Notes
1) Salzie, not I, wrote this draft.
2) Despite the fact that it refers to an estate manager, I believe it's clear that the job functions listed refer to the single owner of a sim rather than to manager(s)
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Proposal for the
Office of the Treasurer and Estate Manager
of the City of Neualtenburg.
The City of Neualtenburg is a "Private Island Sim" in the 3-D world of Second Life. https://secondlife.com/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=GuideEstates , as created and owned by Linden Labs (LL). The City is run as a cooperative, those purchasing land in the sim agree to abide by the self-imposed rules of the City and are deemed as citizens.
While the citizens of Neualtenburg have substantial control over their land and it's use by operating as a co-op, special arrangements must be made to operate under the conditions imposed upon a private sim by LL.
LL considers all private sims to be owned by a single RL person functioning as a single avatar, the "Estate Owner". LL considers that RL person to be entirely and without reservation responsible for the initial purchase price of the sim and the monthly fee (tier) for use of the sim, regardless of any arrangements made with others in-world. The Estate Owner, while being wholly responsible for the payment of US$ fees to LLs, also wields considerable authority over the control of the sim. The principal ability is to "Reclaim" land; that is, to take revert land conveyed by deed to a group to its possession.
Needless to say, this structure of "total authority" given the Estate Owner by LL is contrary to the principles under which Neualtenburg is organized. Therefore, there needs to be a system established by which the Estate Owner can meet two obligations to two different and contradictory masters:
1) Payment of the sim's fiscal obligations to the LLs and meeting LLs Terms of Service, and
2) Adherence to the principles of the City of Neualtenburg.
During the formative months of the Neualtenburg sim, an ad hoc system was created to meet the first obligation; that is, meeting Lls requirements. This proposal is to establish an accountable "Estate and Financial Management System" for Neualtenburg which will meet both obligations.
I have made one important assumption, that under the current contradicting obligations we are best served by combing both roles, that of Estate Manager and Treasurer in a single Office.
The reasons are twofold:
First, LL rules unalterably connect the role of "Estate Owner" with the responsibility to pay the monthly fee. Consequently, the RL person behind the avatar owning the sim possesses both the privileges of being the Estate Owner as well as the financial responsibility to pay the tier. Therefore, the RL person with the RL fiscal obligations deserves the security of having personal and direct control over the flow of whatever funds are available to meet this obligation.
Second, this proposal presents the dual role of Treasurer and Estate Manager as a thoroughly neutral function, minimally involved in the issues confronting the Neualtenburg bodies of government, existing solely for the performance of duties required by the office.
________________PROPOSAL_______________
The City of Neualtenburg, Second Life, establishes the position of Treasurer-Estate Manager.
The responsibility of the Treasurer is defined as follows:
"The Treasurer-Estate Manager shall oversee and be responsible for the receipt and disbursement of all money received by the City and for the investment of money received by the City. "
It shall also be the responsibility of the Treasurer to assure that the fiscal integrity of the City is protected and that all funds are accounted for, whether revenues from taxes, rental charges, user charges, fees, grants, gifts, or any other source and that expenditures comply with applicable Linden Labs TOS's, City TOS's, City Constitution and Laws, City Policies, Administrative Policies and Procedures, court orders and any other mandates affecting expenditures of funds and the management of the City.
In addition, the Treasurer is responsible for establishing controls which will prevent any expenditure of funds which does not meet the requirement of this policy. Violations or attempted violations of this policy are to be reported to the AC, RA and SC immediately upon detection.
The Treasurer shall be responsible for establishing and maintaining internal control procedures that include but are not limited to:
*
# Proper authorization of transactions and activities.
# Adequate documents and records.
Adequate safeguards over access and use of assets and records.
In order that the City present fairly and with full disclosure its financial position and results of operations, the Treasurer is responsible for establishing and maintaining an effective accounting system that will result in the:
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# Identification and recording of all valid transactions.
