Regional Protection Party Spring Fling/April Retreat (Unfinished Business)

[Associate Justice PiT]

     X PiT (The Physicist)

[Associate Justice PiT]

It'd be awful kind of the RPP to endorse me for Assembly in the NE

hmm, that would be a different process and held separately. When does that election start?

Our election is held this friday, I believe. Lord only knows if the Governor will open the booth on time though.

    Yeah, it is held this Friday. I never realized that most regions don't have elections coincide with federal elections.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I don't think anybody else could comprehend the possibility of being endorsed by the glory that is us.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     There is a set of bylaws on the Wiki, though I do not know if that set is current.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Heh, I remember some of these from 2008. We really should put together an up-to-date set of bylaws. Maybe get the revised platform from 2009 up on there as well. For reference, this is the set of bylaws on the Wiki:

Chair and Vice-Chair
1.) The chairman and vice-chair shall serve a term of at least four months

2.) This term shall conclude two weeks before the beginning of a presidential election

3.) The chairman and vice-chair are voted on at the party convention by approval voting

4.) If the chair or vice-chair fails to gain 50% of the party's support, they are removed from office and a new election is held for the position

5.) Any member of the party has the right to request a vote on the chair and/or vice-chair at the party's convention

6.) That if the chairman of the Party shall be absent for the period of the convention, The Vice Chairmen is then charged with opening the convention just as he is charged with all other duties of the Chairmen. The Vice Chairmen may delegate some of those duties to other highly trusted members off the RPP at his discretion.

Party Dean
1.) The chairman may appoint a party dean to help serve with the chairman and vice-chair

2.) The Dean must be a member of the party for at least two months, or since its inception.

3.) The primary function of the dean will be to settle disputes between the chair and vice-chair

Endorsements
1.) To receive the endorsement of the Regional Protection Party a candidate must receive the endorsement of either the chair and vice-chair or a vote of the party to be held on the private forum.

2.) Any candidate who does not receive the party endorsement and runs under the party banner is denied support of the party for a minimum of six (6) months

Regional Chairs
1.) Each region shall have its own chair appointed by the party chairman

2.) Regional chairmen may be hired/fired at the discretion of the party chair

3.) The primary duty of regional chairs is to remind voters in their regions to vote and to represent the party in their region

Conventions
1.) That the Quad annual RPP convention must be held prior to each Presidential Election

2.) That the Quad-annual RPP convention begin no less then three weeks before the Presidential election and be brought to a close no less then three days prior to the said Election. The convention shall then reconvene within a week of the election for the purpose of party leadership elections.

3.) When the Chairman or Vice Chairmen opens the convention a list of Delegates (Party members) shall be listed to encourage active participation of all party members. Also to be listed are links to the current bylaws and platform.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Your research is correct. We did have one, but he was de-registered after the last election.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I suggest scotching Endorsements & incorporating the fusion voting bylaw into the basis of a new Endorsements section. I think we also need some mechanism by which we can un-endorse party members, though I want to see what other people think.

Endorsements

1. One week prior to the commencement of the election, the RPP Chairman or Vice Chairman, in the Chairman's absence, shall open a thread to allow non RPP candidates to state whether they are seeking the endorsement of the RPP in that race.

2. After 48 hours the declaration period shall be closed and a voted shall begin in which all party members may vote for which candidates to endorse in each race.

3. After 72 hours the vote shall be closed. The non RPP candidate with the most votes in the each race will receive the highest non RPP preference endorsement (first if no RPPer is running). The next highest non RPPer in votes will receive the next highest RPP preference endorsement and so on.

4. Upon motion by three members, a vote shall be held on whether to unendorse any RPP candidate named in the motion who is running in the upcoming election.

5. This motion shall be voted on concurrently with the out-of-party endorsement vote held pursuant to Section 2 of this bylaw if possible. Otherwise, the vote shall be opened within 24 hours of the motion gaining requisite support.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Seems very good.

In Clause 2, would "shall" be better then "may" or does it sound too involuntary?

In Clause 3, we should probably set firm a voting method since to be used for those votes. We have used IRV in most of the instances where a vote has been held.

     I think "may" or "shall have the right to" would be best. Just "shall" would create a legal responsibility for all party members to vote on endorsements, which would be problematic.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Also, IRV is rather passe. What if we use Condorcet for the endorsements & hold a parallel vote to determine if a candidate gets the RPP tag on the ballot.

"are encouraged to" vote

     "Shall have the right to and are encouraged to" vote?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I think we should continue with the old method for leadership elections. With all of the other things that need to be addressed at conventions, I'm not sure we should devote too much time to leadership elections.

     Additionally, what if we adopted the same method for regional chairs, so they are originally appointed by the Chairman & then must stand for approval every four months? It might make party members feel more connected to their regional chair & more likely to respond to that person's PMs.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Also, IRV is rather passe. What if we use Condorcet for the endorsements & hold a parallel vote to determine if a candidate gets the RPP tag on the ballot.

Fine by me, as long as someone knows how to calculate the results.

     I could handle that. Condorcet isn't that hard to tally up, just time-consuming.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I thought about after the election, though I rejected the idea because I figured that it would just invite ridicule.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     I thought about after the election, though I rejected the idea because I figured that it would just invite ridicule.

Since when should you care about ridicule..

     When a notion has a low ratio of upshot:ridicule, I have difficulty entertaining it. When in Atlasia, you always need to remember that anything that can be ridiculed will be ridiculed.

[Associate Justice PiT]

    I thought about after the election, though I rejected the idea because I figured that it would just invite ridicule.

Since when should you care about ridicule..

     When a notion has a low ratio of upshot:ridicule, I have difficulty entertaining it. When in Atlasia, you always need to remember that anything that can be ridiculed will be ridiculed.

They'll find a way to ridicule you either way under that logic then.  I would think that the leadership should worry about ridicule within the party, rather than outside the party.  If general consensus is in agreement with the operation of the party then your duties have been fulfilled to the members.  You know far more than I do in regards to the party so I'll leave the PR to you and agree either way.

     You also need friends outside of the party, which is something that folks like DWTL never understood.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     What do you want to discuss?

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The way we used to do it, the Vice-Chair contacted the Regional Chairmen with a list of the party members in their region & told them to PM all of those members. Given the number of people in the party, it would be a very good idea to go back to doing that.

[Associate Justice PiT]

Well if no one can get down to Australia on such notice, I guess I could get arrangements made with an establishment in New Orleans.

     My house or Brandon's?

[Associate Justice PiT]

Well if no one can get down to Australia on such notice, I guess I could get arrangements made with an establishment in New Orleans.

     My house or Brandon's?

Whichever is more likely to have a bar and a strip club?

     Don't look at me then.