Rose Springvale has generously volunteered to do some of this work for the CDS. Thank you Rose. If the work is done by her or any volunteer, obviously the wage portion can be deleted.
Thank you Delia and Ceasar for your work on this document.
Cleo
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The Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) requests proposals to find and compile all the laws, rules and policies of the CDS since its inception in 2004. The Final Report should list the most current laws, rules and policies and should identify any gaps, inconsistencies and incompatibilities among this legal structure.
February 2014
Invitation
The Confederation of Democratic Simulators (“CDS”) is accepting proposals from qualified individuals or firms to assess and record all laws and changes to those laws since the inception of CDS in 2004. We expect the work to be conducted in March 2014. Proposals must be received no later than 2:00pm SLT ****** 2014.
Should you have any questions or require any additional information please contact ************ by IM and notecard.
The contract will be awarded to that individual or firm (“Contractor”) that best demonstrates an ability to meet the CDS's requirements and whose proposal is deemed most advantageous.
Background Information on CDS
The Confederation of Democratic Simulators is the oldest democracy in Second Life. Originally founded in 2004 as the City of Neualtenburg in the Anzere region, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (C.D.S.) is now a five-region community operated by the citizens.
The five C.D.S. sims are: Neufreistadt, Colonia Nova, Alpine Meadows, Monastery and Locus Amoenus. The sims have loosely based Germanic or Roman themes, representing different historic periods.
We are not a role-playing community.
CDS operates as a self-governing community of 5 sim regions within the virtual world of SecondLife (SL) which is owned and run by LindenLabs. Citizens elect various branches of government on a 6 month basis who govern the sims based on the constitution and laws of CDS. Extracts of the CDS constitution that outline the branches of government in CDS are shown below. Further information can be found at http://portal.slcds.info/#1
and at http://secondlife.com/?sourceid=0410-se ... MgodmH8A2g
Extracts from the CDS constitution
'PREAMBLE
All branches of the government are bound to serve the public before themselves and to uphold the Universal Declaration Of Human rights, Founding Philosophy, Constitution, local laws, the SL ToS, and Community Standards without exception.
ARTICLE I – The Representative Branch
Section 1 – The Representative Assembly
The Representative Assembly (RA) is a body of democratically elected legislators which represent the views of CDS citizens. Its governmental role is to pass laws and its service role is to promote the city and perform long-term planning.........'
'Article II – The Executive
Section 1 – The Chancellor
The Chancellor will serve as the executive of CDS, working to coordinate and plan community projects...........'
'Article III – The Philosophic Branch
Section 1 – The Scientific Council
The Scientific Council (SC) is a self-selected meritocracy. Its governmental role is to interpret and enforce the constitution. Its service roll (ed. note: sic) is to resolve citizen disputes and moderate user forums and events...........'
Some transcripts of the meetings of the RA can be found here: http://forums.slcds.info/viewforum.php?f=2 and http://portal.slcds.info/index.php/cds- ... -journals/
The Code of Laws as currently listed: http://portal.slcds.info/index.php/cds- ... e-of-laws/
The Policies tab of the information portal is currently devoid of information.
Early history of the CDS can be found: http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Neualtenburg and http://gwynethllewelyn.net/2004/12/03/w ... s-so-hard/
Additional history can be found here: http://www.divshare.com/direct/16893763-0a8.zip via http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php? ... 505#p19505
Bidders must submit bids to do the work covered by the contract documentation and in accordance with it.
The CDS Representative Assembly (RA) will award the contract and the contractor will submit the contract Final Report to that body.
The RA’s decision as to whether or not your bid is acceptable and how it will be treat an unacceptable bid will be final and RA may, but will not regard itself as under any obligation to, consult bidders on this.
By submitting you bid, you agree that (1) your bid will remain open for acceptance for a minimum of 90 days from the closing day, and (2) your bid is an unconditional offer which remains open for CDS to accept for that period.
Bidder’s Responsibility
It is your responsibility to satisfy yourself as to the nature, extent, circumstances and situation of the work you bid for and as to the meaning and implications of the documentation. You are advised to visit the website and acquaint yourself with the constitution and laws, ascertain the circumstances under and parameters within which CDS operates.
CDS will not make any allowance or consider any variance sought by the bidder based on ignorance or a failure to appreciate the circumstances under which the service was to be delivered.
Contents of RFP Response
A. In responding to this request, your bid response must contain the following information:
INFORMATION ABOUT YOU/YOUR FIRM.
