A note about vouchers:
Members, please keep in mind when vouching someone into the group, how well your friend does following the guidelines when submitting their app is a reflection of you. You should not just be giving someone a ticket into the group, but guiding them into becoming a member, and showing them the ropes of the group. You should be befriending them, getting to know them and their character, and, ideally, creating relationships with them to get them integrated!
Remember, vouchers are not a guaranteed entry into the group- you must demonstrate a good grasp on character creation and the lore, and meet the literacy requirements. Anything that breaks our rules too severely will be rejected, and admins will only reach out about corrections so many times before we feel like it isn't a good fit.
(With all this said, we are very lenient, and vouchers do not often get rejected- but it's good to keep in mind that it's a possibility!)
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Member voucher tickets are a method of allowing members to invite friends outside of the group into Havensake. This allows new members to bring in characters without applying for kit tryouts/having to use a kitten character first thing, which users sometimes find makes it more difficult to get properly integrated into the group and limits their ability to do things.
Every member of the group receives 2 member voucher tickets per year. These are renewed on January 1st every calendar year, so once a member uses both of their tickets, they must wait until January to try and invite new members again!
If a member tries to voucher someone who gets rejected by staff, the member will not lose that voucher ticket. Voucher tickets are only consumed once the new member is brought into the group!
[Questions & Process]
[Who can I invite?]
Members may use their voucher tickets to invite any nonmember who meets Havensake’s basic criteria to the group:
They must have a deviantART account that is 2+ months old.
They must have a Discord account.
They must be 18+ years old.
They cannot be banned from the group.
They cannot be on cooldown to rejoin the group (2 months from being kicked from inactivity, 6 months from being kicked for bad behavior, etc).
The member inviting them cannot have any existing strikes.
As long as they tick all of those boxes, feel free to try and vouch for them!
[How does the voucher process work?]
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how we handle member vouchers!
1. Member decides on the nonmember they’d like to invite to the group.
2. Nonmember fills out an entire ref and bio of the character they intend to apply with, just as if they were applying to join the group by any other means.
3. Member sends a note to the group with the appropriate title and form filled out.
4. Admins review and discuss the nonmember and decide whether or not they will be allowed to join.
5. If approved, the nonmember will resend in their full application via note to the group, following the appropriate form located in the How to Join journal.
6. If rejected, admins will provide reasonings for why that decision was made, and, if applicable, how long it will be until they can apply again, what they need to work on, etc.
That’s it! It’s a very simple process as long as everything is followed correctly.
[Can voucher tickets be used to bring in kitten, null, or loner characters?]
Nope! A member who joins the group via voucher must apply with a character aged 6+ moons (apprentice or older), and they must join a Tribe. Loners/Wanderers/Exiles/Nulls are not allowed for members’ first character, and if they are joining with a kitten, then it must be through a proper litter, not via voucher ticket.
[Is there a cooldown between voucher ticket uses?]
Nope! A member may use their voucher tickets at whatever pace they choose, or choose not to use them at all. The only “cooldown” that applies is that a member may only have one pending voucher note at a time- however, once that one is approved/disapproved, the member may send in another note for a different user whenever they’d like! Just remember, once you’ve used both of your tickets for the year, there is no other way to get more until January!
[Can voucher tickets be used to bring in characters related to mine?]
Yup! We know a lot of members have family tryouts for their characters, and this is a great way to bring those characters into the group. You may also theoretically hold tryouts for nonmembers in this way- however, we treat these just like kit tryouts, in that you cannot promise a character to a nonmember (with intent for them to join the group) before we’ve approved them for joining.
[Voucher Application]
Ready to send in your application? Cool!
Just fill out the following form and send it in a note with the title, “Member Voucher Appeal”! (With your username in the title, of course!)
Your Username: [your username!]
Nonmember’s Username: [username of the person you’re vouching for!]
Relationship: [your relationship with the nonmember]
Application: [link to the ref and bio of the character the nonmember has made- this must be completely finished before they can apply for voucher/the group]
Other: [have they been in the group before? Have they applied for a voucher before? Let us know the details here, including date of previous voucher, or date the member left the group!]
And that's it! Be sure to ask admins if you have any questions about the process.