Southern Regional Committee Discussion/Information Thread

[NeverAgain]

What powers does the Committee have and not have?

Good question.

Well, our purpose is to transport parts of the South, Mideast, and Northeast into its new form, while preserving their identities. To do this we will be writing a new constitution, setting up a new system of Southern Government, and currently figuring out our Senate election. To your question, our powers are a little unclear, but under Art. X "under no circumstances shall the committees presume to legislate on matters not pertaining to either of the aforementioned tasks and shall be immediately dissolved upon their completion". Under this, we are at the moment drafting our rules and regulations to help clear up most of these concerns.

[NeverAgain]

To summarize what happened last night:
- We chose not to have districts, instead elected representatives at-large. The vote was 2-3, with Leinad and Yankee voting in favor of districts and NeverAgain, Peebs and myself voting against.
- We decided not have a Lieutenant Governor. he vote was 2-3, with Leinad and Yankee voting in favor of having a Lt. Governor and NeverAgain, Peebs and myself voting against.
- By a unanimous vote, it was decided to have 5 representatives.

While I think everyone agreed that districts would add an interesting element, concerns were brought up that it would be too complicated for the startup of the region, may lead to gerrymandering and would likely lead to a split chamber in most sessions, giving a potential Lt. Governor enormous power to be able to break ties. Once it was decided not to have districts, the majority felt that the Lt. Governor can become useless and we should minimize the number of positions. I stated that I think it is better for the region to start simple and work up, rather than the other way around.

Our next order of business is to discuss the Bill of Rights, Regional Name and Regional Capitol. Once those three are determined, we will move into a styling phase to make sure the final draft has proper grammar and no inconsistencies and loopholes. Our plan is to have the the final draft approved later this week.

Thanks for this, I was just about to post my record!

[NeverAgain]

I just want to chime in that I don't support adding a voting age requirement to the constitution.  I understand that we're trying to be legislators and we're dealing with some make-believe constituents, but the most important constituents are Atlasian players.  There are kids that play this game, and a voting age would technically discriminate against them.  It's unnecessary and unenforceable.

I initially had that concern as well, but felt that by simply saying "voting age", per Atlasian constitution, that would just constitute as those who had a certain amount of posts and had an account that was a certain amount of days old. Do you find the proposed wording by NeverAgain to still be problematic?

Personally, I don't support adding it because it opens up the possibility of different interpretations, and I also just don't see why it needs to be there.  I guess the legislature could pass a bill defining "voting age" as those account activity requirements, but it's kind of a stretch of the meaning of the words IMO (especially since Yankee seemed to be concerned about children voting specifically).

Would 'posting age' work? I, as a non-voting age poster, would feel fine making that change.