3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

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3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Lyubov »

The proposed changes to NL 5-6 clarify and distinguish between the person of the Estate Owner and that of the Estate Owner avatar. As the Estate Owner avatar is now the bank account of CDS, the updates codify that a full transaction history will be provided to the Treasurer to allow them to perform their bookkeeper duties. Lastly, NL 5-6 updates contingency plans.

The current NL 5-6 is available at https://cdsdemocracy.org/faqs/nl-5-5-treasurer-act/ The proposed language for NL 5-6 is below.

NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Overview

An Estate Owner (EO) is a role defined both by Linden Lab (LL) and by the system of governance of the regions comprising CDS.

Linden Lab requires that one individually verified person (RL person) is the registered owner of a region. This means that this person has purchased the right to authority over the region. Linden Lab also requires that this person pay a monthly subscription fee for the region.

In CDS, the EO receives the funds needed to satisfy the monthly fee to LL. In addition, the EO must duly execute actions within their sole ability to perform, resulting from decisions of the various authorized entities of the governing system. These are primarily actions required to be performed on the “Estate” menu. Many of these duties can be delegated to various Estate Managers. Paying the monthly fee cannot be delegated.

Requirements for the Office of EO

To ensure the performance of these necessary functions, the following is required for the Office of EO.

  1. The RL person, in the form of their principal avatar (The EO), shall be a citizen of a region within the CDS and shall be appointed by a majority vote of the SC.

  2. The RL person must use an alternate avatar dedicated to the sole purpose of CDS Estate Owner (EO avatar); that is, one different from their primary SL persona avatar. This EO avatar shall technically be the CDS bank account. All funds of the EO avatar are and shall remain the property of CDS.

  3. The RL person controlling the EO avatar shall serve for life, or until they resign, or until they are removed for cause by a 2/3 vote of the SC.

  4. The RL person shall be replaced for any of these reasons only with a three month transition period to allow for transfer of ownership. The position may never be vacant.

  5. The EO shall designate funds each month to pay monthly LL fees in a timely fashion.. Each month, the EO will report all receipts and disbursements, as well as the balance of their account to the Treasurer to allow them to perform their bookkeeper duties.

  6. Upon the direction of the Chancellor, the EO will appoint Estate Managers to carry out land management responsibilities.

  7. As required, the EO will receive instructions from the duly constituted authorities of CDS governance to perform necessary actions.

  8. The EO will receive no compensation for the office. In addition, the RL person controlling the EO avatar will be prohibited from holding any elected or appointed office in CDS government, unless a waiver might be granted, on a case by case basis, by the SC. The only compensation provided will be the ceremonial title “Owner of the Estate”.

Contingency Planning

  1. The Estate Owner shall create a written contingency plan to be enacted in the event of an unanticipated or unexplained absence of the RL person controlling Estate Owner avatar.

  2. This plan will be reviewed at the beginning of each Term of government and revised as appropriate.

  3. The contingency must include current contact information for at least two individuals, entrusted by the Estate Owner with all necessary information to make RL contact with the estate owner and to perform all CDS responsibilities.

  4. The active contingency plan shall be shared with at least these two designated individuals, as well as the Dean of the SC.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

Who reviews and updates the contingency plan if it is shared with 2 other RL persons being CDS citizens I suppose, who can take over control and the RL persona of the dean only? At the moment my understanding is that the SC will handle the whole affair if the EO disappears. Would you please clarify?

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Lyubov »

The Estate Owner creates the plan and updates it at least every six months, at the beginning of each new term of government, to ensure that it remains current. The EO is in the best position to understand their responsibilities and to specify under what conditions the plan should be enacted.

The plan is to be shared with at least the two individuals who are entrusted to intervene in an emergency, and the Dean. It is the responsibility of these individuals to ensure that the plan has satisfactory trigger criteria and clearly specifies what actions are to be taken to ensure the health and uninterrupted operation of CDS. Any of these individuals might choose to distribute the plan more broadly, as appropriate.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Sudane Erato »

The only consideration I would offer here relates also to the contingency plan.

