Is it that time again already? Yes it is. Soon we will open the candidate applications page for the third term of the CSM (details of dates below). Like the two terms before, the full name and location of the candidate will be published, along with the candidate's character name, URL and campaign message. All candidates have to submit a scan of their valid passport in order to be considered eligible candidates and be 21 years of age or more. Furthermore, it is very important to have 100% correct and up to date ownership information on all of your user accounts, as all of them will be checked. Why should you run for the CSM? Because if you do you have a chance of affecting EVE, both in the short term and in the long run. So far the CSM, during the first term and the current second one, has brought to CCP 128 topics -- topics such as "add skill queue," "crane needs more powergrid," "switch ammo in all weapons at once," "black ops improvements" and "bombs need a boost" that have been approved by CCP and implemented already to some extent -- weapon grouping, allowing Blockade runners to use Black ops jump portals and decreasing the mineral requirements for bombs being the changes made so far. This might sound like easy and trivial -- we, however, believe that all topics that do not qualify as a bug report can be brought up by the CSM. Luckily, the number of the easy sounding and trivial looking topics is finite and we are already seeing discussions between the CSM and CCP regarding the future of 0.0 from several perspectives: sovereignty, industry and station handling and management. Furthermore, the topics of the progress of the history in EVE -- touching the Factional Warfare and written fiction - and the general mineral status and where the minerals are coming from have been discussed by the CSM. Out of the 128 topics discussed, 50 have been added to and/or given increased priority in the backlog, 47 have been bumped into the pipeline from the backlog and/or given increased priority there, 20 topics are considered to have been implemented (some will appear in Apocrypha) and 9 have been denied implementation (mostly because of technical reasons). Two topics are awaiting further input from the CSM. Remember that EVE is a living game where many of its features are bound to change as the days go by -- thus many items said to be in the pipeline may have addressed a topic brought up by the CSM in a partial manner. Small, incremental changes are the key -- such as allowing Blockade runners to use black ops jump bridges -- where a change was introduced, its effects monitored and further decisions made once data has been gathered. [The CSM white paper](//www.eveonline.com/download/devblog/CSM.pdf) and [the summary](//www.eveonline.com/download/devblog/CSMSummary.pdf) of it can be found if you chase these links. Following are the important dates for the third CSM: * **March, 17**^th. Opening for candidacy runs for the third CSM. * **March, 31**^st. Closing for the candidacy applications. * **May, 12**^th. Voting for the third CSM opens. * **May, 26**^th. Voting for the third CSM closes. * **May, 29**^th, Thursday. A permanent announcement made about the results of the third CSM elections. * **May, 31**^st, Saturday. The third CSM meets online for the first time. * August, 19^th - 23^rd or 26^th - 30^th, Wednesday to Sunday. CSM arrives in Iceland to speak with CCP. The meeting in Iceland has been moved to August because of summer vacations - and **the final dates for the meetings have not been confirmed yet**. The meeting will be held either 19^th - 23^rd of August, or 26^th - 30^th of August. [Throw your hat in the ring](//www.eveonline.com/council/voting/SubmissionForm.asp) - make history.