PTAWUG Constitution

PTAWUG – Pretoria Wireless User Group

1. Definitions

1.1

A “WUG member”, “wugger” or “member” in this constitution shall be any person who has the animus or mindset to be part of the WUG, makes use of the WUG, or actively participates in the activities of the WUG.

1.2

The “WUG” or “wireless user group” shall be Pretoria Wireless User Group as well as any of its members.

1.3

The primary communications medium shall for all purposes be Internet Relay Chat (IRC), within the set out channels on the specified server. The usage of any other means of communication by members shall not be deemed official in terms of this constitution unless the contrary is proved.

1.4

An official WUG decision shall be any decision taken by, attempted by, proposed by or affected by any person or group of people, claiming to be taking, attempting, proposing or affecting the decision. This is in the capacity as representative or member of the WUG.

1.5

A “Highsite” as referred to in this constitution shall be a single location where donated equipment is installed in order to connect multiple members to a single entry point into the network and at the same time provide connectivity to the rest of the network.

2. Primary Objective

2.1

We have one common primary objective, namely to expand and strengthen the infrastructure, topology and stability of the network.

2.2

Any action inconsistent or detached from the primary objective shall not be viewed as an action taken by PTAWUG, but rather by the specific member in his/her personal capacity.

3. Nature of the WUG as an entity

3.1

We believe in a free, non-commercial, community-driven organization with equal management. No one person or a limited group of people will have the authority to make binding decisions on behalf of the WUG.

3.2

We acknowledge that the WUG does not and will never have profit making as an objective whatsoever, and any and all profits or income attained shall be used for the primary objective of the WUG.

3.3

The WUG belongs to its members in equal undivided and indivisible shares.

3.4

All WUG members waive any actual right to ownership in the WUG or the property of the WUG (including and not limited to equipment and intellectual property).

3.5

All WUG members also explicitly waive any right and the enforceability of said right against the WUG as an entity.

3.6

Every WUG member shall have one vote in any official WUG decision. No one person shall be responsible or have the right to make said decision.

3.7

Official WUG decisions will be presented for voting via the primary communication medium, and any WUG member not informed of, nor participating in the voting shall automatically waive his/her vote effective within 24 hours of the presentation of the decision.

3.8

The WUG as an entity will hold no liability on behalf of any of its users including claims against the WUG or its members, fraud committed using the WUG. Including hosting of questionable content, hacking, denial-of-service or any other forms of abuse of the WUG

4. Donations

4.1

We further acknowledge that our community network is only made possible through donations of its members, and we also acknowledge that a donation is an irreversible, irrevocable transaction between a WUG member and the WUG, and any goods or funds donated to the WUG become the property of the WUG.

4.2

Members acknowledge that they waive any right based on any legal assumption of ownership regarding equipment, money or any other form of donation. This includes the case where equipment is lost due to weather damage, theft, fire or other unintentional causes.

4.3

We acknowledge further that equipment provided for use by the WUG, without an explicit written agreement to the contrary, will become the WUG’s property and will be regarded as a donation.

4.4

Equipment set up on, adjacent to or in close proximity of a member’s premises, which is used to connect to the WUG in whichever way, manner or method and with the intention of said equipment being the member’s own WUG enabling equipment. So shall be exempt from above mentioned clauses and remains the property of said member at all times, during and after the said member’s membership in the WUG, provided that the removal of said equipment does not adversely affect any other member’s connectivity.

4.5

In the case that a member of the WUG offers their equipment for connecting other users (be it as a backbone, mini-highsite or other means), has full ownership of this equipment and this equipment is located on, adjacent to or in close proximity of the member’s premises. This member may elect to relinquish all offered capacity, services and use of their equipment subject to assisting the WUG (and admin team) in finding a suitable alternative.

4.6

All donations will be logged on www.ptawug.za.net. The page will be visible on the menu.

5. Basic Considerations

5.1

We strive to help our fellow WUG member and endeavour to interact with one another in accordance with human dignity, equality, fairness and respect.

5.2

We recognize our cultural, religious, intellectual, financial and other differences and endeavour to not discriminate against one another on any of these, any other or implied grounds.

5.3

We honour our fellow WUG member, knowing that everyone has their own field of expertise, and by making use of this elaborate pool of knowledge, we will enrich not only ourselves, but the WUG as well.

5.4

As WUG members, we strive to be honest, vigilant and passionate about our cause.

5.5

We as WUG members endeavour to actively and positively promote the WUG as to give effect to the primary objective.

5.6

We acknowledge that the WUG not only provide us with network infrastructure, but also a vast pool of knowledge and experience and a social network of like-minded enthusiasts. We therefore pledge to honour and promote the primary objective of the WUG.

