Servant of All (Beta)

The Servant of All is a program is designed to honor our community members for their acts of service and community outreach offline, within their local communities and beyond. The program was announced after the 2012 Admin Meeting, and the Servants of All Planning Committee convened to work out the details. The program went live as a beta version in December 2012. The program is within the Department of Community Outreach is run by the Servant of All Coordinator.

At one time or another every one of us needs help from someone else, and everyone has the capacity to serve. From Citizens to Aes Sedai and Gaidin, service within TarValon.Net is currently recognized through the Merits program. The Servant of All Program is designed to recognize and encourage service and philanthropy performed outside of TarValon.Net. Members will be recognized by receiving points for acts of service, ultimately earning one or more Achievements.

Please note that these Achievements, and the entirety of the Servant of All Program, is outside of the Merits Program and that the two programs will work in tandem.

Acts of Service recognized by this Program include volunteering one's time, philanthropy and giving money, donations of material goods or other resources, and donating part of one's body. To promote a spirit of serving all, program points are intended for service and philanthropy performed without discrimination. Service should be given freely, without full payment in return.

The Servant of All Program is based on the honor system: We will trust you to be truthful about your service. We may, however, ask you questions as necessary to clarify and ensure that points are given for service that meets the intent of the program. Final award of points will be determined by the Servant of All staff.

Thank you for serving!

Please note that this program is still undergoing discussion and being refined. For questions, please contact the Servant of All Coordinator at SOAC@TarValon.Net.

Acts of Service

For the purpose of the Servant of All program, acts of service include:

• Volunteering time
• Giving money
• Donating material goods
• Donating from one's body

Acts of service do not include:

• Work that is paid in full
• Acts contributing to hate or discrimination

What is an act of service?

For purposes of this program, an act of service may be volunteering one's time, donating money, donating material goods or other physical resources, or donating part of one's body. All such charitable acts will be included in the phrase "act of service." (See also: Earning Points - Ways to Serve)

You can serve by volunteering for relevant organization(s) or helping a friend in need. You can donate money to one or more groups. Perhaps you have items to give away - food, household goods, or something on a charitable organization’s wish list. Maybe you have time to plan a charity fundraiser. You can do all of that! Everything, big or small, is important if it improves someone's life.

Does all service count?

No. Only service given freely and service performed without hate or discrimination may count toward a Servant of All Achievement.

Work for which a salary is paid is no longer truly volunteer work, even though it may be for a good cause. Points will not be awarded to someone who is paid fully for his or her work, or to someone who receives a gift of comparable value for a donation.

Pro-bono work will receive points. Points may be awarded in cases where one receives a small gift, stipend, or reimbursement for expenses. Work that is performed at a diminished salary rate will be considered for points at the discretion of the Servant of All staff.

Points will not be awarded for work or organizations which attempt to limit a human being's freedom and rights (Reference: Declaration of Human Rights).

Service for organizations which limit their focus to a particular group is acceptable, provided that the organization does not refuse to provide service on the basis of race, language, religion, sexual orientation, political opinion, academic achievements, mental or physical disability, or other such status. Service done through a religious organization, such as feeding the homeless, may receive points. However, service done purely to further a religious mission, such as teaching Sunday school, will not.

Point Values

Points are assessed as follows:

• Minor act of service = 1 point
• Significant act of service = 2 points
• Major act of service = 3 or more points

How are point values assigned?

Acts of service considered to be "minor" will receive one point. Service requiring more time and/or resources will typically be considered "significant" and will receive two points. The greatest levels of service, where more extensive effort is made, will be considered “major” and will receive three or more points. Final award of points will be as determined by the staff. (Also see: Section 6, Earning Points - Ways to Serve)

Submitting Acts of Service

Use the Google form found here.

How does one request and receive points?

Information about service may be submitted for points through [this Google form. The form allows for reporting of one activity at a time. For additional acts of service the form may be filled out as many times as necessary. When filling out the form please provide any information that will help the staff understand the service performed. Such as: for whom you served, what you actually did, the length of time you served, and whether you consider the service to be minor, significant, or major. Please do NOT provide information about exact amounts of monetary donations or income level.)

Remember that this program is an honor system.

We reserve the right to ask you questions, but ultimately, we are relying on you to be truthful. Do not incur toh!

