This article is a tutorial on how to host a USUV meeting, including how to decide hosts, building the meeting hall itself, and arranging the meeting schedule. Some contents in this article are not bound by the USUV charter and only reflect the currently approved standards, which may be changed if necessary by majority vote.

Deciding a Meeting Host

The USUV decided to remove formal rules for picking a venue as to reduce the burden on the Chair. Although, the following rules are here as a general guide if the chair chooses to use them:

A new venue which has never hosted before.
An existing venue in an active location which has not hosted for longest †.
Should this location not be available for any reason, proceed to the next active venue and so on.
Should there be no active venues available, attempt to host in an exsisting venue in an inactive location.
Failing all else, host the meeting at USUV HQ.

† This can be determined by looking at the currently active USUV venues. Activity of the location is subject to debate but this is usually obvious.

Meeting hosts should be decided in advance, usually at a HQ meeting to give hosts time to prepare. Note that due to the next location being at the chair's discretion, a vote usually isn't required to decide meeting hosts.

If you would like to have your meeting hall used for the next meeting for any reason (decorated for a holiday/event. the hall/settlement is used for a statement, etc.), ask the current chair if moving the meeting location is acceptable.

Meeting Schedule

Meetings are currently held every three weeks. The meetings take place on a Saturday at 20:00 UTC in winter, and 19:00 UTC in summer.

Every third meeting takes place at USUV HQ, with others taking place at external venues in full USUV member states.

Postponing or Cancelling a Meeting

USUV meetings can be postponed should there be other events that clash with it (excluding meetings of other organisations), or if it is generally agreed to do so for another reason.

The preferred postponement date would be the following day, usually Sunday, failing that a week later and so on. Note that if a meeting is delayed by one or more weeks this would shift the following meeting back as well to maintain a three week gap between meetings.

Other Meeting Formats

During Term 3, a test for hosting a meeting on the UV Discord was held. It was later agreed on that Discord-based meetings are to be used for a last resort, like if the server is down or joining the server is not possible for a large amount of participants.

Although, due to the Minecraft-Discord chat bridge, attending a meeting from Discord is possible, and very common for some USUV members.

Building a USUV Hall

A USUV meeting hall can take any shape or size, with a variety across the server in unique locations such as underwater, in caves, temples, buildings and everything in between.

Meeting halls have only a few basic requirements:

Around 20 voting desks or more is recommended, including two for independent voters and one for Community Settlements.
A ballot box.
Areas for observers to sit and watch the meeting.
Areas to store spare agendas and charters.
Sufficient security standards †.

† Preferably a lit, enclosed space, with no dangerous mobs or structures nearby. If you can go AFK in the meeting hall without being worried of being killed by a zombie or creeper, its safe enough.

Meeting desks should have indicators for voters to show approval or disapproval of a vote, a lectern to read agendas, and a chest/barrel to hold ballots or other information for the meeting.

If you're having issues designing a meeting hall, take a look at the USUV HQ, and Freedom City, Seacrestica, and Rotherhythe's meeting halls. On the other hand, avoid something like Naval Detroit's meeting hall.

Running the Meeting

The Chair or Vice-Chair usually runs the meetings although there are some exceptions:

The chair can request someone to act as the speaker that meeting
If either chair is not available and the chair did not promote someone to speak on their behalf, the person hosting is usually picked from the elected officials currently present

There is also a bill to return the old chair replacement order from the v11 Charter:

Treasurer
Head of Security
Archivist
Judge

The meeting host should call out the item number, preferably in bold or colored text. They should then give a brief description of the agenda item before opening the debate, and clarify points where needed. They should give sufficient time for the debate to take place but also be conscious of time especially if it is a busy agenda.

The meeting host should declare when voting begins, carefully and accurately count votes/ballots, and then declare the outcome to the meeting.

The meeting host should be conscious to allow everyone interested in attending the meeting to arrive in time before starting the meeting, and close the meeting upon the conclusion of all points made. There is currently no time limit, but the meeting usually lasts 45-70 minutes.

Motions

Motions are things that people talk about and then decide if they need to vote on them or not. There are different kinds of motions:

MAJORITY VOTE: More than half of the people have to say yes to the motion. If the same number of people say yes and no, then they will wait until the next meeting to vote again.
LOCAL VOTE: Each person votes on the motion only for their own place and it will only happen in their place if they said yes to it.
SUPERMAJORITY VOTE: At least 66% (or 2/3) of the voting members have to say yes to the motion for it to pass. This is for changing the big rules (except for the first time or small changes). It is also for some special votes like letting new people join quickly.
BALLOT: When there are more than two choices for a vote, a ballot will happen with people putting a paper with their choice in a chest.
DEBATE: A debate or discussion of a specific topic.
STATEMENT: A talk by a person or a leader.
ELECTION: A vote for choosing USUV cabinet members.
PUBLIC BALLOT: A vote that anyone can join, even if they are not in USUV. Public ballots have to be agreed by the members before they happen.

Permanent Agenda Items

The agenda items were removed with the v12 USUV charter, but there is an active bill to reintroduce them in the upcoming meeting (Meeting 77). These points allow for full discussions and debates of many aspects of the server.

The original list is as follows:

Highways and Community Projects.
Market and Trade.
Member State Promotion and Updates.
Events.
Any Other Business.