By-Law #01 - Description of Officers and Their Responsibilities
Communications OfficerThis role involves the creation and transmission of information within the club and to the external world. The Communications Officer is also responsible for assisting with or devising promotions for internal and external club events. Internally, the Communications Officer is responsible for assisting in promoting club events to the Membership and for managing the organization and structure of the club message boards, ensuring that all the information on the site is easy to find and well communicated. Externally, the Communications Officer is responsible for transmitting messages from the Executive Board to the general public via the least expensive means possible and for assisting in the promotion of EPOCH Toronto events to the general public. Executive Board messages to be communicated may be requested to be verbatim or may be requested to be written and/or edited by the Communications Officer.
Logistics Officer
This position required the individual to log all players into an event when they arrive on site. The Logistics Officer is expected to keep all information about players' characters confidential. The Logistics Officer reports only to the EPOCH Toronto Club President when issues arise that involve investigating a player's character. The Club President is not permitted access to the logistics files but the Logistics Officer is expected to reference a player's file and answer all questions the Club President may have without showing them the character file. Between events the Logistics Officer will update each player's file on a database.
Food Officer
The Food Officer prepares and publishes a meal plan for each event and is responsible for arranging for the purchase of all food for the event. The Food Officer is responsible for arranging for meals to be prepared in advance of an event where necessary. The Food Officer is responsible for arranging the preparation of all meals while on site and for cleaning any cookware used in the preparation of the meals. The Food Officer is not expected to do these chores themselves but will have a Creation Point budget to reward volunteers. The Food Officer or volunteers in their service are not to wash the dishes of any individual not on the club’s meal plan.
Safety Officer
The Safety Officer is responsible for the safe conduct of all players on site. The Safety Officer is also responsible for ensuring that all items brought onto site (specifically weapons and armour) are safe for use in game.
Medical Officer
The Medical Officer is responsible for seeing that any Member injured at an event receives prompt and appropriate medical attention. They are required to have First Aid experience, maintain a list of players’ allergies and have on site at their disposal a first aid kit (supplied by the club).
Games Facilitator
The Games Facilitator ensures that the game begins at a reasonable time Friday night. They are also responsible for delegating the 'chores' needed to be done Sunday in order for the site to be clean and ready to be inspected by the Scout Ranger. They can also be requested by the Food Officer to assign players to assist in the cleaning of the kitchen/dishes during an event.
--By law amended September 2009 to add new positions: Medical Officer and Games Facilitator as well as adjust responsibilities of Communications Officer and Safety Officer
By-Law #02 - Use of Event Pass
No Member of EPOCH Toronto will be permitted to use, or benefit from, more than one Event Pass per EPOCH Toronto event regardless of how many characters said Member has active in game. Members possessing Full Year Passes who become Executive Board Members part way through a season will have their remaining Event Fees refunded. The experience points that said Member is entitles to may be allocated to any number of the Member's active characters.
Amended by Executive Board, January 2001. Amendment as follows:
Members possessing Full Year Passes who become Executive Board Members part way through the season will not have any pre-paid Event Fees refunded.
By-Law #03 - Approval of Expenditures
Approval of funds less than $50.00 may be done at the Treasurer's discretion without the knowledge or approval of all other Executive Board Members. Approval of funds greater than $50.00 may only be dome by a majority vote of the Executive Board. All three (3) Executive Board Members must be in attendance at said meeting or have had a chance to voice their opinion in order to vote on financial issues in excess of $150.00.
By-Law #04 - Executive Event Fees
EPOCH Toronto Executive Board Members shall pay Event Fees set at the current Cast Fee rate. Pre-Registration discounts may apply at the Treasurer's discretion.
By-Law Repealed by Executive Board, January 2001
By-Law #05 - Maximum Number of Active Characters
Every Member shall be allowed to have a maximum of four (4) characters on file with Logistics at any one time. Any subsequent characters must be permanently retired or given Cast status, in which case they become the property of EPOCH Toronto and not the Member.
Members shall be limited to playing two (2) characters during any single event, subject to approval by the Club President or his/her appointed Logistics Officer. Should a Member choose to play two (2) characters during a single event, their costuming must be unmistakably different from one another and they must not share any In Game items (eg. weapons, potions, scrolls) between each other in any way. Furthermore, the two characters cannot have any contact with each other, even through an intermediary. This is to prevent one character leaving items/money etc. ‘in trust’ for the other character. It is also expected that each character will be played for a reasonable period of time (eg. all day Saturday, Friday night and Sunday morning etc.). The Executive Board reserves the right to suspend this privilege of any Member if they have cause to believe that there is an abuse of that privilege.
