The State Opening and Joint Informal Session is underway! https://unipd.zoom.us/j/88582238457?pwd=lrVZ5swd4T9ULUrviBoeHx9HjeiNm3.1

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on January 10, 2026, 08:08:02 AMThe King may debate, but not vote. The Secretary of State may do neither. No one else can speak unless invited to do so, which is what a terpelaziun does.

While I mostly agree with you, as long as we don't have precedents or rules governing it, what you said is opinion and not fact - moreso because the Seneschal doesn't and shouldn't have any particular authority over the Ziu's operations.

Parliaments worldwide handle this stuff in wildly different ways and since the Ziu is not based on any individual one, we just can't make gut-feeling assumptions.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on January 10, 2026, 08:56:20 AMIt's an interesting question, actually. In Germany, ministers who aren't MPs are allowed to participate in debates when the bill in question is on a topic that's part of their portfolio, in order to represent Government policies. I would be in favour of allowing something like this in Talossa, too.

And this is precisely a perfect example of what I was getting at.

The Chancery is in receipt of this request and hereby confirms it has reassigned Iac Marscheir to be a citizen of Belacostă, pursuant to Lex.E.7.3, E.7.3.1 and E.7.5.



Sir Lüc da Schir
Secretar d'Estat / Secretary of State

A multi-part question came up as I was writing the mailer.

• The King can not hold any seats in either house, but he is Organically a member of the Ziu as the Crown-in-Parliament. He can also Hopper and Clark bills. As such, can the King take part in debate on bills? As a kind-of-MZ, should the King be able to vote on procedural issues?
• The Secretary of State also can not hold any seats in either house, and is not a member of the Ziu either; but he is the other non-MC and non-Senator who can Hopper and Clark bills. As such, can the SoS take part in debate on bills?
• Ministers are not required to hold seats in the Ziu and historically some didn't, as is the case of the current MinTech. Can any such non-MZ ministers take part in debate, or are they restricted to only answering Terpelaziuns, or are they barred from speaking altogether?

(This kind of boils down to how strict floor privilege is considered to be in Talossa, which is an unexplored matter. It's not too important an issue, but it would be helpful to know for sure beforehand.)

Right, the meeting link will be https://unipd.zoom.us/j/88582238457?pwd=lrVZ5swd4T9ULUrviBoeHx9HjeiNm3.1. See you all there on Sunday!

If that's fine by @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP , I'll take care of it. I don't know if Zoom requires accounts for everyone involved though, that could be a barrier to participation.

My own advice:

• 1b could make sense because, if Marcel has to take an unexpected break while the Mençei is not attending, the only recourse is recess. I disagree a temporary deputy would have arbitrary powers.
• 2b's second sentence is unclear - does it say that the motion to add an item requires a second to be voted on, or that an item can be added to the agenda by a proponent and a second, without a vote? In the first case, the second sentence should read "to be voted on" rather than "to be added"; in the second case, referring to the mechanism as a motion is probably incorrect, and either way the second sentence should say "such an item" instead of "such a motion"
• In 2c, I am not too sure why the shortest a recess can be is 10 minutes and not something unspecified or simply shorter
• 3b might allow for a deputy to the Tanaischteu in case they can't attend during Terps or at all
• 4b has a typo ("another member to speaker")

• I agree 5e's 2/3rds requirement to end debate is potentially dangerous on its own, unless the motion to start debate includes a time limit
• 6a has a typo ("billed")

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on January 08, 2026, 07:01:36 PM@Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP , we should probably see if anyone has a version of zoom or teams or something that can do long meetings, so we're not limited to the free 40 minutes.

I have the full Zoom version, if necessary. Last time we had a State Opening, I was Túischac'h and I picked meet.jit.si (jitsi.org) as the videocall tool. I don't remember if three were any issues with it, but it is completely free and doesn't require accounts.

Two things:

1) I plan on sending a reminder to MZs and non-MZ Cabinet ministers, and a separate invitation for the wider citizenry, ideally on Saturday at the latest. The people in charge should let me know, here or somewhere more convenient, about as many details as they wish me to put in the mailers (eg. videocall link, final/tentative program, time and date, etc.)

2) The Chancery would be happy to assist with putting together a PDF version of an Order Paper, for reference and as a memento. Material like that is probably under the whole purview of the Ziu's presiding officers, actually, since it's something separate from the Clark; but since I don't think I have much else to do besides just showing up on the videocall to tally votes, I am happy to help if it's something people would like.

