MM: Leaving a Community Group

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When a Senior Member feels that they do not belong in their current Ajah or Community and that they need to find a new one where they fit better. A Senior Member who wishes to leave their member group should send an email to the Director of Membership with the reasons they wish to leave. There will be a two week waiting period between receipt of the application and a decision. The applicant may change their mind at any time during this period. If the Senior Member is approved to leave their group and this is their first or second time leaving a Senior Membership group, they will be given the choice to remain a Senior Member, demote to Accepted/Soldier, or demote to Citizen. If a member chooses to leave an SM group for a third (or higher) time, they will demote to Accepted or Soldier and go through a counseling with the Director of Membership to find out if there is a root cause that needs to be identified.

Remaining as a Senior Member

If they choose to remain a Senior Member, they will become an Unaffiliated Aes Sedai or Gaidin, retaining their previous title. Their Membership Admin will be the Director of Membership. Effectively, the banner behind the title will be removed, as will access to their previous group's forums. They will retain their status as a Senior Member, their bond(s), and the communal Senior Member forums, but they will also lose access to the forums for their bondmate(s) and any forums where they are an Invited Guest, if any. They will be able to guest as though they were a junior member and aspire to a group once they have made a decision, at which time their title will be changed if needed. At that point, the Head of Ajah or community Commander will ask the members of that group, and if approved, the Head of Ajah/Company Commander will send an email to the Director of Membership for them to officially join their new group. If they are not approved they person will remain as an aspirant to the group. An Unaffiliated Aes Sedai/Gaidin may not form any new bonds or become an Invited Guest of any group. Forum permissions for bondmates will be restored upon raising. It will be up to the group who extended the invitation to be an Invited Guest to decide if the member will return. A member is required to spend a minimum of 6 months as unaffiliated before they are eligible to join a new group

Demoting to Junior Member

Those who demote to Accepted/Soldier or Citizen will have the MoAS or Mayor as their membership admin, respectively. The voluntarily demoted Community Member will be a Junior Member in truth, rather than any special in-between rank. Although he or she will be given the courtesy of not being required to give a further contribution to the Tower, in all other ways he or she is to be treated in the same manner as any other Accepted or Soldier. He or she will be raised eventually through the Hall and will be subject to all the strictures inherent of the Junior Member rank. At the same time, it is important to know that it will not be the same Junior Member experience as other standard Junior Members. There is a history already formed with many other Senior Members, and this does not just disappear. Voluntary Demotion should not be perceived as a slate clean, do-over option. It is, rather, a shifting from one situation to another. Community Members electing for voluntary demotion are not eligible for raising until six months after they have demoted, and many have found that it took them longer to be raised again to Senior Member than the minimum length of time required. There are many different reasons for this

The voluntarily demoted Community Member must appreciate that other Ajah/Company members might have a challenging time getting used to this Community Member under a different affiliation. Members especially of the new Ajah/Company to which the Community Member would choose to Aspire might be overly cautious. It might be as simple as wishing to know for certain that the Community Member will not change his or her mind again, before warming to the concept fully of him or her as a member of their Ajah/Company.

At the same time, it should be respected that the Junior Member chooses the Ajah/Company, not the other way around. Raising to Senior Member for a voluntarily demoted Junior Member is not up to a vote with the new Ajah/Company. Members of this group will of course have input which might be put into the raising packet gathered by the membership administrator and shown to the Hall, but ultimately, raising is up to the vote of the Hall, like any other raising.

The Community Member is encouraged to take his or her time in deciding, and to not endeavor to rush the process. Likewise, someone who has demoted or left their community group should not feel rushed through the process. If you find that you are being pressured to choose (or to not choose) a particular Ajah/Company and that you are not being allowed to fully enjoy the guesting, please contact your Membership administrator.


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