AGM 2021: Nominations and Motions Thread

2021 AGM: Wednesday 3rd March, 19:00-21:00 Online (during Week 8 Board Games)

Please RSVP to the Facebook event if you're okay using Facebook - it really helps us make sure we know how many people are attending! Make sure to join the Team to access the meeting too! Or if you'd rather you can access the meeting directly!

Once again, it's here. The AGM. This rite of passage every society must take over and over again, is here to bring joy to all of Tabletopolis. The AGM (Annual General Meeting) is the opportunity for us to all look back at the past year and appreciate our triumphs as a society. What's more, members have a chance to sculpt the future of the society to their liking. Whether you want to step up and lead as an exec or put forward motions (both serious and comedic) which will guide how the society is run. In case its not obvious, this meeting is mandatory for the society, so please turn up and have your say!

Requirements for the AGM to run

To simplify matters significantly, I will direct you to the AGM FAQ thread which was posted by Ares a couple years ago. There is some out-of-date info but all of it is close enough! One thing I should say is, like many of our events, we can't run this in person. Instead, this will take place in Teams. While we normally operate out of discord, its important that everyone can join, and everyone can access teams as a Warwick Uni student. You can access the Team via the link. There's also a meeting link which will put you straight into the meeting. We are however, still finalising how precisely this will run so look out for more info on that!

The main restriction we have on the AGM is that we need enough people present to actually be able to run it (quorum). As of 16/01/2021, we have 121 members, so must reach ~10% of our membership to get quorum. Furthermore, for constitution changing motions we actually need 1.5 times that number (rounded up), so to run the meeting in the manner we'd like, we need 18 standard society members to be present.

Running for an exec role, suggesting motions and voting

If you want to run for a position, suggest a motion and/or vote, you must be a member of the society 2 weeks (14 days) prior to the AGM. That would be by 7pm, February 24th.

Motions are things that you want to change about the society. These can be constitution-changing (such as adding new elected exec roles, changing the name of the society and so on) or non constitution-changing (such as suggesting the introduction of a timetable for society drafts, suggestions on new large events to run, and giving the exec silly names). Here is an example motion from the AGM FAQs:

On Hats
The Society Notes:
1. That very few members routinely wear hats to games meetings

The Society Believes:
1. That hats are easily and cheaply obtained from many retailers
2. That hats add a jaunty air to proceedings, and encourage good cheer.

The Society Resolves:
1. To require each of our members to wear at least one hat during the boardgames.

Wow, what an insightful motion. It is very important to note that any motions to change the constitution must be made no later than 8 days before the AGM. This is due to the requirement to give members at least 7 days notice of the AGM, which should include proposed changes to the constitution.

There are a number of exec positions you can run for, which are detailed in this document. If you have any questions about a particular role, ask the current exec member - I'm sure they'll be happy to help! Please note that the exec positions available can change based on motions passed.

Furthermore, we have a detailed handover document explaining each of the roles. You can find it along with the Constitution on our Society Documents page.

AGM Order of Business

• Introduction
• Society Update (ooh are we gonna be Windows ME or Windows 1997)
• Voting rules and procedures (aka The Returning Officer Explains STV)
• Motions
• Comfort break
• Exec elections
• Any other business?
• Summary of results
• Mascot elections
• Wrap-up

To nominate yourself for an exec position or to propose a motion, please reply to this forum thread below.

You underestimate my power

... Lets see if this works

Hi I'm James, the current LARP rep (RIP) and am re-running for my position,
Hopefully it will exist next year, if not I'll go for another role IDK ¯\(ツ)/¯ (Co-op maybe)

All jokes aside, I hope to be able to continue providing back to the society that has been nothing but kind and accepting to me.

I, Ed, also announce my intention of running for LARP rep.
Before voting for James again, consider that under his leadership there has been no LARP. A true failure of leadership. Time for change. Joking of course, pandemic and all.
Vote Ed.

Steps out of the darkness of the LARP cupboard It is I! Nathan the One With No Surname, you may remember me from such roles as: the foam sword manager the guy telling people to "COME TO LARP" sustaining more LARP related head injuries that I should've the current LARP Quartermaster. I will be re-running for the Lord of the LARP cupboard Quartermaster position.

After last year's global patch to buff ranged combat, LARP died however hopefully they release an errata so that LARP may rise once more. Joking aside, LARP isn't exactly something we could run during a pandemic without endangering members.

