At its September 24, 2023 meeting, the Representative Assembly agreed to share with the wider CDS community their draft of a new Artisan Guild Act that will formalise the change in status of the Artisan Guild from a non-governmental organisation to being part of government, replacing the Land Use Commission.
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Artisan Guild Act
1 Motivation and Purpose
(A) The Artisan Guild is a governmental organization based in the Confederation of Democratic Simulators (CDS) with the purpose of providing advice and skilled creations to the CDS community, its Representative Assembly and Executive Branch. Its powers and permissions are directly tied to public discussions in the CDS Discussion Forums and to the votes of the Representative Assembly. The Artisan Guild shall process orders on behalf of the legislative and executive branches of the CDS. It thus shall be responsive to requests from the Representative Assembly and the Chancellor, but may set its own agenda.
(B) The Artisan Guild exists to encourage and assist a high standard of excellence in the creative output of content of Second Life residents. It fosters the exchange of knowledge and mutual assistance between Guild members. Its mission is to ultimately address all creative skills applicable to Second Life.
(C) The functions formerly assigned to the Land Use Commission shall be taken over by the Artisan Guild.
(D) The Artisan Guild has following functions:
(1) expert advice to Representative Assembly and Executive when requested,
(2) execute projects for content when so requested by the Executive,
(3) assist citizens with their building projects within CDS,
(4) assist the Chancellor in fulfilling his/her constitutional tasks with respect to land use and to help integrate new buildings and infrastructure into the landscape, and
(5) work out and recommend concepts of region development and usage both on public and private land, to advise the Representative Assembly on keeping the covenants up to date and recommend new, more effective technologies as they become available.
(E) The Artisan Guild is obliged to report about its activities to the Representative Assembly at least once per CDS Term.
(F) The Chancellor and the Representative Assembly may ask the Artisan Guild for information about ongoing projects of public interest anytime. The Artisan Guild is obliged to submit the requested information within two weeks, as latest till the next Representative Assembly meeting.
2 Membership, Structures and Roles
(A) The Artisan Guild has the right to decide a Charter. This Charter may include, but is not limited to detailed descriptions of tasks and roles, rights and obligations, definitions of competences and organizational regulations. Only Artisans are allowed to vote on Charter-related matters (see (B)).
(B) There are two classes of membership: Friend and Artisan. Only Artisans have the right to vote. The detailed rights and duties of members shall be defined in the Charter.
(C) There shall be no limitation of membership in respect to the parallel membership in one of the governmental powers (Executive, Representative Assembly, Scientific Council). The only criterions counting for determining the membership class are the respective definitions in the Charter.
(D) Guild Officers of Guildmeister, Secretary and Treasurer shall be Artisans. Guildmeister and Secretary shall be elected once per term of office at an Artisan Guild meeting. Should the position of Treasurer be vacant, that too will be elected by a majority of voting members. Further regulations regarding election, by-election, resigning or removing of Guild Officers shall be subject to the Charter.
3 Meetings and Votes
(A) The Artisan Guild shall hold enough meetings per CDS term to elect new Officers and to fulfill its objectives and duties set out in Paragraph 1.
(B) The Artisan Guild shall follow democratic modes of decision making as usual at any CDS panel. Though meetings are public in general and citizens are welcome to attend at any time, only Artisans shall have the right to vote (see Paragraph 2 (B)).
4 Public Information and Discourse Policy
(A) Permanent changes to public land, outside of the seasonal tree and ground texture changes and official CDS temporary structures for events, have to be announced in the CDS Forum and allow a sufficient comment period to make sure the interests and concerns of all interested citizens can be taken into account by the Representative Assembly. Public spaces have to be developed in accordance with policy and changes need to be subject to public comment and review.
(B) The duration of comment periods in the CDS Forums is defined in CDSL 34-02.
(C) The regulations of the Artisan Guild Act regarding transparent region development guidelines must not be in contradiction to other laws.
5 Additional Regulations
(A) With the enactment of this Artisan Guild Act, the Land Use Commission Act is retired as obsolete. At the same time, the Artisan Guild shall become the legal successor to the Land Use Commission.