Policies

5g.1.1   Definitions. See the definition of Divisions and Sub-Divisions in the POSCON Glossary.

5g.1.2   Formation Policy. A Division or Sub-Division may be formed only if a majority of POSCON Directors agree that the Division or Sub-Division is operationally necessary. For example, if the Division would only consist of one member, then it likely would not be deemed as operationally necessary.

5g.1.3   Placeholders. POSCON has created a list of placeholder Divisions and their associated clubs on the forum which members can join to show their support. Once a Division is officially recognized, it will be indicated as "Active" on the Division List. The initial Division Manager Selection process may be conducted before or after the Division is officially recognized.

5.g.1.4   Consideration for Creation. The best way to get your favorite Division or Sub-Division considered for creation is to help develop facility data. If you want to get involved in facility data development, email fdmanager@poscon.net. Please note that members who help develop facility data will not automatically be given leadership roles, but their opinion of who should be in charge will be highly considered. Please see Division Leadership for the policy on how leadership roles are chosen.

5g.2.1   Authority. Authority to resolve disputes lies with the Manager-in-charge at the dispute level. For example, a dispute within a Sub-Division shall be resolved by the Sub-Division Manager and his/her judgement is final. A dispute within a Division shall be resolved by the Division Manager and his/her judgement is final.

5g.2.2   Conflicts of Interest. If a dispute directly involves the Manager-in-charge, then the dispute may be elevated one level above the dispute level. For example, a dispute that involves a Sub-Division Manager shall be elevated to the Division Manager and his/her judgement is final. A dispute that involves the Division Manager shall be elevated to the respective Air Operations Manager and his/her judgement is final. A dispute that involves the Air Operations Manager shall be elevated to the Director of Operations and his/her judgement is final.

5g.2.3   Disputes Requiring Consensus. In rare cases, there may be certain types of disputes that require consensus of at least three Network Directors before judgement is final. Examples of these types of disputes include:

• Division Manager removal prior to the end of their term.
• Deliberate interference in the Division Manager Selection process by Division members.
• Permanent removal of a Member.
• Any other dispute that may significantly impact users or undermine POSCON's policies/reputation.

The Director of Operations shall report any dispute that meets the above criteria to the Network Directors for disposition.

5g.3.1   Officially Recognized Division Discords. A Division Discord server is a place for POSCON members to engage with other members within their community. Every POSCON Division must have an associated Discord server. The only place to find which Discord servers have been officially approved and recognized by POSCON is on the Divisions list page.

5g.3.3   Ownership. Ownership of all Division Discord servers resides with the President of POSCON Inc. or his designee. The Director of Operations is responsible for maintaining all Division Discord servers. All policies outlined in the POSCON Policy Index shall apply to Division Discord servers at all times.

5g.3.3   Approved Bots. Division Discord servers can only host the following BOT(s).

• POSCON Sentinel 

5g.3.4   Server Settings. Channels, roles, and permissions in all servers are maintained by the Director of Operations. No changes shall be made to the server without prior approval of the Director of Operations.

5g.3.5   Language Usage. All server channel names must be in English and everyone must use English to communicate with each other.

5g.3.6   Purpose. The primary purpose of Division Discords is to provide a venue for chat and activity related to the Division. In the interest of community building, Division members are permitted to use the Division Discord voice and text channels to hang out, socialize, and play games other than those associated with the Network, so long as that activity does not become a distraction to those activity using the Network.

5g.4.1   Holding Multiple Positions. See Management > General > Holding Multiple Positions

5g.4.2   Administration. All POSCON Divisions are overseen by the Director of Operations. The duties and responsibilities of vacant positions shall be filled in accordance with Management > General > Vacant Positions.

• Air Operations Managers, who report directly to the Director of Operations, oversee groups of Divisions with similar regional, operational, and/or training characteristics. Air Operations Managers are appointed by the Director of Operations.
• Division Managers, who report to their respective Air Operations Manager, oversee any applicable Sub-Divisions. Division Managers are selected by the Director of Operations based on the recommendation of the respective Air Operations Manager. In most cases, the Division Manager selectee must be certified by the local Division membership through a vote. Division Managers are restricted to terms no longer than 12 months. At the end of each term, the Division Manager Selection process outlined below must be conducted. Division Managers may serve for multiple terms.
• Each Division is authorized to have a staff team that report directly to the Division Manager, but also communicate and coordinate with their respective Network Managers regarding Network sanctioned initiatives. The Division staff team may consist of the following positions:
  • Flight Instructor(s)
  • ATC Instructor(s)
  • Events Coordinator(s)
  • Facility Data Specialist(s)

NOTE: If a "Lead" is specified for any of the above positions, then that person is responsible for the quality of the work product produced by the team.

