The "Reform" Plan

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

As to recruitment as the solution; we've had a good influx of new citizens recently. None have jumped up to volunteer for this stuff. I mean, perhaps we should have a draft, i.e. "for your first 3 months as a citizen you have to run the Facebook account".

If no one will miss the Defence portfolio then it should be an easy cut then?
I recall back in the 58th, we had an effort for a National Skills and Social Connections Survey which sought to identify  skills citizens might have on offer. Might be an effort worth reviving. Additionally, I agree that we might want to add some kind of question around skills, etc. onto the immigration form and make an effort to get new people, perhaps, into the apolitical Civil Service as a start should they be willing and have the specific skills needed.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

...but the problem is that frankly brilliantly intelligent people get into power around here and build high-quality things (legal, judicial, or technical) that only they know how to operate, and then they disappear and the rest of us schmoes don't know which end's up.

This is my concern with any new Database. I hope it will not be a black box like the current one.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

I agree that we might want to add some kind of question around skills, etc. onto the immigration form and make an effort to get new people, perhaps, into the apolitical Civil Service as a start should they be willing and have the specific skills needed.

This is actually provided for in the new immigration law (El Lexh E 3.2), I just haven't had the "spoons" to make it happen, so anyone who's enthusiastic is welcome to step up.

My bottom line is: it is too hard to do stuff in Talossa, whether because it requires too much technical knowledge, or too much time/energy/legal or administrative steps, or there are too many points where others can veto you. The essence of politics is "contending for the right to implement your program". And that is fun in itself, for many. But when you "win", then you have to gather your energy to actually do what you came to do!

...but the problem is that frankly brilliantly intelligent people get into power around here and build high-quality things (legal, judicial, or technical) that only they know how to operate, and then they disappear and the rest of us schmoes don't know which end's up.

This is my concern with any new Database. I hope it will not be a black box like the current one.

A question which you should address to the Chancery. The Free Democrats consider it vital that all our features need "full documentation". Remember, though, that the Chancery is precisely where we want our technical experts to go!

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I agree that we might want to add some kind of question around skills, etc. onto the immigration form and make an effort to get new people, perhaps, into the apolitical Civil Service as a start should they be willing and have the specific skills needed.

This is actually provided for in the new immigration law (El Lexh E 3.2), I just haven't had the "spoons" to make it happen, so anyone who's enthusiastic is welcome to step up.

My bottom line is: it is too hard to do stuff in Talossa, whether because it requires too much technical knowledge, or too much time/energy/legal or administrative steps, or there are too many points where others can veto you

Perfect, I didn't catch that in the bill. I am more than happy to help with that. As a former MinImm it is an area which holds my interest.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

As to recruitment as the solution; we've had a good influx of new citizens recently. None have jumped up to volunteer for this stuff. I mean, perhaps we should have a draft, i.e. "for your first 3 months as a citizen you have to run the Facebook account".

Sure, try it.  You're the Seneschal.  Put a plan into effect tomorrow.  If you don't have any ideas or don't have the energy, resign and I'll do it.

I mean, Tric'hard is absolutely right that our systems of government and law have grown so complex that they now require specialist help to navigate correctly. Free Democrats' solution to that is to have Civil Servants whose job is to "hold the hands" of politicians in this regard. Like, for example, a Clerk of the Ziu who would take a badly-written napkin idea from a Senator and turn it into a properly worded and formatted bill.

This would be great, but the obvious question is: Who's going to do these jobs?  We're talking about getting rid of the Senats to save on warm bodies, so I don't think we've got so many to spare that we can start staffing them up.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

If no one will miss the Defence portfolio then it should be an easy cut then?

It wouldn't help.

My bottom line is: it is too hard to do stuff in Talossa, whether because it requires too much technical knowledge, or too much time/energy/legal or administrative steps, or there are too many points where others can veto you. The essence of politics is "contending for the right to implement your program". And that is fun in itself, for many. But when you "win", then you have to gather your energy to actually do what you came to do!

This is a problem of a lack of people.  You're one of the only active people in your party with the time to manage things, so you're stuck in the role in perpetuity.  The last time you tried to let someone else run things, it nearly killed the country.  And you have relatively little help, since you also spend a lot of time trying to get others to do things.

