USS VALKYRIE NCC-2590 BYLAWS
Section 1: Point of Order

The USS Valkyrie is a Correspondence Chapter (Corry) of STARFLEET (SFI) the International Star Trek Fan Association, Inc., which is a not-for-profit corporation. All of SFI Bylaws, given in the Members Hand Book (MHB) and other policies of STARFLEET are to be observed and suppressed any conflicting Bylaws of either the USS Valkyrie and its Region.

Since the Region is determined by the Region of the current Commanding Officer’s (CO) residence, and the Valkyrie is a Corry with members from various states with in the US as well as members outside of the US, the Valkyrie’s Bylaws that conflict with the current Region’s Bylaws are superseded by the Regions Bylaws.

The USS Valkyrie will have officers as suggested in the MHB. A CO who is also the chapters President, an Executive Officer (XO) who is also the Vice-President of the chapter (see MHB section 3:07), and a Chief of Operations (OPS) as third in command. All three of these positions require that both officer tests: “Officer Training School” (OTS) and “Officer Command College” (OCC) are completed and passed.

There are six distinct levels of service within the chapter:

1) Command; which is held by the CO and XO and are responsible for the representation of the crew to SFI, SFI to the crew, and a fun, cooperative environment that is safe for the crew to express their ideas and opinions regarding anything to do with Star Trek.

2) Department Heads; which is over seen by the OPS and includes Operations, Communications, and Science, it may also include medical, engineering, and any other department that the crew may wish to have.

3) Crew Officers; any member who has past the OTS, and is not in Command nor a Department head. They are free to participate as the wish in any of the departments or not. They may float from task to task as they see fit or sign up for a specific task.

4) Enlisted; these are SFI members who have not taken the OTS, and are free participate as the wish in any of the departments or not. They may float from task to task as they see fit or sign up for a specific task.

5) Yeomen; The Valkyrie recognizes the personal assistant relationship of an officer and enlisted crew member (Yeoman) as being purely voluntary. In general an enlisted member will work closely with an officer regarding anything from a short term project to any time as long as both parties agree. This allows the officer to delegate certain of their positions responsibilities to a single enlisted member to either execute or to like-wise delegate. The Yeoman relationship is a free to serve free to leave cooperative partnership and is created when both parties agree and dissolves as one chooses.

6) Non-members; are simply civilians as it were, just along for the ride. They are those who are not members of SFI. Non-members have no right to vote on the leadership of SFI nor do they have voting privileges in any of the Valkyrie’s leadership roles. They are allowed to participate in all other activities that are not restricted by SFI or the Region.

Section 2: Departments

All responsibilities that are taken on by the Valkyrie’s crew are purely voluntary. However, since SFI is a corporation (regardless of its non-profit standing) there are certain requirements that must be met. The CO is responsible to the body of SFI. The reporting to SFI is done by the CO who can delegate these responsibilities to the XO. The other activities can be delegated to the various Departments.

Operations acts as a liaison between departments and is responsible for ship board elections.

The Communications Department is in charge of making sure the Valkyrie’s newsletter is completed and released quarterly; Spring (May 1), Summer (August 1), Fall (November 1), and Winter (February 1).

The other Departments are to be defined as needed for a smooth running web-site and maintain any other communications networks amongst members, as well as the recruiting of new members and coordinating information about Star Trek activities members maybe interested in participating in, including local SFI meetings, Cons, and fund raisers.

Section 3: Elections and Lack of Confidence Votes

Only SFI members are allowed to vote in any and all elections. All positions of responsibility are subject to appointment or direct elections as well as recall and lack of confidence ballots. OPS is in charge of counting all ballots and the XO verifying with the exception when regarding Lack of Confidence of the OPS position and those votes are counted by the XO and verified by the CO. Any SFI member may write the RC in the event that they believe there has been any ballot tampering.

Every even numbered year a vote is taken to determine if the CO needs to be replaced. A simply one third vote in January (beginning on the first and finalized on the 15th) for a new CO will start the process for the election of a new CO. Any SFI member of the Valkyrie’s crew having past both OTC and OCC test is allowed to run in this election.
All ballots and nominations will be e-mailed to the current OPS. Nominations of at least three votes will be placed on the ballot for February 1st and finalized on the 15th. A majority vote (greater than 50%) for one candidate will elect a CO to start at the beginning of the next month. If there is no one with a majority of votes the two (2) highest vote-getters will be in a runoff election with ballots being gathered from March 1 st and finalized on the 15 th. If there is a new CO the new CO will take office on April 1 st.

The CO is responsible for assigning/recruiting for all positions including XO, OPS, the Head of the Communications department, and other department heads. At any time during service any and all of these positions, including the CO, are subject to lack of confidence vote and replacement.

A Lack of Confidence Vote can be initiated when three (3) crew members ( one officer and two enlisted or two officers and one enlisted) feel that it is necessary to replace any crew member from their position. Their petition will be went in to the CO, OX, and OPS. The OPS (or OX if it’s the OPS under question) will send out notifications to all SFI crew members.

After one (1) week the voting will be closed a 2/3 vote indicates an immediate termination of the member in question position and a ballot is with those the CO, OX, and OPS feel are best to fill the opened position. The votes will be tallied after a week and the position filled. If it is a simple majority then nominations are taken over a two (2) week period and the two with the most nominations are placed on the ballots, distributed, and counted two (2) weeks later with any tie decided in conference between the CO, OX, and OPS even if one of these three are being replaced.

