Or Gold members? I play another game which reserves the highest rank and its privileges for paying players. Of course, if this would make Gold members too powerful, I'd scrap that idea. lol
Honestly, I'd prefer to not exclude the non-gold members. If they manage to reach the maximum rank then all the power to them. Gold members already get quite a bit more benefits over the non-gold members.
The stipend with responsibility concept is also interesting, but how do you feel about allowing "less active" players to choose to pass on the stipend and the responsibility and go "freelance" or "consultant" instead? This will free up servers for those who actually want to play that part of the game. Going back to the active roster would put one on a waiting list for a position to "open up" if they choose to drop "freelance" status. Of course, priority would go to higher ranks and then first-come-first-serve.
I've got no problem with that idea.
Of course less active players may be quickly passed up by the other players. There could also be penalty faction points assigned to the player if they fail to keep their server clean on top of the HPD loss perhaps something like one percent of the HPD lost... or not...