The West Philadelphia Film Society (WPFS) shall exist for the purpose of watching movies. The society shall maintain a list of movies to watch and furnish the general enjoyment of all members.
There are no official members of this society - a member is merely whoever shows up to a given meeting of WPFS. A meeting of WPFS requires a quorum of no fewer than 3 people (or a combination of no fewer than 2 people AND no fewer than 2 cats. All present at a meeting are considered de facto members.
A central function of WPFS is to maintain “The List”. The purpose of "The List" is to provide a democratic mechanism for deciding what to watch. “The List” is a list of movies, maintained on a spreadsheet accessible to all members. Each movie has an accordant point value (by default, this value is 1).
Sample List:
| Movie | Points |
|---|---|
| The Shawshank Redemption (1994) | 7.0 |
| Shrek (2001) | 5.5 |
| It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) | 3.0 |
| Creed (2015) | 0.5 |
A Meeting shall proceed as follows (this process can occur over dinner):
- The point value for each movie already on the spreadsheet is multiplied by by 0.75.
- At this point, beginning with the meeting HOST and moving clockwise, each member can add up to one (1) movie to the list. This movie is by default awarded 1 point.
- Again beginning with the HOST and moving clockwise, each member can award (1) additional point to any movie, including movies that had been added in previous weeks.
- While adding a movie or awarding a point, members are free to provide a short rationale to sway the group. I.e. "Nick Cage is in this movie and its supposed to slap" or "Shrek is hot".
- After this round of voting, the HOST can optionally award an additional .5 points to a movie.
- Each bottle of wine, 6 pack of beers, or equivalent libation brought to the meeting by a non-host member awards an additional .5 points towards a movie of their choosing. You can use this clause to bribe the group into watching a movie of your choosing while also ensuring the group is adequately sauced to get through your selection.
- Additionally, any homemade confection or snack brought by a non-host member awards an additional .5 points towards a movie of their choosing.
- Finally, the movie with the highest point total is watched. If this movie is not currently available on a major streaming service, the HOST can choose whether or not to rent this movie, but reserves the right to venmo charge the person who initially requested the movie for the cost of watching said movie.
- In the case of a tie, a cat chooses between the tied movies.
- Amendment of Bylaws requires a unanimous decision of all members at a meeting of WPFS.