Originally, I spoke with the previous LARP rep about setting up a trip to Empire LARP, one of the Largest LARPs in the UK and if/when the pandemic is sorted/lessened I hope that we can look at the possibility of setting the trip up again. I enjoyed LARP while it ran and hope that I can still introduce people to the hobby and to keep LARP in the society alive. That is all, smoke rises obscuring the view and the sound of the LARP cupboard closing is heard

Greetings, denizens of Tabletop Society. It is I, Jamie, head prophet at the church of Norin, picker of the red cards and player of the yellow cards, here to challenge for the mantle of CCGs rep. I know, who could’ve possibly seen this coming? It’s a shock to me too.

For those of you who don’t know me I’m a second year discrete maths student, I’ve played Magic: The Gathering in some form for about 5 years, have played a fair amount of Android: Netrunner, and have definitely played a non-zero amount of Pokémon TCG. Outside of that I’m a huge fan of RPGs and love me my chaos bois in Warhammer 40k.

I have decided to run for CCGs rep as I’ve been a part of this society for over a year and a half now and, while I only really came into my own when things moved online due to the pandemic, it’s been one of the more major things in my life and people have been nothing but kind and accepting to me, and so I would like to take this opportunity to give something back. While I tend to dip into every part of the society from time to time, my major expertise and interest lies mainly in CCGs with Magic: The Gathering being a special interest that has stuck with me throughout the years and Android: Netrunner having enabled me to connect with people in a way I haven’t in a long time. This continued passion is what I hope to bring to the society as a member of the exec.

So, why me as CCGs rep? While my major interest is in Magic: The Gathering and Android: Netrunner I’m always excited and willing to learn other CCGs and foster an environment where others with more expertise feel comfortable sharing their knowledge. Furthermore, I’m a strong believer that the best part of this society is our devotion to accessibility and I pledge that I’ll do anything in my power to maintain that. Additionally, I very much enjoy being kind and friendly to others and hope that I can do my part to welcome many a new player to our lovely society.

In conclusion, this society has done so much for me, and I hope that as a member of the exec I can go forth and do things for other people. So, vote Jamie for CCGs rep 2021, please.

Also, I plan to run for co-op officer too because, as you can see, my writing skills are en pointe. Also also, vote Jamie for mascot 2021. Also also also, this was a long post, here’s a picture of a squirrel:

Salutations, members of the esteemed society of role-playing games and other things! I, Oli, the current Assistant RPGs Rep, hereby declare my intention to run for a promotion RPGs Rep again this year. For those of you who have yet to know about me despite my incessant knattering about my hobbies and/or course, I'm a second year history undergraduate student who enjoys all sorts of geeky stuff, like anime, Star Wars, Marvel, and of course RPGs.

Here's a list of reasons that I am the bestest candidate:

Online RPGs are fun, albeit not quite a substitute for the real thing, and I have been heavily involved in both Intro to RPGs sessions, in addition to running my long-term campaign. While my RPGs experience isn't as long a list as Sol's, I've been running D&D games for the past 2.5 years and have tried a limited number of other systems.

Last year I became acquainted with the room booking service, and am aware of how it functions. I am also very active on discord. fusion dance With these incredible powers™ I am almost always available to answer questions or address concerns about RPGs or give advice. I hope to return to rolling shiny math rocks on a desk as soon as it is safe to do so.

I have been a member of the society since I came to Warwick over a year ago and have played and run many more RPGs in my time here. It's been absolutely amazing working with Sol over these past months despite online restrictions and I have learned a lot from his wisdom of RPGs, not limited to D&D! Although D&D is the bread that holds the RPG sandwich together, if I am elected I hope that I can encourage new and returning players (including myself!) to find other tasty fillings game systems to try. To that end, over the past year I have been making (and am ready to playtest) a not-for-profit RWBY Unofficial Tabletop RPG (RWBYUTRPG) that I wish to be able to run for the society once in-person events return (hopefully by October). I will also be encouraging the use of more professional, premade systems like Star Wars and One Page RPGs.

I am extremely grateful to have learned how the exec functions and been instrumental in the running of our fabulous society as an Assistant Rep, and I hope that as RPGs Rep I can put my experience to good use and continue giving back to this wholesome society.

And now, for RPG essential reading:
short Skyrim meme: the correct way to assassinate an emperor

Greetings fellow members. Just your friendly neighbourhood incumbent Board Games Rep here. Asking for your support in the forthcoming election to be re-elected as Board Games Rep (or other positions which I haven’t thought of yet) for another year.

