FREE DEMOCRATS PARTY CONVENTION starts February 15

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

This serves as the 14 days notice required under Party Constitution s.8.

Very vague agenda:
- election of Party President, Party Secretary, and Provincial Branch Chairs
- any amendments to the Party Constitution or Programme
- speeches

If you're not a member of the Free Democrats yet - you have 14 days to change that! PM me or Party Secretary @Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

CONVENTION SCHEDULE:

• Speeches from Party Leaders and guests
• Amendments to the Constitution
• Amendments to the Party Programme
• Election of Party President, Party Secretary and Provincial Branch Chairs

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

FREE DEMOCRATS CONVENTION IS NOW OPEN

I'll make an opening speech sometime in the next couple of days. If anyone wants to

a) make a speech
b) make a suggested amendment to the Party Constitution or Program;
c) nominate a Party President, Party Secretary or Provincial Branch Chair;

now is the time to do so.

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

I propose to the convention that article 4 of the party constitution is amended from

"IV. Membership shall be open to all Talossan citizens. The Secretary of the Party shall be entitled, no more than once a year, to conduct a Census of all party members to make sure they still see themselves as Party members and that their contact details are up to date. Any member who does not respond to this Census within 30 days shall be deemed to have resigned from the Party"

To

"IV. Membership shall be open to all Talossan citizens, upon registration, contact information must be provided to party leadership (sharing this information outside of the leadership, will be an offence punishable by expulsion, for a period of no less than 2 years, and may be liable to further legal action). The Secretary of the Party shall be entitled, no more than once a year, to conduct a Census of all party members to make sure they still see themselves as Party members and that their contact details are up to date. Any member who does not respond to this Census within 30 days shall be deemed to have resigned from the Party on Two consecutive Censuses.
MC's and Senators are required to submit responses to the census but whilst they serve in their capacity shall be exempt from being expelled from the party from failing to submit to a census, so long as they serve in their capacity as representatives of the party in the Ziu.

Further, if a party member shall publicly vote for another party, said member  shall be deemed to have left the party"

[King Txec]

Further, if a party member shall vote for another party, said member  shall be deemed to have left the party"

This part may be problematic as we can only know how someone votes if they vote publicly or allow their to vote to be publicly revealed in the database. You might change it to "if a party member shall publicly vote for another party."

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

Further, if a party member shall vote for another party, said member  shall be deemed to have left the party"

This part may be problematic as we can only know how someone votes if they vote publicly or allow their to vote to be publicly revealed in the database. You might change it to "if a party member shall publicly vote for another party."

Thanks for that, I had overlooked that, and have adjusted the proposal accordingly

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

I propose that a clause be added to our Party Policy Section A:

"We stand against attempts by the King, Privy Council, or government, to expand the powers of the royal authority, or to fortify the position of the monarchy."

This is not a call for any immediate abolition of the monarchy. It is just demanding that the monarchy not become any more powerful or entrenched than the status quo. Unless, perhaps, such a change has undeniably overwhelming support among the governing parties, the opposition parties, and independents.

[Bentxamì Puntmasleu]

I would support the revised proposal to ammend Article 4.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I propose that a clause be added to our Party Policy Section A:

"We stand against attempts by the King, Privy Council, or government, to expand the powers of the royal authority, or to fortify the position of the monarchy."

This is not a call for any immediate abolition of the monarchy. It is just demanding that the monarchy not become any more powerful or entrenched than the status quo. Unless, perhaps, such a change has undeniably overwhelming support among the governing parties, the opposition parties, and independents.