Provide an executive summary of your experience levels. In addition to any general experience please specifically address the following. You or the individual(s) who will work on this project must have familiarity with CDS and SecondLife and ability to compare multiple sources of information and accurately determine differences. In addition, the bidder must have one or more of the following competencies: legal expertise. academic expertise and particularly in the anthropology of virtual democracy.
EXPERTISE AND RELIABILITY OF KEY PERSONNEL.
Services to be provided by the successful candidate individual/firm shall be provided in a manner consistent with the highest standards. The candidate firm must satisfy the RA that each key person who will be utilized for the scope of work outlined in this RFP has these same qualifications specified above.
PROPOSAL TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS.
A.Bidder shall submit one copy of the proposal on a SecondLife notecard to the Leader of the Representative Assembly (LRA) with copies to the rest of the RA members no later than 2:00 PM on **** 2014:
************Put avatars names here**************
B.All material must be presented in a clear and concise fashion with this RFP. The CDS will not provide any reimbursements for the costs associated with the development of the proposal and materials in response to this RFP. Failure to include the requested information may negatively impact the evaluation of the proposal. All materials and information submitted by a candidate individual/firm will be treated as confidential by the CDS.
Pricing Document. (If applicable)
You must complete the Pricing Document giving a lump sum cost for the core contract work. If you are selected these prices shall apply during the contract subject to any provisions in the contract for variations.
You should provide a price for the following work elements, explicitly stating the price for each part separately:
• location all RA transcripts and adding them to the RA journal page of the portal
• review all transcripts and ensure that all laws are accurately recorded in the CDS laws page of the portal, including the as stated proposals, and votes by each RA member.
• create a summary of each transcript in the RA Journals, where none exists, to allow efficient review for citizens and members of government.
• highlight differing interpretations of the text
Your pricing must include and allow for everything that you will be or might be required to do under the Contract Documentation, whether labor, transport, materials, specialist work, Bidder’s or third party’s charges.
You are required to provide costs for each element of this RFP but the CDS RA reserves the right to award the contract in whole or in part to one or more candidates.
If CDS finds any mathematical errors in your Pricing Document, you will be informed and given the opportunity to amend the errors or withdraw your bid.
If you have any questions about the Contract Documentation which might have any bearing on your bid, you should raise these with CDS by SL notecard. All such inquiries (and CDS's reply) will be circulated to all bidders but CDS will not identify the bidder.
CDS does not bind itself to accept the lowest or any bid. CDS shall not be liable for any loss or expense incurred by any bidder as a result of its decision not to award the contract to any bidder.
Documentation
All documentation supplied by CDS shall remain its property and confidential to it. You must return it with your bid. You may not disclose, without CDS's written consent and except as may be required by law, the Contract Documents or any information or material which CDS may make available to you - all of which shall remain confidential to the CDS.
Method Statement
Your Method Statements should include sufficient material to demonstrate unequivocally that you fully understand the requirements of the Services and will perform them to the CDS's satisfaction.
Your Method Statement should demonstrate, inter alia, your proposals as to how you will satisfy the project scope.
Bid Evaluation
We will evaluate proposals on both qualitative and quantitative basis. The evaluation may include any or all of the following: our review of the bidder’s proposal and related materials, interviews with individual/firm personnel that might be assigned to our Project, the completeness and timeliness of your firms' response to us.
Subjective Evaluation Criteria
Depth and breadth of experience and expertise including legal experience
Composition of team if applicable
Demonstrated knowledge and ability
Reasonableness of fees
Availability and willingness to meet timelines and scheduling
Overall quality of proposal
Monitoring
If you are successful, CDS intends to monitor your performance of the contract via monthly update reports to the RA. You should nevertheless note that CDS expects you to take responsibility for delivering the services to CDS's full satisfaction on your own initiative irrespective of whether any particular activity has been monitored or not. CDS does not expect to have to manage your performance for you.
General Considerations
Once the CDS has reviewed all submitted proposals, interviews may be requested by the RA from those candidate individuals/firm(s) that have met the qualifications outlined in this RFP, and whose responses are deemed favorable by the CDS. At that time, the candidates will have an opportunity to expound on the proposal and have the ability to ask any questions.
Costs for developing proposals are entirely the responsibility of the Proposer and shall not be chargeable to the CDS.
This solicitation does not obligate the CDS to enter into an agreement. The CDS retains the right to cancel this RFP at any time.