Unlike the world, the proverbial wheels on Board Games Wednesdays never stopped turning. This past year we had to switch to an online format which, although a bit weird at first, went successfully and kept spirits relatively high throughout the year.

So, after that brief history of 2020, I ask you for your electoral support so that I can continue running Board Games in whatever format the government deems feasible. Hopefully, if it’s in person I can also organise a trip to UK games expo in the Summer that sadly had to be cancelled last year.

Well anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to be seeing yall next year at some point whether virtually or irl.
Also, vote Sea Urchin #16 for mascot 2021!

Hi, Henry Phan here and I would like to run again this year for draft rep. Although draft has had to be run online for the past year, I still believe I am qualified to run the event irrelevant of whether it is in person or online. I strive to create a friendly environment to play the game whilst keeping the competitive spirit of draft. Additionally, my love for Magic: The Gathering and draft has only flourished in anticipation for our return to in-person events. Thanks for reading :)

Hi all! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ares (they/them), and I’ve been an exec for this society for the past 3 years now – Secretary (back when it was called Secretary and not Vice President), Magic: the Gathering Draft Rep, Co-Op (my current position), and I’ve been doing the Graphic Design role during all these years too. My main loves are playing Magic and gay RPG characters (and, of course, frogs 🐸).

In my many varied roles, my goal has been to give back to the society that has become my principal venue for socialising and playing games. Mostly, I have done this via a lot behind-the-scenes organisation and rebranding efforts: getting the google drive set-up; reformatting exec meetings and minutes; creating the handover document; overhauling our physical and digital advertising; creating the finance tracker for draft; making my idea for an #external-announcements channel into reality; creating the new newsletter survey and implementing changes to the newsletter in response to that… the list goes on! Basically, I have a lot of experience in this department within the society, and even more outside of it :P I’ll stop there though!

This is why I’d like to sashay on back to the original role that I held – this year, I’m making my bid for Vice President! This will likely be my final year as an exec (given that I’ll be finishing up my PhD and writing my thesis the year after), and it’d be a fitting end, back where I began.

The year ahead is going to be an interesting one. Hopefully, our main concern will be slowly going back to holding events in-person (fingers crossed), and the society’s next exec team is going to have its work cut out for it ramping back up to this! I’d love to help oversee this transition; as someone who was involved heavily in organising the society in the before-times, I hope that my experience will help make the journey a little smoother. I am very aware of how the room bookings system works. Perhaps too aware.

If you have any questions for me prior to the AGM, please don’t hesitate to contact me – either @ me on the society Discord/PM me (I’m @dovahbutt#7544) or shoot me an email if that’s your thing (e.osborn@warwick.ac.uk). I don’t bite, promise :3c

TLDR: I’m running for Vice President because I love organising and have a lot of prior experience in the organisation department. I hope to see you at the AGM! 💛

On the appointed Equal Opportunities and Welfare exec positions

(Written by Ares in consultation with the rest of the current exec)

The Society Notes:

1. That the Equal Opportunities Officer and Welfare Officer are listed in Section 4.6 (“Additional Appointed Officers”) of our Constitution, and their only duties are as follows:
   a. Works with (other officer) to ensure section 7 is adequately fulfilled.
   (The text of section 7, “Welfare and Equal Opportunities” reads:
   “7.1 No Society member will be made to feel excluded, discriminated against or victimised on any grounds under any circumstances. This includes, but is not limited to: gender, age, race, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, political belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage or civil partnership, perceived academic ability, appearance, social status, spent criminal convictions, HIV status, gender reassignment, opinions on games/systems or preferred gaming/play styles or groups.”)

2. That the society membership is currently under-representative of some minority groups.

3. That we should actively strive to make the society a place where anyone, regardless of background, should feel welcomed and able to participate in our activities.
4. That we are already making a start to fostering a more inclusive society via the creation of our Code of Conduct and the #external-announcements channel on our Discord.
5. That initiatives relating to equal opportunities are now more commonly found under the label “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion”

The Society Believes:

1. That we could try and increase diversity in the society by analysing our membership demographics and trying out initiatives targeting the groups we are under-representative of.
2. A more defined set of responsibilities for the Equal Opportunities Officer would aid in our goal to be an inclusive society.
3. That we already have 12 exec positions that are elected, and that we should strive to not contribute to further exec bloat with extra elected exec roles.

