Statutes of the Order of the Pelican in Caid
A. These Statutes are supplemental to the various laws and regulations affecting Caid, The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., and the individual members under these Statutes. These Statutes outlines the formal procedures for the Order of the Pelican in Caid insofar as the Order acts as an organized body.
B. No change shall be made in these Statutes without the Order as a whole being informed of the nature of the proposed change at least a week before the vote on the change. Notice may be by direct communication or by the discussion and proposal of the change in the last previous meeting before the vote.
1. Spelling or punctuation errors that do not change the intrinsic meaning of the Statutes may be changed by the Secretary without submitting said change(s) to a vote of the membership.
A. The organized body described in these Statutes shall have as its members all holders of the Order of the Pelican who reside within the boundaries of Caid except those who decline membership permanently or temporarily. Reigning monarchs and heirs to the throne are attending members by courtesy of the Order.
1. A person resides in Caid if and only if that person has his or her primary home address in Caid.
2. Any person who does not participate in any activities of the Order, such as attending meetings of the Order, voting on candidates, or paying any established membership dues, for two consecutive reigns shall be presumed to have temporarily declined continued membership until he or she begins to participate anew.
3. The swearing of fealty is a tradition in the Kingdom of Caid, but in and of itself does not constitute active membership in the Order.
B. Except as stated elsewhere in these Statutes, all members shall have a right to attend and participate in all meetings of the Order, and the right to seek any office of the Order.
C. For the purposes of these Statutes, only, the seniority of any member shall be determined by how long that person has been a holder of the Order of the Pelican while residing within Caid's present boundaries.
D. All members shall be of equal rank within the Order.
A. There shall be no Principal of the Order.
B. Secretary
1. The Order shall have a Secretary who shall be elected from any volunteers. The minimum term of office shall be one year. The Secretary may serve longer.
a) If no member is willing to volunteer to serve as Secretary, the office will be given to the senior member who has never served as Secretary or who has served as Secretary for less than half a year. If every member of the Order has served as Secretary for at least half a year, the duty of becoming Secretary under this provision will belong to the member who has been a member longest since being Secretary.
2. Responsibilities
a) The Secretary shall be responsible for all paperwork necessary to the functioning of the Order. This shall include, but is not limited to, notification of the Order of meetings and voting results, correspondence to the Crown, and the preparation and filing of annual financial statements.
b) The Secretary shall make and keep a record of all meetings of the Order that take place during his/her term of office and ensure prompt mailings of these records to the members of the Order within two weeks of the meeting date.
c) The Secretary is responsible for the maintenance of the records of the Order.
d) If the Moderator is absent or if no Moderator is in office, the Secretary will chair the meetings of the Order.
C. Moderator
1. In any year, at its option, the Order may elect a Moderator prior to electing a Secretary to serve a term concurrent with that of the incoming Secretary. Optionally, the Moderator may be selected on a meeting by meeting basis.
a) The Moderator shall have the traditional duties of a chairperson at meetings of the Order.
b) Where there is no consensus concerning the scope of those traditional duties, Robert’s Rules of Order will be the sole authority on any issue in dispute.
A. The Order shall meet at least once every reign.
B. The time and place of meetings shall be set by a vote of the Order as a whole.
1. In the event that a meeting previously set must be rescheduled or moved because of unforeseen circumstances, the Secretary shall reset the meeting to a time and location as close to that originally set as is convenient.
C. All members may attend any meeting of the Order.
1. A non-member may attend any meeting of the Order only by invitation of the Order.
D. The agenda of the meeting shall be made by the Secretary and shall include discussion of any candidates for elevation to the Order and any other item(s) that any member wishes to put on the agenda.
1. An item may be removed from the agenda by a vote of the Order at any time.
2. Except for the nomination of specific candidates, any agenda item received by the Secretary after a meeting has begun can be postponed for discussion until the next meeting.
E. The nomination and discussion of candidates shall be the first item of discussion in any meeting except where an organizational matter essential to the conduct of the meeting intervenes.
F. Except as specifically provided in these Statutes, all issues shall be decided by a majority of those voting an opinion, not including abstentions.
A. Nomination and Consideration
The Companions of the Order of the Pelican recognize that the Crown must consult with the Order regarding a candidate per Corpora. By tradition, a peer is not made without the favorable recommendation of the Order.
Recognizing that, per Corpora, the Crown may elevate subjects to the peerage by granting membership in one of the Orders conferring a Patent of Arms, after consultation with the members of the Order within the kingdom, and that the duties of the members of the Order of the Pelican include advising the Crown on the advancement of candidates for the Pelican, the Companions of the Order of the Pelican in Caid acknowledge that when all procedures for nomination, discussion, and subsequent notification, as outlined in Article VIII.D3 of Kingdom Law have been satisfied, and the minutes of that meeting have been distributed, then the Corpora-granted opportunity to advise the Crown has been exercised, and that the Crown has indeed consulted in fulfillment of their requirement to do so. “Consultation” need not result in a recommendation from the Order to Their Majesties.
