As promised, here it is, finally the translated rules template (by me, a bit rough in places):
1. Association name and home municipality
The association is named Revolutionary Games Studio ry. and it is based in Oulu.
2. Purpose and what it tries to accomplish
The association’s goal is to develop Thrive game.
To fulfill this goal the association will gather funds and spend them on furthering Thrive’s development by hiring employees to work on the game. The association will also perform activities that support Thrive’s development and community building.
3. Members
As an “actual” member of the association, a person can be accepted who agrees with the association’s purpose. A supporting member can be an individual or a legal entity, which wants to support the association. Actual and supporting members are accepted by the committee based on applications. The committee can suggest a person to be accepted as a honorary chairman or a member, if that person has greatly pushed the association’s agenda forward.
4. Joining and membership fees
The yearly assembly decides on a joining fee and yearly membership fee for actual and supporting members. The fees can be different for the two groups. Honorary members don’t pay membership fees.
5. Committee
The committee runs the association. The committee is elected in the yearly assembly and consists of chairman and 2-8 other members with 0-8 backup members. The committee is elected for one year at a time (for the time between the yearly assembly). The committee picks among themselves a vice-chairman and among themselves or from the outside a secretary, treasurer and other needed roles. The committee is assembled on invitation by the chairman or if the chairman is not able to, then the vice-chairman, when the committee feels the need to or at least half of the committee members demand it. The committee is able to make decisions when at least half of its members (including the chairman and vice-chairman [the wording is a bit unclear here, maybe I’d like to change it to require either chairman or vice-chairman to be present]) are present. When voting on an issue a single majority determines the winner. If the votes are even, the chairman’s vote decides. In elections the tie is broken with a random decision.
6. Signing on behalf of the association
The chairman, vice-chairman, secretary or treasurer can sign legal documents on behalf of the company.
[I’d like to allow the chairman to sign alone but the other members needing 2 each, there is an example wording in another template about this]
7. Accounting period
The association’s accounting period will be calender year.
8. Meetings and assemblies
If the committee or a yearly assembly so decides, it is possible to join meetings or the general assembly remotely through the internet. The yearly assembly is held yearly on a day decided by the committee between January and May [I think I’d like to move these to be more around the summer to make participation easier for students]. In the yearly assembly each actual association member, as well as honorary members, have each one vote. A supporting member has the right to join an assembly and voice opinions there. A single majority of votes decides the winning decision. If votes are even, the chairman’s vote is the tie-breaker. In elections random choice is used as the tie-breaker instead.
[I want to rework this section to basically be “by default” remote and always require remote participation to be possible, and maybe with technical issues the voting needs some grace period to not miss on people’s opinions due to technical issues]
9. Assembly summons
The committee must notify association members at least 7 days before the yearly assembly through mail or e-mail.
10. Yearly assembly
The following agenda is used in the yearly assembly:
- Assembly is declared started
- Assembly chairman, secretary, and two proceedings checkers, and if needed 2 vote counters, are selected
- The assembly is found to be lawful and able to make decisions
- The agenda for the assembly is accepted
- The financial statement, a recap of the year, and statements from auditors are presented
- Decision is made on accepting the financial statement and relieving the committee and other responsible people out of any misdemeanor is decided
- Action plan, estimates on income and expenses, joining and membership fees for next year are confirmed
- The committee chairman and other members are elected
- One or two auditors and backup auditors are selected
- Other matters that have come up, and have been mentioned in the invite, are handled. If an association member wants some matter to be handled here, they must make a written requrest to the committee early enough that the matter can be included in the invite to the assembly.
11. Rule changes and association dissolving
The decision to change the rules or dissolving the association must be made in the yearly assembly with a \frac{3}{4} majority out of the cast votes. The invitation to the assembly must mention rule changes or dissolving. In the case of the association being dissolved the funds of the association must be used to further the association’s goal in the way decided by the assembly that decided on dissolving the association. If the association is abolished, the funds shall be used the same way.
This took quite a bit of time, hope you appreciate it. Once the final Finnish version of the rules is done, I can pay for a professional translation to help alleviate fears that I have included something dubious in it.
I’d like some feedback on this. I included already some comments, but after I’ve had some more time to think I might post some. The additions will primarily be to ensure that a hostile takeover can’t happen, so I kinda want things like the project committee being able to throw people out and long time members getting more votes included in the rules.