Guild Charter

[RJO]

Introduction
The Aureus Knights are a community of gamers founded in January, 2006. We were established out of the mutual frustration we experienced over the years with traditional guilds. Since then, we’ve managed to foster a exciting, fun loving, stable community free of the drama of average guild life — and where gamers from all over the world can join together, enjoy their adventures, and form lasting friendships. We hope you’ll join us!

As new games enter the horizon and pique our member’s interests, we establish new Chapters and to share in those adventures together — always supported by our experienced Officer team and backed by our fantastic community.

Hundreds of Knights have formed life-long friendships together since our inception, and it is our unwavering goal to continue expanding the high-quality social experience our members have come to appreciate, in this year’s flagship title and the many more to come.

What We Offer
The Aureus Knights community is full of experienced and knowledgeable gamers from all over the world who enjoy nothing more than helping others. Our most significant benefit is membership in this robust and diverse group of quality people. Furthermore, the guild's leadership is stable and reliable, and is comprised of mature, veteran gamers with years of leadership experience.

Knights enjoy access to our proprietary social network, including opportunities for you to share videos, screenshots and podcasts with your guild mates; access to our voice chat and Slack services; exclusive contests and organized events; virtual badges for taking an active role in the community; opportunities for additional responsibilities within the guild; and much more.

Our Presence in Games
The guild often has an active presence in a number of games at any given time. We define our presence in these games in three ways:

• A Formal Chapter is established in a game where we have an active and well staffed presence. Chapters enjoy the guidance of at least one Guild Officer and a number of dedicated Chapter Officers.
  
• An Informal Chapter is usually reserved for games with a smaller number of Knights playing them. Chapters can be upgraded from or downgraded to this status, depending on how our player base fluctuates over time. Formal and Informal Chapters require at least one active Guild Officer to be playing to remain open.
• A Retired Chapter is what a Formal or Informal chapter become after we no longer have enough interest from within the guild to continue supporting it. Retired Chapters often technically linger within the game (as we don't generally dissolve a guild in-game, as you never know what the future holds), but you shouldn't wait around for an invite. When we retire a chapter, we make a best effort to help relocate those players still active in the game with a compatible guild.

Finally, there is a special consideration within the guild for the casual play of (typically non-MMO) games by a group of Knights, known simply as the "Casual Chapter." This group is open to any Knight to take part in as they please, and receives resources from the Officer team (i.e. hosted servers, voice chat channels, etc.) This group tries to host weekly events but, as the name implies, it's all very informal and fluid by its nature. Knights are encouraged to host their own casual events, too.

Establishing a Chapter
The establishment of a new formal chapter for a game is decided upon by the Guilder Officers, if the community has expressed enough interest to potentially support it. Every chapter must have at least one Guild Officer active to sponsor its ongoing existence. Knights are encouraged to recommend the establishment of a Chapter, but are not permitted to do so of their own volition.

Guild Structure
The guild has an intentionally simplistic structure to avoid introducing the potential for conflicts.

• Recruits are probationary members will undergoing a trial phase in order to see if they are a good match for the community. Every (approximately) two weeks, recruits are voted upon by the Officers and promoted or let go as appropriate.
• Knights are members who have passed their trial. They enjoy life-long membership across all the games we establish chapters in, and access to all the resources our community has to offer.
• Event Knights are Knights who have been selected by the Officer team to design and run events for the community at large.
• Chapter Officers oversee the day to day operations of the guild in a specific game. This rank is made up of Knights hand-selected by the Guild Officers who have gone above and beyond for the community in a particular title. They deal with things like in-game recruitment efforts, event orchestration, virtual housing upkeep, and other game-specific issues.
• Guild Officers are made up of guild founders, and former Chapter Officers who have shown themselves to be upstanding pillars of the community. They largely deal with guild-wide, "macro"-level things, such as addressing human resource concerns, establishing and implementing guild policy, and seeing to the support and needs of the Chapter Officers and Knights.

Most commonly we will refer to the combined Chapter and Guild Officers simply as the “Officers.” There is often a good deal of overlap between these two groups, and we rarely need to differentiate between the two outside of internal discussions.

Nearly all decisions made by the Officer teams are decided based on a voting process, such as the Knighthood of a new recruit by the Chapter Officers, or the dismissal of a member by the Guild Officers.

Chapter Officers and Guild Officers may not always agree on a decision being made. If the Guild Officers feel a decision being made may negatively affect the guild’s best interests, it is within the purview of the Guild Officers to invoke their right to veto a Chapter Officer vote. In these unlikely circumstances, at least 50% of the total active Guild Officers must be present at the time of voting, and of those at least 70% must vote in favor of the veto for it to pass.

