Guild By-laws

Article I

Purposes

The purpose of the Furry Writers’ Guild (hereinafter referred to as the FWG) shall be to promote the furtherance of the writing of anthropomorphic fiction of all genres and categories, by informing and educating writers of anthropomorphic fiction, encouraging interest in and appreciation of such fiction, and providing venues and furnishing services to support anthropomorphic fiction of high quality and its creators.

Article II

Prohibited Activities

Donations received to the designated FWG account must be used in furtherance of the purposes outlined above. No part of any donations received may be used for personal benefit of any FWG officer or any individual member, except as reasonable payment for professional services rendered (for example, art commissions, graphic design services, editing services, etc).

Article III

Membership

There shall be two classes of membership in the FWG: Active/Writer membership (also referred to as “regular” membership) and Associate membership. Both writer and associate members are entitled to receive all benefits of membership, including voting in all elections and nominating and voting in the Cóyotl Awards.

Membership Criteria

A candidate shall be permanently qualified for active/writer membership after publication of one work of fiction (of any length) featuring anthropomorphic characters/themes by a paying market/publisher, or publication of two works of fiction (of any length) featuring anthropomorphic characters/themes by nonpaying markets. Publications are considered qualifying if they have been edited and published by someone other than the candidate. 

Self-published work will qualify if it has sold 25 or more copies priced at 99¢ or above within a 12-month period or if said self-published work earned $200 or more in author earnings within a 12-month period. 

Changes to these membership criteria must be approved by a majority vote of the membership, with at least 30% of the current members voting.

Associate Memberships

Associate memberships will be granted at the discretion of the president based on achievement by persons in the furry fandom who are not primarily fiction writers but have made significant contributions to the furry literary community.

Removal of Members

Memberships may be revoked at any time, for good and sufficient cause, by a majority vote of the current active officers.

Article IV

Elections

There shall be six officer positions: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Public Relations Officer, Market Manager, and Cóyotl Awards Chair. The FWG officers shall be elected by ballot of the current members. Members who wish to run for office must announce their candidacy during the period of March 31 through April 30. If, at the end of this period, only the incumbent officers have announced candidacy, the incumbents will retain office and no election will be held unless there are other items to be voted upon by the membership.

Duties of each position shall include:

President – Responsible for maintenance of the guild email and correspondence, approval of new members, maintenance of the guild contact list, maintenance of the guild website, as well as interpretation of the by-laws and guild policies/conduct codes as necessary. Any other duties not specifically delegated below are assumed to be under the authority of the president, to be delegated as the president and individual officers agree.

Vice President – Responsible for assisting the President with any duties delegated from the above. Responsible for arranging social guild activities. Responsible for guild operations should the president become unable.

Treasurer – Responsible for maintaining the guild’s PayPal account (or other electronic funding accounts as applicable), as well as providing quarterly treasury updates for public view in the FWG forums if requested by guild membership.

Public Relations Officer – Responsible for maintenance of all FWG-branded social media accounts, the FWG blog, the FWG forums, as well as developing and pursuing promotional strategies for the guild.

Markets Manager – Responsible for keeping the markets section of the website up to date.

Coyotl Awards Chair – Responsible for running the Coyotl Awards.

Should there be no candidates running for the other guild officer positions, the president may choose to take on the duties of that position or may choose to appoint someone from the membership to fill the position.

In the event the president is unable to perform their duties they would pass down to the Vice President, Treasurer, Coyotl Awards Chair. the Public Relations Officer, then Markets Manager, respectively.

Should any officer wish to resign during their tenure, the president may choose to take on the duties of their position or may choose to appoint someone from the membership to fill the position. If the president wishes to resign, this duty will pass to the Vice President, Treasurer, etc. 

A debate thread will be made on the forum no later than May 1. From May 1 to May 14, voters may direct their questions to one or more candidates via that room. For those voters who do not have a forum account and/or wish to remain anonymous, an email address will be created and maintained by a third party to collect and post those voters’ questions by request.

All campaigning must be done on personal accounts. The official FWG social accounts (including, but not limited to, FurAffinity, Weasyl, Twitter, and the FWG blog) cannot be used to post personal campaign content. The FWG accounts may be used to repost/retweet links to campaign content by all candidates.

Voting will take place beginning 12 a.m. EST on May 16 and ending 11:59 p.m. EST on May 23. Voting will be done via a Google Form with final results open to the public. The candidate receiving the most votes shall be elected to office. The winner will be announced May 24.

The term of office is one year, from June 1 until May 31 of the next year. If the incumbent is voted out of office, they must relinquish all passwords and other administrative information within one week of the announcement of the election results.

Should any officer, including the president, fail to meet the standards expected by the membership, any member may petition to remove the officer from their position. After a two-week period of public discussion, a vote will be taken by email using the guidelines detailed above, with a voting period of no fewer than five days. Removal of any officer must be approved by a majority vote of the membership, with at least 30% of the current members voting. This process is the same whether the officer in question was elected by the membership or appointed by the president.

Article V

Amendments

Members may propose amendments or alterations to these by-laws at any time, and the proposed amendments or alterations will be placed on the annual ballot for consideration of the members. In addition, the president may authorize a special vote at any time for consideration of amendments or alterations to these by-laws, or other matters deemed time-sensitive enough to warrant a special vote without waiting for the next election cycle. The voting period for these special votes will be no fewer than five days.

Article VI

Awards

The FWG shall present achievement awards to honor excellence in the field of anthropomorphic fiction. The award winners will be chosen by a vote of the members under procedures established in the Cóyotl Award rules, which are separate from these by-laws and can be found in their entirety here.

Compiled by Renee Carter Hall (“Poetigress”), Guild President 2014-2016.

Addition of officers other than president approved by vote of FWG membership in May 2016.

Major additions were approved by a vote of FWG membership in May 2020

Previous Furry Writers’ Guild Administrations

  • 2011-12: Sean “Duroc” Silva
  • 2013-14: Sean Gerace
  • 2014-16: Renee Carter Hall (“Poetigress”)
  • 2016-17: Watts Martin (“Chipotle”)
  • 2017: Madison Scott-Clary (“Makyo”)
    • 2017 VP: Watts Martin (“Chipotle”)
  • 2018-19: Watts Martin (“Chipotle”)
    • 2018-2019 VP: Sean Gerace (“Trale”)
  • 2019-2020: Dwale
    • 2019-2020 VP: Miles Reaver
  • 2020-21: Linnea “LiteralGrill” Capps
    • 2020-21 VP: Kayode Lycaon