What Does It Take To Become a Sea Lion?
First, one does not simply apply and get accepted or rejected. It’s much tougher than that.
Membership
First, there’s membership in the Ericsson Council. That’s $100 or $1,000, depending on whether you want to be a Voting Member. To be honored as a Founder costs $4,000. You can make payments, but without the money to build the floating shipyard, nobody goes anywhere, least of all you. 90% of that money remains in escrow at Safefunds.com. 10% goes toward getting the word out and prepping for Operations at the Academy.
The Ericsson Council
You can also join the Sea Lions Foundation instead, which is $1,000, and that also goes to getting the word out and prepping for Operations. Foundation Members are not required to come to the Academy, any more than members of the Audubon Society are required to go bird-watching. Membership is chiefly a gesture of support, but it gets you the opportunity to take a leadership role in the Academy's First Class, and a Voting Membership in the Ericsson Council.
We need about 4,000 members in the Ericsson Council. That will provide the budget to build the Academy, including its floating shipyard, begin operations, and begin both Launching Members and building ships to sell on the open market. After that, the Foundation will set a proportion of berths at the Academy for training Sea Lion Cadets, and a proportion for other persons we want to set free from the economy by letting them earn a LifeYacht. We plan, once the Twelve Fleets are established and staffed, to set up Refugee centers around the US and the world where the poor and oppressed can be set free from the world system by earning their own LifeYacht. For now, we're throwing Ericsson Council Membership wide open to anyone in order to get the Academy funded and started.
Once the Academy is functioning smoothly and our obligations to our Members have been fulfilled, we'll be recruiting Sea Lions in other ways, but paid memberships will no longer be the only way we do it. Membership today is about helping us get started, and being first on the mission field.
Founders
Founders are those Members who raise or contribute $2,000 by December 31, 2011, plus $2,000 more by May 1, 2012, toward the construction of the Academy, or who simply donate at least $4,000 toward the Academy, whether they become Sea Lions, Terraformers, Freeholders, Independents, or stay at home. The Academy’s founding budget is $4 million – once that goal’s achieved, the roster of Founders will be closed. Members who join as part of this initial effort, are First Class, always and only.
Founders will be memorialized on the walls of the Council Hall, and have first rights to come to the Academy and prepare for whatever God may have for them. First Class will be memorialized in the other installations of the Academy, so that no Sea Lion Cadet reaches the sea without knowing the name of at least one First Class Member.
Not every Founder may want to be a Sea Lion, or even a missionary.
Various Paths For Members
Some just want to support the work. Some want the chance to earn a LifeYacht, and that’s just fine. In return for helping us Found the Academy, we owe you that much. When you arrive at the Academy, you announce your intentions, and choose your courses and schedule. Some people will announce their intention to become Terraformers or Freeholders or Independents, and will simply be called Cadets. They’ll choose from the Navigation, Oceanography, Science, Shiphandling and Sea Life courses. When they Launch, we’ll bless them as we would anyone, grateful for their help in getting started, and they will then either join the Terraformers or Freeholders or, as Independents, go about their business as they wish from then on. The Ericsson Council website has more on all this.
A Founder, as distinct from a Member, may not wish to come build themselves a LifeYacht. They have the right, like any member, to name a replacement, who will be ranked according to the Admissions Council’s criteria and Offered a Berth at the Academy in his or her turn according to Rank.
Founders and Members have the opportunity to earn Corvettes and Sting Rays, floating homes that can go anywhere there’s three feet of water, including through hurricanes and up rivers. They make all their own electricity and hot and cold fresh running water, process their own sewage, and have walk-in freezers. The Sting Ray has a walk-in refrigerator and the Corvette has a 30 cubic foot reach-in refrigerator. Terraformers, Freeholders and Independents may choose to trade more work time for a farm ship in addition to their LifeYacht. Farm ships can be towed behind LifeYachts or sailed separately.
