Quote from: Barclamïu da Miéletz on March 15, 2026, 12:10:30 PMDoesn't work for us, those who use day month as the short date format.
The proper short date format.

If only there were April 31st. Once could simply "double-dip" by counting both as Pi Day.

Quote from: xpb on March 16, 2026, 03:57:56 PMxhindarmerïă looks sinister indeed

*Xhinister

Estimat Tuischac'h,

I rise this evening with a question for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, @xpb . I had initially posed this question to the Minister, represented by the Seneschal, at the Informal Session. However, as the Seneschal admitted he would not be able to accurately account for his Minister in this case, he recommended I pose the question to the Minister directly in order to get an answer. Therefore:

The 2026 eSports Games, an event of the Micronational Olympics Federation, recently began competition. The event features competition in multiple events, including Battleship, Chess, Uno, Pac-Man, and a "National Pride" event reminiscent of the former Olympic art competitions.

I will give fair warning, as I did at the Informal Session, that this question is a two-parter, but the first question is very simply: was the Minister aware of this event?

As a bit of friendly advice, if your goaltending is the problem, I believe goaltenders only count as long as they make a certain number of appearances (as a group) each week.

In other words, if the appearance minimum is 4, and your goalies only play in three games in total all week long, whatever points they would have earned you are forfeit, and that can be a sizable chunk of your score.

I could have sworn someone mentioned this, and if not, it may be too late to make a difference, but just for general knowledge going forward.

I second this nomination.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on March 09, 2026, 04:14:44 PM

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on March 08, 2026, 07:34:53 PMParty List Reform #1: The URL supports legislation to prioritize party lists, ensuring that "off-list" candidates can only receive seats if no "on-list" candidates are eligible, in order to improve transparency and allow voters to better judge the intentions of the parties on the ballot.

I'd add "... or willing" here. If someone doesn't want to take seats you can't make them. I'm aware that this might mean packing a list with people who agree in advance not to take seats, but if people want to game the system to such an extent there's not much you can do about it.

Wouldn't that be addressed by Party List Reform #2? People who are unwilling to take seats can simply say "no thanks, please don't put me on the list".

Estimats cünpartizaes,

As most of you are aware, the aftermath of the last election was a bit of a blessing in disguise, as it showed that the URL is the Party of Talossan Democracy. With this better-defined identity in mind, we have set about over the first half of this term working to define just what a more democratic Talossa would look like in order to know what paths we should prioritize and the directions in which we would like to move as a united party. To that end, I submit to you now that agenda for the Party's endorsement.

The following is something that I have drafted based on the summary of ideas in this post, but is still ultimately open to amendment, as I cannot singularly speak for the party as a whole. As a result, all items are currently open to proposed amendments to their wording (including re-arranging them in a different order to show our priorities). Once our Convention prepares to adjourn, we will move to adoption of each item as it then exists.

Quote

LAS TOCĂS DEMOCRÄTICI DA L'URL

THE DEMOCRACY AGENDA OF THE URL

We, the members of the Union of Free Reformists, the Party of Talossan Democracy, in order to not only safeguard Talossa's fragile democracy, but strengthen it, hereby formally adopt the Democracy Agenda. This package of reforms will bolster the democratic nature of Talossan government, granting actions taken by the state even greater legitimacy. It is intended to show the Talossan people, in plain terms, our intentions in both this Cosă session and in future sessions, particularly those in which they see fit to grant us a Cosă majority.

