Term Limits for Babbage - A change of management.

[Shaunathan Sprocket]

It has been an exciting and challenging time running a city-state for the past 2 years. I see entirely why George Washington set the 2 year term limit in motion within the United States. After two years you feel exhausted in a way that's practically impossible to describe. Even the will to log in seems to not be there for me. I want new challenges, I want to move on. Also I think New Babbage deserves better than my absence. It's time for a new mayor. I hereby invoke a 2 year precedent.

Sadly, it's not as easy as hosting an election. New Babbage is an asset. It is profitable. And it is indeed worth something. It would also be a thoughtless act to simply sell to the highest bidder. Everyone here deserves more than that. I want to sell to someone who has vision, someone who will not only maintain what we have, but strive to grow and evolve it further. We have a unique situation.

Currently, a brand new (and vacant as a desert) sim costs someone $1000 USD to purchase and $295 USD per month to keep. New Babbage is 6 sims of thriving community and active renters, and to use an analogy, an appartment full of renters is worth more than an empty building. I am willing to sell New Babbage to someone for $6,000.00 USD, However there are some strings attached. I want the people of New Babbage to approve you.

If you are interested in buying New Babbage there is nothing I can do to "make" you continue New Babbage. Legally, you could wipe the sims, tell everyone to leave, and build a gorean wonderland (no offense to any who enjoy Gor). But, by having the land owners of New Babbage approve you, I think there's a good chance you'll take New Babbage on a path to greatness.

If you fancy yourself a mayor. If you think you can lead New Babbage, I invite you to post on a second thread I have started "New Babbage Election". Please go there and make your case to the people of New Babbage. Tell them what you will do as Mayor of New Babbage. PLEASE remember, if you win the election, you will have to pay me $6,000.00 USD for New Babbage so only post if you are serious please.

This thread is for any reaction, but only post on the "New Babbage Election" thread if you want to be the mayor. I ask the forum mods to keep this enforced. I think we can have an election before Valentine's Day. After we have a New Mayor, I'd like to share with everyone what I plan to be doing with my time, I think you will all approve.

IF YOU WANT TO RUN: If you are elected, and I receive payment in full. I will provide a "change of power" peroid where I'll make sure you have all the items, contacts, and permissions so that you can run New Babbage.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO VOTE: You must be a New Babbage landholder with a positive number of days remaining in the rental board by January 25th. The size of your parcel or number of parcels you own does not matter. You simply must own a parcel of land by Jan. 25th. If I am not available you may do land deals through Charlene Trudeau, as she is authorized by me to sell land in New Babbage on my behalf.

For quick reference the place for campaign platforms is here:
http://newbabbage.ning.com/forum/topics/new-babbage-election

[TriloByte Zanzibar]

Back to a practical question regarding the vote. BlakOpal and I are two distinct residents. We have three parcels in New Babbage, all deeded to me (since I tend the details like keeping tier payments going). Does this mean she has no vote in the matter, or do we need to play land title games in order for her to count?

[Greg Merryman]

My 2 cents.... I disagree with the idea that a coalition is doomed to fail. Most successful businesses and non-profits are run by a a board of directors who oftentimes have an elected chairperson and they are able to steer the business along just fine.

IMO if a group of people got together to buy Babbage, the first order of business would be to create a corporation and sell shares. A charter would need to be created to handle the elections of the chairperson, how one becomes a board member, how one gets removed from office etc. etc. The corp would own Babbage and the AV.

The AV that owns Babbage would simply be the interface to the sim for management purposes and access to the corp's bank account. The AV would be owned by the corp... not one single person. The AV's password would be owned by the corp. Anyone changing the password without a consensus would be subject to RL laws... just like if some accountant at Microsoft logged into Microsoft's bank account and changed the password or embezzled money. This av's typist might be any one of the board members or a subset at any given time.

Having shareholders and board members all over the world would complicate things immensely.

Shaunathan Sprocket is not responsible for paying the bills.... his typist is. The corp would require real names not SL av names. Just because someone is an investor in the corp would not necessarily mean that their AV is automatically a sim admin or that they have ever even logged into SL or know squat about it.