# Description on a timely basis of the type of transaction in sufficient detail to permit proper classification of the transaction for financial reporting.
# Measurement of the transaction's value in a manner that permits recording of its monetary value in the financial statements.
# Determination of the time period in which the transaction occurred to permit recording of the transaction in the proper accounting period.
Proper presentation of the transaction and related disclosures in the financial statements.
The responsibility of the Estate Manager is defined as follows:
"The Estate Manager shall serve as the RL person with respect to the requirements imposed upon the City by Linden Labs regarding Sim(s) Ownership. The Estate Manager shall serve as the RL contact person with LL regarding matters pertaining to the sim(s). The Estate Manager shall oversee and be responsible for the sim(s) estate management duties as imposed by Linden Lab upon the Sim Owner."
It shall be the responsibility of the Estate Manager, under instruction of the appropriate government bodies of the City, to implement action to control or use the various tools and privileges which are provided by LL to the "owner" of the sim, including, but not limited to:
*
# Reclaiming and transferring land
# Altering terrain height and ground textures.
# Implementing "Access" and "Ban" controls as necessary.
Use of any current or future estate management tools as needed.
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Policy Regarding the Treasurer-Estate Manager:
The Treasurer/Estate Manager (TEM) of Neualtenburg shall be a RL person assuming responsibility for the payment of fees authorized by the City incurred by the sim(s) to LLs or other authorized providers.
The RL person, in the form of their principal avatar, must be a citizen of Neualtenburg, as defined by the founding documents.
The RL person must establish an alternate avatar; that is, one different from their primary SL persona avatar. This alternate avatar's sole purpose shall be to register with LLs as the "owner" of the sim and shall be solely devoted to the purposes of "owning" and "estate-managing" the sim(s). All funds of this "technical owner/manager" avatar are and shall remain the property of Neualtenburg.
The TEM must disclose their RL contact information in confidence to another Citizen of their own chosing in case the untoward should happen to the TEM.
The term of office of the TEM shall be one year, with no term limits. In accordance with the Constitution of Neualtenburg, any citizen of Neualtenburg may nominate a candidate and the members of the Guild shall, by whatever procedure they choose, select the TEM. The TEM may be removed for cause by an action initiated by either the Guild or the RA. Both the Guild, by whatever procedures they choose, and the RA, acting by a two-thirds majority, are required to approve a recall of the TEM. A recall action must be brought with a simultaneous nomination of a new candidate for the TEM. Should the recall measure pass, the Guild must immediately select a new TEM as, due to LL policy, the sim(s) must have a RL owner at all times.
Duties of the Treasurer-Estate Manager:
1) To timely pay the monthly tier fee, and any other associated costs, to LL.
2) To handle real estate transactions under the direction of the appropriate government bodies of Neualtenburg; e.g., to receive applications from new members and existing citizens for the purchase or transfer of sim(s) land; to prepare necessary the deeds, to guide applicants through the process to ensure transactions are properly executed, and to keep accurate public records regarding the sim(s); the land, the parcels, the ownership configuration, and the obligations of each citizen regarding their monthly fee.
3) To handle the financial transactions under the direction of the appropriate government bodies of Neualtenburg; e.g., to collect revenues, disburse expenses, transfer and exchange currency, and to maintain the necessary in-world and RL accounts needed to administer City funds in both L$ and US$.
4) To maintain a financial system in a manner consistent with RL standard accounting practices, using standard double-entry bookkeeping principles.
5) To maintain an open reporting and record systems which provides the Citizens of Neualtenburg information regarding the financial status of the city and land ownership data. However, RL information regarding Citizens, e.g., contact information, paypal account information, etc., shall be kept private.
6) To cooperate with the bodies of government as established by the citizens of Neualtenburg in carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the office and to work with any special Committees established by such bodies to develop and implement suitable oversight systems.
7) To provide other duties as assigned.
End of Proposal ---------------------------------------