Tuesday, May 24, 2016

A message from the Arbitration Committee

With the EH Council meeting months behind us and the event season ramping up, we, the Arbitration Committee, wanted to address the community to reintroduce ourselves and clarify a few questions that we've been asked.

The AC was formed at this year’s EH council meeting and charged with the task of “holding accountable, to the Realms-at-large, those who are accused of negatively affecting our community, in a timely manner outside of the EHC meeting.” As a reminder, the 2016 AC includes John Berrini, Jason Gray, Jason Rosa, Dave Hayden, Ben Green, Jeremy Grayson and Henry Giasson.

“Arbitration” within our name speaks to a commitment of conflict resolution, and holds us to a standard beyond rule enforcement. When approached with a cheating charge, our intent is to see any issue resolved at the lowest possible level. One question the AC will ask you is “Did you speak to the event holder where the issue arose?” Or, if the issue is between group members, "have you spoken to your leadership?"

If the time comes where you need to file formal charges against an individual, we have put together some guideline information that we feel is necessary to effectively arbitrate your issue. This information includes:

- Your name
- The offending party's/parties' name
- Names of any witnesses
- The event the issue occurred at
- The issue/matter/something else for us to consider
- What, if anything, has been done to try and address the issue.

Know that in this process one of us will be speaking with the other party involved making sure we understand their side of the incident. At the present time, the Omnibus states that “charges must be brought by an event holder” this means that if you are a non-event holder who wishes to bring charges you must have an EH validate your cause.

In an environment of friends and fun, it is our hope that  the AC will not be necessary, but, if needed, we are willing and ready to serve the community and the good of the Realms. Thank you.