New Club Policy - April, 2004

Tower Mountain/New Hope ElfQuest Fan Club Mission and General Policy

Please read the whole policy over carefully. Please fill out and sign the form at the end to signify that you've read and understand the policy, and to let us know what you want done with your characters should you ever have to drop out of the club. You may change or update the info at any time.
Mission Statement:
Our mission is to maintain an internally consistent Elfquest based fan club, publish a regular fanzine with material from current participating members and to work towards expanding our creative membership.
Roles of Tower Administration:
Teri Gardner (hereinafter referred to as "Teri"); Contact information: basile35@shaw.ca; 20 - 1085 Bute Street, Vancouver, BC V6E 1Z2
Teri is the point of contact for current members. She deals with any general questions about Tower, concerns of members, submissions from contributing members, assigning stories to editors and illustrators and proposals for supplements, stories, the timeline and takes care of internal consistency. She will also take on editing duties and follow up (along with Cyndy) on deadline issues.
Mel Van Houten (hereinafter referred to as "Mel"); Contact information: melvh@earthlink.net
Mel will take care of the club's financial matters and is the club¹s production manager. She is in charge of putting together ³Tales of the Tower² issues, any supplements and/or special issues, and takes care of back issue orders. She will also take on editing duties.
Cyndy Haywood (hereinafter referred to as "Cyndy"); Contact information: cmhaywood@provide.net
Cyndy is the club's "deadline Nazi". She keeps track of the publishing, editing and illustration deadlines. She will take care of the club's general correspondence and inform people of when their club membership renewals are due. She will also be the point of contact for new members and will also be in charge of going over new CISs. She will also assist Teri on internal consistency and will take on editorial duties.
(Hereinafter referred to collectively as the "Editors".)
Maria Manemann; Contact information: markleaf@earthlink.net Maria is the keeper and maintainer of the Tower Mountain website.
General Policy:
By submitting materials for use in the Tower Mountain/New Hope shared universe, a member agrees to the following conditions:
* All members are expected to subscribe to "Tales of the Tower" (hereinafter referred to as "Tales"). If a contributor is unable to subscribe, he or she may make other arrangements with the Editors. Tower Mountain offers two types of membership. The first type is a reader's membership. One year's subscription (currently $22.00) includes two issues of Tales; back issues are available for a nominal fee. A reader's membership entitles you to create characters in one of the human tribes within the Club (see item 3). The second type of membership is the contributor's membership. A contributor's membership cost slightly less money (currently $20.00), and also includes two issues of Tales. However, contributor's memberships must be earned.
* Only contributing members may own an elf character in the Tower Mountain shared universe. There is a limit to the number of elves which can live in Tower Mountain at any given time, so at certain points in the timeline there may be restrictions placed on creating new characters for Tower Mountain proper. There is no limit on the number of characters a contributing member may have, but please be reasonable and do not create more persona characters than you can use.
How to earn and maintain a contributor's membership:
* Writers: One large article or story per two issues of Tales of publishable quality with good plot and characterization, or the equivalent. Equivalents include: two vignettes/short articles; three poems (of more than 12 lines each); ten haikus/limericks. Dual efforts will be considered half a submission by each party.
* Artists: One fully illustrated story per two issues of Tales (as a guide, a fully illustrated story equals one full page, two half pages and two spot illos) or the equivalent. Equivalents include: two fully illustrated cover pieces with two or more characters; five half page illos/full character illos; 12 headshots; seven spot illos. As with writing, dual efforts are considered half a submission for each party.
* Uniques: Contributor memberships can be earned other ways and will be considered on a case by case basis. Uniques include drawing maps; constructing genealogical charts; website maintenance, etc. Contact Teri for discussion. Many of our members do more than one thing (many are artists/writers, for example) and their submissions are counted accordingly.
* Reader's only members may create the following types of characters: human characters from the Redrock Valley Mraal tribe, the New Hope human tribe(s), the Stinkers, or the Nieali_C'in; troll characters from any of the troll kingdoms described (please contact the Teri for details). All characters submitted are subject to editorial approval.
* Contributing members are required to complete a Character Information Sheet (CIS) for every persona character they submit. Contributing members are encouraged to complete a Character Development Questionnaire (CDQ) and a Character Reaction Sheet (CRS) for every persona character they submit. All character CISes, CDQs, and CRSs must be approved by the Editors. Characters created as background "filler" NPCs must be given a mini-bio. All CISs for new characters should be submitted to Cyndy and will be approved by her and one other member of the Editors. We will be checking for overall character and consider magical Talents, skills, personality traits and familial relationships.
