So cut down the number of ministries from eleven to four or so, and then have either the additional portfolios assigned among them or to other ministers?  That makes sense.  That also solves the problem of who's supervising folks.

I think that roles such as A-X, MinImm, MinFin, and MinFor should be a statutory minimum. There may be more, but there are several jobs that should carry the weight of Cabinet level and also be subject to Terps and the like.

-Txec R

and today, announcement of the appointement of our new Cabinet, on X/Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Instagram, r/Talossa and r/Micronations

So I went back through the records, and it looks like it's been a very long time since we were in a position to have ten or eleven people active in ministries.  Instead, it looks like two to four active people, plus a couple of people on the margins.  We also get a lot of variation in terms of the available talent, which also affects how important a job ends up being.

However, the whole system is set up in imitation of bigger countries: here's a set of jobs, here's the people reporting to them, here's their duties.  And so we have always been stacking jobs and assigning deputies to try to juggle stuff among people who can do it.

I was thinking it might make sense to shift to what we might call a different style, where the different portfolios are split up and assigned as needed, with traditional groupings in the same manner as we have now.  You'll notice that this wouldn't end up being a dramatic change, but I thought this would take into account the concerns D:na Miestra mentioned while also addressing the reality of the situation.

Immigration
New Citizen Outreach
National Promotion
Propaganda
Infrastructure
Foreign Outreach
Language Affairs
Home Affairs
Budget
Collectibles
Merchandise
Public Records
Defense

We'd want to retain some specific roles that come with a title:
Avocat-Xheneral
Distain

So in this case, someone who's very good at technology might get Infrastructure and Merchandise, instead of those being split among MinTech and MinProp right now, while also getting Language Affairs if the plan was to build out a new online Treisour database or something.  It would be a more flexible system where we wouldn't need to constantly make exceptions.

I don't know how you would decide on overall job titles, but we could keep some of the traditional ones by attaching titles to each portfolio, and letting people pick which one to use.

I'm not set on this plan, but I thought it was worth bringing up.  I know people might be attached to some of the traditional roles, but it's more important that we're serving the people in a way that makes sense and works better for our limited energies.  Sometimes good government reform means changing things.

One thing I'm stuck on: permanent secretary and civil service oversight.  How would that be assigned?  Does it make sense to have just one supervisor portfolio?  Probably not, so maybe they should be put into categories of Title C and Title D.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on December 19, 2025, 12:52:48 PMLegally, you can't be in the Cabinet and a permanent secretary at the same time.  Actually, just to be safe: this is my official request to His Majesty that they be technically dismissed from service as permanent secretaries.  And I will reinstate them in their positions with no change in terms or scope as soon as it is legally possible.

With thanks for a job well done, we hereby dismiss, at the request of the Seneschal, Danihel Txechescu and þerxh Sant-Enogat from their respective positions as permanent secretaries.

-Txec R

Okay, I believe I have addressed everything here.  I fixed the weird legal problem where text was never updated and then the old text was amended again, and so it's unclear what's the right thing.  I eliminated all the blank spaces and instructed sequential renumbering.  And I fixed all the resulting cross-references.  Whew!

Quote from: Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir on December 18, 2025, 11:27:52 AMI would like to nominate @GV for Mençéi

Currently, Tafi is the only nominee in the Cosa.  It seems to me we probably want to keep to the usual choice of having different parties in different chambers.

This is always sad.

I have spoken previously in support of, and proposed legislation, to eliminate the Defence Ministry, and reform the Zouaves into the Kingdom's unconventional defence force. This would have entailed the creation of branched Zouave units such as the Space Zouaves, Land Zouaves, Air Zouaves, Sea Zouaves, and of course the Time Zouaves (Dr. Who being the most famous member).