Independent Miners Guild / IMGD

Reading from an IMG advertisement flyer:

(For the OOC manifesto, please scroll down.)

Short Description:

The Independent Miners Guild consists of free, independent people who banded together voluntarily to be able to survive. They combine their skills, equipment and strengths to get the best outcome even in adverse conditions. The Guild operates wherever resources and opportunities can be found. The area of operations is not limited to UEE space, but the Guild is not not afraid of staking claims in uncharted areas or acquiring mining rights in Banu and Xi’An Space.

Short History:

The IMG started out as rebels who fought two big corporations on Magnus II for better working conditions and fairer wages, and then developed a different model of how to work themselves. They had to flee when they found themselves pressured hard by the corporations that they had rebelled against and were forced to retreat to the fringes of civilized space. They settled in the Nyx system and found a home there.

Mentality & Values:

Democratic Values: The Guild focusses on democratic values, individual freedom and self-determination of every member. Every Guildmember has a voice and the right to play a part in shaping the Guild. What unites the members is the refusal to be exploited by mega-corporations ever again.
Frontier Spirit: Guildmembers also share a willingness to take matters into their own hands. The Frontier Spirit that the first independent miners learnt the hard way on Magnus II is still present and it helps the Guild operate even under the harsh circumstances of the fringe systems.
Cooperation: Out there, you have to trust the miner next to you, you have to rely on the hauler to make it through the dangerous piracy zones and you are reliant on the security team that patrols the asteroid belt.

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OOC Manifesto:

What is the Independent Miners Guild?

We are a group of players who love playing as a team, working together, accomplishing tasks together.

What does the IMG do?

We mine resources, transport them to buyers, escort our assets and defend our operations as a team effort. We also enjoy roleplaying our characters, do ingame communication and develop diplomacy in roleplay.

What is important for joining the IMG?

• Teamplay :
  You should be a team player who enjoys working together with others to achieve common goals.
• Roleplay :
  You should also be willing to roleplay a character which is not hard, or at least play as if you were the character that all the others meet in game.
  Example: If your character looses a leg, he/she would never say “Ah f*** it, I just create a new character.”
• Serious Attitude :
  You should be able to play seriously when the situation demands it. We of course do not mind jokes and of course we will have fun, but we do not like memeing and trolling. And you ought not to destroy a tense moment of suspense by cracking a joke.
  Example: After winning a fight, we would never say anything like: “GG, U seriously suck! Ur mom was harder to get!”
• Reading this paragraph :
  For in order to protect us from people, randomly joining without knowing what the IMG is all about, we created this little test here.
  To pass it, you need to join our Discord recruitment channel: >click here< .

What do we NOT want in the IMG?

• Trolling / harrassing
• Memeing / excessive lulzing
• Negative, destructive or disruptive attitude
• Drama queens

There is of course nothing wrong with having good-humoured fun, and we will have plenty of it. But understanding that there are borders to it and when to be serious and mature is important to us.

What is the Roleplay aspect of the IMG?

In roleplay, you are not yourself in the game, but you put a character between you and the game.
Example: I am Marcus, 40 and a teacher in Real-Life, but the character I play in Star Citizen is Jack Henderson, who lives on Levski, owns a spaceship, works for the Guild and loves doing shady business. Playing the game like this allows you to get deeper into the game, and enjoy a higher degree of immersion. It also almost automatically eradicates memeing and trolling, which we do not want.

Is the IMG good as a beginner faction?

• Moneymaking ?
  Yes, our activities generate money and we hope that mining and hauling resources will be very profitable. As we try to play together and work as a group, we will increase safety, but you will also have to share the profit with those who helped. That’s why we stress the teamplayer attribute so much. We will not be the best credit/second faction, that’s not our goal.
• Teaching roleplay ?
  Yes. You do not have to come as a roleplay expert. A willingness to learn it is enough. It’s not really hard to get it and enjoy it.
• When does IMG normally play ?
  Most of our members, as of yet, are Europeans so our main hours are what we call “European prime time”, meaning: early night hours, like 19 GMT, when Europeans get home from work and have some time to play. That does not mean that you will only find us in this time frame, but the chance for cooperative operations and teamplay is best.
• Do you need a particular ship ?
  The answer is NO. You do not need any particular ship, because our fleet is already quite complete:
  tbd
  However…
  …We WANT YOU, to fly those ships !

How does the IMG organize itself?

We organize via Skype groups and Spectrum, where we announce our activities for the day, discuss and plan operations and keep each other informed. It’s also where you can call for help in case you quickly need a miner, a gunner on your hauler or a pilot for your docked fighter.
Up until now we use TeamSpeak 3 for our tactical communication, which might change depending on the abilities of Spectrum.

Is the IMG from Freelancer?

Yes and no.
No: We recreated the IMG and made sure that it fits the universe of Star Citizen. Consequently there is no Freelancer Discovery lore left in this version of the IMG in Star Citizen.
Yes: We have gathered many players of 11 years of the official IMG| Discovery faction, including nearly all past and current leaders of the faction, and re-united them in the IMG of Star Citizen.

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Points of Contact:

Diplomacy:

• Be our guest in our Discord embassy channel: >click here< .

Recruitment:

• Please read the Manifesto paragraph “What is important for joining the IMG?” above and afterwards click the “Join us now!” button.

Reading from a history file:

(For the OOC charter, please scroll down.)

Sometime after the first few dozen members of the IMG have left the UEE Space, they felt the need to give themselves a structure to maintain their own civilization at the fringes of civilized space.
Even though their numbers were small initially, they planned ahead and decided to lay down the core principles of their way of life in a Charter. In it they defined the procedures of how to set up, adjust or discard rules in order to have a law system that could be adapted to the ever-changing challenges of the Guild.

