Constitution

Version: 2022-12-05

1. Core Principles

1. CA is open to anyone and everyone, and is considered an equal opportunities community, free from discrimination or preferential treatment.
2. Although CA focuses on hosting Milsim games, anyone is free to play any game through CA.
3. Membership of CA shall be restricted to those aged 18+.

2. Community Ordinances

1. The official anniversary of Combined Arms shall be known as “CA Day” and shall be on October 1st of each year.
2. The name of the community shall be “Combined Arms”. Variants and other altered derivatives of the community name may be used at the discretion of individual Moderators, such as “Combined Arms Milsim” or “Combined Arms Gaming”.
3. All changes to the text of this constitution require a supermajority (66%) vote of the total number of Moderators of Combined Arms.

3. Community Structure

3.1 Guest

• The default state for new individuals associated with CA.
• Although not members of the community, guests are expected and required to abide by all the rules of CA if they choose to associate with the community in any way.
• Guests will be given priority help from the Moderator and Officer teams.

3.2 Member

• A regular member of Combined Arms.
• Membership may be granted by any Moderator or Officer on their own initiative, for any reason.
• Membership is not a right that any individual has.
• Details of what the Moderators consider appropriate average guideline criteria for membership will be made publicly available.
• Members are permitted to host events within CA within the confines of the mission making & event hosting rules of the community as defined by the moderators.

3.3 Officer

• Members of the administrative team of Combined Arms.
• Officers support the general community operations, through content moderation of discord, teamspeak and other forums that the community may operate. They provide cross-timezone coverage on behalf of the community in this regard.
• Officers support the operations of the Milsim events & the associated playerbase by providing support to guests & line members, and to assist them to attend these events. They are also responsible for supporting the content moderation of these events & to take part in the enforcement of the community rules to protect the ingame enjoyment of the community.
• Officers are empowered to issue bans/kicks to any member of the community except other Officers and Moderators.
• Officers are part of the “welcoming committee” for new members, and are encouraged to act as an onboarding assistant for new guests within the community.
• Officers are not empowered to cast votes on decisions made on behalf of Combined Arms.

3.4 Moderator

• Moderators are ultimately responsible for the continued operation and direction of Combined Arms.
• Moderators may also have specific areas of responsibility in which they are authorised to make actions on behalf of Combined Arms.
• Moderators are responsible for resolving any disputes between community members or matters escalated to them by Officers.
• Moderators are accountable to the community as a whole and are encouraged to seek opportunities to provide for appropriate community feedback.
• Moderators are empowered to cast votes on decisions made on behalf of Combined Arms.

3.5 Emeritus

• Emeritus membership of Combined Arms is an honorific title available to ex-Officers and ex-Moderators of the community who have stepped down from their posts.
• Emeritus members of Combined Arms explicitly hold no additional authority as a result of their title, which can be revoked by the moderation team at any time by a majority vote.
• Emeritus membership of Combined Arms grants the right to attend administrative team meetings and to advocate in those meetings in the same manner as the Officers of the community.
• Emeritus members of Combined Arms are not empowered to cast votes on decisions made on behalf of Combined Arms.

4. Community Administration

4.1 Administration team

1. Members designated as Moderators or Officers form the administrative team of Combined Arms.
2. The administrative team of Combined Arms is empowered to make any decision necessary to further the objectives of the Combined Arms community, on behalf of the community.

4.2 Officer & Moderator appointments

1. The moderation team alone holds the responsibility for appointing members to administrative team roles, and shall determine the methodology for such appointments as they see fit.
2. There shall be no cap or quota on the maximum or minimum number of Officers appointed at any time.
3. To prevent community top-heaviness, and to preserve the smaller number of voting individuals necessary to make decisions expeditiously, there shall be no more than seven moderators appointed at any time.
4. Accepting an appointment to be an Officer or a Moderator carries with it an expectation of activity within Combined Arms’ Milsim community.
5. Moderators & Officers may be asked to step down by simple majority vote of the moderation team for any reason, including inactivity or improper actions taken or made whilst a member of Combined Arms.
   1. Inactivity is deliberately not defined in this document, the voting members are free to decide what constitutes a reason to remove a team member from office and weigh each case on it’s own merits.
   2. If necessary, Moderators may be removed by a supermajority (66%) of the remaining moderators.
   3. If necessary, Officers may be removed by a simple majority of the moderator team.
6. Moderators & Officers may step down from their roles at any point by writing to any moderator, who shall report that to the rest of the team.
   1. Moderators & Officers who step down or are removed do not retain any right to return automatically to their previous role.
   2. Moderators & Officers who step down are permitted to become Emeritus members.
   3. Officers who step down are permitted to request reinstatement as an Officer at any time, pending moderator team approval.
   4. Moderators who step down are permitted to request to join the Officer team at any time, pending moderator team approval.

