[PROPOSAL] TRT Formalization & Amendments

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[PROPOSAL] TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

Constitutional Amendment wrote:Article 9: Media

A: The Rejected Realms Media Corporation and its holdings, The Rejected Times and Rejected Radio, shall exist and continue to exist without dissolution.
B: The goal of the Rejected Realms Media Corporation is to provide news for both The Rejected Realms and abroad.
C: The creative and editorial independence of The Rejected Realms Media Corporation and its media holdings must be respected at all times.
Constitutional protection is an important concession I'm hoping will be afforded to TRT, Rejected Radio and future media pursuits. I know that there is at least some support for this.
Amendment of the Government Accountability Act wrote:3. The Editor-in-Chief must report to the Assembly on the goals, achievements and plans for the Rejected Times Media Corporation on the first day of odd-numbered months (1 January, 1 March, 1 May, 1 July, 1 September, 1 November).

4. The Delegate or Editor-in-Chief may authorize an Officer to deliver the report in their absence.
One of the foremost concerns has been accountability and this seems like the best place to codify it. I made sure that it conforms to the date format of the act itself, though I don't care for this European format. :P
The Rejected Times Bylaws Act wrote:
Bylaws of The Rejected Realms Media Corporation

The Rejected Realms Media Corporation, composed of its holdings The Rejected Times, Rejected Radio and all future holdings created under the umbrella of The Rejected Realms Media Corporation hereby set forth the following bylaws in order to outline its management.

Article 1 - The Rejected Realms Media Corporation

1.) The management of The Rejected Realms Media Corporation shall be the responsibility of:

•The Media Officer when elected to the government
•The Editor-in-Chief
•The Deputy Media Officer insofar as the Media Officer allows.

2.) When the executive government does not have a Media Officer the management of The Rejected Realms Media Corporation falls to the Editor-in-Chief. In such an event the Editor-in-Chief becomes the head of The Rejected Realms Media Corporation until the executive government has a Media Officer.

3.) Staff members may not be "fired" in any sense of the word. For all intents and purposes inactive staff members are retired until they reapply for membership within The Rejected Realms Media Corporation.

Article 2 - Editor-in-Chief

1.) Only senior staff members are eligible to serve as Editor-in-Chief.

2.) A vacancy in the office of the Editor-in-Chief must be filled immediately by the process outlined from Article 2.3 to Article 2.7.

3.) A candidate for the Editor-in-Chief shall be selected via a vote by simple majority among active staff members of the Rejected Realms Media Corporation. Elections are to be held on April 1st and September 1st every year. Voting and nominations are opened and closed by the Speaker of the Assembly. The nomination period lasts for three days and voting lasts for four days. The position of Editor-in-Chief shall be subject to a term limit of two consecutive terms.

4.) The vote in Article 2.2 shall be conducted in a manner consistent with the Elections Act unless otherwise specified.

5.) The Assembly of the Rejected Realms shall hold a vote by simple majority to confirm the appointment of the Editor-in-Chief.

6.) If the Assembly does not confirm the appointment of an Editor-in-Chief, the process outlined from Article 2.3 to Article 2.5 is to be repeated, except for the nomination and voting periods which are to be shortened to 2 days for both.

7.) If after three consecutive attempts, the Assembly has not confirmed the appointment of an Editor-in-Chief, the delegate must appoint a senior staff member as Editor-in-Chief.

8.) The Assembly may review the activity of the Editor-in-Chief half way through their term and re-confirm or remove them from their position as Editor-in-Chief via the same manner outlined in The Elections Act.

9.) For the purposes of enabling this statute, the office of the Editor-in-Chief shall be vacated immediately upon the initial passage of this legislation.

Article 3 - Rejected Radio

1.) The host of Rejected Radio is chosen at the discretion of the Media Officer. If there is no Media Officer then the host of Rejected Radio is chosen at the discretion of the Editor-in-Chief.

Article 4 - Definitions

1.) "Active staff members" of the Rejected Realms Media Corporation are defined as any TRR Citizen who has (1) submitted a membership application for The Rejected Realms Media Corporation which was approved by the appropriate official, and (2) has written or submitted an article:

a.) within the last two issues of The Rejected Times if The Rejected Times has published monthly issues or anything more frequent.

b.) within the last three issues of The Rejected Times if the time between issues released by The Rejected Times reaches or exceeds three months.

