Northern Regional Committee

[cinyc]

I assume our work has to be done in public.  The regional government board seems like the most logical place to do our work.  Should we have multiple threads, one for the Senate election and one or more for the constitution?  We can break the constitution into parts.

Should we first elect a chair and adopt rules for passage?  I assume we'd require a majority vote - of all reps or of just voting reps?  Is a 24 hour or 48 hour voting period after a motion for cloture agreed to by the chair a good start?  Or do we want a set time limit for each piece followed by a set time limit for a vote, like the Northeast Assembly?

[Kingpoleon]

I motion for immediate nomination of a Chair for twelve hours. Perhaps a Vice Chair to act in case of slight inactivity for the Chair.

I think cinyc has shown himself capable of amazing efficiency in the Northeast region. I suggest he and former Presiding Officer of the Constitutional Convention Truman become Chair, Vice Chair, or Co-Chairs. Both seem to be very efficient and good at moving things along.

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

I think we should fast-track the voting process. What's important is we get to finish our work early.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

The following amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Atlasia have passed the Senate and await ratification by the Regions. I recommend that the Legislative Committee place these amendments on the ballot alongside the special senatorial election.

Regards,
Harry S Truman
Speaker of the Senate

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[/quote]

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[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I think we should fast-track the voting process. What's important is we get to finish our work early.

I agree - speed is of primary importance here. A simple voice vote for chair seems appropriate; we can then move to set a date for the senatorial election and begin hammering out a Constitution.

I will stand for the office of Chair and nominate Cinyc for Vice Chair.

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

I think we should fast-track the voting process. What's important is we get to finish our work early.

I agree - speed is of primary importance here. A simple voice vote for chair seems appropriate; we can then move to set a date for the senatorial election and begin hammering out a Constitution.

I will stand for the office of Chair and nominate Cinyc for Vice Chair.

I second the motion.

[Kingpoleon]

I third the motion. Someone fourthing this allows it to pass without a vote.

[cinyc]

I fourth the motion.

I think the Senate election should be held next weekend, 12:00 EDT Friday to 11:59PM EDT Sunday - EDT so that the election supervisor can start the vote an hour earlier than the usual 1AM.  I suggest using STV voting rules.  We can specify that the voting rules of the Consolidated Northeastern Election Law apply, if we want to further flesh out how to handle the STV vote (they're almost identical to the old Atlasian regs, but I don't know where to find them).  That would also give voters a 20-minute edit period and 7-day residency requirement (assuming it's not overturned by the Supreme Court) for a vote to count. 

If we can decide who gets the longer term, I'd suggest that the person elected first under the STV rules or with the highest surplus be given the longer term.  If there is a tie, we'd look to second preferences, then a game of chance.

We also need someone to run the election.  I can do it if you want.  I have been running Northeast elections for a while, and am comfortable doing so.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

now that we have our officials, i'll introduce some motions:

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obviously these are drafts, feel free to discuss & submit amendments.

[Kingpoleon]

I think "The Northern Union of Franklin" would be a good name. We could then refer to the region as either Franklin or "the North."

As for a bicameral legislature:
I like the idea of three Senators, and the remainder if numbering three or above forming a House of three to five members. If there are four candidates, a three man Senate would be created. If there were five or six, a five man Senate is elected. If there are seven or more, the top three are elected to the Senate and either a three or five man House is created. The combined legislatures elect a Prime Minister among them, with the Governor casting the tie breaking vote. The PM then presides over the legislature and the Governor would veto it.

I'll turn it into legalese in twelve hours or so, assuming no one else does. Hopefully this meeting can be successful in using innovation and unique ideas in founding this region's government

[cinyc]

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While I like the SOAP, I'm not sure that it would lead to a prompt resolution of things.  The voting periods are 48 hours, and debates must last at least 36 but no more than 168 hours, unless there is a formal vote to extend.  We might be better off creating our own rules, modeled on the former Senate.

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I simply don't think we have that power. 

A few proposed amendments to 3:

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I prefer "North".

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

that's fair, yeah. i withdraw res. 2 and declare cinyc's amendment to res. 3 friendly.

ah right and the asterisk was meant to point to this law.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Order!

Alright, I love the enthusiasm, but we need to take this one step at a time - if we try to debate everything at once, conversations will become impossible to follow and a lot of good ideas will get lost in the mix.

Thanks to evergreen, cinyc, and Kingpoleon for taking the initiative and getting the ideas rolling. Here's a rough timeline for how debate will proceed from here on out:

1. Adopt Rules of Order ([RULES])
2. Organize Senatorial election ([SEN])
3. Principle votes on regional name and system of government  ([PRV])
4. Introduce rough draft of Constitution ([DRAFT])
5. Adopt amendments as necessary ([AMNDT])

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

[RULES]   The following motion has been made by Evergreen:

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An objection has been filed by Vice Chairman Cinyc; we will therefore proceed with a final vote on this motion. Please vote AYE, NAY, or Abstain. Voting will last 24 hours or until a majority has been reached.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

NAY

I'd rather use the Senate Rules as a base for the Rules of Order (with adjustments to shorten the voting period), as I'm more familiar with them.