A Companion who neither attends a meeting of the Order nor responds in writing relinquishes the right to be sought for consultation on the matters discussed at that meeting.
1. Any properly nominated candidate shall be discussed at the meeting in progress or the meeting most immediately following the nomination.
a) Any person may nominate a candidate by forwarding that candidate’s name to the Secretary in writing before the mailing deadline of the agenda and information for meetings.
b) Any member may nominate a candidate orally at a meeting after discussion of the candidates has been completed. Candidates nominated orally at a meeting may not be voted on at that meeting. The names of such nominees will not be placed on the agenda of the next meeting unless a proper nomination for them is received in writing by the Secretary prior to the mailing of the agenda for that meeting
2. The discussion of any candidate shall be limited to matters relevant to that candidate’s qualification for the Order of the Pelican.
3. Every member present at a meeting has an absolute right, but not obligation, to speak on each candidate prior to the vote on that candidate.
a) Written opinions shall be read aloud by the person designated by the writer or if none, by the Secretary.
4. The order of speaking shall be discretionary with the Moderator.
5. If a candidate is discussed, but not recommended by the Order, he/she shall not be discussed at any subsequent meeting unless renominated, with the exception of candidates nominated orally at a meeting as per V.A.1.b.2 of this chapter.
B. Voting
1. All votes on candidates at the meeting shall be by written secret ballot.
2. Votes shall be "Yes", recommending elevation; "No", opposing elevation at present; and "Abstain", reserving opinion. If the total number of non-absentee votes is less than the number of members present when the vote was taken, the difference shall be counted as "Abstain". Submitted absentee ballots containing no marked votes on a particular candidate shall be counted as "Abstain" for that candidate.
3. Illegal votes on any candidate shall be considered abstentions and counted as such. A vote cast at a meeting shall be considered an illegal vote if it is not marked in accordance with Section V.B.2. A vote cast on an absentee ballot shall be considered illegal for a candidate if it is marked with more than one vote: yes, no or abstain.
4. As all votes are secret, no individual member may change his or her vote once it has been cast.
5. Votes at the meeting shall be counted by one member and verified by a second member. The vote totals shall be announced at the meeting. All ballots shall be destroyed after the votes have been counted and verified.
6. Absentee ballots, or notification of the candidates being voted upon, shall be sent to all members who were not present when the vote on any particular candidate was taken, and shall be accompanied by a notice of any deadlines affecting the efficacy of the vote. Such deadline shall be two weeks from the mailing date.
7. All absentee votes shall be individually made by members of the Order and shall be destroyed after being added to the vote tally from the meeting.
8. The Order may at any time of any meeting take another vote on any candidate. The last completed vote by the Order shall control any recommendation.
C. Recommendation
1. Definitions
a) "Total Votes Cast" refers to the total of all members present when a vote was taken, plus the number of absentee ballots returned.
b) "Total Voting Opinion" refers to the total number of "Yes" votes, plus the total number of "No" votes on any particular candidate.
2. A candidate shall be recommended to the Crown for elevation to the Order of the Pelican if and only if the total "Yes" votes on that candidate represent not less than 75% of the total voting opinion and 60% of the total votes cast.
3. A recommendation shall lapse unless the current Crown or their immediate successors act it upon or it is renewed by another vote to recommend.
4. A recommendation shall be retracted upon a vote of the Order if and only if the vote for retraction meets the same numeric criteria as section 2 of this Part.
A. It is the custom of the Order of the Pelican that the candidate discussions of the Order be kept confidential both to protect candidates, and as a courtesy to the Crown for whom we act as counselors. Thus, the discussion of candidates and the results of discussion are considered privileged information. Any member of the Society who receives privileged information or hears rumors concerning peerage discussions is encouraged to speak to the Crown about them. The Crown is encouraged to consult with the Secretary and members of the Order to confirm the veracity of such rumors. As a courtesy, the Crown should notify the Secretary of the Order if it has spoken to a member of the Order about a breach of confidence.
B. Second and successive breaches of confidence by a member of the Order shall be brought into a forum of the Order. The Order as a body shall decide on a case-by-case basis what shall constitute appropriate action.
As voted on and passed by the Members of the Order of the Pelican, September A.S. XIX (1984).
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, January 17, A.S. XXII (1988).
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, October, A.S. XXVI (1991).
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, May 15, A.S. XXIX (1994).
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, January, AS XXXII (1998)
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, February, AS XXXIV (2000)
Changed from Charter to Statutes by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, January, AS XXXVII (2003)
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, January, AS XLI (2007)
Amended by vote of the Members of the Order of the Pelican, July, AS XLII (2007)