2.) With regards to determining active status, special releases by The Rejected Times shall be counted as if an issue had been released.

3.) “Senior staff members” of the Rejected Realms Media Corporation are defined as any TRR Citizen holding the rank of Senior Journalist (having 50 points) or higher in accordance with Article 5.

Article 5 - Ranking System

1.) The ranking system is a meritocratic system meant to incentivize participation in The Rejected Times and to promote activity. Certain levels of participation are inexplicably tied to the democratic functions of The Rejected Times including running for Editor-in-Chief.

a) The ranks are as follows:

•Intern: Entry-level Rank.

•Editorial Assistant: 10 Points.

•Journalist: 25 Points.

•Senior Journalist: 50 Points.

•Reporter: 75 Points.

•Senior Reporter: 100 Points.

•Correspondent: 150 Points.

•Senior Correspondent: 250 Points.

•Network Correspondent: 500 Points.

•Maestro: 1000 Points.

b.) Point values for work on issues or special releases for The Rejected Times are as follows:

•1 Point for a Story Tip (told to the Media Officer, Deputy Media Officer or Editor-in-Chief)
•2 Points for Editing an Article
•3 Points for Submitting an Article Late (instead of 5 points, authors may only earn 3 points)
•5 Points for Writing an Article
•25 Points for an Award

2.) The Media Officer, Deputy Media Officer and Editor-in-Chief may not tell themselves a Story Tip. However they may tell each other a Story Tip.

3.) Only the Media Officer or Editor-in-Chief may give awards. Neither the Media Officer nor the Editor-in-Chief may give awards to themselves, each other or the Deputy Media Officer, with the exception of the Pen & Paper Award which is decided by the citizens of The Rejected Realms. These three positions are ineligible for awards, intending to be taken up for the benefit of The Rejected Times and The Rejected Realms as a whole rather than for personal gain. They are however eligible for the Pen & Paper award.

4.) Neither awards nor points may be removed from those to whom they were given.
Now here's the part I'm most nervous about. This is the bulk of what I'd initially drafted for TRT's bylaws. I've made fundamental changes to put to rest concerns that TRT wouldn't be accountable to the citizens. And I'm trusting that these major concessions on my part are acceptable to everyone because this means that TRT's functions and structure are codified into law entirely. It's equally vulnerable like every other piece of legislation that isn't the constitution and I really don't like that, but I'm hoping that I won't regret it in the future.

TRT's active staff nominates one of its own senior members for confirmation by the Assembly in the same manner as the Elections Act outlines. What constitutes "senior members" is clearly defined and in my opinion is done so with reasonable parameters. It also takes into consideration fluctuations in activity so as to ensure that there will always be active staff members. 50 points is adequate enough to be reached in a reasonable amount of time to exhibit a commitment to TRT without being unreasonably out of reach. Of course the ranking system is crucial to the whole thing. It holds this legislation together and it has been a part of TRT for a while, withstanding the test of time.

I've added some redundancies for the voting and nomination process of the Editor-in-Chief to enable a couple mulligans and an ultimatum should we reach three strikes in successfully electing one. That ultimatum is delegate appointment, though I'm adamant about such an appointment being made from a pool of active staff members.

Additionally, I've written this so as to try and keep the points system clean of leadership figures trying to inflate their points and dishonestly increasing their own rank. Sure even written in this fashion all three positions could still work together to do so but it's still better than one person giving themselves as many points as they want.

Finally I've added one small part to put this into effect immediately upon passage since the next scheduled election is six months away.

So, thoughts?
Last edited by thechurchofsatan on 18 Apr 2020, 15:59, edited 4 times in total.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

Again sorry for the double-post.

Anyways, thanks to Bormiar's help I realize a ceiling of some sort for older members should be in place to prevent TRT's leadership from stagnating and staying in the hands of a few veteran players. I hadn't considered this so I'm not quite sure how to go about it. If anyone has any ideas it'd go a long way.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Nequedum »

thechurchofsatan wrote:
17 Apr 2020, 02:50
Again sorry for the double-post.

Anyways, thanks to Bormiar's help I realize a ceiling of some sort for older members should be in place to prevent TRT's leadership from stagnating and staying in the hands of a few veteran players. I hadn't considered this so I'm not quite sure how to go about it. If anyone has any ideas it'd go a long way.
Maybe bringing it down to 25 points and also having a cap of 2 terms in a row?
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

PowerPAOK wrote:
17 Apr 2020, 04:01
Maybe bringing it down to 25 points and also having a cap of 2 terms in a row?
I know that in a period of low activity like we're currently experiencing 50 points seems like a lot but when activity picks up again 25 points will be too easy. Whaddya think about a stipulation that takes fluctuating activity levels into account?

