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Congratulations to all my fellow Skrifa once again, as I look forward to a productive and delightful term with all of you. I hope the decision to add two extra Skrifa was the right one in order to facilitate healthy debate as well as reasonable opposition. This is slated to be one of the busiest and most productive terms for us, or at least that's my goal, so we best start as soon as possible.

As always, I am going to keep tabs here, as well as check the relevant Underhusen board regularly, so I expect to make posts both there and in the Underhusen forum in general quite frequently. Due to this term's importance, I ask that everyone do the same. I will most likely ending up calling Skrifa to discussion and voting using the @ summon to ensure everyone's participation.

I've yet to make my decision regarding a Speaker pro tempore and a secretary, but I will announce that decision here in due time and most certainly before the week is up.
I've announced that Pengu is my Speaker pro tempore and Weissreich is my Secretary. I trust that the two will be able to fill their positions well, although I additionally trust every one of you to potentially fill a leadership position if required.

I've also updated the Underhusen Procedural Rules to its current form (as of 1 April 2016), which is pinned at the top of the Underhusen board, and can also be found here in the Laws of Wintreath page.

At the request of both Tatte and the Underhusen Procedural Rules, I have set up an agenda for what is now our fifteenth term. If anyone else feels there is something to add to this agenda, feel free to comment here or discuss with me privately. During this term, I plan for us as an Underhusen to:

• reform the Storting Reformation Amendment Act to craft a compromise acceptable for the citizenry
• form a link between the legislature and the public to ensure that the citizenry has an opportunity to add input about laws they care about
• create a more approachable atmosphere for public citizens to address concerns with their preferred Skrifa either publicly or privately
• return the practice of maintaining a record of Underhusen votes for the past three terms and earlier
• not be a "sitting duck" legsilature, and to pass any intermittent laws necessary, instead of focusing on a single subject and thereby leaving us inactive while waiting for another activity to spawn

As always, Wintermoot as Monarch has a permanent standing invitation here per section 11(a) of the Procedural Rules.

I look forward to a fruitful term with all of you!

14th term archive

Greetings, Skrifa, for another wonderful term in the Underhusen. As Speaker, I have a responsibility for setting up an agenda for this term, Wintreath's fourteenth. During this term, I plan for us as an Underhusen to:

• prepare a potential Underhusen reform bill to be sent to the citizenry for vote at referendum
• update the Procedural Rules section and other sections of the Wintrean Laws to ensure they are publicly accessible and current according to all previous laws passed by the Underhusen
• return the practice of maintaining a record of Underhusen votes for the past two terms and earlier
• not be a "sitting duck" legislature, and to pass any intermittent laws necessary, instead of focusing on a single subject and thereby leaving us inactive while waiting for something else

I am also formally announcing @BraveSirRobin as my Speaker pro tempore and @Gerrick as my publicist/secretary should they accept.

For now, the most current version of the Underhusen Procedural Rules are located in a thread by Denth Kasten pinned at the top of the Underhusen board. As I have been busy fulfilling outside obligations, I will have to wait until the first or second week of March to make any significant updates to place current Underhusen Procedure and passed Underhusen bills on the Wintreath Laws page.
I have completed the update of the Laws page, so the Underhusen Procedural Rules should be identical in both the Underhusen forum and on the laws page. All laws that have passed both Houses are now updated as well. Subsequent amendments and bills will be updated regularly in both locations.

In the meantime, I encourage the Secretary to post Underhusen updates in the Underhusen Discussion and General Updates thread. I ask that anyone who wishes to speak before the Underhusen please voice their concerns there. As always, @Wintermoot as Monarch has a permanent standing invitation here.

I look forward to a wonderful term with all of you!

I just wanted to note this, most specifically in regards to the Pengu Paragon Act:

Should the Overhusen veto any legislation, the legislation may be reintroduced in the Underhusen for the purposes of either revising the proposal or overriding the veto. The Underhusen may overturn a veto by a two-thirds supermajority vote.

But perhaps it was for the best that the bill was vetoed. We at the very least gave a Commendation out of it.

I've finished updating the Laws of Wintreath page, most specifically the Underhusen Procedural Rules, which had not been updated since roughly Amendment VII. The Underhusen Procedural Rules found here now correspond exactly with the Rules on the Laws page, so either is applicable for any purpose. Subsequent amendments and laws will be updated both on here and on the Laws page simultaneously.

I personally want to thank @Pengu for diligently updating the pinned Procedural Rules thread in the Underhusen subforum, which made my process far easier than I'd anticipated.

My next goal is to possibly update the Underhusen Archive, which is currently a mess, perhaps by organizing subsections. Thereafter I may progress to recording votes and incorporating the data into a table à la Hugsim, although that may be a daunting task.