* All contributing members must be willing to accept critiques. All stories will be edited, and multiple rewrites may be requested. Writers always have the right to discuss and negotiate with editors and/or request a second opinion. The Editors have final say on what material is published in any Tower/New Hope publication.
Editorial Policy on Stories:
Story submissions should be sent to Teri and must be completed first drafts (story ideas/outlines are fine to submit for preliminary approval, but it will not be considered complete until it is in full story format). Upon receiving a story submission and once it has been approved, the story will be passed on to an editor who will have three months to get initial edits to the author. The author will be expected to work with the editor on the story to get a final publishable product. Once the story is completed, the author may submit a list of artists they would like to illustrate the story. We will contact these artists (starting with choice no. 1) and if none on the list are available, we reserve the right to suggest/assign an artist with the author's approval. The artist will be given four months to complete the illustrations. Then the story will be considered complete and will be printed in the next issue of Tales with available space.
Editorial Policy on Artists:
Art submissions should also be submitted to Teri and completed pieces will appear in the next issue of Tales with available space. We do reserve the right to refuse individual drawings for printing in the issue of Tales. As with writers, some drawings/ideas may not be suitable and we feel, in all fairness, this policy should be in place. Art we decide to not print will be returned to the artist with an explanation. We do edit writers and reject some stories and ideas, we feel we should treat artists with the same scrutiny. We will not reject individual artists as members, but we do expect artwork to be of the same standards as we hold writing
* Submissions from reader's only members are welcome, though not required. All such submissions should deal with the Tower Mountain/New Hope setting.
* Plagiarism is unacceptable; plagiarists will be severely dealt with.
* Submitting a story, artwork, article, character information sheet, or other piece to any Tower/New Hope publication implies permission to publish the piece unless otherwise stated. Copyright belongs to the original creator. This permission includes:
* photocopying, and/or duplicating the submission electronically for purposes of making editorial marks, obtaining character use approval, or archival purposes;
* publishing submissions in Tales, the newsletter, or other supplementary publications; and
* reprinting previously published issues of Tales, newsletter, or supplementary publications as originally published.
* All characters, background elements, etc. are copyright their original creators. If a contributing member leaves the project, he or she should personally provide written instructions to the Editors, making clear the fate of their character(s). An e-mail communication may be considered "written instructions" for this purpose. Members may give this information to the Editors at any time, to cover unforseen absences, and the Editors sincerely hope that they will.
* Options for disposing of a character depend upon the extent to which that character has been incorporated into Tower/New Hope publications, as well as the significance of that character to the development of the approved characters and plotlines of other contributors. A character which has appeared in print in recognizable form (which includes appearing in stories, artwork, articles and timeline entries) must be removed in a manner which does not violate established continuity. Acceptable methods of removing such a character include but are not limited to putting the character up for adoption, giving the character to another member, killing the character, having the character go Functional, or having the character permanently leave the tribe. If, in the Editor's judgement, a character has not appeared in print in recognizable form, the character may, at the creator's request, be retconned out of existence.
* Departing members who put a character up for adoption may, if they wish, specify conditions for adoption (e.g., "Whottaguy may only be adopted out to someone who is willing to continue developing his relationship with Sidekick" or "Whottaguy may only be adopted by a brand new member"). These conditions must be approved by the Editors.
* A character will be considered to have been abandoned if, after a substantial unexplained lapse in a creator's participation in the Tower/New Hope shared universe, the Editors receive no response to reasonable attempts to contact the creator within a period of time no less than six months after the first attempt at contact. Any abandoned character which has not appeared in print in recognizable form will be retconned out of existence (the character may, of course, be reinstated if the creator resumes contact with the Editors). Any abandoned character which has appeared in print in recognizable form will be disposed of as the creator desired if the creator has left written instructions with the Editors for doing so; otherwise such characters will be treated as an NPC under editorial control. NPCs under editorial control may be adopted out to other members or otherwise disposed of at the Editor's discretion.