A limit of two consecutive terms seems good.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Gorundu »

I would not agree with:
1) Putting TRT into the Constitution - having a statutory law is enough
2) Restricting the position of Editor-in-Chief to only Senior Journalists and above. Firstly, I object to it on the principle of democracy and because the points system not intended to function this way (see point 3). Secondly, I should point out here that the points are not always updated consistently. For example, I have written two articles and thus should have 10 points, but my name is nowhere to be found on the points table.
3) Putting the points system in law. I think the points system should just be a system to encourage writers, not to objectively measure achievement. Staff should decide for themselves who they believe is a good journalist, not having arbitrary points make the decisions for them. This is also why I object to restricting the Editor-in-Chief to people with 50 points and above.

I would also prefer if the Editor-in-Chief doesn't have to publish and separate report, and it can just go together with the Delegate's report, but that's not as much a big deal.
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

An_Dr_Ew wrote:
17 Apr 2020, 06:29
I would not agree with:
1) Putting TRT into the Constitution - having a statutory law is enough
2) Restricting the position of Editor-in-Chief to only Senior Journalists and above. Firstly, I object to it on the principle of democracy and because the points system not intended to function this way (see point 3). Secondly, I should point out here that the points are not always updated consistently. For example, I have written two articles and thus should have 10 points, but my name is nowhere to be found on the points table.
3) Putting the points system in law. I think the points system should just be a system to encourage writers, not to objectively measure achievement. Staff should decide for themselves who they believe is a good journalist, not having arbitrary points make the decisions for them. This is also why I object to restricting the Editor-in-Chief to people with 50 points and above.

I would also prefer if the Editor-in-Chief doesn't have to publish and separate report, and it can just go together with the Delegate's report, but that's not as much a big deal.
1.) A previous officer once attempted to replace TRT with their own publication. It can happen again. Constitutional protection is necessary to prevent that. Constitutional amendments have a higher threshold for votes. I've made some compromises but this is one thing I absolutely cannot budge on and there are others (emphasis on the plural part) that are willing to support it.

2.) Would you have an intern, much less one that is entirely new to NS journalism run TRT? TRT requires a leader that is capable of doing the job and a senior ranking member is far better suited for such a task. TRT's current level of activity is partly to blame. Under normal circumstances it would be better maintained. You should poke Neq about adding your points by the way.

3.) I've said it once and I'll say it again, the points system is the closest thing TRT has ever had to structure and since it has been adequate in promoting activity, determining active staff from it further incentivizes writers to participate but more importantly it gives writers something to earn. It gives them the chance to prove their abilities, to prove that they just might have the skills and commitment required to reliably run TRT.

When I first arrived in TRR the first thing I did was introduce myself, gain citizenship and challenge for Officer of Foreign Affairs. It was a vacant position at the time. Luckily fratt (maybe Guy or LR, it's a bit hazy) talked me into developing my skills, working up to it so that I'd be prepared instead of running in head first thinking I was so great that I could just do it or that I somehow deserved the position just because I had the opportunity to challenge for it. I thought I was but the fact of the matter is that at the time I was arrogant and stupid. If by some miracle I did get elected back then it would have been an absolute disaster. I'd like to be able to do the same for future leaders of TRT and the ranking system is how all writers of TRT can be held to that. To be held to sharpening each other's abilities through teamwork so that as many of us as possible can be prepared to lead TRT.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Gorundu »

thechurchofsatan wrote:
17 Apr 2020, 07:53
1.) A previous officer once attempted to replace TRT with their own publication. It can happen again. Constitutional protection is necessary to prevent that. Constitutional amendments have a higher threshold for votes. I've made some compromises but this is one thing I absolutely cannot budge on and there are others (emphasis on the plural part) that are willing to support it.

2.) Would you have an intern, much less one that is entirely new to NS journalism run TRT? TRT requires a leader that is capable of doing the job and a senior ranking member is far better suited for such a task. TRT's current level of activity is partly to blame. Under normal circumstances it would be better maintained. You should poke Neq about adding your points by the way.