• Sub-Division Managers, who report directly to their respective Division Manager, oversee their respective Sub-Division. Sub-Division Managers are appointed by their respective Division Manager.

5g.4.4   Meetings. Division staff meetings are required and must comply with Management > General > Meetings.

5g.5.1   Overview. Unlike other positions at POSCON, Division Managers are selected by the Director of Operations, but must be certified by the Division membership.

5g.5.2   Criteria. Division Managers are selected based on three things:

1. Merit - How much has the candidate contributed to the development of the Division?
2. Personality - How likable is the candidate? Are they respected by their peers? Can they communicate and work well with a team?
3. Availability - How much time can the candidate dedicate to this position?
4. Leadership - How well can they organize, manage, and inspire a team?

In addition to the above, candidates must meet all requirements and qualifications outlined in Management > Duties & Responsibilities > Division Manager.

5g.5.3   Process. The selection process shall be conducted as follows:

1. The respective Air Operations Manager shall create a public job posting for Division Manager and accept applications for a minimum of two weeks.
2. After the application window has closed, the respective Air Operations Manager has up to two weeks to conduct in-person interviews and recommend the best candidate(s) to the Director of Operations.
3. The Director of Operations shall take no more than one week to select the best candidate from those recommended by the respective Air Operations Manager.
4. Certification Vote. Once selected by the Director of Operations, and if there are more than five eligible voting members in the Division, then the respective Air Operations Manager shall oversee a certification vote of the newly selected Division Manager. The vote shall be conducted anonymously and as follows:
   • Only those members who have been Division members for more than six months sequentially are eligible to participate.
   • The vote must commence within two days after the Director of Operations makes his/her selection.
   • Votes shall be accepted for at least one week, but no longer than two weeks after the vote commences.
   • The selectee must receive two-thirds majority vote in favor to be deemed certified by the eligible Division members. Those selectees not meeting this threshold shall be discarded for a minimum of one term.
   • The results of the vote shall be posted so that all Division members can see.

If there are not enough eligible voters in a Division or if only two or less votes are cast, then the Director of Operations may appoint a Division Manager without a certification vote.

5g.5.4   Sub-Division Managers. Unlike Division Managers, Sub-Division Managers do not have to comply with the process outlined above. Instead, Sub-Division Managers are appointed by the Division Manager, but they still need to meet criteria outline above. In addition, candidates must meet all requirements and qualifications outlined in Management > Duties & Responsibilities > Sub-Division Manager.

5g.6.1   Overview. The HQ handles Division and Sub-Division permissions based on "teams" rather than individual access. In other words, when a staff member is added to a team that has specific permissions, then that staff member will receive the same permissions as other staff members on that team. Staff members on Division Teams will inherit the respective Sub-Division Teams' access, but not the other way around.

5g.6.2   Authorized Teams. In order to ensure standardization throughout the Network, the following are the only authorized Division Teams:

• Administrators
• Events
• Facility Data
• ATC Instructors
• Pilot Instructors
• Technical Writers

5g.7.1   Policies. Divisions must follow all POSCON Network and Legal policies. Divisions are not permitted to publish their own general policies, but instead may receive approval for certain exemptions and deviations from POSCON policies. Those exemptions and deviations must be published at the official Division documents location (see below).

5g.7.1   Contradictions. If there is a contradiction between Division documents and POSCON Network and Legal policies, then POSCON Network and Legal policies must always take precedence.

5g.7.2   Documents Location. The official source for all Division and Sub-Division documents is:

https://forums.poscon.net/docs/<3 letter division code>

Documents that exist at any other source other than that mentioned above are not official and shall not be enforced on the POSCON Network.

5g.7.3   ATC Documents. Divisions and Sub-Divisions are required to publish ATC specific standard operating procedures (SOPs) and letters of agreement (LOAs). When published, these documents are considered policy. The Division Manager may, at his/her discretion, delegate the maintaining of the above policies to respective staff team members.