Voting on the January 2026 Clark (the first of the 62nd Cosă) is now open, until the 21st of the month, at 19h30 TST.

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/e/eb/January2026Clark.pdf (pdf)

MCs and Senators can all vote on the new Database using the credentials you already had (for returning members) or those I sent you a few days ago (for new members): https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

If you wish to vote on Wittenberg, MCs can vote here and Senators can vote here.

A State Opening followed by a quasi-Living Cosă is scheduled for the 11th of January at 11 AM TST. You will all be able to cast your votes on the Clark on that occasion as well.




Sir Lüc da Schir, UrB
Secretary of State

Senators, you can cast your votes on the First Clark here, or at the quasi-Living Cosă on January 11th, or on the database: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/e/eb/January2026Clark.pdf (pdf)

If you vote here on Witt, do not indicate any conditions which may make it sound like this vote isn't final: you can always change your vote later.

Members of the Cosă, you can cast your votes on the First Clark here, or at the quasi-Living Cosă on January 11th, or on the database: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark/vote

You can find the Clark at: https://database.talossa.com/ziu/clark (database) or at https://wiki.talossa.com/images/e/eb/January2026Clark.pdf (pdf)

If you vote here on Witt, do not indicate any conditions which may make it sound like this vote isn't final: you can always change your vote later.

I think it would be great to hold these regularly. One other thing I would like to point out is that discussing bills that are not on the Clark is not in order during a normal Living Cosă, but logically that doesn't apply in a more informal setting, so it could be interesting to have people get the chance to talk up their Hoppered bill for a few minutes face-to-face.

(Edit: Of course it would also be worth discussing if we should just do away with the current Living Cosăs and turn these informal sessions into a new kind of Living Cosă that is more flexible, less constrained and not as bound to being a weird simulacrum of the old in-person thing, for better or for worse.)

For the benefit of all members, I would like to elaborate on the matter of the quasi-Living Cosă to be held in conjunction with the State Opening.

It was determined that holding a full Living Cosă on the 11th would be in breach of existing provisions concerning the minimum advance notice that needs to be given to MZs. However, nothing forbids the Cosă from holding some other kind of live meeting to debate legislation anyway.

A related issue, though, is whether or not binding votes can be cast during a quasi-Living Cosă; but the only requirement for the manner of holding and casting Clark votes is found in OrgLaw VII.9, which states:

QuoteEvery MC and Senator may vote on every bill in every Clark through reasonable means determined by the Secretary of State, and MCs and senators will have until the end of business on the twenty-first day of the calendar month to submit their votes to the Secretary of State. [...]

Since I am happy to consider a voice vote during such a meeting a reasonable mean of voting, MZs will be allowed to cast Clark votes at the quasi-Living Cosă, and I will either be in attendance to record them, or delegate someone else  to do so, so that those same MZs do not need to enter their votes using the Database or Wittenberg.

The only differences with a normal Living Cosă, as far as I can tell, will be that proxy voting will not be allowed, and that the final tally on bills will not be taken at the end of the voice vote during the Living Cosă, but at the regularly scheduled "end of business" on January 21st.

Mximo Malt, Francesco Manzella, Duke Ian, Françal Ian Lux, Andrïeu Cabischabuerg, Marcel Tafial, Ian Moritzescu, Litz Cjantscheir and Béneditsch Ardpresteir have been emailed with credentials to fresh Database accounts for voting on the Clark. If you are one of them, check your inbox and get back to me if there are any issues.

I believe all other MZs already had one. If this is incorrect, or you lost your credentials, or have login issues, contact me.

I also shot an email to Garth Spencer, who still has to assign (presumably to himself) the four seats won by his party.

No worries. (Please still only use this thread to post links to Hopper threads rather than full bills, as specified in the leading post. Although I'm wondering if that might be a good way to unambiguously submit a final version?)

I have queued up for Clarking all bills submitted so far. You can check https://database.talossa.com/ziu/bills/unclarked for errors.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on December 28, 2025, 12:06:10 PMPlease put this on the Clark, @Sir Lüc .

Will do but please use the Call for Bills like everyone else in the future, as that's the normal process. Thanks!

Done

Done on all three

Done.