REGULA FUNDAMENTALIS
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  1. Statement of Purpose

    1. The Societas Via Romana (Roman Way Society) is an international fellowship and Internet community of people sharing a common interest in all aspects of ancient Rome and the heritage that it brought forth for Western Civilization. The Societas therefore acts as an educational organization among its members to discuss and learn together about the various aspects of ancient Rome, its cultures, languages, history, religions, arts, and sciences.

    2. The Societas provides and maintains fora via the Internet whereby its members and like-minded people may meet to discuss their common interests.

    3. The Societas also maintains a website to provide information to its members and to the general public with regard to the Societas itself and the interests of its members. The website provides a common space where members of the Societas are invited to post written materials and other media related to ancient Rome.

  2. Membership

    1. Anyone may apply for membership in the Societas through the procedures published at its website (www.societasviaromana.net). Upon acceptance by the officers of the Societas a member shall be known as a sodalis and shall partake fully in any and all benefits extended to sodales of the Societas. In order to remain a member, a sodalis must register with the officers of the Societas in a census held biennially.

    2. Individual sodales have the following rights within the Societas.

      1. Access to any and all fora maintained by the Societas.

      2. The right to submit written essays and other media as contributions to the website maintained by the Societas. Sodales retain full editorial privileges over any essays they submit for posting to the website of the Societas. Once an essay has been posted to the website, the sodalis who authored the essay may request from the officers of the Societas that it be removed and the officers of the Societas may not refuse to comply with such a request.

      3. The right to vote in elections and the right to seek and to hold any elective office of the Societas.

      4. The right of initiative to propose measures and policies to the Comitia and the right to vote on any proposals in the Comitia.

      5. The right to propose before the Comitia that any or all officers of the Societas be recalled from office.

      6. The right to appeal before the Comitia that any decision of an officer or a collective decision of the officers of the Societas be overturned. This right also applies in the case where officers of the Societas have decided to take a disciplinary action against a sodalis in the course of performing their duties of moderating the forums of the Societas. In this special case the right of appeal before the Comitia shall be known as provocatio.

      7. A sodalis may be suspended or expelled from the Societas, and/or be disbarred from the fora of the Societas for cause by a majority vote of all the officers of the Societas. Suspension goes into immediate effect, but may be appealed before the Comitia. A decision of the officers to expel a sodalis from membership in the Societas and/or to disbar a sodalis from its fora must be posted to the Comitia. The sodalis then has one month to claim his or her right of provocatio, appealing the decision of expulsion and/or disbarment before the Comitia. The decision of the officers to expel or disbar a sodalis does not go into effect until one month has passed from the date when their decision was posted to the Comitia, or until the Comitia has made a final determination on such a disciplinary measure in response to an appeal of the sodalis.

  3. The Comitia

    1. All authority within the Societas Via Romana ultimately rests with the Comitia. The Comitia shall be composed of all sodales in good standing in the Societas.

    2. The Comitia may elect and/or recall any officers to act on its behalf to administer the website and fora of the Societas. Officers are elected by a simple majority of those sodales who vote in an election. Officers may be recalled by a two-thirds majority of those sodales voting in such a recall election.

    3. The Comitia may adopt policy statements for the Societas and/or administrative measures by a simple majority of those sodales voting in an election.

    4. The Comitia may amend the Regulae Fundamentalis by a two-thirds majority of those sodales voting.

    5. The Comitia may, at the initiative of any sodalis, overturn any or all decisions made by the officers of the Societas, to include any disciplinary decisions appealed by a sodalis through his or her right of provocatio.

    6. To be valid and to have any force whatsoever, any decision by the Comitia must be voted on by at least ten sodales in good standing or by at least one thirtieth of all sodales in good standing (rounded up), whichever is greater.

  4. Officers

    1. The Comitia may elect officers to act on its behalf to administer the Societas, its website and the fora of the Societas. The individual titles of the officers and their individual duties shall be established by the Comitia.

    2. No less than three and no more than seven officers may hold office at any one time.

      1. Officers are elected by the Comitia, each officer needing a simple majority of those sodales voting in the election in order to attain his or her office. Each officer holds office for two years and may seek re-election as often as he or she may desire.

      2. If an officer resigns from office and should then decide to withdraw his or her resignation within nine days of announcing the resignation, the officer must await a decision of the Comitia before returning to office. In effect, the officer appeals to the Comitia to overturn his or her own decision to resign.

      3. An officer may be recalled from office by a two-thirds majority of those sodales voting in Comitia, acting upon the initiative of any sodalis, and subject to the quorum described in paragraph III.f. above.

    3. The officers are to collectively manage and maintain the fora and the website for the Societas. They may appoint assistants as needed. They may remove, rearrange, or edit any material on the website, with the one exception that may not edit an essay submitted as a contribution by a sodalis without the author’s permission.

    4. Officers are to maintain decorum in the fora of the Societas, and thus may suspend, disbar or expel any and all subscribers to the fora, subject to each sodalis' right to provocatio.

    5. The officers oversee elections held in the Comitia. They may appoint any assistants needed to conduct such elections.

    6. The officers are to maintain a list of all current sodales of the Societas, and conduct a biennial census, registering sodales who wish to renew their membership. The officers may set any procedures needed to conduct the census. They may appoint any assistants to perform the census. The officers are charged with maintaining the privacy of the sodales of the Societas and the security of any information about its sodales, collectively or individually, collected by the officers for the internal use of the Societas.

    7. The officers are authorized to establish administrative procedures to be used in the Societas and its Comitia, propose policies for the Societas, manage relations with persons and entities outside the Societas, and grant honorary titles to any sodalis and/or awards of recognition to its members or others. At the initiative of any sodalis, such decisions of the officers may be subject to approval or rejection by a vote of the Comitia.

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