I've got my own ideas about amendments to the program which flesh out a specific FreeDems constitutional position: for the rule of law, for separation of powers, against bureaucracy. This proposal might fit nicely as part of that.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I renominate @Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir as Party Secretary, btw

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

I renominate @Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir as Party Secretary, btw

I accept the nomination and nominate @Miestră Schivă as Party leader

[Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir]

I would also propose the following addition to article IV
Under the heading Subsection A) Membership requirements 
A list of requirements of membership shall be made by party leadership, and this list is to be  approved  by members, by a majority vote (these rules shall form bylaws of the party), these rules can be amended at any time, subject to a majority vote, if any such member is deemed to break the rules, the party is empowered to investigate and present findings  to the membership for a trial (where the accused has the right to put up a defence if they wish), and vote on if the member breaking the rules is guilty. Punishment for breaking the rules is to be decided by the party leadership, with a confirmation vote from membership, upto and including expulsion from the party, and a ban of rejoining for set periods of time, to be set under the bylaws mentioned above"

Am open to ideas to amend this, but just wanted to start the conversation in the convention (and I'm not sure I'll be upto too much of a debate due to mh issues so happy to let others run with this)

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I propose that a clause be added to our Party Policy Section A:

"We stand against attempts by the King, Privy Council, or government, to expand the powers of the royal authority, or to fortify the position of the monarchy."

This is not a call for any immediate abolition of the monarchy. It is just demanding that the monarchy not become any more powerful or entrenched than the status quo. Unless, perhaps, such a change has undeniably overwhelming support among the governing parties, the opposition parties, and independents.

I've got my own ideas about amendments to the program which flesh out a specific FreeDems constitutional position: for the rule of law, for separation of powers, against bureaucracy. This proposal might fit nicely as part of that.

Okay, how about this: replace existing Plank B of our program:

B. CUTTING THE RED-AND-GREEN TAPE
Talossa's government and legal structure is top-heavy, unwieldy, hard to navigate and no fun. We support the repeal of all laws and abolition of all Government posts and procedures which are more trouble than they are worth to keep going. We want a smaller, consistently active Cabinet, a Ziu which offers active oversight of the Cabinet and intelligent scrutiny of laws, and a functioning Judiciary.

With this:

B. A POLITICAL SYSTEM FOR EVERYONE
Free Democrats want a political system where *democracy and expertise* balance each other. We want an end to "green-and-red tape"; our politics and laws have to be simple and straightforward enough that any citizen can become a political leader or seek justice in the Corts with minimal training. In turn, the Royal Civil Service should recruit those with specialist skills to work for the Kingdom independently but under political supervision.

The idea is to prevent the kind of debacle which recently happened where the TNC government couldn't find anyone to write their budget. I want to express the idea that that should never happen; either the budget legislation should be simple enough that anyone who gets elected can do it; or we should have some Civil Service person whose job it is to write budgets along the lines given by the elected Government.

The alternative to this is a system where you can only elect a Government who knows how to "work the system". On one hand this means that those in power have an incentive to keep things complicated so only they know how to work it and can't be voted out! On the other, it means that elections become non-political; you're voting for administrators not for political visions. I always thought (and respect to him if I got it wrong) that was AD's vision for how Talossan politics should work, and I've always opposed it.

The question I want you to answer is: does my suggested amendment get this idea across, in as few words as possible?

I also support Bentxamí's phrase being added to the end of Plank A of our platform, as a separate measure.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

@Miestră Schivă, UrN It may be too late but I would be interested in making a speech to the convention as a guest. I was reviewing the party's proboards site but was unable to see any activity so I assume most of it is happening here.

FREE DEMOCRATS CONVENTION IS NOW OPEN

I'll make an opening speech sometime in the next couple of days. If anyone wants to

a) make a speech
b) make a suggested amendment to the Party Constitution or Program;
c) nominate a Party President, Party Secretary or Provincial Branch Chair;

now is the time to do so.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

@Miestră Schivă, UrN It may be too late but I would be interested in making a speech to the convention as a guest. I was reviewing the party's proboards site but was unable to see any activity so I assume most of it is happening here.

Thank you. This request will be considered by the party leadership. As you say, it may be too late and if it is accepted it will have to come after the guest speech we already have scheduled.