5.7

Every WUG member recognizes that he is responsible for the traffic generated and received, and recognizes also that the WUG only provides a conduit for traffic pass-through. The WUG member also recognises that he/she will be solely responsible for all content stored on and shared from the said member’s private network.

5.8

We as WUG members also recognize that the WUG does not provide Internet access, VPNs or peering as a service. Any Internet traffic routed via the WUG is merely accidental or as a result of a personal agreement between members. Any peering is internal peering through private ranges to build the network.

5.9

We as WUG members also realize that due to the nature of the WUG, no quality of service or minimum service uptime may be expected.

6. Disciplinary Action

6.1

Any WUG member who repeatedly, actively and knowingly commits an act inconsistent with this constitution will be regarded as having lost the animus or intention to be part of the WUG. Then shall therefore be deemed not to be a member until such member expresses the animus and intention to again be a part of the WUG and said member complies with the constitution thereafter.

6.2

The condition presented in 6.1 includes the scenario where a WUG member utilises infrastructure donated to and established by the WUG for personal gain (financial or other). Such as user will be considered to have relinquished their animus or intention to be part of the WUG.

6.3

• Any PTAWUG user who breaks one of the rules on die Don’t page will be banned from PTAWUG for one week. Repeat offenders will be permanently banned from connecting to any PTAWUG highsite.
• Hacking or Hackers of any sort will not be tolerated.
• Do not use any port scanners.
• Do not use the application called “The Dude” at any time without admin permission and manually adding each device using SNMP ONLY! Scanning is prohibited unless it is under a range you own.
• Do not scan for any services other than the ones listed (use the provided engines such as ffsearch to find files as users give permission to access their FTP servers by listing it).
• Do not log in or attempt to log in on any PC or service which is not yours or whereto you do not have permission to log into.
• If using non-standard or High power radios on your equipment they must NOT be set to higher than the legal EIRP e.g. 18 dBm max!

6.4

• Always think of PTAWUG as an entity. Never do anything that may have a negative effect on PTAWUG.
• Marking of packets in order to obtain better throughput is not allowed.
• All wuggers should have equal opportunities thus only using traffic markings supplied on the wiki and provided by the highsites. To contravene this in order to derive personal benefit is diametrically opposed to everything PTAWUG stands for.
• Don’t demand stuff from/be rude/piss off people that organize highsites, do a lot of work on highsites and improve the WUG, you might just cause a lot of problems for everyone.
• Many wuggers put in a lot of hours organizing highsites, putting up sites and maintaining sites, they do not get PAID for it, they are not employed by PTAWUG, treat them with respect.
• Providing internet access as a “WUG service” is not allowed as it is against the PTAWUG constitution and also not allowed by ICASA. YOU WILL BE BANNED IF YOU PROVIDE INTERNET TO ANY USER ON WUG EQUIPMENT.
  
• Once any equipment has been added to the WUG network via BGP it belongs to the PTAWUG entity.

7. Membership

A member waives any and all rights to equipment, monies, bandwidth usage and any other rights he may have or may believe to have when he no longer wishes to be part of the WUG. By not having the required animus or intention, equipment will be provided to the highsite owner the member was part of.

8. Administration Team

8.1

We acknowledge the existence of an administration team, and furthermore recognize that its only goal and objective is to further technical advances and improvements on the network. To provide initial configuration assistance to WUG members who require said assistance when they connect for the first time.

8.2

We recognize that the admin team has absolutely no legislative or executive authority, and every member of the administrative team is equal to every member of the general WUG public.

8.3

Any WUG member may join the admin team should they feel that they would like to devote their time and knowledge. They will have to actively promote and further the configuration, stability and other technical aspects of the WUG.

9. Highsites

9.1

No FTP (or other) servers containing any content will be hosted on any highsites. If a user runs a highsite using his/her own equipment as well as donated equipment, he/she is not permitted to run an FTP (or other) server on his Mikrotik Routerboard/RouterPC. This condition excludes servers hosting or mirroring WUG services such as the WUG homepage, Admin pages, Wiki, IRC etc.

9.2

By the nature of finding and raising highsites, each highsite has a primary member that liaise with the owners of the site and organise access if maintenance has to be done. However – that member has by no means total control or decision-making capacity pertaining to the specific site.

9.3

No equipment shall be removed from a highsite or totally realigned if it is currently used to connect members unless there has been prior consultation with said members.

10. Amendments

10.1

After the incorporation of this document as the Constitution of the WUG, it may only be amended by an official WUG decision. Only when such amendment is critical to the functioning and primary objective of the WUG, or in rectifying an error contained therein.

10.2

The amendment presented in 10.1 shall only take effect after the majority of members actively participating in the decision-making process. Participating members representing a majority of all WUG members, agrees to an amendment.

10.3

No arbitrary amendments or amendments without justifiable cause shall be made.