3.) I've said it once and I'll say it again, the points system is the closest thing TRT has ever had to structure and since it has been adequate in promoting activity, determining active staff from it further incentivizes writers to participate but more importantly it gives writers something to earn. It gives them the chance to prove their abilities, to prove that they just might have the skills and commitment required to reliably run TRT.

When I first arrived in TRR the first thing I did was introduce myself, gain citizenship and challenge for Officer of Foreign Affairs. It was a vacant position at the time. Luckily fratt (maybe Guy or LR, it's a bit hazy) talked me into developing my skills, working up to it so that I'd be prepared instead of running in head first thinking I was so great that I could just do it or that I somehow deserved the position just because I had the opportunity to challenge for it. I thought I was but the fact of the matter is that at the time I was arrogant and stupid. If by some miracle I did get elected back then it would have been an absolute disaster. I'd like to be able to do the same for future leaders of TRT and the ranking system is how all writers of TRT can be held to that. To be held to sharpening each other's abilities through teamwork so that as many of us as possible can be prepared to lead TRT.
1) Protecting something in law doesn't mean it has to be in the Constitution. Why wouldn't a law work? Say as long as the law exists TRT must also exist. Unless you want to argue about the majority threshold vs. 2/3 majority or something like that. For what it's worth I don't think TRT is important enough yet that it shouldn't be abolished even if a majority of citizens agree it should.

2) Being an intern doesn't mean one is new to NS journalism. Aga is an intern yet he has plenty of experience. By your proposal neither of our last two Media Officers could have served. They were perfectly capable of serving in the position, as far as I could see. What is the reasoning for using an arbitrary points system instead of letting the staff and the citizens judge who is qualified to serve?

3) Sure, the points system is adequate in promoting activity and incentivizing writers. I support keeping the system in place, but I don't support putting it into law, because it's an internal system. I suspect you largely wanted to put it in place to use it to restrict who could be Editor-in-Chief, which, as I've already said, I disagree with.
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Spartan Termopylae »

I am against this at every level. I'm sorry, but there it is.

As other departments will end up falling into each other as the need dictates, so should media. I suggest it goes to outreach for the time being.

I do not agree that this department should be treated any differently to any other. It's not more special or important than any of the others, otherwise it would have an officer.

I'm sorry, but that's what I think
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Aggie »

I'm against this for multiple reasons.

Firstly: the fact that only senior journalists can be EiC is presposterous. That leaves us with only five people to manage TRT. Our most recent media officer, Bormiar is only halfway there. Your argument that it is easy to become a senior journalist is invalidated by the fact that only five people are currently senior journalists. Becoming a senior journalist in just three issues never seems to have happened before. What I feel like you're doing is making a power grab to become EiC, and then sleeping on it for the rest of the term, but justifying having the position by having "experience."

You are actively restricting active democracy in favour of experience. "Experience" is a vague word itself. Writing is not the same as managing an organisation. I personally wouldn't trust some long time columnists to manage TRT, as I think they would be doing an awful job due to a lack of management experience.

Secondly: I don't think that this needs to be passed as a law. Jack could just as easily appoint an EiC and put it up to assembly or TRT confirmation. I can't really see the point in this.
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

Neq, I'll meet you at 25. But when activity picks up again you'll see that it's too easy to get to. I promise you that.

Andrew:

1.) Not important enough yet? Well what constitutes important enough to you?

2.) Aga is the exception. Very few people who come to TRT have prior experience in NS journalism. They could still be Media Officer again and run TRT anyways if they prefer. The ranking system acts as a sort of checks & balances while there isn't a Media Officer. It acts as a backup when there isn't an elected Media Officer and the Editor-in-Chief still gets confirmed by the Assembly. So they're still decided by both staff and citizens.

3.) Yes I do want to restrict who could be Editor-in-Chief. I want to restrict the position to experienced players. Leadership is a responsibility in itself and having someone who knows what they're doing at the helm isn't irrational.

Spartan, you've been against the very notion from the beginning so I'm not going to try to convince you. I'd rather not waste your time nor my own.

Aga:

1.) You're being impatient. You're only thinking about as it applies right now at this very moment. You're not seeing this in the long term. And this doesn't get rid of Media Officer either. If someone were elected Media Officer they'd be above the Editor-in-Chief in the hierarchy. This proposed system is written that way and the Editor-in-Chief is there primarily to act as a backup leader. This isn't a power grab. I simply care about TRT. I understand that you haven't been in TRT long enough to do so and I don't hold that against you. You're just misinterpreting my intentions.