Special Considerations for Knighthood

• The Aureus Knights have always enjoyed a close relationship with the Legends of Westwood Gaming Group. In the spirit of this, membership in LoW grants you automatic and immediate Knighthood within the Aureus Knights. Simply notify an Officer of your LoW membership and identity to be granted privileges.
• Partners, children, parents and close friends of existing Knights may receive special consideration and "fast tracking" to Knighthood at the discretion of the Officers. As with any new recruit, these individuals must be deemed a good match for the community by the Officers, and are not guaranteed membership by their affiliation.

Raid Groups
The formation of raid groups are encouraged, but they are to be managed privately. New raid groups should get the approval of the appropriate Chapter Officers before being established.

The guild is happy to support raid groups with resources like dedicated voice chat channels, forums, etc., but in doing so we expect these groups to be comprised by a majority of guild members.

Raiding can be a challenging and emotionally draining endeavor that should only be undertaken by those able to handle it maturely. Internal drama from raid groups will not be permitted to spill over into general guild atmosphere.

Community Code of Conduct V2016.03.01
Mutual respect is the foundation of our community. The Code of Conduct lays out guidelines to ensure the guild remains a safe and respectful place for all members. It applies to all games, collaborative spaces and community channels.

In the interest of fostering an open and welcoming community, we pledge to respect all individuals. We are committed to making participation in this community a harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of level of experience, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, personal appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, age, religion, or nationality.

Examples of unacceptable behavior by members include:

• Personal attacks.
• Trolling or insulting/derogatory comments.
• Public or private harassment.
• The use of unwelcome sexualized language.
• The abuse or theft of community resources.
• Unreasonably dominating communications channels.
• Leaving the community in an unprofessional manner.

Although we respect that people feel strongly about topics like religion and politics and wish to share those opinions, this is not the forum for doing so. Avoid bringing up controversial discussions like these, as they rarely result in mature or worthwhile discourse.

You won’t always get along with everyone you meet in the guild, and that’s all right. We don’t expect you to interact with anyone with whom you’re not comfortable. However, we do expect you to be mature about things. Throwing shade isn’t acceptable.

This Code of Conduct applies both within guild spaces and in public spaces, where an individual is representing the community.

Officers have the right and responsibility to address any reported or witnessed incidents of concern. Less serious incidents will be met with a warning. Officers may remove any individual for behavior that they deem inappropriate, threatening, offensive or harmful to the community.

Member Removal Process
Chapter Officers may remove individuals whose behavior is being particularly disruptive, so long as a majority of the COs online at the time agree it is warranted. These Officers must provide documented evidence that this action was necessary (i.e., screenshots, chat logs, etc.) and inform the Guild Officers.

Guild Officers will investigate all incidents and make a final determination on an individual’s continued presence within the community.

Reporting Bad Behavior
Instances of abusive, harassing, or otherwise unacceptable behavior may be reported by contacting an Officer. If your report involves an Officer's conduct, please contact a Guild Officer. Whenever possible, please provide documentation (i.e., screenshots, chat logs, etc.)

All complaints will be reviewed and investigated and will result in a response that is deemed necessary and appropriate to the circumstances. Officers will maintain confidentiality with regard to the reporter of an incident whenever possible.

Keeping In Touch
It's important that we keep in touch outside of the games we play and keep apprised of each other's interests in new games. We encourage our members to take part in our website, voice chat and Slack community, even if they aren't actively playing a game at the time.

[RJO]

Raid Sub Charter

What is this document?
This document is an addendum to our core guild charter intended to clarify, define and set guidelines for how we approach raiding as a guild.

The goal of this document is to take the things we've learned in the past and set ourselves up in a way where we maximize our chances of success in a progression raiding environment.

Ultimately it is up to the Chapter Officer Team under the leadership of their Raid Leader (who will be a full Chapter Officer on that team) to define how a given chapter will raid. The definition of how a chapter will raid will be laid out in a Guild Chapter's "raid sticky thread" (as defined at the end of this document).

Raiding & Aureus Knights
Aureus Knights has always been about balancing real life and gaming life in a healthy way in an environment where our members feel comfortable. Our membership runs the gamut from the super casual retiree to the first year college student with time to burn.

As a guild we always put the emphases on two things: having fun AND being drama free. We feel that in order to maximize fun while minimizing drama in a raid environment requires a bit more of a serious approach than we usual take as well as a firm commitment from the members who decided to participate in raiding. Raiding in a current content / progression environment requires dedication and a real team effort.

Because of this Aureus Knights has decided to take structured and disciplined approach to raiding going forward.

What is expected of me?
Raiding is a team sport, your actions impact the other members of your team just as much they do yourself. We cannot be successful unless we have a raid team full of people who understand this.

Let me draw an analogy - We want you signing up to raid with the same level of commitment you would if you were signing up for a community softball league.

