Citizenship in the CDS is tied to land ownership within the community, granting rights such as attending meetings, voting, and running for office.
Land Ownership
In general, citizenship and its related rights and responsibilities are directly bound on owning at least a small parcel in one of the CDS sims. It is not enough to be a CDS friend, visitor or partner of another CDS citizen. Some rights are bound to certain due dates. For example, to become an elected member of the Representative Assembly, you need to have been the owner of a parcel since a given time. Citizenship and all connected rights will cease when parcels are abandoned.
Rights and Responsibilities
The following list gives an overview of the rights and responsibilities.
- Citizens may attend committee meetings, and voice opinions and make suggestions about how the CDS is run.
- Citizens in good standing can vote in elections.
- Citizens in good standing may run for government office or become part of the Executive team under the direction of the Chancellor.
- Citizens must read and comply with the covenants of the region that they are in.
- They must abide by the Declaration of Human Rights as noted in the CDS Constitution.
To qualify as a ‘citizen in good standing’, citizens must hold the title to their land for more than 28 days, and have tier paid in full.
Group Registration Process
A citizen in good standing may apply for group citizenship. The application is to be directed to the Chancellor via notecard with a copy to the Dean and must contain: citizen applicant’s login name, login names of any proposed group citizens and their group administrator status, group name and group key, parcel tierbox name and parcel ID to be deeded to the group, and the login name of the individual tierbox tenant to be set for each parcel.
Each individual group citizen must be the tenant for at least one tier box, no more than one individual may be a tierbox tenant, and a maximum number of five group citizens are allowed per group. Prim parcels and their tier boxes are locked to ensure that they are properly regulated; they are reserved to supplement the prims of small parcels. Ownership of a prim parcel does not qualify for citizenship, whether individually or through a group.
Campaigns and Elections
A government term of office for the five members of the Representative Assembly and for the Chancellor is six months, so two terms a year: December 1 through May 31, and June 1 through November 30.
To be a candidate for a CDS office, you must be a citizen in good standing, that is you must own at least one CDS parcel and you must be current in payment of your tier. On a defined due date, you can declare your candidacy by submitting a notecard to the Scientific Council Dean with your name and the office you want to run for.
Election Process
Every April and October, the qualification deadlines are set and the call for candidates is sent out by the Scientific Council. In April / May and October / November, respectively, the campaigns and the polling take place.
Sources of information about campaigns and elections are on the CDS Forum (branch “Scientific Council Announcements”) and the inworld CDS Group Messages. In case you missed them during your online times, go to the group’s info tab and check for them.
The election is conducted using the Single Transferable Vote. This is prescribed by CDSL 32-1 Election Bill (STV Quota). Polling only takes place when there are more candidates than seats to be assigned. When the number of candidates equals the number of seats to be assigned, the polling is skipped and the candidates are “acclaimed”. When there are fewer candidates than seats, the Scientific Council attempts to fill the empty seats by a by-election during the running legislature period.