The provision and the definition of the Estate Owner role in the CDS is about the most fundamental of the laws that we have. It really should have been written into the Constitution, if we had one. This is because the Estate Owner is a stricture imposed by the external system of Second Life, ONTO our community construct as a 'democracy". The two constructs are fundamentally incompatible, since whether we like it or not, the Estate Owner possesses by "structure" absolute and dictatorial control over all the assets of the community. LL never made space for a democratic authority in its system of sim management.

So we are faced with something like Plato's Philosopher King... drafting a "ruler" who must be compelled/persuaded to be supreme authority, from the goodness of their heart. We've modified Plato's concept somewhat, in that we HAVE created an entire authority structure around democratic concepts, and more or less engaged an Estate Owner who is voluntarily willing to stand at the side and allow this alternate structure to fully function. That's worked fine for our history so far, because the one individual who's held the role, me, has been more than happy to participate in this novel system. I get it, though I can't fully explain why, but without this attitude, the whole system would fall apart.

I'm not trying to announce here that I'm so special, but I am trying to say that (1) we've only had one of me so far, and (2) when the time comes to get number two (and three and four...), we need to be perhaps much more conscious of the expectation of this role than we are now. And this gets be back to the contingency plan.

Line 3 of the text says:

The contingency must include current contact information for at least two individuals, entrusted by the Estate Owner with all necessary information to make RL contact with the estate owner and to perform all CDS responsibilities.

I wonder what it means there that the two individuals need "perform all CDS responsibilities". My concern, and this is frankly a personal concern, is that unless I disappear, I'd prefer that my RL identity remain private. So my designation of two individuals, happily both CDS citizens, was only to task them with the responsibility of sharing Rudeen Edo's password in the event of my disappearance. My concept was that one of them would come forward, give that password to some responsible citizen, and thus enable the newly designated Estate Owner to gain access to Rudeen and assume EO responsibilities.

Does it not make sense to be more explicit here? Estate Owner is such a complex and contradictory role... I would like to minimize the expectations on the poor persons who function only as the conveyors of the secret password, and focus instead on the process of designation and definition of the role itself. This law does that very very well, with just this bit of shakiness in the process of contingency should the current holder disappear.

Sudane...................

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Lyubov »

After reflecting upon recent comments and conversations, I would like to offer some adaptations to my draft text.

"Requirements for the Office of EO"

Modify the following:

"1. The RL person, in the form of their principal avatar (The EO), shall be a citizen of a region within the CDS and shall be appointed by a majority vote of the SC."

Replace with:

"1. The RL person, in the form of their principal avatar (The EO), shall be a citizen of a region within the CDS.

2. The EO shall be appointed by a 2/3 vote of the individual members of government. Each sitting member of the SC and the RA, as well as the Chancellor, is entitled to one vote."

Modify the following:

"The RL person controlling the EO avatar shall serve for life, or until they resign, or until they are removed for cause by a 2/3 vote of the SC."

Replace with:

"The RL person controlling the EO avatar shall serve for life, or until they resign, or until they are removed for cause by a 2/3 vote of the individual members of government. Each sitting member of the SC and the RA, as well as the Chancellor, is entitled to one vote."

"Contingency Planning"

Modify the following:

"3. The contingency must include current contact information for at least two individuals, entrusted by the Estate Owner with all necessary information to make RL contact with the estate owner and to perform all CDS responsibilities."

Replace with:

"3. The contingency must include current contact information for at least two individuals, entrusted by the Estate Owner with all necessary information to make RL contact with the estate owner and to facilitate an orderly transition to a successor EO.

Add:

"5. In the event of a suspected emergency where the EO is unable to be reached for 30 days, the Dean may activate the Contingency Plan.

6. The Dean shall call a meeting of the SC, the RA, and the Chancellor to meet within ten (10) days of activating the contingency plan to appoint a successor EO."

This is the full text of the updated sections:

Requirements for the Office of EO

To ensure the performance of these necessary functions, the following is required for the Office of EO.

