QuoteWHEREAS, the Constitution of Belacostă does not currently appear to allow voters to name fewer than three choices for Provincial Council elections on their ballot; and

WHEREAS, this risks of disenfranchising citizens who do not wish to name three candidates, for whatever reason they may have, or are unaware that undervoting may invalidate their ballot, then

BE IT RESOLVED by the Provincial Assembly of Belacostă that Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution of Belacosta, which currently reads as:

QuoteThe Provincial Council will be elected from among the citizens of the Province at each Cosă election, via a positional vote. Voters will name their first-, second-, and third-choice candidates. For each first-choice vote, the candidate shall receive three points; for each second-choice vote, two points; and for each third-place vote, one point. The three candidates with the highest point totals shall be elected to the Provincial Council, with any ties being broken by the number of first-choice votes received (and if necessary, the number of second- and then third-choice votes, with a coin flip being used past this if necessary). Provincial Consuls may choose to ceremonially represent any canton or sexteir of the Province, or to represent the Province at-large.

is hereby amended to read:

QuoteThe Provincial Council will be elected from among the citizens of the Province at each Cosă election, via a positional vote. Voters may name up to three candidates, in order of their preference. For each first-choice vote, the candidate shall receive three points; for each second-choice vote, two points; and for each third-place vote, one point. The three candidates with the highest point totals shall be elected to the Provincial Council, with any ties being broken by the number of first-choice votes received (and if necessary, the number of second- and then third-choice votes, with a coin flip being used past this if necessary). Provincial Consuls may choose to ceremonially represent any canton or sexteir of the Province, or to represent the Province at-large.

As a Provincial Consul, I recommend this proposal for presentation to the Provincial Assembly. Paging my fellow Consuls, the Right Honourable @Sir Lüc and Right Honourable @Iason Taiwos for their review of this proposal; with the recommendation of at least one of these two, the amendment will be brought to the Assembly for consideration.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on June 10, 2025, 09:16:34 PMAlso, a minor note for the Scribe, there is a double shall in the fourth whereas clause of 54RZ25.

I appreciate the notification -- it would appear that this bill, way back when, was actually proposed, clarked, and adopted as such. Luckily, as a part of the bill's preamble, it bears no legal weight.

Estimat Tuischac'h,

I thank the Member for his inquiry; I am pleased to report that the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue has successfully been added to, and can access, the Talossa team on DigitalOcean. He is working to connect a payment method within the next few days (he tells me it will not allow for Paypal, but we have a debit card number available as well).

In the meantime, I will work with the Permanent Secretary of Backend Administration to prepare for the transition; because we are copying the server state between Droplets (which I am told was easier than transferring Droplet ownership), this will necessitate a brief period of downtime for the nation's server. I will try to ensure that the transition and accompanying downtime are scheduled toward the end of the month in which they occur, to avoid any interruption to Clark voting/tabulation and the call for bills, but in any event will notify the nation publicly of when the downtime is scheduled for once it is so scheduled.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on June 04, 2025, 12:58:23 AM

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on June 03, 2025, 10:09:00 PMPersonally, I don't think putting anything ID card-related under the Immigration Portfolio makes much sense given the arrangement of the rest of the Government's duties.

Which current portfolio do you think is appropriate for designing ID cards and issuing them to citizens? I'm actually leaning back towards Culture, if only because right now they're contingent on the Citizenship Test

If we aim to avoid creating another portfolio, I would have said STUFF is still the best fit, though I will also agree your point about Culture is a good one.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on June 03, 2025, 04:10:10 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 03, 2025, 03:54:52 PMso what other details can you share then, from that process?

Well, we created a list of questions from this company and got a list of answers in return - @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be was the point man on this, and I'll ask Cabinet for permission to republish those.

Alrght, so:

Quote

• What degree of control would we retain over this AI model, and what would be controlled by (Company)? For that matter, what amount of "human control" is still necessary/possible?
  
  • In actual practice (not that we will communicate this as part of the story), it is likely to be as simple as (Company) granting you free access to its Premium platform, and building a bespoke agent/agents (something they can do very quickly and easily, since it's their core service) on your behalf, to match the needs of the story. Think of each agent as very sophisticated and ultra-tailored version of Chat-GPT, which is programmed to focus on a specific task or tasks. You can do nothing with them, or put them to work, as you wish.
• They aren't seeking any payment from us, but would they require anything else? What sort of paperwork (especially legal paperwork) is involved? We would almost certainly have to sign some sort of contract.
  