Achievements

• Bronze Achievement = 6 points
• Silver Achievement = 3 Bronze (18 points)
• Gold Achievement = 3 Silver (54 points)

What is an Achievement?

An Achievement is formal recognition for service, gained upon reaching a certain number of points per category. (For information on Categories also see: Section 5.) There are three tiers of Achievements; from lowest to highest, they are Bronze, Silver, and Gold. As one earns multiple Bronze or Silver Achievements, the Achievements will be converted up to the next level, and one can earn multiple Gold Achievements.

Categories of Service with Sample Activities

• Bringing Water & Shade (Beta)
• Leading the Way
• Supporting Your Neighbor (Beta)
• Supporting the World
• Giving of Yourself
• Caring for Animals
• Healing the Land
• Caught in the Act

What is a category of service?

Points and Achievements are given for service within particular categories, according to criteria such as who is served and what is given. For each category one can potentially earn Bronze, Silver, and multiple Gold Achievements. The category Caught in the Act is an exception; within that category one may simply be awarded a Gold Achievement.

Note: Only the categories Bringing Water & Shade and Supporting Your Neighbor will be included in the beta testing. These are the only categories for which you will be able to submit acts of service during the beta testing period of December 2012.

What are examples of service for the different categories?

For all categories, you may choose to serve in any way described as an act of service - volunteering, giving money, or donating other items. Under each category (beginning with beta categories) there will be sample activities. These are possibilities, but they are by no means the only things you can do.

Bringing Water & Shade

All humans have basic needs food, water, and shelter. Yet unfortunately many people do not have adequate shelter, readily available food, drinking water, or access to sanitary waste treatment facilities. This Achievement recognizes service which helps people with all aspects of these basic needs, within our home countries.

Similar acts of service outside of your home country will count as another Achievement, see: 5.6 Supporting the World.

Sample activities:

• Helping build a new home
• Rehabilitating or repairing a home
• Distributing fans or heaters in extreme weather
• Cooking meals for someone in need
• Donating food to a soup kitchen or food pantry
• Growing food for donation in a community garden
• Donating blankets for cold weather homeless shelter
• Helping people learn to purify water for drinking

Leading the Way

We can give many things: our time, money, resources...this Achievement highlights giving of knowledge and skills. Specialized services provided for free, including pro bono work, would fall under this category. Also included would be all other ways to give one’s knowledge, such as tutoring and teaching, coaching, and volunteering without pay on the board or within the administration of a service organization.

Supporting Your Neighbor

Beyond basic needs, we can all use support from each other, whether simply in the form of a friendly ear or helping hand, or more tangibly in the form of household goods and other items. We may need help with health-related problems, from understanding what a doctor says to fighting a disease. We can support each other by working to improve our communities, by making them safer, participating in government, and so on. This Achievement encompasses the many ways in which we can support and serve other people within our home countries.

Sample activities:

• Visiting someone elderly or homebound
• Mentoring a youth
• Helping provide addiction recovery support
• Shopping for someone incapacitated by broken bone, surgery, or other health problems
• Participating in holiday gift drive for low income families
• Volunteering at sports event for people with disabilities
• Giving to a fundraiser for disease research
• Registering people to vote and encouraging voting

Supporting the World

Every country in the world has people in need. This Achievement recognizes all service provided to people outside of one’s home country. Such service may include work that would belong to another category if performed at home, such as building shelter and assisting with health, along with opportunities to serve such as disaster relief, sponsoring a child, and providing tools to help someone earn their living.

Giving of Yourself

For this Achievement, one could quite literally give part of oneself - one’s body. People can give blood, hair, and more, even organs. Also included would be taking steps to facilitate future giving, such as becoming a potential organ and tissue donor, or joining a blood marrow donor registry. As not everyone can give from their body, donations to and volunteering for organizations and events that support such giving would also earn points.

Caring for Animals

Other people are not the only ones who need help; animals, who often cannot help themselves, need our care too. This Achievement is for all service related to caring for animals, domestic or wild, regardless of location.

Healing the Land

We all share this planet, and taking care of it ultimately helps make the world a better place for us. Service that strives to improve the health of the environment anywhere in the world is recognized by this Achievement. Such service includes collective actions like trash clean-ups, tree plantings, and recycling drives, along with individual actions minimizing one’s impact on the planet.