• Cosă Size: With the passage of 62RZ09, the Democracy Agenda has already succeeded in right-sizing the Cosă to 20 seats. The URL's aim here going forward will be to defend this change, and prevent future Cosă sessions from undoing it.
• Electoral Method Reform: In the interest of lessening the power of party bosses, increasing the power of the voters, and improving the ability to hold individual MCs accountable, the URL supports transition to a form of personalized proportional representation -- any method that combines proportional representation for parties with voter control over which candidates actually receive Cosă seats. We support further debate on the specific method to be adopted.
• Party List Reform #1: The URL supports legislation to prioritize party lists, ensuring that "off-list" candidates can only receive seats if no "on-list" candidates are eligible, in order to improve transparency and allow voters to better judge the intentions of the parties on the ballot.
• Party List Reform #2: The URL supports legislation requiring candidates to confirm with the Chancery their consent to appearing on a party list, in an effort to further lessen the power of party bosses.
• Upper House Reform: Taking into account Talossa's unitary nature and the requirements of responsible government, the URL supports the transition of the Senäts' role to that of a "house of review" in the vein of the British House of Lords, the Canadian Senate, or the Japanese House of Councillors. This reform will retain Senators' ability to critique and improve legislation on behalf of their province's citizens, including a veto on Organic amendments, but will allow the Cosă to insist on its decision on standard legislation if there is sufficient democratic support.
• Public Ballot Reform: The secret ballot is one of the cornerstones of free and fair elections. We support the continued right of Talossans to publicly declare their electoral choices, but believe the polling process on Wittenberg should be reformed so that public ballots are only published after polls close.
• Parliamentary Reform: The URL supports codifying and strengthening the powers of the Tuischac'h and Mençei to allow them to better maintain order and enforce parliamentary procedure within their respective chambers.
• Royal Veto Reform: The URL supports reforming the power of the Crown to veto legislation. This would involve a "suspensory" veto, in which the Crown's veto still serves as an opportunity for the Ziu to reconsider legislation, but can be overriden by a simple majority of both houses. In parallel to this, we support reworking advisory opinions to allow the King to consult with the CpI on a bill's organic Compliance.
• Reform Org.XII.4: This organic provision makes some parts of the OrgLaw almost impossible to amend, anchoring the country in ways that are not justifiable in a democratic nation. The OrgLaw already has a rigorous amendment process for normal amendments; there is no good reason to have such onerous additional requirements.

That makes sense to me. Added bonus, that allows us to put energy into helping that candidate's campaign, instead of being forced to take a hands-off approach.

The question, then, is what sort of method would we want to see otherwise?

Given that there has been some internal discussion over the past few months regarding possible amendments to the Party Constituziun, I hereby open the floor to any such proposals.

For example, I believe @Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC has stated a desire to reform the endorsement process for Senäts candidates found in Article III, Section H?

Alright, while I would have liked to hear from Vice-Chair Carbonel regarding his thoughts, it is indeed Wednesday, so I think we should get going.

Broadly speaking, and keeping in mind the general suggestions provided above by Vice-Chair Tzaracomprada, I believe there are four main topics this Committee should address:

• Constitutional amendment vs. constitutional overhaul -- should the current constitution be amended in specific places, or replaced outright?
• Form of the Executive -- should Florencia keep the current method of choosing the provincial executive? Should some alternative -- direct election, collegiate executive, etc. -- be implemented instead? Is legislative confidence necessary, or would some other form of democratic mandate be preferred?
• Form of the Legislature -- is the current "Real Nimlet" method of partisan election still preferred, or would Florencians prefer something like the "citizens' assembly" model used in some other provinces?
• The Legislative Process -- from V-C Tzaracomprada's statement above regarding Article IV, it would appear that amendments to Florencia's legislative process may be worth examining in further detail. I invite him to expand on this point at his leisure.

As noted in the opening post, this Committee must deliver its proposed solutions, whatever form they may take, by 1 June. I will say that in my experience, settling on the methods is usually the more time-consuming part of the process -- actually choosing the wording is relatively simple, it's deciding on the goal of that wording that's the tricky part. To that end, I think we should devote the majority of our time to refining the answers to the above questions (along with any others that may be raised) and defining the goals of the proposal. Let's say that the debate period may extend no later than 30 April, with drafting the proposed amendment(s) to occur during May. Is this acceptable to either of the Vice-Chairs? If so, that will constitute a majority, as this is one sort of issue I feel comfortable voting on for myself, as opposed to sticking to my usual neutrality.

Good evening, fellow Talossans!

The Directorate of STUFF, an office of the Royal Civil Service, is pleased to announce that we are accepting requests for Talossan identification cards.

Here's how the process works:

• Take the Civics Test. This is an open-book quiz on Talossan knowledge, which I have just combed through in the last few days to make sure it's up to date on factual accuracy. You need to get 75% right to earn a passing grade.
• Fill out the Application Form. Please be assured that all information collected as part of this process is deleted after receipt of the ID by the applicant, for data protection.
• Once you've passed the Civics Test and gotten your Application submitted, I'll reach out via PM here on Witt just to confirm that everything looks good.
• The best part is that you will receive your own Talossan ID! The second best part is, you don't need to pay for it!