Thus far you're proving to be an excellent Speaker.

I have updated the Speaker's thread to highlight our agenda for this term; if anyone wishes to comment, please feel free to do so.

@Laurentus @North @Point Breeze @HannahB @Pengu @Weissreich @tatte
(I called Tatte here due to the inquiries thread requesting an Underhusen agenda. For the meantime, I invite him to speak in this thread as well.)

I had also wanted to note (and preemptively apologize) that I'm going to be summoning Skrifa regularly for discussion, so I ask that Skrifa check in and around this area regularly, as well as any other relevant Underhusen/Storting areas.

Once again, I look forward to a wonderful term!

Excuse the possibly somewhat shoddy typing, on mobile.

At the request of both Tatte and the Underhusen Procedural Rules, I have set up an agenda for what is now our fifteenth term. If anyone else feels there is something to add to this agenda, feel free to comment here or discuss with me privately.

I think setting an agenda at the start of a term could be a good thing for an entire UH to decide; not only would you have a form of registering the intentions of every Skifra, you would also be able to outline at the beginning everyone's positions and begin to work on outlining ideas for legislation

• reform the Storting Reformation Amendment Act to craft a compromise acceptable for the citizenry
• form a link between the legislature and the public to ensure that the citizenry has an opportunity to add input about laws they care about

These two are in my opinion somewhat like together. If we want a change to an open assembly to work, we need to be sure it's something which is acceptable as you say, but so too do we need to be sure there's interest in general from the community. Whilst I am personally in favour of more direct and involved democracy, I am wary of the old adage: needed change is good, but change for the sake of change is bad.

• create a more approachable atmosphere for public citizens to address concerns with their preferred Skrifa either publicly or privately

I'm aware this stems from the discussions around the open assembly in the past, and as such support it wholeheartedly. I think it might also be worth exploring a larger UH presence on the RMB, in efforts to push increased regional and forum activity. If we perhaps select a Skifra to post regularly NS-side, ask new or RMB only members for their thoughts on the region and ideas on how to improve it, we could draw in potentially dedicated community members and expand it from the forums to NS as well. Mayhap a pipe dream, but we should look into it.

• return the practice of maintaining a record of Underhusen votes for the past three terms and earlier

Proper record keeping is the yardstick of any government.

• not be a "sitting duck" legsilature, and to pass any intermittent laws necessary, instead of focusing on a single subject and thereby leaving us inactive while waiting for another activity to spawn

I don't think this will be an issue, if I'm honest 

I'm appointing @Pengu as my Speaker pro tempore because of his qualifications and second place standing, as well as @Weissreich as my secretary due to his connections with publicizing Wintreath efforts both here and on the regional message boards. That is, of course, conditional to their acceptance of these roles.

I definitely wanted to point out that most everyone here is certainly qualified to run the Underhusen in my potential absence, but I wanted to commend these two for the past and current service.

I will be updating the main post shortly after each of their replies. (Speaking of, Weiss, I will post an official response to your agenda thread within the day. Sorry for the delay.)

I am happy to accept this appointment.  Thank you very much, Barnes. 

The same is true here, although I will note that I'm expecting to be rather busy over the next few months. I'll make sure I find time, though - what duties am I expected to perform exactly?

We created the Secretary position during the first term I served, if I'm remembering correctly, to post any discussion within the UH regarding legislation in the Citizen's Platform.

That's the biggest extent of it, is keeping the Platform in the loop of all of the bills that we have going on, so they'll always have input on everything.

The same is true here, although I will note that I'm expecting to be rather busy over the next few months. I'll make sure I find time, though - what duties am I expected to perform exactly?

From rule 2(a):

At the beginning of the term, the Speaker shall designate one Skrifa other than him/herself or the Speaker pro tempore as Secretary of the Underhusen, who shall have the responsibility to post newly introduced proposals to the Citizens' Platform and to notify Citizens of new proposals through various means of communication.

I've taken "various means of communication" to include RMB work as you have already pursued. As such, I would like you to publicize Underhusen matters both here on the forums and on the Wintreath RMB. And of course, seconding everything Pengu and Laurentus have mentioned above.

Speaking of the procedural rules...as I was looking for that exact definition, I noticed that article 11 was never changed to reflect the change which was passed by the Monarch-Underhusen Rights Removal Amendment Act:

(a) The Monarch shall have a standing invitation to speak before the Underhusen.

While the act itself means little now that the Monarch is the sole member of his family...he could always choose to adopt again. 

Duly corrected. Thank you for noticing that.

Understood - I'll try my hardest to carry out the duties vested in me by this position