Once the corp was setup, then the discussion about Babbage's government, the acquisition of other sims and how to take over SL could begin. Maybe it could be a non-profit and get lower tier?

A corp is more expensive tor run than a sole proprietorship... our business is an S-corp and every time I turn around the US and state governments are in our pockets. I have a CPA who handles the filing of all the ongoing BS paperwork and who charges real money for this service. I am the president of the corp which mean absolutely nothing. Usually whoever goes to the accountant to get it setup is president but it mean nothing.

I'm not saying this is the thing to do.. it'd be much simpler for a single person to just buy it outright but more risky I think too. Shaun could get pissed, laid off, get into an accident etc... and Babbage could very well disappear. A new owner could break their campaign promises and turn it into whatever. 2 heads are better than 1 is an accurate statement.... 20 heads.... not so sure.

I would probably not invest real money into a lose knit coalition of SL avatars who were not setup as a legal entity in order to "buy" Babbage, but then I have no money anyway.

[Ceejay Writer]

There is an old saying "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." There's another saying "Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket CAREFULLY" There's those that say "Ceejay is a basket case."

I'm fond of the multi-basket scenario. People IRL can get hit by a bus. People IRL can move on to other ventures. A GROUP is less likely to en mass be struck down by public transportation, or all decide at once that WoW is amazingly cool and all vanish there together never to return.

I see the benefits of a Corp.

[Mara Razor]

Can someone else from Steelhead help me out here, but isn't Steelhead owned by more than one person? I also know when I first started rp'ing in Rivet Town it was three sims - two owned by one person and one owned by another.

[Kandace Commons]

As far as I know, Steelhead is only owned by TotalLunar Eclipse, but I could be wrong. And yes, Rivet Town used to be owned by two people. I heard there was a fight and they ripped apart. Hence my point. If there's going to be group ownership, I think Greg's idea is the only way to ensure something catastrophic doesn't happen, but there's a lot of downsides to doing it that way also.

[Edward Pearse, Duke of Argylle]

Steelhead is owned by Kattrynn Severine and is Managed by TotalLunar Eclipse and Tensai Hilra.

[Kandace Commons]

Ah, thanks. So again, one owner who delegates, the only real option in SL.

[Mara Razor]

I thought Lunar actually owned a couple of the sims - like maybe Boomtown and the new Port Harbor. What happened in Rivet Town had to do with the fact that the owners were a couple and they split. The cooperative that Bob speaks of wouldn't have that additional complication, I hope.

[Kandace Commons]

Doesn't matter, ultimately, that's only one reason for a dispute. There's countless others that can and most likely will arise. I hope that if a coalition buys Babbage that I'm proven wrong, really, but I have a lot of misgivings about any such arrangement.

[Kandace Commons]

If properly incorporated so that real life laws governed Babbage and not just the LL ToS, I could see that working, but there's a whole new level of fun if someone wants to make a full blown corporation out of Babbage, I don't envy them that. Depending on what type of corporation, you're talking about required shareholder meetings with minutes, detailed accounting that's subject to auditing, all sorts of corporate tax issues, and so on. This is a fairly huge and not inexpensive undertaking to do that on top of purchasing Babbage as the company's 'product.' You're talking about adding a lot of additional manpower hours required to maintain Babbage above and beyond what it takes now.

[Kandace Commons]

I guess the real question is, do the citizens of Babbage want to be part of a corporation inside a corporation or not. Is that a concern for anyone?

'Can I/Can you...?'
'We'll bring it up at the next board of directors' meeting.'

Meh. Pros and cons I guess.

It'll be like a Linden Lab that's inside a Linden Lab, think about it. ;P

[Ceejay Writer]

Some personalities can handle corps, others cannot. *shrugs* Let's see who steps up to the plate. And then judge them accordingly.

Me, I'm out for the night. This is fascinating, but it's 5:19 am and good gosh I love my sleep. Back tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I will dream up a source of $10,000.