MEMBERSHIP
General Rules
For activities to be considered CODE:MiAO, it must receive a sign off from both CM and KAI. There is no requirement for the number of members or the costume being worn.
Members are allowed to join other teams, do other things at meetups or events, etc. While not required, it may be a good idea to communicate your other activities to prevent scheduling conflicts.
Do not entice violence or cause major controversy while in uniform, representing a sponsor/brand/event, or via the team social media accounts.
Do not give away personal information about other members without permission if it is not publicly available, especially phone numbers, general locations, ages, occupation, relationship status, etc.
The team does not regulate members' lifestyle choices. Members are allowed to date, use swear words, post political opinions (as long as it's understood it does not represent that of CODE:MiAO), etc.
DISCUSSIONS
Discord
Team planning will primarily occur in Discord. Please keep as much communication regarding the team in the server rather than DMs or other social media in order to respect each other's personal spaces and time away from the team. Of course, you may DM when exchanging personal/private information or bumping for a response! Members who are new to Discord may ask an official member to relay important updates and pass on relevant messages to the team until you get the hang of it.
Members aren’t expected to read every discord message! Please feel free to catch up or request a summary of important updates whenever you can. Leaders will try to keep all important information in announcement channels! Keep in mind that leaders don’t know when you need a catchup, so please ping @HQ for a summary of important updates whenever you need one as many times as is necessary. Please don’t ask for one in person / over the phone as we would need time to collect our thoughts for the most accurate update.
Voting
When someone sends a message, if you don't feel like replying to it, please use the appropriate reaction emojis (posted in the server) to communicate your feelings about incorporating it.
Love it (yes)
Open to it (yes)
Would rather not (no)
Veto (no)
Ideas will be dropped if this # of votes are in:
2+ Veto
3+ Would Rather Not
CONTRIBUTIONS
Planning
Members should do their best to contribute to the project preparation in some form (in a way that is comfortable for them), and we will all try to help each other out!
Members will recieve a specific role within the team that they can work on during their own time and pace with some direction from leaders. They'll be assigned based on what you feel comfortable with or have the time to do.
It is valid to set work boundaries at any time while on the team. You can always ask to be assigned another role to contribute towards instead. We want you to feel like your participation is comfortable and doable. If something is uncomfortable, not possible for you at the moment, or otherwise doesn’t work with your schedule/life events, let CM know so the team can work around it. We want you to feel happy and comfortable and have fun with what you’re doing! Sometimes it means letting go. Don’t guilt yourself into working too hard for the sake of the group when it’s not always feasible!
Please let the team know if you need help completing something so we can lighten your load by having the other members pitch in, even if it's normally something you're in charge of!
Deadlines
Deadlines for completing tasks depend on how urgent they are.
Urgent: 0-3 days (sometimes)
Soon: 1-2 weeks (often)
Normal: 3-4 weeks (often)
Nonurgent: 1-6 months (often)
Unprioritized: 6-12 months (sometimes)
Member Roles
For the most part, members will take on a specific role within the team. Each member is in charge of their designated role within the team, whether or not they are actively participating in a project.
Members are allowed to work on their own time on things that fall under their role. You will be given some general direction from the leader or other members for important things. You'll also be respected as the expert in that category and are trusted to create anything that helps you or the team. In essence, you will not be micromanaged and can schedule things accordingly with your personal life.
Sometimes, a member needs time off and does not fill their role during that period, in which case another member may take over, or the role becomes temporarily dormant.
Meetup Preparation
Planning for a meetup takes a considerable amount of tasks on top of your specific role. We try to designate things you're best at or more comfortable doing. When there is no one on the team who knows how to do something or the assigned member is overwhelmed, members may have to learn new skills to cover the preparations that need to get done.
If you are committing to attend a meetup, we would like you to be active in the planning preparation in some capacity -- unless you absolutely cannot contribute more than your presence at the meetup. We do still value having dancers attend to dance after all!
Examples of special tasks needed in preparation for a meetup may include, but are not limited to:
Compiling film site options
Researching lodging accommodations
Grocery shopping
Collecting neccessary last minute supplies
Year Round
CODE:MiAO is only a hobby! Personal life and health should come first. There isn't particularly a requirement to be active year round. We understand that life events and burnout happen. You will be free to take time off when needed for however long you need. We try to schedule general resting periods, often for an entire month 1-3 times a year. Sometimes we will take turns having resting periods.
DANCES
Learning Choreography
Members are responsible for learning dances on their own.
In special cases, members may make choreography tutorials for the members.
It is encouraged for members to develop their dancing outside of the team through video tutorials, dance lessons, or other methods.
Typically we dedicate 1 month to learning choreography. Then we spend the next 1-2 months cleaning and improving our synchronization.
Cohesion
The most important thing is that all members are able to learn the same choreography lineup by the meetup deadline. This might mean cutting dances to ease the dance load, redistributing dancers, doing shorter versions of the song, or making other accommodations.
REHEARSALS
The team holds both remote and in-person practices.
Remote Practices
The purpose of the remote practices are to tackle all sync issues prior to the in-person rehearsals. This is the time for tweaking choreography, drilling tough sections, and committing to muscle memory.