  • Contracts, especially legal, certainly won't be necessary.
• Can they give us more information on how this would be marketed?
  
  • In terms of how we'll market the story, please see my explanation below of how we'll take this to press. We will have (Company) post secured articles from their social media channels, too.
• Why a Cabinet post? Why not something simpler at first, like citizenship in general?
  
  • A Cabinet post will be necessary to grab our contacts' attention, as a truly novel and fun innovation. We know how to craft these things to capture the interest of top-tier media. Of course, as mentioned, we wouldn't communicate anything without your blessing.
• What sort of data does this model collect?
  
  • No more data is collected than for any of (Company)'s many thousands of corporate customers (I assume a user email address and anything else you'd expect of a SaaS).

An explanation of the marketing process they mentioned mentioned above:

QuoteOur team would manage the full process - drafting written materials for press, creating the AI workforce, and media placement. All we would need from your side is approval of press materials before they are shared with journalists, a written quote (which we can draft for you if helpful), and potentially being available for interview by an interested journalist. Otherwise, we'd keep the ask on you to an absolute minimum.

My own personal opinion is that dividing the duties between Ministries makes the work more manageable; a clearer division of responsibility and/or a lighter workload can help make it easier to move forward on a given task. (If you've ever had too many chores to do and that kept you from starting any of them, you know what I mean.)

I will defer to the Minister of STUFF on this one (paging @Bråneu Excelsio, UrN ). If he believes it makes sense to keep both major functions ("make Talossan artifacts" and "publish Talossan information") under the direction of the STUFF Ministry while still delegating production to a Permanent Secretary, then I will delete Item 3 from the proposal (and modify Item 4 to retain Lex.D.2.10.2). That would accomplish the same overall goal I had with this bill.

I would, however, argue that the two sections of D.2.10.3 still deserve to be spun off to the Justice Ministry and Prime Ministry, respectively -- especially since the latter would appear to already be synonymous with the Seneschal's List. As a result, whether in the current form or a truncated one, I intend to move forward with some version of this bill once we have a verdict on which path to take.

Personally, I don't think putting anything ID card-related under the Immigration Portfolio makes much sense given the arrangement of the rest of the Government's duties.

Quote from: Munditenens Tresplet on May 30, 2025, 08:21:50 AMWould this amendment actually end the push to dissolve the Senate and/or force the merger of provinces over their will? It seems like it would, and that would be a strong reason to favor it, given the political push in the other direction. (This isn't to say I'm in support of the amendment at this time, just that I continue to keep an open mind.)

As noted earlier in the thread, for my part I have accepted that the Senate will continue to exist for the foreseeable future; continuing to move its workings in a more democratic direction is something I like to think more people could agree on than outright abolition.

As to forcing provinces to merge, I'll admit to some confusion as to what you refer to. While I've been a strong proponent of reducing the number of provinces, and even trying to coordinate those on a "big-picture" level, I'm not sure if anyone is under the impression one can Organically force provinces to merge without their consent. I don't believe this is possible; the whole thing is down to negotiation and compromise, as with pretty much anything else in politics.

I would still argue that either of my proposed reforms to the Cosa -- including the Mixed-Member Proportional proposal, but the "Biproportional" plan as well -- retain a degree of provincial representation, since I see that some people view that as a sticking point (and I myself am in favor of retaining it to some extent), but do so in a more democratic fashion.

Quote from: King Txec on June 02, 2025, 11:08:03 AMIs it the intent of this bill to create a new cabinet post? Minister of Production?

-Txec R

That is correct, though the actual title of the post is negotiable. (I just couldn't think of anything that fit better, to be honest.)

WHEREAS, STUFF has a lot of stuff to do; and

WHEREAS, when one has too much stuff, it makes sense to get rid of some of it, even if you're STUFF; then

BE IT RESOLVED, that the following be enacted:

• Title C, Section 1.8 of El Lexhatx is created to read:

  QuoteC.1.8. The Directorate of STUFF, headed by the Director of STUFF, responsible for the production of "physical embodiments of Talossanity", whether for distribution to citizens, to publicise the Kingdom to outsiders, or to sell for profit, at the direction of and in collaboration with the King and the Government.