5g.7.4   Exemptions and Deviations. Divisions are permitted to publish exemptions and deviations from POSCON Network policies. When these exemptions and deviations exist, then they take precedence over the referenced policy. The following rules apply to exemptions and deviations:

• Each exemption or deviation must receive specific approval from the Director of Operations.
• Under no circumstance can the Division be exempted or deviate from POSCON Legal policies.
• Only the Division Manager may apply for an exemption or deviation.
• The Division Manager is responsible for maintaining the exemptions and deviations.
• The exemptions and deviations must be categorized into the following categories:
  • General
  • ATC Training (if applicable)
  • Pilot Training (if applicable)
  • Events
  • Military (if applicable)

5g.7.5   Enforcement. Enforcement of POSCON Division policies, associated exemptions and deviations, and ATC SOPs/LOAs is ultimately the responsibility of the Division Manager. Division Managers may take the following policy enforcement actions:

• Remove Controller Authorizations (if applicable); or
• Remove members from a Sub-Division (if applicable); or
• Remove members from the Division itself

While ATC SOPs and LOAs are considered policies, Division Managers should use extreme caution when enforcing ATC SOPs and LOAs. It is important that Division Managers recognize the difference between inadequate training versus blatant disregard for the ATC SOP or LOA and apply the enforcement accordingly.

In all cases, Division Managers should attempt first to observe trends in behavior before rendering a final decision.

5g.7.6   Language Usage. All Division specific documentation must be available in English; however, local language versions may also be published.

5g.8.1   Authorization. A Division can have individual social media accounts with the approval of the Director of Operations (each new account requires a specific approval). Sub-Division social media accounts are not authorized. The following are the approved social media platforms for which Divisions can create accounts on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

5g.8.2   Creation. A Division social media account must always be listed as a "Corporate", "Business", or "Non-for-Profit" account, as appropriate, on the respective social media platform. Accounts must be registered under the following email address: "[email protected]" where XXX represents the three letter identification code for the Division. Example, "[email protected]" for the United States Division.

5g.8.2   Branding. The logo used to represent the Division must be the one provided by the POSCON Marketing team. All POSCON social media channels must be named as follows:

• Account name : POSCON division name (POSCON Brazil, POSCON France)
• Account handle : @posconxxx (xxx = 3 letter identification code) (@posconcan, @posconusa)

If desired, the account name can be in local language, but preferred in English (e.g POSCON España)

5g.8.3   Account Credentials. The Division Manager must send the account credentials (username and password) to the Director of Operations immediately after the account creation. Any changes to account credentials must be coordinated with the Director of Operations.

5g.8.4   Responsibility. Division Managers are responsible for the Division’s social media account, therefore it is required that Division Managers have administrator access on the respective social media account. Upon resignation or termination, Division Managers must give up their administrator access or transfer it to the Director of Operations.

5g.8.5   Editor/Moderator Access. Division Managers are free to grant editor or moderator access to any Division team member in order to assist with managing the social media account.

5g.8.6   Content. At all times, content published on Division social media accounts must be in compliance with POSCON policies. All posts made on Division social media accounts must only include content related to POSCON activity. Content should be brief and concise; long posts usually dilute the message and display low engagement.

5g.8.7   Conduct. All members with access to Division or Sub-Division social media accounts must act professionally at all times.

5g.8.8   Language Usage. All social media posts must be in English.

5g.9.1   Definition. "Facility files" refer to software files, programs, or tools that are necessary to control air traffic on POSCON. Sector files that have been created to control traffic within a specific Division are included in this definition.

5g.9.2   Official Files. The Division Manager is responsible for specifying and publishing which facility files are official for the Division. Only one version of each file may be considered official in the Division at any given time.

5g.9.3   Distribution. All official facility files must be made available for Division ATC members to download without restriction.

5g.9.4   Modifications. Users are permitted to modify official facility files for their own personal use, but may not distribute modified versions to other users. If negative feedback is received and can be attributed in whole or in part to the use of modified facility files, then continued use of those modified facility files is prohibited.

5g.10.1   New Division Members. The Division Manager reserves the right to enable/disable the join process for new members in consideration of the best interest of the Division. If the process is disabled for greater than 3 months, the Division Manager is required to coordinate with the Director of Operations.

5g.10.2   Removal. The Division Manager reserves the right to remove members from their Division that are in violation of any POSCON policy, including any Division exemption, deviation, SOP, or LOA.