Looking for the officers in your chapter or region?

Reside outside the United States? Check out our international affiliates.

The Camarilla is a worldwide organization with thousands of members. It relies on a variety of officers to deliver services to you, the member, and to manage the global chronicles that are the heart and soul of the fan club. We are always looking for enthusiastic and talented members who want to get involved.

If that describes you, you’ve come to the right place!

(Please note: This page is a summary of the various officer positions within the Camarilla and how those officers are selected. Full details are available in the Membership Handbook. International Affiliates may have somewhat different procedures.)

Coordinators

Each chapter in the Camarilla is administered by a chapter coordinator (CC). The chapter coordinator is the face most people associate with the administrative branch, the one they go to when they have problems or want to help. When questions arise, it is the chapter coordinator who is approached by the general membership. The chapter coordinator is the direct coordinator for each member in the chapter.

Coordinators are responsible for functions such as:

• Communicate between their chapter members and the organization.
• Report monthly on the status of the chapter to the organization.
• Secure sites for chapter events.
• Help members track their prestige, and to report that prestige to the
  organization.
• Help facilitate conflict resolution between members (see the section in this handbook on conflict resolution).
• Track, and be liable for, the chapter’s finances.

If you are interested in pursuing a Coordinator position within the organization, the Camarilla Membership Handbookis an excellent resource for more in-depth information on the duties and benefits of such a position.

Storytellers

In the global live-action chronicle, Storytellers combine their creative efforts to build a common world setting, structure, and story. Because our chronicle is large and complex, Storytellers must regularly communicate, collaborate, and compromise with each other. They must also maintain the trust of the players they serve.

Each elected Storyteller has (within her Storytelling jurisdiction), the authority to:

• Establish local chronicle continuity and history within the parameters defined by supervising Storytellers.
• Design and implement suitable plotlines.
• Create and introduce appropriate Storyteller-controlled characters; the Storyteller may portray these characters or assign members to portray them.
• Run games, downtime scenes, and proxies that affect the chronicle they are responsible for.
• Interpret rules for scenes and make other necessary storytelling decisions.
• Freeze a scene or characters.
• Sanction characters for participation in the chronicle they are responsible for.
• Review and approve special requests up to their level of authority.
• Award experience to characters and track experience expenditures.

Storytellers maintain the Camarilla’s global sanctioned chronicle and weave player-generated stories together. Plotlines within a global game tend to spread further and faster than in a small local game. Therefore, when Storytellers create plotlines, they should carefully consider the following:

• The overall paradigm of the venue (as established in published material)
• Established continuity within the chronicle in question
• Styles of play listed on approved venue style sheets
• Viability of the venue and genre

Assistants

Since all the primary elected officers have many responsibilities within their offices they often appoint assistants to help them execute different tasks. Becoming an assistant in either the coordinator or Storytelling chain is an excellent way to learn about how the Camarilla operates. When primary officers such as chapter coordinator or venue Storytellers are elected, they send out an all-call on the out of character mailing list for their jurisdiction (chapter, domain, region and so on) asking for assistants. This announcement normally includes a description of the duties for the assistant, a request for a résumé of both real life and Camarilla qualifications for the position and a time period for accepting applications.

Becoming an Officer

Any Camarilla member in good standing can apply for an officer position at any level of the organization—although it’s often best to begin at the chapter or domain level as an assistant or primary officer. The Camarilla Membership Handbookcontains a complete explanation of the election process and qualifications required for each level of office.

When an officer position becomes vacant within the Camarilla, the election procedure to replace that officer begins. The basic procedure is the same throughout each level of the organization. The first step is to for the officer administering the election to announce a call for applications for the position coming vacant. This announcement includes the deadline and detailed instructions for applications.

This announcement is distributed as widely as reasonably possible among those eligible to apply (all members within the chapter, domain or region). If the office being elected is already vacant, the announcement may also temporarily grant one of the former officer’s assistants the powers of the office until the election can be completed. Such a pro-tem officer must be extremely careful to document all official decisions, however, as the newly elected officer will need to ratify those decisions once the election has completed.

In general, most applications will require the following information to be included:

• Identification—Name, Camarilla membership number, contact methods including address, e-mail, telephone, and whatever other means the applicant desires.
• Statement of purpose—what does the applicant want to accomplish while in office and how do they plan to execute that plan?
• Vision Statement—what would the applicant wish to do if he or she were in the office, both in terms of changes and similarities to the current policies and procedures?
• Camarilla experience.
• Relevant Non-Camarilla experience—this may include education, certification, professional experience, personal growth, related hobbies, etc.

Once the application period is over, the administering officer presents the candidates and their applications to those individuals who are eligible to vote in the election. The administering officer sets the length of the application review period and the voting period and should announce this schedule when presenting the candidates to the electorate.

Generally, the electorate takes time to review the applications and question the candidates. For a local election, this period is usually a week or less, while for regional and national elections the process may last up to two weeks. This period may be waived when there are exceptional time constraints on the election process. For elections at the chapter and domain level, the electorate consists of all members within the chapter or domain. For regional elections, the electorate consists of all primary domain officers in the region; for national elections, the electorate consists of all the primary regional officers.

Voting begins immediately after the application review process ends and generally lasts two weeks. Voters cast their votes directly with either paper or electronic ballots, or can assign other members as their proxies. The Camarilla uses an instant runoff voting system in which voters rank all candidates. This allows candidates to achieve a true majority vote without the need for time consuming separate runoff elections. (Full details on the voting procedure are available in the Membership Handbook.)

Once the votes have been cast and tallied, the winning candidate is announced and begins their tenure as the new officer.