  1. The RL person, in the form of their principal avatar (The EO), shall be a citizen of a region within the CDS.

  2. The EO shall be appointed by a 2/3 vote of the individual members of government. Each sitting member of the SC and the RA, as well as the Chancellor, is entitled to one vote.

  3. The RL person must use an alternate avatar dedicated to the sole purpose of CDS Estate Owner (EO avatar); that is, one different from their primary SL persona avatar. This EO avatar shall technically be the CDS bank account. All funds of the EO avatar are and shall remain the property of CDS.

  4. The RL person controlling the EO avatar shall serve for life, or until they resign, or until they are removed for cause by a 2/3 vote of the individual members of government. Each sitting member of the SC and the RA, as well as the Chancellor, is entitled to one vote.

  5. The RL person shall be replaced for any of these reasons only with a three month transition period to allow for transfer of ownership. The position may never be vacant.

  6. The EO shall designate funds each month to pay monthly LL fees in a timely fashion. Each month, the EO will report all receipts and disbursements, as well as the balance of their account to the Treasurer to allow them to perform their bookkeeper duties.

  7. Upon the direction of the Chancellor, the EO will appoint Estate Managers to carry out land management responsibilities.

  8. As required, the EO will receive instructions from the duly constituted authorities of CDS governance to perform necessary actions.

  9. The EO will receive no compensation for the office. In addition, the RL person controlling the EO avatar will be prohibited from holding any elected or appointed office in CDS government, unless a waiver might be granted, on a case by case basis, by the SC. The only compensation provided will be the ceremonial title “Owner of the Estate”.

Contingency Planning

  1. The Estate Owner shall create a written contingency plan to be enacted in the event of an unanticipated or unexplained absence of the RL person controlling Estate Owner avatar.

  2. This plan will be reviewed at the beginning of each Term of government and revised as appropriate.

  3. The contingency must include current contact information for at least two individuals, entrusted by the Estate Owner with all necessary information to make RL contact with the estate owner and to facilitate an orderly transition to a successor EO.

  4. The active contingency plan shall be shared with at least these two designated individuals, as well as the Dean of the SC.

  5. In the event of a suspected emergency where the EO is unable to be reached for 30 days, the Dean may activate the Contingency Plan.

  6. The Dean shall call a meeting of the SC, the RA, and the Chancellor to meet within ten (10) days of activating the contingency plan to appoint a successor EO.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

I hesitate and I wonder why an act like this with its far reaching implications provokes such little response. The latest adaptions clearly are an improvement. I pondered a lot about all this and found a lot of open questions regarding the designation of the next EO. Will it be an open and transparent process? Who will be the first having the courage to call names? Will it become personal or will we have a fruitful and constructive discussion?

I agree with Sudane, the EO is the link between two incompatible realms and we all depend on their integrity. With this proposal we get the basic proceedings of a transition that will have historical impact on the CDS.

There is so much the Act can not and should not answer. So far I can find no fault in the code. Let us hope we will be able to agree on a good new EO when the time is ripe.

I am ready to approve this Act in the latest version.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

I'd like to see provision for whoever takes over the EO account to allow for shared responsibility, if necessary. How about changing it to person(s) so that it is possible. In this way I think we may have more of a chance of finding someone or a couple of someones to take on the role. We've been very lucky in the past that Sudane has always been there for us, but it is a lot indeed to ask of someone to always be available. Just a thought anyway.

As to the process being open and transparent, with the SC calling a vote of SC, RA, and Chancellor that would seem to be as open a process as we could expect.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

I am all for the possibility to have an EO team, was just hesitating because it is another slap in the face of the Linden TOS. So we would need a frontwoman to deal with the Lab

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

I understand that hesitation, Tan. LL have made this kind of transition 'officially' way too expensive and impractical though. I think we need to be realistic. There's no way we would want to pay them thousands of dollars to change over to another person's account, and also lose all of Rudeen's stuff which is half of the estate just to comply with their ToS. :twisted:

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

You know I've seen a lot of people
Walking around with tombstone in their eyes
But the linden don't care, ah
If you live or if you die
God damn hmm the linden
God damn hey I say the linden
I say god damn god damn the lindenman

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Lyubov »

In consideration of recent comments and discussions, I propose the following full text for NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act:

NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Preamble

An Estate Owner (EO) is a role defined both by Linden Lab (LL) and by the system of governance of the regions comprising CDS.