So we need more citizens.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

We're on a ship and we have a lot of problems right now.  The cordage are all soaked, and the extra canvas for the sail is sitting in a puddle and getting ruined, and the deck is slippery, and we can barely walk with all of the water on the deck, and people trying to rest can't sleep with all the water dripping on them, and it looks like we keep riding lower and lower into the sea.

We could grab new socks and a mop and whatever else, but what we really need to do is plug the hole that's sinking us.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I agree that we might want to add some kind of question around skills, etc. onto the immigration form and make an effort to get new people, perhaps, into the apolitical Civil Service as a start should they be willing and have the specific skills needed.

This is actually provided for in the new immigration law (El Lexh E 3.2), I just haven't had the "spoons" to make it happen, so anyone who's enthusiastic is welcome to step up.

My bottom line is: it is too hard to do stuff in Talossa, whether because it requires too much technical knowledge, or too much time/energy/legal or administrative steps, or there are too many points where others can veto you

Perfect, I didn't catch that in the bill. I am more than happy to help with that. As a former MinImm it is an area which holds my interest.

@Miestră Schivă, UrN Making sure you saw this. Let me know how I can help with this small step forward.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

@Miestră Schivă, UrN Making sure you saw this. Let me know how I can help with this small step forward.

Right. This is a matter of rewriting the Immigration application form on the website to collect the information authorised by the revised law. I don't know how you can do that considering that you don't have access to the Wittenberg back-end? Because I don't have an objection in principle

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

@Miestră Schivă, UrN Making sure you saw this. Let me know how I can help with this small step forward.

Right. This is a matter of rewriting the Immigration application form on the website to collect the information authorised by the revised law. I don't know how you can do that considering that you don't have access to the Wittenberg back-end? Because I don't have an objection in principle

Have we considered making it a Google Form? Much easier to edit and manage. And most people have experience with those.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN]

Have we considered making it a Google Form? Much easier to edit and manage.

By a strange coincidence, we've just gone through this re: the Database, and the Chancery insisted over the Ministry of Technology that owning/hosting our own stuff we pay for is worth it being slightly complex. I mean, we can ask @Mic'haglh Autófil, SMC EiP whether it'd be a good idea to replace the current Immigration form with a Google Form.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Have we considered making it a Google Form? Much easier to edit and manage.

By a strange coincidence, we've just gone through this re: the Database, and the Chancery insisted over the Ministry of Technology that owning/hosting our own stuff we pay for is worth it being slightly complex. I mean, we can ask @Mic'haglh Autófil, SMC EiP whether it'd be a good idea to replace the current Immigration form with a Google Form.

@Mic'haglh Autófil, SMC EiP Should that be determined to be a good idea my services are available.

[King Txec]

I think a Google form is brilliant in this case. It is easily updated, most people can understand it, and I don't think Google is going anywhere so it's a stable location.

-Txec R

[King Txec]

A plan is something like "make it known, in a way that preserves the dignity of the prize, that anyone who recruits five new citizens will be granted a knighthood."

I'm not keen on knighthoods being granted in this manner, but I have been considering an idea of further enlarging L'Urderi per la Naziun to include a rank that is below knighthood, in a fashion similar to the British OBE. Granting the rank of "Officer of the Order of the Nation" for recruiting citizens would be a nice way to recognize the efforts of our citizens. We also have the Seneschal's Medals which could be awarded as well.

I'm pondering how I can also make myself more available by doing monthly Google Meets or Zooms where any citizen can just pop in, have a coffee or tea (or other preferred beverage) and chat with the King and anyone else who joins in. We need to change the tone from always being political to finding more ways to have fun and honor citizens who do cool things.

-Txec R

[King Txec]

Other thoughts:

- Citizen of the month
- New Citizen recognition in some form
- Maybe easing up on the "apolitical civil service" since some people find service to the country just as fun as doing some politics now and then. (I'm not sure how this would look - just spitballing)
- Monthly contests (again not sure on this)
- Post count ranks. Some forums give interesting ranks or titles for the number of posts in a forum
- Movie night where we all watch the same movie (not really a night as we have different time zones, but you get the idea)
- Book club where we actually read the book together and then discuss it

-Txec R