You are making a commitment to show up to every game and practice, make sure your glove doesn't have a hole in it and do the best you can to not let your team mates down. Raiding is no different. Knowing the boss fights, knowing a viable way to play your class and letting the team know if you can't make it for a raid night are the reasonable expectations we would like to see from anyone wanting to raid with us.

We ask all potential raiders to agree to:

• Attend raids on a consistent basis
• If you are unable to attend a given raid, that is fine - please give us as much notice as you can so we can make alternate arrangements
• Use the event sign up tool designated by your Chapter Officer Team
• Be open to and intelligent about improving your game. Take feedback openly, and do what you can to learn about your class and role
• When you are in a raid listen to the Raid Leader. If you have a problem bring it up with a Chapter Officer Team or Community Leadership Team member after the raid is over
• Be registered on and check out the forums occasionally. Strategy discussions and announcements relevant to raiding will be made on the forums. Active participation while encouraged is not required.

Raiding isn't for everyone, especially in a current content / progression raiding environment. We ask that all members, before applying to raid in a chapter, are able to commit to helping advance the team while having a lot of fun.

How is loot handled?
Our overall preference for dealing with loot is a simple and fair Need Before Greed system. In this system looting will work in ordered phases, working through the phases until the item is won:

• Main spec NEED. A raider is eligible for this phase if the item is usable by their class in the role they are currently fulfilling in that raid OR in their "main role" if group composition forced them to play a secondary role
• Secondary spec NEED. A raider is eligible for this phase if the item is usable by their secondary class and role / specification
• Greed & Guild Loot Open greed roll for breaking down items, alts or any other use. If a game's loot rules or group mechanics allow giving loot to people not currently in a raid group consideration should be given guild mates who were not in the raid

In each phase priority is given to any individual who has not won loot in that raid session. Anyone who has won an item is free to roll in a phase if there is no one who has not won an item rolling.

If a game requires a more complex loot system our preference is to use Suicide Kings.

How often do we raid? When do we raid?
Our general guideline is to raid twice a week typically on week nights. Raid starting times are evening EST/CST.

Exact dates, times and frequency are to be defined by a game's Chapter Officer Team.

How do I get involved?
If you are interested in raiding you will need to apply using the application form posted in your chapter's forum.

I'd like to raid occasionally or very casually, what will you offer me?
All of the above is intended to deal with current content / progression raiding, that is to say, working on the most current and most challenging content in a game. It is our goal to run "off night" events on non-progression content (content our progression raid group has already cleared) for members who cannot commit to our progression group and for our more casual members. This will allow us to give other people a chance to participate and even lead raids.

Each Chapter Officer Team will detail their casual raid plans once progression raiding gets some momentum going.

How is the raid team selected?

Like most matters involving raids the Chapter Officer Team with the leadership of the appointed Raid Leader will decide on the composition of the guild chapter's raid group. Several factors will be considered including but not limited to class composition, availability and level of commitment.

Raid Sticky
Every chapter that is currently raiding or working towards raiding should have a sticky thread in their chapter forums that details key pieces of information having to do with raiding. This should include:

• Loot details (NBG as detailed above, Suicide Kings, etc)
• Raid leader and other raid leadership rolls (if required Raid Assistant, Class Leader, Loot Ref, etc)
• Sign up form (using embedded google docs)
• Raid date details (what days of the week)
• Specific current raid goal ("we are just starting, so our goal is currently to down the first boss in GWB's Lair")

[RJO]

Updated the "How Does AKS "Enhance My Enjoyment" Of A Game?" section to reflect more of what we do

[RJO]

Who Are The Aureus Knights update to reflect more of .. well.. who we are.

[RJO]

ADDED the following sections:

• What Types of Presence Does AKS Have In Games?
• How Does A Chapter Get Created?
• How & When Does A Chapter Get Downgraded to a Casual Presence?

DELETED the following sections as it is replaced by the new sections:

• What If AKS Doesn’t Have Enough Members In A Game To Fully Enjoy The Game?

[RJO]

CHANGED the following sections:

• How does a chapter get created?
• What is the officer and leadership structure of AKS?

RENAMED the following sections:

• What Is The Rank Structure, etc Of AKS? to What is the officer and leadership structure of AKS?

[RJO]

Updated per the Aureus Knights 2.0 project. Charter has been overhauled.

[RJO]

I've merged the the raid charter in to this thread in the first reply.

[Okaria]

Updated charter to V2015.08.23, voted in this week by the Officer team.

[Okaria]

Updated charter to V2016.03.01, voted in last week by the Officer team.

Changes:

• Added Event Knight description to hierarchy section.
• Changed instances of "spouses" to "partners" in special considerations section.
• Moved the topics about raiding out of the community code of conduct and into their own section of the charter.
• Rewrote the Community Code of Conduct for further simplicity and clarity.
• Clarified the member removal process section.
• Clarified the reporting bad behavior section.