Again there is still the Media Officer who's authority would supercede that of the Editor-in-Chief. And the Editor-in-Chief is still decided by the citizens in the end.

I'll work on some changes a little later given what's been said.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by The Grim Reaper »

I literally do not agree with any substantial part of this legislation.

For one thing, it is 900 words long. The constitution of TRR is approximately 1,250.

I trust that I have established a fairly long and illustrious position on the matter of keeping our code of laws as brief as possible.


ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT

1. I outright oppose constitutionalizing the TRT. I outright oppose the idea of constitutionalizing MULTIPLE ostensibly autonomous or at least structurally independent media organizations in a region that has an Assembly which last had an election with 21 valid votes. For all three of the organizations you want to add to the constitution, we would have had an average of 7 votes each. Either these organizations will literally, collectively, be taking up 1/7th of the region's resources to have one member EACH, or they're going to have a substantial membership overlap that justifies maintaining them as a single organization.

2. I don't agree that the TRT should be constitutionally mandated with any goal, but in particular I reject the idea that 'entertainment' should be considered a core goal of TRT rather than a bilateral peripheral goal subordinated to the TRR government. There must be a strict delineation between 'news' and 'entertainment' to maintain the journalistic legitimacy of the publication and to justify its editorial independence - there's no point to having 'editorial independence' for entertainment undertakings.

3. 'Creative independence' may be a goal in the real world for an Arts Council, but it is not one that can be freely lumped in with 'editorial independence' - the two serve strictly separate policy roles, in that one preserves the legitimacy of the public discourse (serving a public good directly) and the other is intended to defend the legitimacy of the creative discourse (serving a public good indirectly, by facilitating a healthy arts environment). The latter cannot be sufficiently undertaken through the platform and the operations of TRT - it is the responsibility of autonomous officials working under the remit of the Culture Department, in which it would be (and is) a mechanism to maintain cordial multilateral participation in interregional festivals, RP independence, and the health of the Discord community and its games.

ON THE AMENDMENT OF THE ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

1. This is just a messy amendment which tasks the Editor-in-Chief with doing something and allows the Delegate to authorize a third party to deliver the report in the EiC's absence. This creates a chain of command issue where the Delegate can authorize someone to speak over the EiC and we have no court to rectify the subjective question of what happens if there are two reports on TRTMC, or who takes responsibility if the Delegate fails to deliver a report in response to a known absence by the EiC, etc. Bimonthly reporting is also wildly inappropriate for an organization that is already expected to independently produce publications with that level of frequency, if not more - an organization that exists exclusively to produce a centralized publication should really have such a publication stand in its own right as a report.

2. The appropriate response to accountability is not the 'reporting' feature for an organization that is already expected to publish. What is necessary is an enforcement mechanism.

BYLAWS

Firstly, it's 900 words.

Re: Preamble Defining something as "all future holdings created to be it" is tautological as well as wildly overly-bureaucratic. It's one thing that has multiple publications. It has a single staff. It has a single membership. It has a single executive (Media Officer or EiC). It's padding to define it as a multiplicity of holdings.

Re: 1.1 Is it intentional you list the E-i-C first? One would assume this should be in order of precedence.

Re: 1.2 And if a government appoints a Deputy Culture Officer (Media)? Or a Culture & Media Officer? What if the Delegate wants to operate the Media portfolio directly - as is the current de facto compromise.

Re: 1.3 The concept of 'retirement' is meaningless. It just means that someone can lose citizenship, come back three years later, and not even have to reapply for TRRMC membership. It's a totally unnecessary protection that exclusively bars anyone from removing someone from the TRR staff except by removing their Citizenship.

Re: 2.1 Anti-democratic, wildly elitist, does not account for what happens if there are no senior staff members active because senior staffing is not time-limited or normalized or quorum-based or imbued with literally any other guarantee of there being a senior staff member. Also, there are six potential EiC's under this metric of senior journalist - yourself, Fratt, Manson, Neq, LR, and TAP.

Re: 2.2 No complaint.