The Society Resolves:

1. That the Equal Opportunities Officer should be renamed the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Officer, to more obviously signpost the responsibilities of the role, and to keep up with current terminology.
2. That the duties of the ED&I Officer should be listed as follows.
   The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (ED&I) Officer:
   a. Works with Welfare Officer to ensure section 7 is adequately fulfilled.
   b. Strives to attend any ED&I related training that the SU/University offers and feedbacks any information learned to the exec as a whole.
   c. Strives to obtain the society’s demographic breakdown from the SU if available, and notes where we are under representative of certain groups
   d. Leads initiatives to try and rectify this (e.g. via collaborations with other Societies)
3. That the ED&I rep should remain an appointed position, rather than becoming an elected one.
4. To add the following duty to the Welfare Officer section, in order to clarify that it is separate to the ED&I role:
   a. Acts as the SU-mandated Welfare Officer, going to all welfare-related training and acting as a point of contact for welfare issues in the society.

Right, I've got to first open this up properly. I'm a firm believer that everyone should get a chance to be exec if they want it, and now that I've been in the exec for three years I don't want to take a position from someone new and exciting. I'm not interested in hoarding power or whatever! So I stress here that I am the backup candidate - I'm running for the two positions that require specific experience (experience with the workings of the society and experience with technology respectively), and if a new candidate turns up with the required experience I won't take the role they want away from them. Please run for exec!

Amazing, now I can do the silly stuff.

(if you're confused, here's the previous edition of Fast and Finnbar)

Hello! Welcome to my final (most probably) ever exec-member based manifesto thing. You've probably seen me around because I've been here for far too long - this has been my fifth active year in the society. Here is a list of some facts about me, not because they're useful but because I just want to list them:

• My board game explanations are roughly 20% jokes, unless the game is Bohnanza then it's roughly 75% bean puns.
• I've accidentally cultivated the Finnbar Extended Universe in a series of otherwise totally disconnected one-shots, which includes far too many ducks and raccoons.
• I've skim-read the NISEI Comprehensive Rules (the 150-page Netrunner complete rules reference only needed by tournament organisers), which means I'm like 80% confident in my ability to say things about Netrunner.
• I accidentally designed the best dexterity-based wargame at the first Game Design Collab two years ago - a version of x-wing with Jenga towers representing your ships.

Anyway, we're coming to the end of my third year of exec - first Communications Officer (now Co-Op), then Secretary (now Vice President), and finally President. This means I've done a load of fun things on exec! Here are some of them:

• Writing the stupidest set of newsletter intro jokes (and one newspaper front page) during my term as Comms Officer,
• Helping with the organisation of two different megagames,
• Being a large part of Tabletop Radio, which was amazing,
• Co-organising our hugely successful escape room,
• And many more!

Don't those sound like great fun? You should run for exec so you can be a part of this! Oh wait I'm supposed to be promoting myself here, uhhhh look I did a lot and I've been in exec a long time so I know a lot of how all of this works and have a good track record.

Okay, let's talk about running for President! So, I've been President this year, which means any plans I had during the last AGM weren't real and couldn't hurt me were surprisingly possible - they were about working out how to run all of our special events in future years (not really done, but we still managed to run a good chunk of our special events online), and keeping the society friendly and welcoming (you can judge whether this was a success for yourself). But it would be important to mention the obvious focus of any presidency this year - over the next year we will hopefully be moving back to in-person events (everything permitting). Nobody knows how exactly this will happen, but given my familiarity with the society both before and after 2020 I'll be in a good place to slowly move things back to in-person when we can. I'd also like to explore outside events once enough restrictions are lifted - while most of our board games and pretty much all of our CCGs don't translate well to an outdoor, socially distanced environment, it would still be nice to actually see our friends and just exist with them for once (c'mon, Tabletop Picnic).

Now, Web Admin! I've been testing all of Thomas' code for the past two years before it goes into the website - so I have a good idea of how the website works. It's going to be very difficult to follow their incredible work for the past two years, so I'm going to solve that by avoiding following them entirely working on the longevity of the role. Getting a good idea of how exactly the website works at the moment is very difficult, so I would like to focus on documenting the website as it stands properly as to make it easier to contribute to. I've also heard enough calls for Discord notifications for events going up on the website, so would like to try to get those working along with other useful bits of Discord functionality because I'm well-known for immortal urchins totally bug-free Discord bots.

In the end, whether I'm elected or not, I'll still be in a wonderful community and will still be able to get involved in the events I love so to be honest it's a win-win situation. Oh and uhh vote for me.

i'm free

I'm Ike and I'm applying for the role of treasurer.

