The STUFF Decluttering Act

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

WHEREAS, STUFF has a lot of stuff to do; and

WHEREAS, when one has too much stuff, it makes sense to get rid of some of it, even if you're STUFF; then

BE IT RESOLVED, that the following be enacted:

• Title D, Section 2.1.2 of El Lexhatx is created to read:

  The Prime Ministry shall be responsible for ensuring the availability, for all Talossans, of up-to-date information on the personnel of all Government, Royal Household, Civil Service and Chancery office-holders.

  
  
• Title D, Section 2.5.1.8 of El Lexhatx is created to read:

  The Ministry of Justice shall be responsible for ensuring the availability, for all Talossans, of the records of the Scribery as described in C.1.2.

  
  
• Title D, Section 2.11 of El Lexhatx is created to read:

  The Minister of Production, heading the Ministry of Production (Ministrà dal Produziun), which shall be responsible for the creation of physical artifacts of the Kingdom.
     2.11.1. The Ministry of Production shall be in charge of TalossaWare, that is, the production of "physical embodiments of Talossanity", whether for distribution to citizens, to publicise the Kingdom to outsiders, or to sell for profit.

  
  
• Title D, Sections 2.10.2 and 2.10.3 of El Lexhatx, and all subsections thereof, are deleted in their entirety.

Uréu q'estadra så:
Mic'haglh Autófil (MC-PdR/¡Avant!)

[King Txec]

Is it the intent of this bill to create a new cabinet post? Minister of Production?

-Txec R

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Is it the intent of this bill to create a new cabinet post? Minister of Production?

-Txec R

That is correct, though the actual title of the post is negotiable. (I just couldn't think of anything that fit better, to be honest.)

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Could this be better handled by a permanent secretary (Permanent Secretary for Production?) rather than a new ministry, Mic'haglh? Production of TalossaWare seems like a good area for an apolitical official.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I am leaning more towards Production being a Civil Service (i.e. totally non-political) branch of the State. "Making things" IMHO requires some level of specialisation (or at least being able to get in touch with manufacturers), and it would honestly be good to have all of that in one place.

Incidentally, as I envisage it, Production would make all kinds of things we need - Talossaware, ID cards - but ID cards should no longer be under STUFF. The purpose of STUFF is publicity and information for and about Talossa. The *design and issue* (as opposed to manufacture) of ID cards should, I feel, probably come under Immigration (to be renamed Immigration and Citizenship)?

All this of course assumes that there's someone who could be a Civil Servant who thinks they could have a go at Making Stuff, or at least Ensuring Stuff Gets Made.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I am leaning more towards Production being a Civil Service (i.e. totally non-political) branch of the State. "Making things" IMHO requires some level of specialisation (or at least being able to get in touch with manufacturers), and it would honestly be good to have all of that in one place.

Incidentally, as I envisage it, Production would make all kinds of things we need - Talossaware, ID cards - but ID cards should no longer be under STUFF. The purpose of STUFF is publicity and information for and about Talossa. The *design and issue* (as opposed to manufacture) of ID cards should, I feel, probably come under Immigration (to be renamed Immigration and Citizenship)?

Agreed.

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

I have no problem with most of the proposed arrangements -- I defer to the Government's opinion on how they best want to manage things.  But I would strongly urge you not to add anything to Immigration beyond its existing duties.  It makes more sense to me to have one person be in charge of physical stuff generally, including supervising ID cards and TalossaWare (which, btw, already exists and can be promoted/managed/changed/improved by accessing our Shopify store -- you guys have the credentials to log-in).

It might also make sense at this time to consider changing the name of MinSTUFF.  It's a backronym created because a past government just wanted to make someone responsible for doing miscellaneous things, and then it's sort of morphed into the weird role that it currently is.  Maybe it's time to make a Minister of Stuff (as in, producing things like TalossaWare and ID cards) and a Minister for Across the River (website and social media)?

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

Cosalïă is Talossan for stuff in a physical sense.  Transfiovă would be "across the river" -- ultra-fiovă is a bad translation chosen because it begins with a U.