Please contact ****avatar name here**** if there is any additional information you may need to prepare your proposal. Any questions, interpretations, or clarifications about this RFP must be submitted in writing. All responses will be provided to each responding candidate.
The proposals and any information contained therein shall become the property of the CDS.
If you choose to respond to this request, please provide your proposal to us by *** 2014. Please note that late proposals shall not be accepted.
The CDS will provide notification to the firm whose proposal best complies with all of the requirements of the RFP on or before ***date here***
Project Scope
The current documentation of laws, RA history, and even the Constitution contain archaic and contradictory language The contents and complete set of applicable laws are often difficult to locate. To do so entails dedicated searches of the Forums or the CDS portal. The journals of the 11th, 13th, 14th, 17th and 19th RA are partial or non-existent.
It is important that citizens, RA members (new and old), and members of the SC be able to locate accurate, up-to-date information as easily as possible.
We request that you provide a qualified writer/editor/reviewer to:
• review all laws and the Constitution or CDS and identify contradictory and archaic language
• highlight differing interpretations of the text (note to RFP reviewers this insertion is based on the statement of the Dean of the SC to the RA on Saturday Jan 4th 2014 - Callipygian Christensen: .......This person isn't rewriting laws, just recommending where there are changes needed and gaps exist.)
• locate all RA transcripts and add them to the RA journal page of the portal
• review all transcripts and ensure that all laws are accurately recorded in the CDS laws page of the portal, including the as stated proposals, and votes by each RA member.
• create a summary of each transcript in the RA Journals, where none exists, to allow efficient review for citizens and members of government.
A supplement to the requirements above, if agreed by the RA and the contractor would be to draft appropriate wording to correct these issues (Note to RFP reviewers this statement contained in the note presented by the SC to the RA may not fit with the verbal statement from the Dean of the SC as highlighted above)
In the process of awarding this contract, the RA and the contractor will agree a deadline for completion that would ensure that the work is done in a timely and consistent fashion
The following considerations should be addressed:
• the sense of the law and the background from which it was enacted
• the actual laws as written
• those points where some parts of an old law were removed but the ancillary conditions were left standing
• important and sometimes conflicting laws and policies, recording items of significance
The CDS is concerned that the accuracy of the law is maintained therefore we wish the contractor to do the following for transparency
1.Source quoted verbatim next to the law extract
2.Source reference given i.e. the URL to the original RA transcripts
Report
The contractor is expected to provide a Final Report to the CDS RA containing the following:
• a record of all the laws passed by each RA since the inception of CDS and demonstrate that all laws are accurately recorded in the CDS laws page of the portal
• a record of all the discrepancies and their location in the transcripts so that the RA can then correct them with input from the SC and Executive branches.
• if part of the agreement, recommend appropriate words to correct any discrepancies or issues for consideration by the RA.
Note where different interpretations can be reasonably construed from the text of the law or transcripts all these interpretations should be noted in the report.
A record of all the RA transcripts referencing where they have been added to the RA journal page of the portal.
Provide a summary of each transcript in the RA Journals, where none exists, to allow efficient review for citizens and members of government.
Note these summaries will be reviewed by the current RA before being accepted as official minutes of each RA session.
Project Timeline
The Project must be completed by ****insert date here*** .
Scope of Work
The scope of work will be derived from the proposal submitted and agreed upon by the CDS as a result of this bidding process.
Contract Amount/Budget and Invoicing, if applicable
The amount of the contract will be based upon the accepted scope of work and the fee elements proposed by the successful candidate firm and agreed to by the CDS. The supplier may submit an invoice on completion of the work agreed with the CDS. The invoice will be for the payment plan agreed by CDS. The CDS will review the work. Any concerns about the quality of the work will be raised by the CDS within 30 days of the receipt of the invoice. The supplier will have 30 days to rectify the quality issues. On successful completion of the work, as judged by the CDS, the invoice will be paid in SecondLife Lindens within the following 30 days.
Reporting
The Supplier shall be required to submit monthly status reports updating the RA on work performed and any unexpected delays.
If the contract work includes payment of money for services, this will be the Jurisdiction and Applicable Law.
The agreement between the CDS and selected candidate shall be deemed to be made under and entered into in the State of *******, USA and the parties agree that any action to enforce this agreement may only be brought in the State of *****, USA.
Ownership and Maintenance of Documents.
All Contractor reports delivered under this contract shall be and remain the property of CDS.