The NEIL Community and You
You may already be a part of the NEIL Community. NEIL wants you to be part of the NEIL Community, to have a say in future NEIL efforts and to help determine the direction of NEIL. There are many people with an interest what NEIL does, and we want to hear from the diversity of voices in our Community.
You are a member of the NEIL Community if any of these are true:
You have attended at least one NEIL sponsored event in the last 3 years before the most recent NEIL Board election. At this point, this is either an Intercon convention or a NELCO convention.
You have submitted an article to, or are on the staff of Game Wrap magazine.
You have submitted a LARP to, or are on the staff of the LARP Library.
This definition will expand, as NEIL grows to sponsor more events and publications.
Why Change?
New England Interactive Literature, NEIL, was founded in 2000 as the legal corporation needed to satisfy state and federal laws for running the New England Intercon conventions. The NEIL corporation was designed with a small Board of Directors, needed just to choose the next Intercon chair and to oversee the greater operational business issues outside of Intercon. NEIL has come a long way since then, with the growing list of projects found in the navigation menu on the left side of this page. As this list has grown, so has the Community of people involved in the production of these events, as well as the much larger Community of people enjoying the results of these efforts.
The NEIL Board has always looked to the greater NEIL Community for ideas and new projects. The Board is small, and the Community continues to grow, having more than doubled in size since 2000. In order to better hear the diverse voices and ideas in our growing Community, and to find the new volunteers that will run the growing set of NEIL events and efforts of the future, the NEIL Board of Directors adopted a new set of Community Outreach procedures in November 2015.
We want YOU to be part of NEIL, with YOUR ideas and YOUR help. You can help NEIL grow LARPing throughout New England and beyond.
Voting for Change: NEIL Community Meetings
The NEIL Board of Directors is seeking input, opinions, and ideas from the NEIL Community about elections, policy, and future directions, through regular, open NEIL Community Meetings. NEIL Community Meetings will be held, as necessary, to select members of the NEIL Board of Directors, the Chairs of NEIL-sponsored events, and policy changes proposed by Members of the Community and the Board of Directors.
Proposals for policy changes and notification of elections will be announced to the Community at least fourteen (14) days prior to the meeting at which votes will be taken. The NEIL Board of Directors will make a best effort to communicate this announcement to the Community through the NEIL Community mailing list. These meetings will also be announced at NEIL events, and on the Upcoming Meetings page.
During NEIL Community Meetings, Community Members will be polled for their opinions on candidates for election, on policy proposals, and other Community efforts. To participate in any NEIL Community Vote, a NEIL Community Member must either be present at the meeting, be attending remotely via electronic means, or send notification of proxy to the NEIL President or other officer as designated by the NEIL Board of Directors.
The NEIL Board of Directors are responsible for determining if the Community proposals fulfill the business and legal requirements necessary for the continuing operation of the NEIL corporation. These are issues that the Board will raise in the Community Meeting, when possible. For example, the NEIL budget cannot possibly buy every member of the NEIL Community a Pony. The Board might suggest instead that it would be possible for the Board to pay for 3x5 cards in order to give a Pony Item Card to each Community Member.
After the NEIL Commmunity is polled on the issues before it, the NEIL Board of Directors will meet, generally immediately afterwards. It is expected that the Board will accept and formally ratify Community proposals by the corporation, except in those rare cases where the proposal would violate the NEIL Bylaws, state or federal law, or the laws of Thermodynamics.
Formal decisions made by the Board of Directors on Community proposals will be announced at the conclusion of their meeting.
What Won't Change
Operational decisions, policy implementation details, and business functions required by NEIL Bylaws, state laws, and federal laws, will remain the exclusive responsibility of the Board of Directors, event chairs, and the editorial staff of Game Wrap, as appropriate. It is not the intent to modify the Bylaws of the corporation. The Board of Directors will continue to oversee the operation of the New England Interactive Literature corporation, as required by the Bylaws. Specifically, NEIL is not changing to an organization with a formal voting membership, with the logistical, legal, and budgetary complications that would occur with such a change.
As the Community grows, there may be security issues involving harrassment or worse. It is expected that event Security Staff and the Board of Directors will handle these following the necessary legal and privacy requirements of all involved. The Board will strive to be as transparent as possible in these cases.
Formal decisions made by the Board of Directors on all of these topics will be announced at the conclusion of their meeting.
Going Forward
We expect that the NEIL Community Outreach procedures will evolve and change over time, as the Community continues to grow and evolve.