I think most of you will have seen me around the society and it has honestly been one of the things that has kept me sane through the ongoing state of world events. I would like to give back to the society by running for this position. I hope to continue Benjamin's legacy of money laundering fair, transparent decision making and overall as far as the role of treasurer pertains. I have some experience, having run the Magic society and 40k society during secondary school, so I hope I can extend that experience to help out this Tabletop Society as a whole.

If you want to reach out to me feel free - I'm on the discord as Shaadowmaaster and, when in person events return, I am likely to attend most of them - especially CCGs.

I look forward to actually meeting you in person to, uh, tabletop together.

Hi! I'm Hannah (She/they), a first year Chemistry student, and I'm running for co-op officer. (only took me the better part of a month to decide to actually write this manifesto!)

Reasons you should vote for me:
I write a bunch, so I'm kind of experienced for the position?
I play RPGs, boardgames, and CCGs, meaning I have like? a solid 20% of a clue what's going on in the society at any given point in time. (Especially since I used to play 40k, making it closer to 23%, which as any reputable scientist will tell you is a pretty cool number) More practically, it means I have a rough clue of what each part of the society does which gives me a useful familiarity for doing operations things, guiding new people to interests, and writing highlights in the newsletter.
The society's been a crucial part of my uni experience in an extremely weird and terrible year, and I want to give back to it. Since apparently modern society frowns upon mass sacrifice and bringing forth a thousand year long age of abyssal tyranny during which the society will reign supreme, joining the exec was the next best thing
As of time of writing, nobody's actually running for just co-op yet! (Jamie and James both are sort of very technically running but mostly for other roles)

Also, a disclaimer: I do not have the frog drawing skills of Ares, so for the duration of my exec-hood all frogs across the universe will go into existential hibernation. This means you don't have to worry about the lack of frogs, since they won't exist as a concept, so you won't be aware anything is missing.

(also go vote gender cube for mascot!)

Here, queer, filled with existential fear.

Hi all! I’ll be running for wargs again. See you at the AGM!

Wow, there are a lot of good nominations here. "But Anakin, how are you to compete with the likes of Frog, Fast and Finnbar, and the power of GIF" you may ask. To that, I say 'but Star Wars." Now before you have time to ask what I mean or say that this is cliché'd or that I've done it before, how about I just jump into it.

Prepare your butts for some sillyness

frantically turns on voice modulator

Hello, I'm Anakin. My friends call me Darth Vader. (they really don't) You may know me as the one who helped form the First Galactic Empire and as the proud commander of the Executor. When I'm not doing my Physics degree hunting the remnants of the Jedi or being the soc's VP quelling the rebel forces single-handedly, you can find me having a game of D&D with the group I found through the soc or practising my digital art. While I have been a more frequent participant of the society's weekly events, my time has been limited so I wait patiently to meet some of you properly at the in-person events.

I'm a bit of a lurker. I do read a lot of the Society's shenanigans as I meditate in my fortress on Mustafar. When I do make an appearance for exec meetings, quiz, and even monster prom; I thoroughly enjoy it. So much so that I have to go kill some younglings so I don't turn from the dark side. Because of this, you may ask why you should vote for me, and more importantly what role I'm going for. What role would you give me to keep the younglings safe?

I am nominating myself for President, Vice President, and Treasurer. In any of these roles, I hope to bring peace, freedom, justice and security to the Society. With my new powers, I can influence the midi-chlorians to create LARP. I am more powerful than the President, I can overthrow him. Together we can rule the Society.

I have added a picture of me because you may not know what I look like.

turns off voice modulation

Okay. Serious time.

For those who skipped silly time, I'm nominating myself for President, Vice President and Treasurer

So I've been Assistant RPG rep and VP and now I'm that I'm moving into my final year I'm still wanting for helping out this wonderful society. I have yet to participate in card games beyond collecting the ridiculous stack of Pokémon cards that are collecting dust at home which I've not touched since I was about 10. What I do enjoy is RPGs and LARP mainly, but have been seen commonly at Boardgames and had the chance to play X-Wing once. I think all this experience makes me a great candidate for all of the roles I'm going for. I also helped with a great many events in years past, including:

• Mega Game
• Big RPGs
• Tabletop Radio
• A handful of Quizzes
• And more!

As a member of the exec, I want to gather the momentum to propel us into the next academic year. I want to end this year strong with potentially another Tabletop Radio and with my knowledge of how uni life is supposed to be, I want to welcome next year's freshers with a slew of quality events, both regular and not. Of course, this isn't to say that all of this year's freshers can't participate. In fact, if the SU does a bad job of things, I want to make sure that everyone who missed out on fresher's week 2020 gets informed of all our fresher's week events. Hopefully, I don't get pranked by my optimism about the situation but you know what I mean.