Section 4: Disciplinary Actions

As clearly expressed in STARFLEET’s Bylaws and Member’s Handbook any and all illegal activities (as stipulated by the law; international, national, state, or any other municipality cannot be condoned by STARFLEET and should be reported as described in STARFLEETS MHB.

Any and all situations which cannot be worked out between crew members should be brought to the attention of the CO, if the CO is involved the RC of the region should be informed and the investigation will be carried out as the region has stipulated. The CO has a month to discover all the facts on both sides and to inform the parties as to the correcting measures which will be used.

Appeals can be made to the XO and OPS or to the region’s RC within a month of the decision.

The XO and OPS will review the CO information and then investigates what the appealing party has to say and further the investigation for no more than a month and return their verdict. These internal measures should be mentioned in the MSR as to insure clear documentation and just procedures have been taken.
Section 5: Awards and Promotions

This is considered to be part of the fun which SFI provides. Awards are available at the STARFLEET level, and besides the officers, the crew should become familiar with these since they are also able to nominate each other for them. Many regions have their own award program as well and the officers and grew should also inform themselves as to these since each award has its own set of qualifications which may inspire them to enhance their SFI experience.

Nomination criteria varies from regions to region and only those stipulated by the region can nominate for these awards. Ship board awards are also encouraged and these are left up to the CO based on the crew’s input as to what is appropriate as well as the officers to either recognize outstanding achievements or encourage healthy competition in various operations of the chapter.

The CO has the final say in whether or not a shipboard award is appropriate and if the designated award committee has chosen wisely on their selection.

Promotions from the chapter are solely given out by the CO up to the O6 category as stipulated by the MHB. The criteria is up to the CO although the crew can put forward any recommendations they have.
Section 6: Finances

The CO is responsible for all the chapter’s treasury as stipulate by the MHB and other STARFLEET manuals. Therefore the CO has the right to veto any expenditures, payment processes, and alternative book-keeping before they are put into effect. This veto cannot be overturned although discussion is permitted. If the CO decides to change methods the crew only needs to be informed. The CO is responsible for the books and must include the monthly ledger with the MSR and the Valkyrie’s newsletter as well as the total annual ledger at the end of each year. The only exceptions is in quid-pro-quo (tit-for-tat) that is one member pays for one service. The Communications Officer may send out hard copies of the letter and ask for payment of printing and shipping as long as the payment does not exceed the costs.

The Communications officer is then responsible for the receipts and must send copies to the buying member and to the CO who must note these along with the monthly and annual reportings. STARFLEET is a non-profit organization and any and all monies taken in by the chapter must stay in the chapter to cover expenses. Therefore any charitable giving must be done by the individual members directly to the charity. Since this is a Cory chapter there will not be any fundraising events where monies is taken in as donation as in an event or raffle nor any other situation where money is taken in to be later given to a charity unless there is a three month period of discussion, vote, and charity fund-raiser.

Initially the only expenses that the chapter has is its website, which is now funded by various members from their generosity. If the costs exceed this generosity then the CO may ask the member to either voluntarily send in monies or set a due for membership. This due can be biased against non-SFI members but cannot exceed the needs of the chapter. If new members join or leave the dues will be recalculated the next calendar year. I there is a surplus of more than 10% for the annual outlays then the CO will refund the members who paid in during the fiscal year all equally regardless of when they paid during that year.

If any of these financial procedures fall short of STARFLEET’s or the region’s then STARFLEET’s and the region’s takes precedence.

Section 7: Amendments

Amendments, changes, and corrections may be made to these Bylaws as agreed upon. Simple corrections can be submitted to the CO and if there is no actual change to the running of the Valkyrie then those corrections can be made. If for any reason there is a lack of participation and certain positions and duties have to be carried out these sort of changes should be published for the crew as to needing to happen and why, along with a solicitation for alternative measures. If after a month no other measures have been offered the changes will be foot noted in the appropriate section, dated, and then when the original obligations can be meet the original Bylaw shall be observed and the foot note will reflect when this was done.

As far as amendments go they should be proposed to the CO by either two officers and one enlisted or one officer and two enlisted. These proposals should be presented as they wish them to appear if the amendment is added. The CO as a month to review the amendment and consult with whom the CO wishes. The CO then can suggest changes, corrections, or a completely different amendment and the submitters who then have a month to ask for a vote; either on their original amendment or one of the CO’s suggestions. If they wish to adopt bits and pieces of the suggestions and/or their original amendment they need to rewrite the amendment as they then see it and enter into a dialog with the CO and others as deemed appropriate. This final discussion can last up to two months. If any of these deadlines fail then the presenters can either set the Amendment to ballot or abandon the amendment. The Amendment will be voted on within two months and needs two thirds of all crew members approval to be enacted. The votes will be submitted to OPS and the OX will verify unless either or both OPS and OX helped draft the amendment and the RC will be asked to help with the vote. If the amendment fails it cannot be voted upon again. The CO can “Veto” any new amendments that resemble the failed amendment. These “Vetoed” amendments can be appealed to the OX and OPS and together they can overturn the CO’s veto.

Commander Stephen Halkovic – CO USS Valkyrie
January 2015