* Members adopting existing characters may not alter aspects of the character's appearance, personality, history, etc. which have appeared in print in any Tower/New Hope publication, although they may (and are encouraged to) elaborate upon existing material. Aspects of an existing character's appearance, personality, history, etc. which have not appeared in print but which have been substantially incorporated into the Tower/New Hope setting may be altered with the consent of the Editors and of any other members whose established characters and plotlines may be affected by said alterations. Aspects of an existing character's appearance, personality, history, etc. which have not appeared in print and which have not, in the Editors' judgement, been substantially incorporated into the Tower/New Hope setting may be altered with the consent of the Editors.
* Background elements other than characters created by members (e.g. other holts, human tribes, relationships between characters or between tribes, animals, plants, geographical features, devices, etc.) remain elements of the shared universe. Elements created to substantiate a character cannot be withdrawn from the shared universe insofar as those elements have been incorporated into the Tower/New Hope setting. Elements which, in the Editor's judgement, have not been substantially incorporated into the Tower/New Hope setting may be retconned out of existence at the creator's request.
* When you use another person's character in a story, you must submit the scenes where that character appears to the current owner of the character for their approval.
* If the character has a speaking part, approval is necessary.
* If the character plays a major part in the action of the story, approval is necessary even if they don't have a speaking part. Specific actions taken by characters, whether they are performed in the story or referred to as having happened off-screen, must also be approved by the current owner.
* If the character is present in a minor non-speaking part (such as appearing in the background at a party scene) and the character's creator has specifically requested approval for minor non-speaking parts, approval is necessary. Otherwise approval is not necessary for minor non-speaking parts. The Editor may request such approval be obtained in some cases even if the owner of the character has not specifically requested it.
* The author is responsible for getting all pertinent character approvals before submitting a final draft of the story to their assigned editor.
* Getting character approvals: Send the owner of the character the scene/outline/story/etc., saying something along the lines of: "Here's the scene with your character; please let me know if it's OK. If I don't hear from you by (date) I'll assume everything is acceptable." They have three months to get back to you. If they don't respond within that time, send another note saying that since they haven't responded, you're going to go ahead with the scene as written. If there is still no response, then it is safe to assume that consent is given.
* When an author contacts another member for character approvals, we ask that an email be sent to Teri and Cyndy to let us know this has been done. We will be checking to make sure character approvals have been sought out, so please make sure you have done so or you risk delays in having your story printed.
* Storyline Approvals: All submissions should be sent to Teri. The Editors are open to major earth-shattering events being proposed BUT these need to be run by the general membership if these events are going to affect two or more of the main settlements in the club. Should anyone wish to put forth an idea like this, bring it to Teri¹s attention and she will discuss it with Mel and Cyndy and, should the idea receive a green light, it will then be put forward to the general membership. If this is something the majority of members feel they can work with (specific ideas need not be revealed) then it is very likely we will go ahead with the event. We strongly feel the membership should be given the chance to have input and vote on major events. Everyone will be given a deadline by which to respond and after that deadline responses will be looked at and we will go from there. We do ask that smaller scale events that affect more than one creator¹s characters also be approved by others who may be involved. Teri will follow up on this point. It is one thing to keep your cards close to your chest, but it is another to blindside another member with an event that may alter future plans they may have had for their character(s). Please at least give them the heads up so they are prepared.
* Exceptional cases may be negotiated with the Editors.
Character Permissions Sheet I have read the Tower Mountain/New Hope ElfQuest Fan Club mission and general policy sheet and understand it. I agree to abide by it.
Signature:_________________________________
Date:_________________
In the event that I am no longer able to be an active member of the Tower Mountain/New Hope ElfQuest Fan Club, I would like the following done with my characters:
* ___________________________________________________ ________________
* ___________________________________________________ ________________
* ___________________________________________________ ________________
* ___________________________________________________ ________________
* ___________________________________________________ ________________

(If you have more characters to be listed, feel free to photocopy this sheet.) Notes:
Example: I have read the Tower Mountain/New Hope ElfQuest Fan Club general policy sheet and understand it. I agree to abide by it. Signature: Mary Sue Fan Date: April 1, 2004 In the event that I am no longer able to be an active member of the Tower Mountain/New Hope ElfQuest Fan Club, I would like the following done with my characters: Whottaguy: To be given to Joe Fan if he is still a member; otherwise to be put up for adoption. SIdekick: Will wander off into the wilderness in Tower Year 1234, never to be seen again Hotchick: To die of grief after Sidekick's disappearance Notes: Anyone other than Joe Fan adopting Whottaguy must agree to keep up the character's well-known feud with Cheaptrick.

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