Sea Lion Cadets are those who arrive at the Academy and announce the intention to become Sea Lions. They’re casually referred to as Cubs. They have a course list and training missions to complete, and of course have to build ships, farm, tend animals, and teach school, duties that all Cadets share. The only LifeYacht that will serve a Sea Lion’s needs is the Manta Ray, which includes farm and garden space to feed at least ten people.
Restrictions on Sale of LifeYachts
Any Cub, Terraformer, Freeholder, or Independent who Launches owns their LifeYacht at that point, but will not be given the title to the vessel for two years. No other restriction is placed on the vessel; they may lease it, pre-sell it, whatever they like, but a sale cannot be completed until five years from Launch Day. This is for only one reason: to keep the huge number of vessels owned by Members from competing in the new vessel market with the vessels we're offering for sale to finance Operations. A used or pre-sold vessel has a separate market value than one that comes with a title at the time of transaction, and won't significantly reduce the market price of our vessels.
Changing Paths
At any point, a Sea Lion Cadet may switch to the Terraformer Project, the Freeholder Project, or the Indepedence Project. Those who wish to switch to the Sea Lion Cadet Corps may do so, though they may have a lot of catch-up work to do. Accumulated work hours toward a LifeYacht go with the Cadet to the new path. However, a Cadet who leaves the Sea Lions path will no longer be eligible to purchase a Manta Ray with his or her time. Should a Cadet or Sea Lion choose to leave the Foundation after earning a Manta Ray, it is still theirs, as it became their property on Launch.
Should a Cadet for any reason leave the Academy, any work hours accumulated toward their LifeYacht may be given or sold to other Cadets, but are otherwise forfeit. Any profit sharing earned to that point will be paid on departure, and should a Cadet have hours invested in a ship for sale which has not yet sold, the Cadet may provide or send later an address to mail those profit sharing funds to when the ship sells.
A Cadet may only be expelled for sexual immorality or for allowing their work time accumulation to fall behind schedule and fail to work the assigned plan to bring it back on schedule or causing significant, repeated disruption in the Academy. We’re easy to get along with, but you have to do the work to keep eating and living among us, and you have to be moving toward the day when your berth can be vacated for someone else, and you have to behave reasonably well. The Fleet Life Director will be responsible for publishing standards, schedules, and remediation schedules, in coordination with the Training Director. Medical conditions, learning disabilities, educational levels, and all other relevant factors will be taken into account in setting the schedules and remediation requirements. We know that not everyone has the same endurance or learns or works at the same speed.
Sexual immorality means sexual activity with anyone you’re not married to, including same-sex activity, and especially sexual activity with a minor. This is a Christian organization, after all, and even though we’re offering a huge opportunity to those non-Christians who are willing to help us get started, our belief that these behaviors cause serious spiritual, emotional, and morale problems in those around the persons who perpetuate them must be respected.
Further, any sexual activity which is a crime will be reported to the relevant authorities and the perpetrator turned over to them. Failing to control lust is one thing; hurting people is something else.
A first offense will not necessarily result in expulsion, though it will result in being given a remediation program specific to the case and persons involved. All the Directors will be involved in determining, in their judgment, whether an act of immorality merits expulsion or whether remediation may be attempted. Failure to fulfill the remediation requirements, in the judgment of the Directors, will result in expulsion. While a Cadet is remedying any moral deficiency of which they are convicted, their privacy will be respected by those officially involved, and if they successfully complete what is required of them, the case will be closed and sealed.
No matter who's the initiator in immoral situations, we place primary responsibility on the men: it can’t happen to you without your abdication of your authority over yourself. Among the Sea Lions, the most beautiful woman in the world could walk stark naked with a block of gold on her head unmolested: we are men of self-control, and we require it of the She Lions and those who would work with us as well.
Our educational requirement is 6th grade reading level, basic math including fractions, and the understanding that words means things.
Our age requirement is that you must be of legal age to enter into a contract.
Our physical requirement is that you must be physically able to perform any of the jobs involved in building these ships. The biggest hurdle in that regard is usually the two flights of stairs one must climb to reach the main deck of a Manta Ray. Currently, we are not able to enroll paraplegics or the blind or deaf, though we are actively working to change that. We want this for everyone.
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