Re: 2.3 The use of 'active' here actually disqualifies Fratt and LR from being EiC - they have not published an article in the last three issues. It also disqualifies you for the same reason. The only possible EiCs are thus Manson, Neq, and TAP, re: the rules as written. Note that while I have access to the Newsroom, which is the TRRMC private forum, and thus could check who is likely to contribute to the next issue, it would be unethical for me to do so and thus I will not - I made this decision without opening the Newsroom, and thus I do not know if this supports or undermines my position. However, Manson has not contributed to the two last issues - if he does not contribute to the next issue, he also would lapse and become inactive, leaving the only possible EiCs Neq and TAP. Reducing the point requirement to 25 would make it possible for Borm and Guy to become EiC - but Guy is not an active member of media staff.

Thus, with the REDUCED cap to 25, the only four possible EiC candidates would be Manson, Neq, TAP, and Borm, with Manson one issue from lapsing out. I invite those four people to indicate if they would be interested.

Re. 2.4 No complaint.

Re. 2.5 No complaint.

Re. 2.6 No complaint

Re. 2.7 This undermines the entire exercise. If the Assembly rejects the EiC nomination three times, the Delegate just has to appoint a Media Officer but it has to be a TRR senior staff member. The only thing the Assembly has to do is like the Delegate more than it does the TRR staff and there's no reason for it not to reject every nomination. It would be easier to just let the Delegate reject the EiC nomination three times. In other words, allowing the Delegate to literally get through the entire pool of eligible EiC candidates - rejecting three of them and appointing the last.

Re. 2.8 No complaint.

Re: 3.1 Over-bureaucratic. It's legislating for the sake of legislating. I don't care what happens to Rejected Radio because it is [should be] just a part of a broader TRRMC and I assume it does its own thing.

Re: 4.1 I don't understand why a rapidly moving TRT makes activity so much harder to maintain. If the TRT releases two monthly issues, then activity is maintained for only two months - if it releases quarterly, every three months, activity is maintained for nine months. I get the overarching logic, but I don't understand the double-action here where frequent issues also reduces the amount of leniency on a per-issue basis.

Re: 4.2 Oh - this just disqualified Manson as an EiC, for the record. He did not contribute to LV, LIII, or the Special Release on TSP. His last contribution was Issue LII.

Re: 4.3 Literally have no interest in codifying any quantitative rank system - especially not one based on accumulated points rather than a rolling measure of current activity.

Re: 5 see above, also it does not gel well with the new definition of 'senior staff member' - the relationship between that classification and the name of a rank should be self-evident. Also codifying the actual point values and the Story Tip rule and the awards systems is just so wildly ridiculous as something the Assembly should be dealing with but it's necessary because you're trying to tie it to an actual independent government functionary who cannot be removed or fired.
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

It's not intended to be entirely one piece of legislation. It was written to be three separate pieces of legislation; one constitutional amendment (approximately 70 words long), one amendment to the Government Accountability Act (approximately 55 words long) and one entirely new law (approximately 890 words long). If that wasn't clear you have my apologies. Since all three are directly linked I figured it was appropriate to propose them in one thread.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by The Grim Reaper »

thechurchofsatan wrote:
17 Apr 2020, 20:52
It's not intended to be entirely one piece of legislation. It was written to be three separate pieces of legislation; one constitutional amendment (approximately 70 words long), one amendment to the Government Accountability Act (approximately 55 words long) and one entirely new law (approximately 890 words long). If that wasn't clear you have my apologies.
I had no such impression. The entirely new law is (approximately) 900 words.
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Spartan Termopylae »

Anything else to say on those points? I was thinking on the lines of you getting an editor in who then cannot be fired as being interesting. Grim just beat me to it. If the staff cannot be fired, and the editor is part of the staff, just where does accountability to the region come into this?
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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by Spartan Termopylae »

thechurchofsatan wrote:
17 Apr 2020, 00:35

6.) If the Assembly does not confirm the appointment of an Editor-in-Chief, the process outlined from Article 2.3 to Article 2.5 is to be repeated, except for the nomination and voting periods which are to be shortened to 2 days for both.

7.) If after three consecutive attempts, the Assembly has not confirmed the appointment of an Editor-in-Chief, the delegate must appoint a senior staff member as Editor-in-Chief.
Also.... what if there are only 3 candidates and the assembly rejects them all?

Apologies for the double post
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We have barely reached a point where most appreciate this.

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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

Going down the list - the constitutional amendment:

1.) It's written so that TRR Media is one collective organization that TRT and Rejected Radio fall under, like how a company has an HR Department and an IT Department but they're all just parts of one larger organization. More than that only one of them (TRT) has a formal structure in this legislation with just two elected positions, one of which is already voted into office by the Assembly and the other is nominated by staff members and confirmed by the Assembly. So it adds just one more vote to the Assembly. Perhaps you've misunderstood this part?