In CDS, the EO receives the funds needed to satisfy the required monthly subscription fee to LL. In addition, the EO must duly execute actions within their sole ability to perform, resulting from decisions of the various authorized entities of the governing system. These are primarily actions required to be performed on the “Estate” menu. Many of these duties can be delegated to various Estate Managers. Paying the monthly fee cannot be delegated.

Requirements for the Office of EO

To ensure the performance of these necessary functions, the following is required for the Office of EO.

  1. The Office of EO must comprise of at least one RL person and at most two RL persons, functioning as the Estate Owner through the EO avatar.

  2. The RL person(s), in the form of their principal avatar (The EO), shall be a citizen of a region within the CDS.

  3. The EO shall be appointed by a 2/3 vote of the individual members of government. Each sitting member of the SC and the RA, as well as the Chancellor, is entitled to one vote.

  4. The RL person(s) must use an alternate avatar dedicated to the sole purpose of CDS Estate Owner (EO avatar); that is, one different from their primary SL persona avatar. This EO avatar shall technically be the CDS bank account. All funds of the EO avatar are and shall remain the property of CDS.

  5. The RL person(s) controlling the EO avatar shall serve for life, or until they resign, or until they are removed for cause by a 2/3 vote of the individual members of government. Each sitting member of the SC and the RA, as well as the Chancellor, is entitled to one vote.

  6. The RL person(s) shall be replaced for any of these reasons only with a three month transition period to allow for transfer of ownership. The position may never be vacant.

  7. The EO shall designate funds each month to pay monthly LL fees in a timely fashion. Each month, the EO will report all receipts and disbursements, as well as the balance of their account to the Treasurer to allow them to perform their bookkeeper duties.

  8. Upon the direction of the Chancellor, the EO will appoint Estate Managers to carry out land management responsibilities.

  9. As required, the EO will receive instructions from the duly constituted authorities of CDS governance to perform necessary actions.

  10. The EO will receive no compensation for the office. In addition, the RL person(s) controlling the EO avatar will be prohibited from holding any elected or appointed office in CDS government, unless a waiver might be granted, on a case by case basis, by the SC. The only compensation provided will be the ceremonial title “Owner of the Estate”.

Contingency Planning

  1. The Estate Owner shall create a written contingency plan to be enacted in the event of an unanticipated or unexplained absence of the RL person(s) controlling Estate Owner avatar.

  2. This plan will be reviewed at the beginning of each Term of government and revised as appropriate.

  3. The contingency must include current contact information for at least two individuals, entrusted by the Estate Owner with all necessary information to make RL contact with the Estate Owner and to facilitate an orderly transition to a successor EO.

  4. The active contingency plan shall be shared with at least these two designated individuals, as well as the Dean of the SC.

  5. In the event of a suspected emergency where the EO is unable to be reached for 30 days, the Dean may activate the Contingency Plan.

  6. The Dean shall call a meeting of the SC, the RA, and the Chancellor to meet within ten (10) days of activating the Contingency Plan to appoint a successor EO.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Sudane Erato »

Tanoujin Milestone wrote: Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:01 pm

You know I've seen a lot of people
Walking around with tombstone in their eyes
But the linden don't care, ah
If you live or if you die
God damn hmm the linden
God damn hey I say the linden
I say god damn god damn the lindenman

Whew! Tan... you are in a black mood! :)

Sudane...........

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Tanoujin Milestone »

It is a modification of “The Pusher” by Steppenwolf. Title song of Easy Rider, lol. Be warned, I will ask for it at the next party.

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Re: 3. Proposed Change to NL 5-6 Estate Owner Act

Post by Rosie Gray »

Ha, I thought I recognized that poem somehow! 8)

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