I will be closing applications when one of two criteria is met:

• Applications will close no later than Wednesday, 1 April.
• Applications may close sooner if I receive nine valid applications. Nine IDs are what fit on one sheet at the printer, so it makes sense to try and maximize an order if possible.

Just in case it needs to be clarified, macronational authorites will not recognize these, so we do not recommend using them as a valid form of identification when it really counts.

Current applications: 1 of 9
(The first one has been waiting on their ID for a bit, ideally they don't renounce partway through this time :P )

I'll be putting up a tracker spreadsheet similar to the previous one, sometime during March, just whenever I get a good moment.

Unless my Comità colleagues @Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC or @Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir would like to deliver any opening remarks, the agenda for this Convention is as follows:

* Opening Remarks <- Voi Estetz Aicì
* Possible amendments to the URL Constitution and Platform -- current text of each can be found on the URL wiki article.
* Finalization of the Democracy Agenda
* Registration of caucuses within the URL (can be kept within this thread)
* Election of the URL candidate for Seneschal for the 63rd Cosă elections
* Election of the next Comità Esecutorxheu (Executive Committee). (Multiple provinces each have at least three members and are eligible to elect Provincial Chairs to the Comità.)
* Closing remarks

As different threads are added for various agenda items, I'll link them in this post.

62RZ14: Për
62RZ15: Con - See 62RZ17. The resistance will continue until the Baron's conduct improves.
62RZ16: Con
62RZ17: Për - I've seen some criticism of this bill that defines one of its features as a bug. Party leaders should be exercising good judgment when it comes to assembling their lists. If they do not, then the consequences are theirs to bear.

Also, given this criticism came from the same individual whose only feedback on the bill all month was "This seems broadly fine to me", only for them to immediately about-face once the bill is Clarked and unalterable, it must yet again be questioned whether either piece of feedback is being delivered in good faith.

62RZ18: Aus
62RZ19: Per
62RZ20: Aus
62RZ21: Aus

Azul es benveschti, à toct vaes amíci, cünpartizaes, colegas, es cüncitaxhiens!

Welcome to the second Party Convention of the Union of Free Reformists. Once per Cosă term, our party gathers to publicly conduct its internal debates, assess our platform and organization, and make the case for the nation to entrust to us the privilege to govern Talossa in the next term.

This Cosă term has so far been a tumultuous one for the country at best, though we in the URL have played a critical role in calming the situation. In the chaos following the last election, we saw what can happen when personal feuds and bad blood are allowed to rule the day. But even when others may scold us or prefer to work with extremists than with us, we stand on principle. In this case, the rather fundamental principle that Talossa deserves a stable government instead of chaos. To this end, we kept the door open for negotiations, which led to the announcement of the "passive confidence" deal last month. We in the URL know that collaboration is a more effective path than division, and we put that into practice -- while also practicing sound judgment on who to work with.

In making this deal, we have also gained a valuable victory in our pursuit of a more democratic Talossa. The Pseudo-Real Cosă Act, put forward by our good friend Sir Marcel Tafial, has managed to bring the size of the Cosă down below the size of the entire country's population, transforming it from a parody of a parliament into an institution of sensible representation. This was a change that was shown to be welcome to a wide swath of the Ziu, and it's not the only one. One of our next priorities will be to advocate for a more personalized form of proportional representation. Giving voters better control over who exactly represents them in the Cosă and transferring more power from party bosses to the people has proven to be a change that has received broad support from around the country; people like a democracy which they can hold accountable! Our first victory is something we've managed from Opposition -- now imagine how much good we could bring with a majority!

The Democracy Agenda is of course fantastic, but it is also a more of a legislative focus for our party. What about the executive branch? Let's look a bit at the current state of the nation's government.

As already noted, it's been quite the chaotic environment. The nation's government has already almost collapsed twice since the last election: once before it even took office, and a second time just before the close of the February Clark. Without the URL to come in and provide stability, we'd be preparing for an election right now. Yet behind all the hubbub regarding the government's survival, there's been surprisingly little substance:

• There's been a lot of "busy work", so to speak -- translating the Seneschal's List into Talossan, taking a plank from the URL platform and giving the Zuavs a visual refresh, that sort of thing.
• While this government has finally succeeded in welcoming their first immigrants, we've not yet hit "replacement-level" immigration to recoup lapsed citizens after the last election, much less the "double our population" levels the Seneschal argued for as an alternative to reducing the Ziu to more sensible numbers.
• Particularly egregious is the apparent "stacking" of roles going on in Cabinet. While we've actually argued that some stacking is ok -- smaller roles makes for more of them, so it makes sense to have people with multiple titles -- what we're seeing is more of "government by one". The Seneschal has himself noted that the proportion of votes for his party to people capable of "doing the work" is unsustainably high - as shown by not only the dormant Cabinet, but the difficulty in getting Government MZs to endorse the "passive confidence" deal on the last Clark.

