Team England Charter for the Eurobowl Event (revised Nov 19)

[Pipey]

See attached PDF.

Revised November 2019 after community votes for Document A (structure) and Document B (selection). Doc A was accepted (91.2% yes; 31 to 3) and Doc B rejected (36.4% yes; 12 to 21).

Content of the Charter pasted below (for those who are not TFF forum members and may not be able to download the document):

Team England Charter for the Eurobowl Event
Revised November 2019

Contents
1. The Eurobowl Event and Eurobowl Cycle
2. Team England
3. The Team England Committee
4. The Team England Charter
5. The English Eurobowl Team Captain
6. The English Eurobowl Team
7. Eurobowl Team Selection
8. The English EurOpen Team
9. Team England Voting
10. Team England Practice Sessions
11. Appendix – Illustration of Eurobowl Cycle and Key Events

1. The Eurobowl Event and Eurobowl Cycle
When we refer to the Eurobowl Event, we are referring to the event comprising two concurrent tournaments, the 8-player team tournament Eurobowl and 3-player team
tournament EurOpen.

The Eurobowl Event is held three years out of four, on a four-year cycle. The cycle ends with the NAF World Cup. We refer to EB1, EB2 and EB3 as the three Eurobowl Events in the cycle.

2. Team England
We would like to encourage all English coaches travelling to play at Eurobowl or EurOpen to consider themselves part of Team England. This may mean any number of things from
wearing the same team shirts to taking part in community discussions together e.g. travel planning, debating rosters choices and tactics.Within the Team England group there will be an official English Eurobowl Team and an official English EurOpen Team. Also see point 10 below about Team England practice sessions.

3. The Team England Committee
The committee is five-strong. It comprises four regular Committee Members along with the English Eurobowl Team Captain (see point 5 below). Committee Members are elected by community vote in the September before the final Eurobowl event (EB3) in the previous cycle. All Team England votes follow the same principles (see point 9 below) and any English NAF member may stand. The four regular committee members stand for a 4-year tenure. They therefore preside over a single Eurobowl cycle. Captains have a shorter tenure (also see point 5).

The elected committee’s job is to lead a process of community consensus around how Team England works at the Eurobowl Event. This is in accordance with NAF Tournament Approval guidelines relating to tournaments where players are selected to represent nations. For these tournaments (such as Eurobowl) the selection procedure must be discussed and consensus reached amongst the community within each nation. The Team England Charter (see point 4 below) documents this agreed process and it is the committee’s job to uphold and review the charter where appropriate.

If during the four year committee tenure a regular Committee Member has to leave their role for any reason then a replacement committee member will be elected.

4. The Team England Charter
The Team England Charter tells us how the English Eurobowl and EurOpen teams are established. It explains how the Team England Committee works and how the charter is governed. Changes to the charter may be proposed by the committee. The committee should base
any review on the views of the community. Clear lines of communication between community and committee should be in place e.g. via the Team England section of Talk Fantasy Football.

It is anticipated that changes to the charter will be infrequent. However, the charter may be changed more than once or not at all in any Eurobowl cycle. Any changes to the charter must be put to community vote for acceptance or rejection. At least three out of five committee members must agree to a proposed change. Changes relating to the Committee (point 3), the Charter (point 4), the Eurobowl
Captain (point 5), Eurobowl Players (point 6) and Voting (point 9) require a two thirds majority or greater to bring about change. Changes relating to Eurobowl and EurOpen Team Selection (points 7 and 8 ) require a majority of greater than 50% to bring about change. In cases where the committee presents multiple options for change, a further instant run-off vote (see point 9) will be held. The no-change option will be included again in any such second-phase votes.

5. The English Eurobowl Team Captain
The Eurobowl Captain has three tasks a) to select the English Eurobowl Team, b) to take the fifth place on the Team England Committee and c) to represent Team England at meetings, as required by the Eurobowl Committee. To be eligible for the role, candidates must have played a total of at least 50 non-variant tabletop NAF games, and must have previously played at a Eurobowl or EurOpen outside of the UK. The captain may apply for the role in a playing capacity (taking their place in
the Eurobowl Team automatically) or a non-playing capacity when their job would be to pick all eight players and lead the team at the event without playing.

Candidates will be invited to come forward by the committee in the November before the Eurobowl that they would be captain. The committee will maintain a public list of those who have put themselves forward for the role.
If more than one candidate comes forward there will be a community vote (see point 9) which will be held in December. The captain’s tenure is normally one year, though the captain in place for EB3 (prior to a NAF World Cup year) will remain on the committee for further year until a captain is in place for EB1 in the next cycle.

The captain must select the team in accordance with the rules set out in the Team England Charter. These rules are explained in point 7 below. The captain announces the team in early May, traditionally around the weekend of the NAF Championship in Nottingham.

6. The English Eurobowl Team
In order to be picked for the English Eurobowl Team, coaches must be English NAF members who have played at least 25 non-variant tabletop NAF games in the year-long
qualifying period prior to selection. The qualifying period is May 1st to April 30th in the 12 months prior to the team being announced. The committee will invite individuals to come forward and hold a list of eligible coaches.

Regarding national eligibility, Team England will follow rules or guidelines set out by the Eurobowl Committee. If the rules or guidelines are not clear in a particular circumstance
then the committee will make a ruling.

7. Eurobowl Team Selection
The English Eurobowl Team Captain picks the team subjectively. Choices are guided by soft principles of selection which are not absolute. The principles are: Participation in tournaments, Contribution to the community and Gaming Skill. It is also preferable for players to have attended a tournament in Europe before being selected. Players should play fair and uphold the spirit of the Eurobowl tournament.

8. The English EurOpen Team
An official English EurOpen team was first established for the 2018 EurOpen in Wales. As of November 2019 there is no agreed way to select the team; the committee will discuss the matter with the community to find a way forward.

9. Team England Voting
Votes may take place to elect committee members, a captain or a team. They may also take place to accept or reject revisions to the Team England Charter, or to choose
between charter revision options.
In order to vote in any of these elections, voters must be English NAF members and must have played a NAF tournament in the 12 months prior to voting.

Votes for where there are more than two choices (candidates, charter options etc.) will be held using Instant Run-Off Voting. This type of preferential voting is carried out as follows:
> Voters list ALL candidates in order of preference
> At the end of the voting window returning officers analyse the votes in a series of phases
> In each phase the candidate with the fewest first place votes is eliminated
> Before the next phase any first place vote for an eliminated candidate is erased, so that that voter’s second place vote now becomes their first
> The process is repeated as above; again the candidate with the fewest first place votes will be eliminated
> This continues until there is only one candidate left (or more in the case of electing multiple candidates at once, such as with a new committee) at which
point the vote is complete.

If there are two options only, then the vote would take the form of a simple choice between one or the other. In all such elections, nominees may vote for themselves if they wish. Committee members and captains may also vote.
It is the role of the committee to find appropriate returning officers for vote counting. Returning officers should not be candidates and, as far as is reasonably possible in a
small community, should have no vested interest in the outcome of the vote.

10. Team England Practice Sessions
Participation in all forms of practice for the Eurobowl event is encouraged, from informal pickup games to more organised events. Practice provides a valuable opportunity to get together and try out rosters and tactics.
It may be feasible for the committee to organise a practice tournament in the months leading up to the event.