City Council Voting is Over.

Can you believe City Council term 5 is here already. Lots of great discussions are taking place and we can not wait to bring you new things to do in the park!

Congratulations to our Portage Park City Council Term 5 Winners!

What is the Portage Park Council?

The PPDP moderators - Portage PArk Supreme court

The moderators are currently in charge of running the PPDP discord server. A big part of that consists of trying new things out to see what works. Whatever works is kept and built upon. Whatever doesn’t work is adjusted or simply dropped.

The moderators have the same approach to governance. Our biggest strength as a community is that we are, exactly that, a community. And to achieve long term success we need to leverage that - the excitement, engagement and expertise of our members.

A number of different ways to involve the community in the decisions have been introduced for the very first time in the Upland Metaverse; we have had public votes, debates, competitions, opinion polls, specialist roles and, most recently, elected officials. And the intention is to keep trying new things to see what works.

In the long run, we expect that these initiatives will help us develop a governance structure that supports our long term growth and the general success of our community. Until we are confident we have achieved it, the moderators have decided to reserve the right to keep trying various approaches and ideas with respect to governance.

In the long run, the 4 current moderators see their roles become less executive and more advisory and/or judicial in nature, similar to that of the supreme court: an institution which only steps in when assistance is required or when needed to protect the peace and long term success of our project.

The Portage Mayor

The role of the Portage Mayor(the Mayor) is to coordinate the different roles (elected and specialist) in Portage Park and to represent Portage park in the wider metaverse community.

The Mayor is also the chair of the Council and the Portage government.

To make sure that the Mayor has enough time to deliver on his or her vision for the park, the Mayor is elected for a term of 6 months, as opposed to the 3 months that the rest of the council is elected for.

The PPDP council - handles the business

Most projects and initiatives are discussed and handled by the PPDP council. Individual council members might want to specialize on different projects and issues. However, when it comes to making decisions of importance for the community, the ambition is to strive for consensus whenever possible.

The council consists of 7 members: 3 councillors elected through a popular vote by property owners in the PPDP and the 4 permanent moderators. The elected councillors each serve a term of 3 months, the first starting the 1st of January 2022.

The reason for introducing a council was as a way to activate the community, make better use of members' ideas and engagement, as well as sharing the workload involved in running a server of our size.

Specialist roles

The Portage Council can appoint (and end appointments) of specialist roles to players they think have something unique to contribute. Early examples of specialist roles are social media manager and programmers. These specialists may be made part of the Portage Government, if the council so decides.

The Portage Government: Councilors + specialists

To make the best possible use of our members' talents, most day-to-day business is handled by a wider group of players than just the councilors. This wider group consists of the councilors and a number of specialist roles and is referred to as the Portage Government.

Property Owners: How To Call Debates and Referendums

Property owners have the right to initiate a referendum on any issue they would like the members to vote on.

To call a referendum as a property owner:

1) Submit a proposal in writing.

We have set up a dedicated #community-initiatives channel for members to post suggestions and feedback to the moderator team and/or propose a referendum.

2) Gather enough evidence to show that their suggestion has significant support in the community to warrant a referendum.

While the amount and kind of evidence required might change over time, we suggest that 15 expressions of support from verified property owners in Portage Park is enough. Support is collected by simply reacting to the proposal with a green checkmark ✅.

Once the proposal has reached the target level of support, the moderators have committed to call a referendum where all registered property owners are allowed to vote.