This charter reads as follows:

1.
We believe in, and uphold amongst our Guildmembers and as far as our influence reaches, the declaration of human rights of 1948 AD.

2.
The primary level of determining the Guilds decisions, is the “Council of Captains” (CoC). Every captain who is a member of the guild shall have a voice and a vote in this council and he or she shall speak on behalf of their crew.

3.
Every day business cannot be run by complete CoC sessions. Therefore the CoC elects Guildmasters from the members of the CoC. These Guildmasters shall run certain aspects of the Guild’s business in their name and represent the Guildmember’s interests.
The Guildmasters form the “Guild Council” (GC), who elect from their midst the Archmaster, who is responsible for making sure the Guild (represented by the Guildmasters in the Guild Council), works effectively and united, once a goal is set. Ties may also be broken by his or her vote.
A Guildmaster’s mandate ends, when he or she retires, when he or she steps back, when the CoC replaces the Guildmaster in a constructive vote of distrust or closes a Guild Mastery, with a 2/3 majority, or when the GC decides to return a Guildmaster’s seat to the CoC for reallocation with a 3/4 majority.

4.
As the Messers just recently demonstrated, people in positions of power tend to seize it, or to exploit the system they dominate for their personal benefit.
Therefore the miners decided to create an office with the sole purpose of preventing the corruption of their society.
They created the office of the “Guardian”, who has a seat in both the GC and the CoC, so that he/she knows what is going on in the decision making committees. What separates this office from others is that it has no vote in the GC and also may only vote in the CoC if he/she captains a ship.

The power of the “Guardian” office rests in its ability to veto all decisions that have been made by the GC and CoC, if the Guardian assumes they might harm the Guild.
To execute this power it is necessary that he/she may speak freely in both groups. This also helps to defuse tensions and to ensure constructive cooperation especially when it comes to potentially problematic jurisdiction.
This office would be useless if its holder could be legally removed, therefore a Guardian serves in his/her office for lifetime or until he/she steps down on their own free will.

To prevent any influence of the CoC or the GC on the appointment of a new Guardian, the departing Guardian provides a list of 12 (OOC 3) Guildmembers (captains or not) whom he/she deems suited for succession. The new Guardian may only be elected from this list and with a 2/3 majority in the CoC.
In case no decision is reached, the appointment process continues and no other decision may be made by the CoC until a new Guardian has been elected.
The Guardian has to revisit all decisions made in his/her absence and during the time without a Guardian before his/her election.

5.
To ensure impartial jurisdiction, especially towards those in power, the members of the IMG created the “Table of Judges” (ToJ).
The ToJ is tasked with upholding the rules of the IMG and if necessary punish those who violate them.
Its members are elected like the members of the GC, with the only difference that they need a 2/3 majority to be elected, while a constructive vote of distrust needs a 3/4 majority.
Members of the GC (including the Guardian) enjoy diplomatic immunity while in office, but may be held responsible after their tenure.
The ToJ has to consist of at least 5 Guildmembers and may also return a Guildmaster’s and a Judge’s seat to the CoC for reallocation with a 4/5 majority.
Similar to the GC, the ToJ elects an Archjudge from their midst, whose vote breaks ties.

6.
Elections of the CoC are only binding if at least one third of the electorate takes part in it, personally or holographically.
Votes of the GC are only of consequence if at least half the Guildmasters cast their vote.
Decisions of the ToJ have to be in person and at least 4/5 of the Judges have to partake.
In general, elections are not valid, if an amount, significant to the specific election, of those parts of the electorate, who supposedly have a different opinion, cannot attend the vote.

7.
Guildmasters, Judges and the Guardian, cannot be part of another entity’s ruling body,
with the exception of them being the IMG’s representatives in said ruling body (bound by the IMG’s decisions and replaceable by the IMG).

8.
All those who partake in a venture, shall get paid fairly according to their participation. If they don’t survive a venture, their payment shall be handed in full to their next of kin.

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Roughly translated into OOC terms, the above reads as follows below. Although, if in doubt, the above is the charter we abide by.

1.
Be excellent to each other and don’t drag the guild into trouble.

2.
We try to be as democratic as possible.

3.
The Guildmasters are the guys who donate their spare time for our organization, in order to create more fun for all of us. So please be nice to them. It’s the only reward they get for their work.
All members of the Guild Council are equal. Discussing options, and shining light on a situation from all sides, is encouraged. Once a vote is cast and a majority is found, discussions end and the respectively responsible Guildmaster will act according to the decision that was met.

4.
The Guardian is me, Clyde. I promote members of the guild to Guildmasters, when I perceive them as an integral and positive part of the Guild and when they share the effort of organizing it. I demote Guildmasters when this perception changes negatively for a time.
I may not be as active as other members of the GC, therefore I will only assert my authority as organisation owner, if absolutely necessary, and will usually act as a normal Guildmaster.
I will have a friendly ear for your problems and I will take vigilant care to make sure that our guild retains its democratic culture.

5.
Displaying bad behaviour will result in consequences, which will be decided upon when necessary.

6.
We understand that not every member logs into Spectrum every day. Of course votes will not be up forever, as it would stall our decision making processes. We try to give everyone a chance to have their voices heard by giving reasonable time frames for discussions and votes, however at some point we act.

7.
Just like the IC paragraph says.

8.
Everyone gets paid fairly. We have been flying support missions ourselves long enough to know how annoying it is to get only paid enough to survive.

9.
Like written on our history page, we request everybody to participate in 6 PvP training sessions per month.