by Azus » Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:43 pm
Having received a couple questions, and seen a post on I forget who's facebook page, I think we should officially clarify the status of subgroups relation to Westmarch in regards to contracts. I'll toss a suggested statement up here, if we need to perhaps we can roll this into tomorrows meeting (*sigh* like it wont be long enough), vote on it, and publicize it. It might be worth getting Jareth's opinion on this, as prior monarch, and if he agrees to have him 'sign' his name to it (mostly by posting somewhere that he agrees)
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As Principality, all sub groups were part of Dragonspine, with contracts signed with Dragonspine. Sub groups were considered part of Westmarch as mutual agreement via allthing. As part of accession to kingdom, existing chapters of the Principality of Westmarch were 'grandfathered' into the Kingdom and continued on this relationship per prior mutual agreement. However for corpora requirements and other reasons (nb: do we need to spell out tax reasons / use of ein?), contracts need to be updated to reflect the new reality that Westmarch has split from Dragonspine.
The corpora gives one item regarding time limits for contracts: "The Sponsored must ... sign this agreement and send it by registered mail to the receipt by Westmarch within one (1) year of the Sponsored Chapter's formation as an Amtgard group."
Obviously in many cases this timeline will cause issues - suppose Mistyvale (for example) in 3 years wishes to join Westmarch - they obviously will not sign a contract with us within 1 year of formation! And we could fill up pages with various scenarios. However I think we can use the 1 year as a guideline, setting a hard limit of 1 year from formation as Kingdom for due dates for updated contracts. Obviously we wish to have our paperwork in order sooner, and will want time to rectify any errors, so the bod will set an earlier deadline.
Any land that does not update their contract with Westmarch within a year of us becoming Kingdom (ie, they haven't updated by July 2014) will officially be in violation of corpora, and per corpora not be part of Westmarch. I doubt that any lands will actually be removed from Westmarch, and expect that every sub group will update their contracts as requested.
As prior to Kingdom ascension sub groups were considered part of Westmarch by mutual agreement, and as corpora implies a 1 year time frame, we can also consider any past elections to be official and binding.