2.) I like to think satirical articles are inherently entertainment oriented, intentionally not serious. But for this part we're just nitpicking. I don't mind removing the word from the legislation. As far as constitutional protections for TRT, I don't believe you're open to changing your mind about it (you seem pretty adamant about it) so I'll simply accept that that's how you feel about it. But I'm sorry you aren't open to it as a possibility.

3.) I didn't mean to infringe on the Culture Office's responsibilities. I'll remove that phrase from it momentarily.

Accountability Act amendment:

1 & 2.) I wrote this specifically because one of the primary concerns is that TRT should be held accountable to the government. But I wholeheartedly agree with regards to each issue standing out as its own report. You make a convincing argument. I just wanted to ease concerns about TRT's accountability. If you have any suggestions as to how I might better do that I'd very much like to hear them.

The Bylaws:

First of all, word count is hardly a valid means to judge any piece of legislation. In that context it completely disregards the content.

1.) Perhaps you're right. Government is overly-bureaucratic by nature though. Defining it as a multiplicity of holdings was meant to include any other ventures, so nothing was left out and to avoid having to make a future amendment for something that a staff member might create in the future. It was inclusive-oriented. Would you be satisfied if it was written with just TRT and Rejected Radio in mind?

2.) No the order wasn't written with any manner of preference in mind. It wasn't particularly important to me since the structure is written later on in the bylaws to clearly and purposely place the Media Officer higher up in the organization's hierarchy. But if it's that important to you I have no issue with shuffling the order around.

3.) An Officer of Culture & Media I feel would be too much work even for two people. Sure the deputy could take one side of it but they'd inevitably have to do work on the other side of their office. An officer dedicated solely to one office makes it the best means to reliably run Media. I think a delegate would prefer to have more time on their hands. Running an entire department on their own on top of everything else is too much to ask of any one person.

4.) TRT already has a list of inactive staff members who are essentially retired until they return to active status. If the phrasing is an issue I'd be happy to change it. If you'd prefer that they have to reapply for membership that is entirely reasonable. I'll add it in as soon as I can.

5.) I was already looking into lowering the threshold to 25 points or getting rid of it entirely. I'm not unwilling to compromise.

6.) See #5. Though fratt and LR could also always run for officer and become Media Officer instead. I know they stand a solid chance in just about any election in TRR they decide to get into. I tried to define active staff within reason. Somebody who hasn't written an article in 5 years or something certainly wouldn't qualify. I wrote it to take into account both low activity and normal or high activity and I think I think it achieves that rather adequately. Guy could simply suggest a story tip and BAM he's active staff all over again. Problem solved.

7.) Well I said from the beginning that I'm just going to have to trust the Assembly to act in good faith. I'm afraid some things just can't be accounted for. So the redundancies allow staff members to make another choice and it allows the Assembly time talk it out amongst itself. Staff and the Assembly are just going to have to trust each other.

8.) I don't believe they should be left out. If anything Rejected Radio takes more work than TRT. I know, I've done the editing and it took a couple days.

9.) It's written specifically with the purpose of trying to prevent a lack of active staff members.

10.) This part is specifically inclusive that special releases aren't discounted as activity with regards to determining active staff. I don't see how it discounts Manson.

11.) I'm thinking of a means to prevent a stagnating old guard from keeping control in their hands. If you have any suggestions I'd really like to hear it.

12.) Codifying the rank system is crucial to the entire process if a points threshold ends up being part of it. If we do can it in the legislation then yeah, it doesn't need to be codified. Keep in mind this discussion is meant to flesh the whole thing out to something we can all agree on.


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Re: TRT Formalization & Amendments

Post by thechurchofsatan »

The very core of this whole situation is how the Editor-in-Chief is chosen and who chooses them. I forgot about that. I forgot about the core issue and Jack, you reminded me of it. Thanks. ^_^

I realize now that I've tried to legislate way too much of TRT. Even more than that I forgot about how TRT's informal nature is a big part of why it works in the first place. So while I'm gonna keep the constitutional amendment, I'm gonna get rid of the amendment to the Government Accountability Act and put together a stripped down version of the Bylaws that focuses on the important aspects in all this.


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