channel by means of text messages. No vote shall be conducted by voice or video call without the votes being recorded in text. Any vote not complying with this requirement will be null and void. The member of Staff who opened the vote shall post the results of the vote in the designated thread on the forum within 6 hours of the vote’s conclusion.
Upon the rejection of a claim, the claimant may request at any time to know the reason for which the claim was denied, as well as the information on how each member of the Staff voted. The Cartographic Staff shall provide this information to the claimant within 6 hours of the request. Appeals may be made to the Global Administrator staff of The East Pacific, who may decide whether or not they wish to hear the appeal, and whose decision shall be final.
LEAVE OF ABSENCE AND SUSPENSION POLICY:
A member of the Cartographic Staff may take a leave of absence (LOA) by informing the Cartographer Moderator in writing, preferably via Discord or whichever service the Cartographic Staff uses for regular deliberation. The cartographer taking leave should provide the Cartographer Moderator with the date at which the leave will begin and, if possible, the date at which it will end. When the cartographer wishes to return to leave, they may end their leave by informing the Cartographer Moderator the same way.
While on LOA, the status of that cartographer shall be considered “inactive.” While inactive, the Cartographer may not vote and is removed from the count of “eligible voters” considered for quorum.
Additionally, the Cartographer Moderator may suspend a member of the Cartographic Staff (up to and including the Roleplay Admin and Roleplay Moderator) if they fail to participate in two consecutive votes. Suspended Cartographers shall also be considered “inactive” and therefore shall not be counted in the calculation of quorum. A suspended Cartographer may return to active status by voting.
In the event that the Cartographer Moderator needs to take leave, they shall do so by informing the Roleplay Administrator, who shall appoint an Acting Cartographer Moderator to serve in the interim.