Castellan Questions Thread

[Admin]

Please use this topic to ask any questions of the candidates for the position of Castellan. We only ask that you are polite:)

Thanks!

[The Valeyard]

1. Question Withdrawn

2. The Castellan is required to be quite active during the year, even though he/she may have long periods of time when they are virtually invisible to the average member. Can you adjust your schedule to meet this activity requirement?

3. The Castellan holds a great deal of power under our system of self-governance, much of it still being defined. Are you able to execute this power responsibly and free of bias?

4. One of the most important requirements is that the Castellan must not be political. What do you think this means for you if you were to be elected to this role?

[Deleted]

1) Above all else I feel any cosplay group needs to be a safe place for all the members in it and the safety and well-being of said members is my top concern. If elected, would you be open to re-investigating rulings from prior administrations if you or another member felt that the ruling could potentially compromise the safety of the members of OoG? Additionally, how would you ensure that the comfort and safety of our membership is your top priority?

2) The role of Castellan has been described as “(a role) where you are specifically prohibited from even giving the appearance of being political” and one where you are “to work with the President to protect the rights of the Membership.” The current & outgoing Lord President of the Order as well as a current & outgoing Commander of Bad Wolf are the two candidates for this office. You’ve both been serving in positions where people may scrutinize and criticize your work. It’s been well documented that I have personally done that in the case of Alex during his time as Lord Commander. How will you be able to compartmentalize those types of interactions you’ve had in the past and govern without factoring political leanings or personal feelings from said interactions during your time in your current offices?

3) While the Order of Gallifrey has 805 members only 26 people voted for Lord Commander in the 2015 Elections. That means you could effectively win the Presidency with as few as 9 votes or 1.06% of the member base. Do you feel the group warrants so many elected officials when they end up out numbering the general active membership?

4) The role of Castellan requires strict impartiality. Depending on the outcome of these elections, we could have a scenario where a married couple could concurrently hold the two most powerful offices (“Lady President” and “Castellan”) in the Order of Gallifrey. I would like each of you to speak not on the individual people, but rather whether having those two roles in the same household is in the best interest of the Order of Gallifrey given that there is inevitable negativity that arises from the role of Castellan and they might not always be on the side of the Lady President.

And one fun one for the road…

5) If you could only do one of your cosplays for the rest of your life – which would it be and why?

[Deleted]

Also adding in a questions that were asked last year just to generate more discussion. These are all from The Valeyard.

1) At what point do which types of disciplinary actions become necessary? In a general sense, what I mean is, where do you draw the line between minor offenses and major offenses, between a letter of warning and a partial ban, between a partial ban and a full ban. And what other options are there?

2) I don't think any single candidate for this office is unqualified for the role. But I do want to know your honest assessment of the hardest part of a hard job: dealing with the inevitable negativity that arises from it, even when people clearly see that you are doing your job in everyone's best interest. How would you handle such a situation? What if an issue strikes to close to home?Would you recuse yourself, or do you feel that you'd generally have the impartiality to judge fairly? (Assuming it's not something that the Charter would absolutely insist you recuse yourself from.)