Caught in the Act

This Achievement is intended to recognize outstanding service that you see performed by someone else, someone who is perhaps too modest to call attention to it himself/herself. This category is unlike other categories, in that one does not earn an Achievement through earning points. Instead, a person may be nominated for exceptional service, and with his/her permission, may simply be awarded an Achievement. Awards of this Achievement will be determined by the Servant of All staff.

Earning Points - Ways to Serve

• Time
• Money
• Material Goods
• From One's Body

How are exactly are points earned?

As noted, acts of service include giving time, money, or donations of other kinds. All of these ways of serving are possible ways to earn points in every category. For each way of serving, the program defines minor, significant, and major acts of service, which receive one point, two points, and three or more points, respectively.

Are points earned for each instance of serving?

Points will typically be awarded according to how much service was done in a given month. Serving in a particular way (such as volunteering time), in a specific category, will be added together for a given month to determine points. More explanation is found in following sections.

Earning Points: Time

• Minor act of service (1 point) = volunteering at least two hours, but less than one day*
• Significant act of service (2 points) = volunteering at least one full day, but less than three days*
• Major act of service (3 points) = volunteering at least three full days*

*One full day is equal to approximately eight hours.

Please read below for additional information, including volunteering for less than two hours, and truly time-intensive volunteering:

Time spent volunteering for a particular activity will typically be added together each month for purposes of determining points. Example: if one volunteers for one hour each week, or four hours total for a month, he or she will receive one point, as time spent is greater than two hours, but less than eight hours.

For minor acts of service, one must volunteer at least two hours to earn one point. However, serving for less than two hours will contribute to earning one point, after service has continued and at least two hours of time has accumulated. If this takes more than a month, all volunteer time will be added together, with one point being awarded whenever two hours are completed.

For truly time-intensive volunteering, such as something involving one or two weeks of continuous service, please discuss with the Servant of All Staff, as additional points may be awarded.

Earning Points: Money

• Minor act of service (1 point) = monetary donation(s) of less than 5% of monthly income*
• Significant act of service (2 points) = monetary donation(s) from 5 to 15% of monthly income*
• Major act of service (3 points) = monetary donation(s) of more than 15% of monthly income*

*Monthly income is your monthly income after taxes

Please read below for important information on reporting and determining levels of donation:

For serving by giving money, we recognize that there may be much variation in income, cost of living, and so on, for members. Therefore, points for giving money will be awarded based on percentage of income after taxes, not absolute values. Please note that we do not want any information about your income. You may simply describe a monetary donation as minor, significant, or major.

Amount of money given within a single category will be added together each month; for multiple donations in one month, points will be awarded according to the total amount given that month.

Earning Points: Donating Material Goods

• Minor act of service (1 point) = donation(s) with value of less than 5% of monthly income* AND volume less than or equal to two full loads of average sedan car
• Significant act of service (2 points) = donation(s) with value greater than or equal to 5% of monthly income*, OR volume greater than two full car loads
• Major act of service (3 points) = extremely large or valuable donations; please contact the Servant of All staff

*Monthly income is your monthly income after taxes

Please read below for important information on reporting and determining levels of donation:

Points for donations of material goods are also related to one's income after taxes, similar to donations of money. However, it may be difficult to determine value, so total volume is another factor. (You are not required to calculate or report monetary value.) If you believe you have made a major donation, please contact the Servant of All staff.

Also as for monetary value, points will be awarded based on the total amount of material donations made during one month. Monetary value of donations is to be determined by actual worth: the price if the item donated were to be sold, or sales price if the items were purchased new for donation purposes.

Earning Points: Donating from One's Body

• Minor act of service (1 point) = donations easily given and replenishable, such as blood or hair
• Significant act of service (2 points) = preparation for more intensive donations, such as becoming organ donor or joining bone marrow registry
• Major act of service (3 points) = please contact the Servant of All staff
• Automatic Gold Achievement = donation of bone marrow or organ

Within the category Giving of Yourself, points will be awarded as described for volunteering time, giving money, and donations not part of one’s body. All bodily donations will be awarded points per donation; there are no monthly totals required.

For any bodily donations not included above, please contact the Servant of All staff.