[Sir Lüc]

I for one am glad we're increasing the number of portfolios rather than axing them. It may be counterintuitive, but it adds way more flexibility to deal with fluctuating activity levels and managing individual ministers's workload.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I for one am glad we're increasing the number of portfolios rather than axing them. It may be counterintuitive, but it adds way more flexibility to deal with fluctuating activity levels and managing individual ministers's workload.

Assuming you can find an extra Cabinet minister, and you're not just chopping one hat into two

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

I would strongly urge you not to add anything to Immigration beyond its existing duties.

Here's something a lot of people don't know - by law, MinImmigration deals *only* with the actual immigration process. Publicising Talossa to potential new immigrants comes under STUFF.

It might also make sense at this time to consider changing the name of MinSTUFF.  It's a backronym created because a past government just wanted to make someone responsible for doing miscellaneous things

As far as I can tell, "Minister of Stuff" was originally a pointless title that King Robert I gave to his father. Later it became synonymous with "Minister of Finance" (i.e. Harry Madison gave his kid pocket money). It already meant something different from that when I started in 1997. I think it's one of those quirky traditions that bears keeping.

Maybe it's time to make a Minister of Stuff (as in, producing things like TalossaWare and ID cards) and a Minister for Across the River (website and social media)?

I *like* it, but for continuity purposes, actually making Stuff should be a civil service job.

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

My own personal opinion is that dividing the duties between Ministries makes the work more manageable; a clearer division of responsibility and/or a lighter workload can help make it easier to move forward on a given task. (If you've ever had too many chores to do and that kept you from starting any of them, you know what I mean.)

I will defer to the Minister of STUFF on this one (paging @Bråneu Excelsio, UrN ). If he believes it makes sense to keep both major functions ("make Talossan artifacts" and "publish Talossan information") under the direction of the STUFF Ministry while still delegating production to a Permanent Secretary, then I will delete Item 3 from the proposal (and modify Item 4 to retain Lex.D.2.10.2). That would accomplish the same overall goal I had with this bill.

I would, however, argue that the two sections of D.2.10.3 still deserve to be spun off to the Justice Ministry and Prime Ministry, respectively -- especially since the latter would appear to already be synonymous with the Seneschal's List. As a result, whether in the current form or a truncated one, I intend to move forward with some version of this bill once we have a verdict on which path to take.

Personally, I don't think putting anything ID card-related under the Immigration Portfolio makes much sense given the arrangement of the rest of the Government's duties.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Personally, I don't think putting anything ID card-related under the Immigration Portfolio makes much sense given the arrangement of the rest of the Government's duties.

Which current portfolio do you think is appropriate for designing ID cards and issuing them to citizens? I'm actually leaning back towards Culture, if only because right now they're contingent on the Citizenship Test

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

Personally, I don't think putting anything ID card-related under the Immigration Portfolio makes much sense given the arrangement of the rest of the Government's duties.

Which current portfolio do you think is appropriate for designing ID cards and issuing them to citizens? I'm actually leaning back towards Culture, if only because right now they're contingent on the Citizenship Test

If we aim to avoid creating another portfolio, I would have said STUFF is still the best fit, though I will also agree your point about Culture is a good one.

[Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC]

Okay, I think I've figured it out.

The Ministry of STUFF to be reconfigured to be about "making stuff"- "the design and production of "physical embodiments of Talossanity", whether for distribution to citizens, to publicise the Kingdom to outsiders, or to sell for profit." (I prefer a PermSec to be in charge of actually making the stuff.)

A Ministry of Propaganda to be set up for "for the internal and external promotion of the Kingdom, all events therein and all things Talossan through public relations, and shall dutifully ensure that the Kingdom and its events are regularly publicised and may use any means and media available to them to achieve this. The Ministry of Propaganda shall be directly responsible for the content of one or more websites and/or social media accounts named as the 'official' website(s) and social media account(s) of the Kingdom."

A Ministry of Information to take on ensuring the availability, for all Talossans, of "information necessary for or useful to citizenship". This would mean, in concrete terms right now, La C'hronica and Infoteca.

I still think that the test taken to authorise ID cards should come under "Culture".