• Title C, Section 2 of El Lexhatx shall be amended by addition of the bolded text:

  QuoteWith the exception of the Secretary of State and the Permanent Secretaries, every Office of the Royal Civil Service shall be assigned to a responsible Minister of the Government as named below, to report and consult concerning the conduct of their office as and when requested, necessary or useful. Officers are not subject to the direction of their responsible Minister except as required by Organic and statutory law. The Scribe of Abbavilla shall be responsible to the Attorney-General, the Royal Archivist to the STUFF Minister, the Burgermeister of Inland Revenue and the Director of STUFF to the Minister of Finance, and the President of the Royal Society and the Poet Laureate to the Minister of Culture.

• Title D, Section 2.10 of El Lexhatx is replaced in its entirety with the following:

  QuoteThe Minister of Propaganda, heading the Ministry of Propaganda (Ministrà dal Propagandă), which shall be responsible for the internal and external promotion of the Kingdom, all events therein and all things Talossan through public relations, and shall dutifully ensure that the Kingdom and its events are regularly publicised and may use any means and media available to them to achieve this. The Ministry of Propaganda shall be directly responsible for the content of one or more websites and/or social media accounts named as the 'official' website(s) and social media account(s) of the Kingdom.

• Title D, Section 2.11 of El Lexhatx is created to read:

  QuoteThe Minister of Public Records, heading the Ministry of Public Records (Ministrà dallas Adnalăs Püblici), which shall be responsible for ensuring the availability, for all Talossans, of the following:
          2.11.1. The records of the Scribery as described in C.1.2; and
          2.11.2. Any other information necessary for or useful to citizens, including but not limited to reports and data about Talossan life and Government activity.

Uréu q'estadra så:
Mic'haglh Autófil (MC-PdR/¡Avant!)

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on May 29, 2025, 09:25:45 AMSide note: no one is obligated to take up this request, since enblazonments may be done by anyone and they are not strictly part of the remit of the Coletx.

Correct -- while the offer as stated only applies to individuals I assisted with the grant of arms for, I may open it up to others down the line as time permits. In the meantime, however, the Squirrel Viceroy is correct: once you have been granted arms, that's the College's work done. Anyone (including you, the armiger yourself) may depict your blazon in whatever individual style you prefer as long as it is accurate to the blazon you were granted. (Maybe you like the Green Town Pursuivant's shorter heater-style shields as opposed to the Tudor arch? Different shades of a given tincture? It's up to you really.)

Did Mic'haglh Autófil assist you with the creation of an armorial achievement during his time as the Long Fellow? Do you think it could look better? Well it can! Yes, folks, you heard it straight from the fox's mouth. The newly-minted Coletxüt del Fotz Mesquaic has recently upgraded some of his artistic "ingredients" and in celebration of his recent promotion is extending an offer to anyone who had an escutcheon designed by him the opportunity to refresh the depiction of their arms. Keep in mind, this does not mean they may have new arms -- the blazon has already been granted by one of two Kings. Rather, let's look at an example of what I'm talking about:


If you are @Caleb Frenibuerg , @þerxh Sant-Enogat , or @Barclamïu da Miéletz , and the prospect of a bit more professional of a design appeals to you, send the Foxmouth Pursuivant a message and together you'll look over what can be done.

-Foxmouth

Does Talossa have any sort of standards for civic heraldry? As an example, the Vuodean flag features the arms of Vuode, which according to the description provided by S:reu Tafial, do not actually feature any sort of shield. I'm not aware of any other provinces (or subunits thereof) adopting arms, though; is anyone else?

Personally, I like a good rounded ("Iberian") shield for this sort of thing:

Wondering if this is something we could look into more if we're trying to spur activity at the provincial level. Thoughts?

-Foxmouth

Vaes graschiăs à Sieu Maxhestà per acest þonör.

Winging that one, don't skewer me please S:reu Tafial

-Foxmouth

Mr. Secretary, please add the Opposition Redefinition Act to the Clark.