4.3 Formal decision making

1. Although decisions on behalf of Combined Arms are expected to be largely made on an informal basis of consensus within the administrative team, a formal decision-making process is necessary where this is not possible.
2. Decisions are made by the Moderators, advised by the Officers, on behalf of the community, either through consensus or through a formal vote.
3. All Officers & Emeritus members are invited to attend administrative team meetings, and whilst they may not ordinarily cast votes, they are empowered to advocate as part of the discussion of those meetings. They may table agenda items, advocate on behalf of or against agenda items, and may speak freely as part of the meeting.
4. Moderators may vote to move the discussion to a closed room. In this manner, Officers and Emeritus members are to be excluded from their right to attend the session.
5. All voting members have the right to abstain from voting, however they are compelled to cast a vote in the event of a tie.
   1. If there are for any reason equal numbers of votes for and against a measure, resulting in a tie which cannot then be broken by compelling abstaining members to vote, the Officers of Combined Arms shall be entitled to cast votes to break the tie. Their votes shall be added to the existing total and shall therefore be valued the same as a Moderator’s.
6. Votes may be coordinated through any appropriate medium, including but not limited to, Discord, Teamspeak or other such communication tools, and are not required to be balloted secretly.

1. All votes are considered binding by a simple majority, except in the case of removing a Moderator from Office as described in section 3.2.5.1.
2. Quoracy in relation to votes taken by the moderators of Combined Arms shall be considered at all times to be the full number of current Moderators of Combined Arms.
   1. In order to pass, voted motions must therefore receive a majority of all appointed Moderators and not only a majority in relation to those in attendance.
   2. This quoracy is exempt where Moderators are balloting on disciplinary matters in relation to a Moderator, where the quoracy requirement shall instead be derived from the total number of Moderators not subject to the disciplinary proceedings.

4.4 Finances and donations

1. The Moderators of Combined Arms will be responsible for ensuring that the costs of maintaining the group’s services are covered. Any individuals found to be using these funds inappropriately by a vote of the moderation team will be considered to have forfeit their position and are to be immediately removed from the community.
2. No members are to be required to donate to or otherwise fund the community in order to retain or obtain membership. Any member of the community who wishes to donate to the community funds should contact the moderation team in order to organise their donation.
3. All donations to Combined Arms are made on the express understanding that they are non-refundable without the consent of the moderation team, and that the moderation team is empowered to use those donated funds in whichever manner they find appropriate.
4. Funds donated in general to Combined Arms are to be used only for the furtherment of the operations of the community supporting the milsim operations.
   1. This does not prevent the moderation team from soliciting donations for any other ringfenced purpose, including but not limited to community giveaways, hosting services for other games which the community may be interested in playing, and other purposes which the Moderators of Combined Arms determine as they see fit.

4.5 Community feedback

1. All pre-arranged administrative team meetings should endeavour to be accompanied by an opportunity for the community to give feedback, either through an open forum for community members to propose ideas, concerns, or ask questions, or through the making of an announcement inviting members of the community to contact administrative team members directly with their concerns, ideas and feedback.
2. The solicitation of community feedback is considered to be an important part of the administration of Combined Arms and members joining the administrative team implicitly affirm their commitment to doing so in accepting their role.
3. Moderators & Officers are duty-bound to investigate accusations of impropriety against all community members, including administrative team members, reported to them by members of the community.

5. Community Rules

5.1 Publications of rules

1. The moderation team, under advisement from the Officers & Emeritus members of the community will set out rules as they see fit, on behalf of the community.
2. The moderation team will publish those rules in a suitable forum of their choosing to be publicly available to all Combined Arms members.

5.1 Disciplinary process

1. Under normal circumstances, members of the community will be subject to a "three strikes" warning policy for rule breaches before receiving a permanent ban. The moderation team reserves the right to bypass this guideline at their discretion for any reason, at any time.
2. Warnings may be accompanied by temporary bans at the issuing individual’s discretion. 4.2.5 allows for the duration of temporary bans issued under this section to be revised, made permanent, or annulled.
3. All disciplinary decisions are at the moderation team's discretion, and the moderation team reserves the right to ban anyone, for anything, at any time.
4. The power to enforce the rules of the community is expressly deputised & entrusted from the Moderators to the Officers, and as such Officers are expressly permitted to issue bans, kicks and warnings to Members, Guests and Emeritus members.
5. All disciplinary actions taken by any Moderator or officer may be overturned or amended at any time by a majority vote of the moderation team.
6. All permanent bans must be ratified by a majority vote of the moderation team.
7. Any member who receives a ban, as opposed to a kick or a warning, and wishes to rejoin the community following the expiry of their ban, must contact a Moderator and assure the team that they fully understand the reasoning behind their ban, the rules which they had broken, and the steps they are taking to ensure that further breaches of those rules shall not occur. The moderation team will then decide if readmitting the member is in the interests of the community.
8. Any further disciplinary rules the moderation team should see fit to implement shall be published alongside the usual rules of the community as described in section 4.1

6. Community Dissolution

6.1 Dissolution process

1. Should the Moderators of Combined Arms unanimously decide to do so, the community shall be dissolved.
2. All services provided by the community will be ceased within a timeframe decided by majority Moderator vote at the time of the agreement of dissolution.
3. Any remaining community funds will be donated to the International Committee Of The Red Cross.
   1. During dissolution, an alternative charity may be appointed by the Moderators of Combined Arms by unanimous vote.
4. It shall be the responsibility of the remaining Moderators of Combined Arms to execute as complete a dissolution of Combined Arms’ assets & services as they can before they shall cease to be Moderators of Combined Arms.
5. During dissolution, the Moderators of Combined Arms are empowered to make any decision necessary to expeditiously execute the dissolution of the group including but not limited to the suspension of any articles of the constitution, excepting those articles prescribed in Section 5