[/]

Abstain

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

i think the objections raised have been fair. abstain

[Blair]

Sorry for just getting on here- we need to streamline this process as much as possible to stop it taking weeks, and never allowing us to actually experience the new game.

Nay

[cinyc]

Nay

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

As a majority of the delegates have either abstained or voted against the motion (making it mathematically impossible for it to pass, Evergreen's motion has FAILED.

I will begin drafting Rules of Order momentarily.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

[RULES]   I offer the following motion:

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[/quote]

If there are no objections in 24 hours, I will consider these Rules to have been adopted.

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

I think "The Northern Union of Franklin" would be a good name. We could then refer to the region as either Franklin or "the North."

As for a bicameral legislature:
I like the idea of three Senators, and the remainder if numbering three or above forming a House of three to five members. If there are four candidates, a three man Senate would be created. If there were five or six, a five man Senate is elected. If there are seven or more, the top three are elected to the Senate and either a three or five man House is created. The combined legislatures elect a Prime Minister among them, with the Governor casting the tie breaking vote. The PM then presides over the legislature and the Governor would veto it.

I'll turn it into legalese in twelve hours or so, assuming no one else does. Hopefully this meeting can be successful in using innovation and unique ideas in founding this region's government

I am thinking that the House will introduce the bill first, approves it. The approved bill will be sent to the Senate, for another approval. If approved, the bill will be sent to the governor for signing.

[/]

When it comes to the number of representatives we have and the type of regional governmental system we use, I recommend having as small a legislature as possible, as doing so would (a) increase competitiveness, (b) reduce legislative inactivity, and (c) expedite the legislation-passing process as a whole. I would personally prefer no more than seven or eight regional legislators, though I understand that some on this committee would probably prefer more than that and that's fine with me.

However, if we're really looking for an interesting electoral system, then I recommend developing districts! Having districts would increase the amount of political clout each individual Northern citizen would have due to his or her ability to influence the vote within his or her own district, and create a more personalized campaign system as opposed to the personal message-based one we have now.

I think the best system would probably be a bicameral system with a House and Senate (preferably with more creative names), with one being elected at-large and the other being elected using districts. We could have single-member districts, double-member districts, or half being elected with single-member districts and half being elected at-large like in the old Senate. I recommend around three, four, or five districts, with the legislature being able to redistrict every session to reflect population changes (that would also give the legislature something interesting to do ). Here are my proposed maps for each one along with the current populations of each state and province/territory (only the currently inhabited Canadian provinces are included for population distribution purposes):

Obviously, there would be debate regarding both district contiguity (which would be hard to do perfectly due to the positions of New York and Ohio) and differences in population between each district. I recommend developing contiguity rules that don't require perfect district contiguity but do to an extent, so, for example, we could have a district with New Jersey and Connecticut if New York's population needs to be included in a different district. Regarding population differences in each district, I recommend just developing a standard deviation criterion that can't be violated.

Overall, a district system would be good basically because it gives the legislature something to actually do and makes things relatively more interesting.

If we wanted to get really crazy, we could ask each Northern citizen to specify a county of residence and work from there. That would probably create hilarious levels of gerrymandering, but why not, eh?

[Former Lincoln Assemblyman & Lt. Gov. RGN]

When it comes to the number of representatives we have and the type of regional governmental system we use, I recommend having as small a legislature as possible, as doing so would (a) increase competitiveness, (b) reduce legislative inactivity, and (c) expedite the legislation-passing process as a whole. I would personally prefer no more than seven or eight regional legislators, though I understand that some on this committee would probably prefer more than that and that's fine with me.

However, if we're really looking for an interesting electoral system, then I recommend developing districts! Having districts would increase the amount of political clout each individual Northern citizen would have due to his or her ability to influence the vote within his or her own district, and create a more personalized campaign system as opposed to the personal message-based one we have now.

I think the best system would probably be a bicameral system with a House and Senate (preferably with more creative names), with one being elected at-large and the other being elected using districts. We could have single-member districts, double-member districts, or half being elected with single-member districts and half being elected at-large like in the old Senate. I recommend around three, four, or five districts, with the legislature being able to redistrict every session to reflect population changes (that would also give the legislature something interesting to do ). Here are my proposed maps for each one along with the current populations of each state and province/territory (only the currently inhabited Canadian provinces are included for population distribution purposes):

Obviously, there would be debate regarding both district contiguity (which would be hard to do perfectly due to the positions of New York and Ohio) and differences in population between each district. I recommend developing contiguity rules that don't require perfect district contiguity but do to an extent, so, for example, we could have a district with New Jersey and Connecticut if New York's population needs to be included in a different district. Regarding population differences in each district, I recommend just developing a standard deviation criterion that can't be violated.

Overall, a district system would be good basically because it gives the legislature something to actually do and makes things relatively more interesting.

If we wanted to get really crazy, we could ask each Northern citizen to specify a county of residence and work from there. That would probably create hilarious levels of gerrymandering, but why not, eh?

Three man senate who has the final say before it will be sent to the governor's office. Elected at-large
A three to seven man house of representatives, elected by at-large or by districts (stv method), this is where the legislation is introduced, and voted before being sent to the senate.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

can we really sustain a bicameral legislature?