PROCESS
Leading up to a meetup, all members send independently filmed practice videos to the team by a specified deadline (typically in 1 month timeframe).
EllieS, Lyra, or another member will splitscreen all our videos and post a practice "mashup" (both mirrored and non-mirrored versions).
EllieS, Flo, CM, Lyra, or another member will then make a dance sync notes list.
If a lot of corrections are needed, we practice those corrections to submit in the next practice video.
PHASES
Each video check-in is called a "phase". The first practice video is Phase 1, second submitted is Phase 2, and so on. We try to have 3 phase videos for each dance before a meetup. Think of these like full team rehearsals.
Dancers can practice as much as they want on their own. It's encouraged to practice more if your schedule allows it!
Phase videos can be uploaded to YouTube or Google Drive. If you have time to overlay the audio, it drastically helps the mashup editor due to the large amount of videos needing to be synced in a short period of time. However, we prioritize what's in your capability and if you can't, it's not a big deal! Just try to make your music audible in your video.
In-Person Rehearsals
In-person rehearsals should be focused more on memorizing formation awareness and optimizing camera compatibility. There should minimal, if any, significant choreography changes. Ideally, the team should be fully synchronized with all choreography embedded in muscle memory by the time of an in-person rehearsal.
PROCESS
During the first 1-2 days of a meetup (and any pre-meetup days available), the team does in person rehearsals.
At minimum, these last 2-3 hours. In person rehearsals can go on for long times depending on how much formation and camera practice is needed. If rehearsals are to go on for an extended period of time, breaks will be scheduled every 2-3 hours.
During a full out rehearsal, the first hour is spent on warm ups and stretches. The leader will indicate when dancers should go full out or just mark the dance (practice movements without full speed/power).
During a marked rehearsal, the first 15 minutes are spend on warm ups and stretches. It should be assumed everyone is just marking it. However, dancers are free to go full out if they'd like.
MEETUPS
Host Responsibility
Meetups are typically hosted by one of the members who are able to accommodate the group. The location is determined based upon the available hosts.
Members are responsible for covering their own travel expense to get to the meetup location. You may arrive earlier and/or leave later than the required meetup dates.
The meetup host is responsible for covering:
Lodging space and amenities
Groceries for meals and snacks
Cleaning supplies
Gas when transporating members in their own vehicle.
The host is not responsible for:
Food/beverages purchased when going out to eat
Public transportation
Gym or dance studio costs
Tourism/shopping purchases
Schedule
We will try to include down time in our schedule during meetups to allow members to relax and recover. The schedule will be communicated before major meetups whenever possible.
Things considered in the schedule are:
Rehearsals
Filming
Workshop Time (misc team jobs needing completion together in person)
Other Scheduled Events
Things outside of the schedule:
Meals/Snacks
Sleeping/Resting/Hygiene Times
Scheduled Breaks
Local Commuting (to/from events in our schedule)
Other time before/after events in our schedule
Plus Ones
Plus ones (such as romantic partners, friends, family members, etc) who are not members of CODE:MiAO or volunteering temporarily as staff are not allowed to attend team schedules or stay in team lodging arrangements. Members are free to spend time with them outside of the schedule. Please ask CM privately before bringing a plus one to a meetup to respect the privacy and comfort of other members who are shy/introverted.
Meetup Roles
In order to optimize our in-person meetups, we assign specific roles for members to manage such as:
Shuttling members (driving)
Preparing breakfast and coffee/tea
Packing and distributing lunches, snacks, and water
Cooking dinner
Packing camera & equipment
Setting up film sites
Doing members' makeup and/or hair
Handling safety pins, bobby pins, glue, and other last minute utilities
Monitoring communication channels (group chats/calls, event staff messages, etc.)
Members who get ready fastest or are not involved in more prioritized roles will be given more in-person roles.
CONVENTIONS
Performances
Live performances should not feature new content. Shows should consist of content that has already been completed.
It is expected to attend at least one 2 hour minimum rehearsal before the live performance.
Attendance
While appearing at a convention or festival, It shall never be expected to film a dance cover on the day of the event and requires all members' consent in order to do so. Let’s let each other enjoy the event worry-free!
If a member/staff is attending an event not as a dancer, they may be referred to as our agent or their respective staff role to bring in with us if needed.
COSTUMES
Uniformity
Members must adhere to the costume guidelines for each project for uniformity. A guide will be posted prior to the project.
The team does not regulate:
Religious coverings (hijabs, yamakas, etc)
Assistive devices
Cultural items
Tattoos
Piercings
Lifestyle choices
Hair color & styles*
*Your team costume cat ears are required to match your hair color in some capacity. This could be as simple as wearing a clip in hair piece. You can have any hair color (natural, dyed, extensions, natural wigs), so long as some aspect matches your cat ears in one of these colors: black, brown, camel, blonde, white.
Member team uniforms can be made to accommodate members' lifestyles.
Expenses
Members are expected to cover their own costume expenses. Some members of the team have volunteered pitching in to cover some of the cost for members who cannot afford it, for the sake of a fancier costume. The main uniform costs around $50-80. Future costumes will be created accordingly with the team's budget consensus. All CODE:MiAO members fill out this survey annually to determine the year's costume budget.