I understand that all of these roles have nominations. I know that Finnbar has said they want other people to go for President. I want to tell you all to vote with your heart because I have faith in everyone I'm giving competition to. Though Finnbar may detest the idea of holding a role for too long, they are still an excellent candidate. I would also like to say that I understand if you don't want a dark lord of the sith in charge of Tabletopolis.

Thank you for listening to my dumb 3am ramblings. May the force be with you and I hope to see you all at the AGM. BYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

You underestimate my power

Apologies for tripling the number of motions at this AGM. I'm very happy to discuss these motions before the AGM if you've got any questions, and am very open to amendments. These were discussed in exec briefly - the first is something that was floated a while ago but we didn't have time to implement (so is being treated like a polling motion in effect) and the second is about wording in the Code of Conduct.

On Discord Moderation

The Society Notes:

1. Currently, the society Discord server is effectively moderated by the exec, though this is not officially listed in anyone’s duties aside from Web Admin.
2. Due to the current pandemic, the Discord server is seeing more and more use.
3. There are currently no guidelines on how exactly the Discord is moderated, excluding our Code of Conduct.

The Society Believes:

1. An exec member should not have to balance their degree, exec duties and increased moderation duties - particularly if these duties fall solely to the Web Admin.
2. Having what is essentially a group of 13 moderators with no unifying guidelines except for the Code of Conduct is unhelpful as it slows down decision making and ends up with many people with (possibly conflicting) opinions of whether a given message breaks a rule.

The Society Resolves:

1. To create moderation guidelines. While these documents will not remove all uncertainty from decision making, it should make the process clear. This will be the responsibility of the new Web Admin, Equal Opportunities Officer and Welfare Officer (the latter two are appointed internally).
2. To then publish these documents and ask for feedback from the society membership.
3. Finally, to call for moderators and appoint them by the end of Term 3, if enough suitable candidates respond to the call.

On Rule 5 of The Code of Conduct

The Society Notes

1. Rule 5 currently reads:
   • 5. We’re here to play games. We try to keep politics out of this society’s activities. It is acknowledged that politics pervades all aspects of our lives, but we aim to make our spaces a safe haven away from the toxic and partisan discussions that have become commonplace in political discussions. For this reason, we ask that you refrain from discussing these topics at our events and in our online communities (like our Discord server).
2. Introduction of a #serious or similar was discussed in an exec meeting nearly two years ago (full minutes: https://www.warwicktabletop.co.uk/minutes/2018-19/term_3/week_3/) in which the following opinions of the exec were noted:
   • Our server isn't really the place for this kind of debate - it's for lighthearted tabletop content, and we don't have the responsibility to provide this space.
   • Some people in the server are trying to avoid serious matters altogether.

The Society Believes:

1. The beliefs discussed in The Society Notes (2) still hold.
2. While "no politics" is a well-intentioned way to avoid heated arguments, it pushes the experience of minority people under the rug, whose lives are inherently politicised.
3. "no politics" is an inherently difficult and nebulous rule to enforce - what is politics to one individual might not be politics to another.
4. While in an ideal world it may be nice to fully allow political discussion in the server (within its own channel, or at least spoiler-tagged), we currently do not have that kind of moderating capacity.

The Society Resolves:

1. To update rule 5 to say the following, using wording from [1].
   • 5. We’re here to play games. We try to keep political debate out of the society’s activities. This rule exists to avoid heated debate about topics that genuinely have two sides, as opposed to anything that contradicts rule 2. The lived experiences of marginalised people will not be removed under this no politics rule.
     We ask that you refrain from discussion that could spark political debate at our events and in our online communities (like our Discord server).
2. To update the Discord-specific rules in #welcome with a new rule before “5. Have fun”:
   • All sensitive topics (e.g. anything that could be upsetting or triggering) should be spoilered (`||double bars surrounding the message||`) with a CW (content warning, for possibly upsetting content) or TW (trigger warning, for content that may be triggering to some). For more information, you can consult https://www.themix.org.uk/mental-health/looking-after-yourself/a-guide-to-content-and-trigger-warnings-37946.html.
3. To note that a future exec with full time moderators may in future consider further improving the society’s stance of “no politics” in order to foster a better community for those whose lives are inherently political.

[1] https://twitter.com/VoidsharkXIV/status/1347350036686929921?s=20

i'm free