Committee procedures.

The NationCHAT Routing Committee consists of seven total members.

1. Seven voting members: The tenure of voting members is a period of Nine months. Members are elected to the committee by the NationCHAT Admin Crew. These members are charged with reviewing applications for new servers and voting to grant or decline new links, reviewing existing servers for performance on the active network, and coordinating routing issues as required.
2. Secretary: The secretary is a voting member of the committee. The tenure of the secretary is currently indefinite. The secretary is elected by the NationCHAT Admin Crew. The secretary is charged with coordinating all Routing Committee activities, directing votes, counting the results, notification to applicants, maintaining the routing-com database, maintaining the NationCHAT P10 Server Numerics listing, and liaising with all relevant parties through established communications channels. The secretary is also a member of the NationCHAT Admin Crew with voting rights; also he/she may participate in discussions of that Committee.
3. NationCHAT Admin Crew: The Admin Crew exists as a VOTING member. His/Her role is to direct the committee on policy established by the NationCHAT Admin Crew, and to act as a fall-back channel of communication. The Routing Committee Secretary liaises closely with the Admin Crew to maintain effective channels of communication.

The Secretary will handle incoming new links applications and database operations. Upon receipt of a new links application which is complete and accurate, the Secretary will ensure the application is updated in the database, forward the application to the public routing-com mailing list and handle all communication between the Routing Committee and the Applicant.

The Secretary will direct a vote by the members for the new links applications received. A valid vote must have a minimum of four votes either for or against the motion. This provides a simple majority with empowerment of every vote. In other words, for a motion to be passed, it must achieve four YES votes. For a motion to be rejected it must achieve four NO votes. Otherwise the vote is void. In the case of two consecutive void motions, the matter will be referred to the Admin Crew for final determination. The Secretary shall notify the applicants of the results of the votes as well as posting to the public routing-com list, and notification to the Admin Crew.

Note that NationCHAT Admin Crew have the right to object to a new links application, and are not required to publicly give notice of their reasons outside that forum. For a new links application to be rejected, at least TWO VOTING NationCHAT Admin Crew members must lodge an objection with suitable substantiated backing documentation to support their objection. These two admins may not be serving members of the Routing Committee. This supporting documentation must be presented to the Admin Crew for review and comment. If the objection is contested by the Admin Crew, then that committee will resolve the discrepancy through appropriate channels, such as a majority vote of at least the quorum of that committee's membership. If the objection is uncontested by the Admin Crew, or upheld by consensus or majority vote, then the Routing Committee will reject the application pursuant to the admin's objection(s). Admin's objections may be lodged at any time, either before the new link vote or afterwards. If the server has already begun its test link by the time the objection is raised, then that server will be delinked if the objection is upheld by the Admin Crew.

Upon granting a test link to an applicant, the Secretary shall liaise between the applicant, the Admin Crew, and other NationCHAT entities to effect the link of the new server. The Secretary shall assign the P10 server numeric to the new server and arrange for DNS entries to be added. A server granted test link status must respond to the notification of grant within 8 days, otherwise the test link offer will be withdrawn and the applicant will be required to re-submit a new application for link.

The Secretary shall direct a vote after a period of 5 to 10 days for a current test link server to decide if the server meets the requirements for full link status to the NationCHAT. Upon completion of the vote, the Secretary shall notify all channels of communication of the results of the vote, and make a recommendation to the Admin Crew that the server should be granted full link. The Admin Crew shall then ratify the decision with a vote on the matter.

Once a server has been granted Full Link status, the Routing Committee need only be concerned with situations which affect the NationCHAT as a whole.

Should a server be found not suitable for full-link status to the NationCHAT, the Secretary shall liaise with the admin of the server to arrange effective delink. The Secretary shall notify the server admin of their option to either delink, or request an appeal of decision from the NationCHAT Admin Crew. (See appellate procedures below.)

There are two primary classes of delink conditions: Voluntary and Involuntary. The Secretary shall liaise with all relevant parties to effect the delink of a server. Servers which voluntarily delink are requested to give as much notice of the decision as possible to facilitate the liaison between the necessary entities. Servers which are selected for Involuntary Delink fall under the direction of the Secretary to effect delink of the server.

1. Servers which voluntarily delink of their own accord, provided they are servers in good standing, have the option to return at a subsequent date in full link status provided the routing and the Admin Crew are satisfied that any network changes that were made (e.g. change of uplinks) will not render that server unusable on the NationCHAT, and the new server is operated by the same administration team. The Routing Committee MUST be made aware of any such network changes, including trace routes/pings (as for new applicants) from the server's new location, BEFORE any attempt to re-link the server.
2. A server which remains in absence from the network for a period of SEVEN days will automatically be considered delinked by the Routing Committee. No CFV for the delink will be held by the Routing Committee in this respect, but the committee will forward the delink notification to the NationCHAT Admin Crew for ratification by CFV.
3. At the discretion of the Routing Committee, a server may be granted extended absence provided that the server's admin can give just cause for the absence, and can guarantee its return within the following week from receipt of the extended absence request. To be granted such extended absence, the server admin must make the request PRIOR to the end of the initial one-week absentee period.
4. Following ratification by NationCHAT Admin Crew, any server delinked in this manner must follow the standard new server application procedures in order to be considered for re-linking to the NationCHAT, including the initial test link period.
5. Servers which are involuntarily delinked may reapply for link at a later date following the full application procedure detailed in the Information for Applicants document on the routing-com page.
6. Note that for reasons of security or other situations where a server may have a negative impact on the rest of the network, the committee may review that server's link at any time. Such possible circumstances include (but are not limited to) server security compromise, other services running on the server which were not previously agreed on by the admin and the routing-committee and/or Admin Crew, uplink connectivity failing to evolve with the growth of the NationCHAT becoming more and more unusable, or a complete change of network locations or connectivity.

In the event that an individual or a server (admin) wishes to appeal against the decision of the Routing Committee, the server admin shall immediately notify the Routing Committee Secretary of their decision to appeal. The appellate must inform the Secretary of his/her appeal request within 48 hours. Failure to do so will result in the assumption that there is no appeal to the decision, thus the course of action will be affected. The appellate procedure only exists for decisions concerning already existing servers - applications for new servers have no appellate procedure at this time. The Secretary shall then note the appeal and notify the Admin Crew of the appeal request. NationCHAT Admins will then hold a Discussion and a Vote on the matter of the appeal. The decision of the NationCHAT Admins shall be final.

The Secretary shall liaise between the appellate and the Admin Crew on all communication relevant to the appeal.

Should an appeal overturn the decision of the Routing Committee, the Secretary shall liaise with all relevant parties to return the appellate to the status held prior to the Routing Committee decision which led to the appeal. In the case of a test link server, that server shall be returned to test link status for a minimum period of 15-20 days. In the case of a full link server, the server shall be returned to full link status.

Please note that this procedure applies only to decisions of the Routing Committee. Appeals to decisions made by the Admin Crew should be directed to the Routing Secretary.