Any experience points earned by the Member at an event where they have played two (2) characters must be evenly split between the characters. There is only two circumstances under which a Member may assign experience points to a character that they did not play at an event and that is if a Member pays for an event and then cannot attend said event for any reason. In that case, the Member may assign those experience points to any character that they have on file. The second is detailed below.
All experience points are the ‘property’ of the Member. Should a Member wish to save some experience points to put towards the starting total of a new character, they may do so in the following manner and subject to the following rules:
- The Member must inform in writing (email is acceptable) the Club President or his/her appointed Logistics Officer in advance of the event that they wish to start banking towards a new character. The Club President or his/her appointed Logistics Officer may create any additional procedures to best track multiple characters and require the Member to abide by those procedures.
- The new character will be considered the second character for that event and as one of their four (4) maximum allowable characters for the purposes of Logistics. This means that a Member cannot play two (2) characters during an event and bank towards a new character.
- At the end of the event, the Member may distribute the earned experience points between the two characters, but may never put more than 50% of that event’s earned XP towards the new character. For example, if Joe plays his regular character Draven, and wants to bring in Poe, he can give half, three-quarters, or any other amount to Draven, but may only give up to half of his earned XP to Poe.
- While there is no limit to the amount of experience points that can be banked for a new character, for every point above 40pts + Disadvantage (if applicable) the Member must match the banked experience points with CRP’s on a point for point basis. For example, if a Member had banked 75 experience points towards a new character and added those 75 experience points to the base character of 40 experience points, then the Member would also have to provide 75 CRP’s.
By-Law #06 - Cabin Custodians
Each cabin is to have assigned to it, at the start of each season, a responsible Member who will reside in the cabin to act as custodian for that cabin and be accountable for its usage, clean up and lock up. A second may be assigned as well for those times when the regular custodian is absent. Should both the regular custodian and the second be absent a Member of the Executive Board must stay at said cabin to act as custodian. No alternates to the regular custodian or second are to be made at an event.
By-Law #07 - Artistic Director
Players appointed as the Artistic Director are to set aside their regular characters for the duration of their term to prevent conflict of interest issues from arising. Event Directors are also to set aside their regular characters for events which they direct or help to direct. Experience points may be assigned to their absent characters but those characters are not permitted into play.
By-Law #08 – Zero Tolerance Policy
EPOCH Toronto has a zero-tolerance policy on alcohol and illegal substance use at EPOCH Toronto events. If any event participant is found to be using alcohol or illegal substances at events, or appears at an EPOCH Toronto event under the influence of alcohol or an illegal substance, will be banned from all EPOCH Toronto events for one calendar year.
By-law added September 2009
By-Law #09 – Harassment Policy
Harassment is any behaviour that demeans, humiliates, or embarrasses a person, and that a reasonable person should have known would be unwelcome. It includes actions (e.g. touching, pushing), comments (e.g. jokes, name-calling), or displays (e.g. posters, cartoons). It may be a single incident or continue over time. This can be any action that is related to race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, marital status, family status, disability, pardoned conviction, or sexual orientation.
Disrespectful behaviour, also known as "personal" harassment, is also covered in this policy. While it also involves unwelcome behaviour that demeans or embarrasses someone at an EPOCH Toronto function, the behaviour is not based on one of the prohibited grounds named above.
Sexual harassment includes offensive or humiliating behaviour that is related to a person's sex, as well as behaviour of a sexual nature that creates an intimidating, hostile, or "poisoned" environment, or that could reasonably be thought to put sexual conditions on a person's position within EPOCH Toronto. A few examples are: questions and discussions about a person's sexual life; touching a person in a sexual way; commenting on someone's sexual attractiveness or sexual unattractiveness; persisting in asking for a date after having been refused; telling a woman she belongs at home or is not suited for a particular job; eyeing someone in a suggestive way; displaying cartoons or posters of a sexual nature; writing sexually suggestive letters or notes.
Sexual harassment is frequently more about power than about sex. It often occurs in situations where there is unequal power between the people involved, and is an attempt by one person to assert power over the other. The harassment can also occur when an individual is in a vulnerable position because he or she is in the minority - the only woman, member of a visible minority, aboriginal person or person with a disability - and is, for example, ostracized by colleagues.
At EPOCH Toronto, we are committed to providing a safe and respectful playing environment for all Players, Officers and Executives. No one, whether player, officer, executive, or member of the public, has to put up with harassment at EPOCH Toronto, for any reason, at any time. Likewise, no one has the right to harass anyone else, at EPOCH Toronto events or in any situation related to EPOCH Toronto. This policy is one step toward ensuring that our game is a comfortable place for all of us.
Someone who has harassed another person will be subject to one or more of the following forms of discipline, depending on the severity of the harassment:
- a written reprimand;
- a suspension, with the number of events decided upon by the Executive Committee;
- Banning, length of the ban to be decided upon by the Executive Committee.
