The Council of Elrond Charter is currently under revission. It will be presented for approval by the community soon. Meanwhile, you can check here the present Charter

Council of Elrond Charter 2019

We, the members of the Council of Elrond, re-charter the Council of Elrond, in order to better meet the needs of an evolving community in facilitating organized play and ameliorating the playing environment.

The composition, scope and powers of this Council are delineated in the following manner:

I. Composition of the Council:

a) The Council shall be comprised of a maximum of 9 and a minimum of 7 members. The number of seats up for election each election shall be eight. The Chair is not up for election.

b) The term of office shall be twenty-four months. In the event that a member is not able to bring his term to completion, the Council shall appoint a new member chosen from the community. Election procedures for a new session of the Council shall be started twenty-two months after the appointment of the current Council. The acting Council shall remain in office until a new Council is elected.

II. Method of Election to the Council:

a) Electorate: Each individual member of the active player’s community, as defined by membership of the Council of Elrond community discussion platform (currently: forum.councilofelrond.org), will have the right to cast votes in this election.

b) Procedure: All candidates will be listed on the Council of Elrond forum. The Chairman will be responsible for organizing the election and creating the polling topic or delegating another willing Council member to complete this task. An independent non-Council member will be selected by the Council to audit the final vote results to ensure they are accurate.

The Chair and current Council will endeavor to find ten or more candidates within the time frame of two months after the announcement of elections. If nine or more people run for election, then voting will be held to fill the eight vacancies. Each voting constituent of the forum will vote for two less candidates than the total number who run for election. (ie. If ten people run, then each voting member will vote for eight candidates, etc.) If exactly six, seven, or eight people run for election, then all of those who run will be appointed to the new Council, and no voting will be held. If less than six people run, then appointment of a new council will be postponed until a time that a minimum of six active candidates can be found.

III. Organization & Duties of the Council:

a) Formal Decisions: Upon seating the newly elected Council, the first order of business of each session of the Council shall be the election of a Chair from among their midst.

The Chair will then assign each Council Member to serve on a minimum of one or a maximum of two committees. There will be four governing committees which are the: Rules Oversight Committee (ROC), Game Promoting & Public Relations Committee (GPPRC), Dream Cards Committee (DCC), and Web Initiatives Committee (WIC). The Chair will endeavor to place Council Members on those committees for which the member has an interest or passion to serve. The maximum number of members on a single committee will be five.The purpose and duties of each committee is outlined below in sections b, c, d, and e.

b) Rules Oversight Committee: The ROC is responsible for maintaining a current and regularly updated comprehensive rules document. This document will be made available on the website for download by the community. This document will compile all known rules, errata and clarifications for MECCG as issued by ICE representatives or the CoE itself.

The ROC will maintain a subforum dedicated to rules errata or clarification suggestions which is open to the community. Any community member may create a thread in this forum suggesting a desired rule erratum or clarification. Discussion will then be open for the community to weigh in on the pros and cons of such a measure. Once each year, members of the ROC will pull suggestions from this subforum which are deemed to have reasonable support and logic. The ROC will give careful consideration to the long term effects of each issue they select. These suggestions will be placed onto a docket for voting by the community. This will be called the “Annual Rules Vote.”

The ROC will ensure the pros and cons of each measure put up for vote is made available in an organized and easy to view location for review by all voting constituents. The duration of the Annual Rules Vote will be three weeks and voting will take place sometime between June 1st and September 30th of each year. Effort will be made to allow at least 4-6 weeks between the closing of the vote and our annual Worlds event. Each measure on the docket will receive votes based on its own merit, independent of all other measures on the docket. Any ballot item which passes the popular vote by a qualified majority of 67% or more of all votes will be considered passed and an erratum or clarification as appropriate will be issued. Any ballot item which passes the popular vote by a simple majority of greater than 50% but less than 67% of all votes will be decided by tallying Council Member votes for that item. If 34% or more of Council Member votes are in opposition to the simple majority outcome, the ballot item will be considered null and void and no rule erratum or clarification will be issued. (Example: Option A receives 55% of the popular vote and 4 of 9 Council Members voted for Option B; this ballot item would be considered null and void).
The ROC will endeavor to limit the voting options for each ballot item to two. However, at their discretion, they may choose to include more than two options to be voted on. In the event there are more than two options provided, a single option must receive a simple majority of more than 50% of all votes to pass. In this case, 66% or more of Council Member votes must be in opposition to the simple majority in order to prevent passage. If 66% or more of Council Member votes are in favor of options that did not receive the simple majority, the ballot item will be considered null and void.

The ROC will then be responsible for updating the comprehensive rules document with any new errata, clarifications or rules which have changed during the Annual Rules Vote.

If deemed necessary, the ROC may call for an ad hoc rules vote outside of the Annual Rules Vote. This will only be done after special consideration is given and when a rule change, erratum, or clarification is considered urgent.

The ROC may appoint a spokesperson during each session whose duties shall consist of: clarifying rules, interpreting card texts, adjudicating rules disputes, clarifying gameplay questions posed to the Council, adjudicating conflicts between cards, updating the Universal Rules Document, and forwarding any issues to the ROC. The title of said office shall be NetRep.

The ROC may appoint either a Council member or a non-Council member to the NetRep position.

The NetRep may periodically publish a rulings digest, as deemed necessary.

c) Game Promoting & Public Relations Committee: The GPPRC shall endeavor to promote the playing of MECCG and to maintain a solid player base. The GPPRC will make every effort to make MECCG accessible for new players and to accommodate their needs.

The GPPRC will maintain a player’s directory and a list of contacts for various nations which will be located in the forum. This directory is currently named: The Global Players List.

The GPPRC shall authorize a World’s Tournament for MECCG once per year, and shall decide upon a suitable venue (city).

The GPPRC shall further authorize and encourage online tournaments.

The GPPRC shall encourage tournament participation by offering special prizes at Council-sanctioned events, budget permitting.

A member of the GPPRC will periodically publish a newsletter detailing important information regarding the Council as well as events of interest to the community in general.

d) Dream Cards Committee: The Council of Elrond endorses the future growth and enjoyment of MECCG with the production of new sets (Dream Cards). The DCC is the governing body for these efforts.

The DCC will oversee the development and production of such sets and release them to the community when able. Such sets will never be sold for profit.

e) Web Initiatives Committee: The WIC shall be responsible for maintaining the web site (currently: www.councilofelrond.org) and a community discussion platform (The Forum). On such web site information shall be provided which includes but is not limited to: a copy of this Charter; member information of the current and past councils; MECCG related news and announcements; a compendium of the rules of MECCG (Universal Rules Document); additional resources which include useful information for beginning players.

The WIC will provide and host a subforum for any participating nation that requests and has need of such. The language of such forum will be in the native language of that nation if so desired.

The WIC will endeavor to provide an online server where MECCG can be played online with virtual cards.

IV. Domain of the Charter:

a) The Council of Elrond Charter 2018 and its amendments shall remain in effect concerning all matters until superseded by a future revision to this charter.

b) This charter is independent and all inclusive, and as such relies on no previous versions of the charter.

c) Ratification of this Charter shall become effective after a closed vote by the active players’ community, if no more than one third of Council member votes (33.3% of the electorate) or half of the total votes cast (50% of the community) result in a “nay”. The review period for this charter will be two weeks, during which time ammendments and modifications may be made. This will be followed by a voting period of 1 week, as announced by the Chair.