Substituting one hyperactive politician for a party is not only unsustainable; it's strengthens the argument for "personalized proportional representation" to make sure votes for parties translate into "teams" for government.

Meanwhile, we in the URL don't need to wonder -- there's no central leader who does everything themselves here, either because they want to, or because they need to. We're a team, and we know that the old saying is true: teamwork really does make the dream work. We take this seriously enough that our party has a collective leadership structure, to say nothing of our regular conventions. We're the Party of Talossan Democracy, and we lead by setting an example. And over the next few weeks, we'll be showing everyone how it's done, yet again.

¡Vivadra Talossa democrätic!

WHEREAS, the current definition of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition sometimes leads to ambiguous results; and

WHEREAS, this is an issue that has been building over time, and is worth fixing now; and

WHEREAS, a simple alteration will avoid future ambiguity while remaining easy to understand; then

BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED, that Title H of El Lexhatx, Section 4.3, which currently reads

QuoteMembers of the Cosâ who (in a given session of the Cosa) have voted NON on the most recent Vote of Confidence, or intend to do so on the next Vote of Confidence, shall be known as El Contrapharti Fieir da Sieu Maxhestà, or "His Majesty's Loyal Opposition" in English, or in short "El Contrapharti / The Opposition". Unless and until the members of the Opposition decide otherwise by majority vote , the "Leader of the Opposition" shall be the leader of the party with the most Cosa seats assigned to MCs who voted NON on the last Vote of Confidence.

is hereby amended to read

QuoteMembers of the Cosă who (in a given session of the Cosă) have not voted Üc on the most recent Vote of Confidence, or do not intend to do so on the next Vote of Confidence, shall be known as El Contrapharti Fieir da Sieu Maxhestà, or "His Majesty's Loyal Opposition" in English, or in short "El Contrapharti / "The Opposition". Unless and until the members of the Opposition decide otherwise by majority vote , the Tanaischteu, known in English as the "Leader of the Opposition", shall be the leader of the party with the most Cosă seats assigned to MCs who did not vote Üc on the last Vote of Confidence.

Ureu q'estadra så,
Mic'haglh Autófil (MC-URL)

From my understanding, the precedent -- exemplified as recently as last term when Baron Davinescu consistently voted against confidence, while other members of his party would sometimes vote in favor -- was that because at least one part of the Progressive Alliance was part of the Opposition, they were the largest Opposition party, and therefore as their leader, S:reu Sant-Enogat was LOTO.

As Sir Marti-Pair voted Non on the last Clark, under the precedent, the URL qualifies as "the Opposition" for the moment still.

That being said, as someone who has authored legislation intended to make approximately the same change, I think it should be clear I think the current definition is bonkers, so yes, we should make a change.

Because I am trying to wait for S:reu Carbonel's input, as previously noted.

Please remember that I am trying to remain relatively hands-off in this process other than administrative functions, due to my not being a Florencian. A lot of "political questions" are things I am going to try and keep myself as uninvolved in as possible as a matter of propriety and respect for the local democratic will. As a result, in my view we are only properly, ethically quorate when both of you are present.

That said, in the interest of keeping things moving, here's what I propose: let's give @mximo until Wednesday (4 March) to provide input. Whether or not he has done so by then, I will put out some sort of agenda that evening. In the meantime, what I will ask you to do is put forward any specific recommendations on the sections you identified above.

Azul S:reu Secretar, please Clark the Party List Priority Act.

I see no need to restrict the work of the Committee to "spot amendments", to borrow your phrasing. If the people of Florencia would prefer a new Constitution outright, it should not be withheld from them.

I do, however, think we should wait for Vice-Chair @mximo to weigh in. While he may have an equal vote on this Committee, any changes put forth will need his blessing if they are to pass through the Nimlet.

@Sir Lüc estimat Secretar, please move this bill to the CRL.