View Topic

Friends, Wintreans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

I am Excalibur, currently Skrifa of the 38th Underhusen, and Thane of Roleplay. As you know by now, I am running for reelection to the Underhusen. Since we have many esteemed candidates running, I feel hard-pressed to state my goals and my experience within the Wintrean government. I know that my accomplishments may not equal others, but I feel that I now have a concrete goal for what I want to accomplish if I am elected.

What have I done?
I officially became a citizen over a year ago. Since then, I have been invested in Wintrean government, first being appointed Secretary of Foreign Officers, and then successfully running for election as Thane of Roleplay, which I have remained as for 3 terms now. I was formally the Ambassador to Aukumnia, and, as I said above, I served my first term on the Underhusen these past couple months. There, I drafted the bill, which if passed (it's currently at vote right now), would establish official Wintrean holidays over the days that our community was fractured and subsequently brought together.

What will I do?
If elected, I plan to increase Underhusen activity, increasing citizen involvement in government affairs and in general trying to be helpful to the people of Wintreath. I plan to be a voice for action within the Underhusen, and help smooth the path for those entering government. I know that I've made blunders during my term, and I want to help  those who are elected after me for the first time to not make the same mistakes.

So with that said, thank you for coming to see my campaign! I hope that you come out to vote tomorrow, April 1st! And if you do, remember:
Vote Excalibur for Underhusen!

Welcome to the race, Excalibur!

You mention you'd like to increase UH activity, and this is a statement I've seen made many times before (I know because I'm fairly certain I said the same thing when I ran for UH, and I attempted to legislate to create a requirement for the Speaker to set an agenda of things to achieve in the term, but it rather fell apart). How do you think you could achieve more activity?

My other question relates to your role as Thane of Roleplay - as an area of personal interest of mine, how do you think holding a position in the Underhusen could aid in developing regional RP further? Do you think your roles and responsibilities might clash at all?

I look forward to seeing your campaign continue! Best of luck.

Welcome to the race, Excalibur!

You mention you'd like to increase UH activity, and this is a statement I've seen made many times before (I know because I'm fairly certain I said the same thing when I ran for UH, and I attempted to legislate to create a requirement for the Speaker to set an agenda of things to achieve in the term, but it rather fell apart). How do you think you could achieve more activity?

My other question relates to your role as Thane of Roleplay - as an area of personal interest of mine, how do you think holding a position in the Underhusen could aid in developing regional RP further? Do you think your roles and responsibilities might clash at all?

I look forward to seeing your campaign continue! Best of luck.

Thank you for your questions, Weissreich!

I think I can achieve more activity by amending the Fundamental Laws in ways that increase the urgency for Skrifa to respond and debate on bills. I principally have trouble with Section 3, which gives 5 days maximum for Skrifa to debate and make motions. I feel that by reducing the 5 day maximum to either 3 or 4, and introducing a new amendment legalizing the automatic tabling of bills once that maximum has been passed. This will increase Skrifa activity, and since the Skrifa already have the ability to extend the debate, I foresee no problems should my amendments be passed.

To answer your second question, I feel that, if anything, my position as Skrifa would help my position as Thane of Roleplay. I don't see anywhere where they would clash, because roleplay and regional legislature are very far apart from one another when it comes to areas of interest. I personally like to keep my responsibilities separate, but if there is crossover, I will endeavor to make sure that both of my responsibilities are fulfilled to the fullest extent possible.

Thank you again for your questions, and welcome back to Wintreath!

Thank you for your questions, Weissreich!

My pleasure!

I think I can achieve more activity by amending the Fundamental Laws in ways that increase the urgency for Skrifa to respond and debate on bills. I principally have trouble with Section 3, which gives 5 days maximum for Skrifa to debate and make motions. I feel that by reducing the 5 day maximum to either 3 or 4, and introducing a new amendment legalizing the automatic tabling of bills once that maximum has been passed. This will increase Skrifa activity, and since the Skrifa already have the ability to extend the debate, I foresee no problems should my amendments be passed.

I think you'll find a lack of support for changing the Fundamental Laws too much in regards to the five day response time. It allows those with busy lives plenty of opportunity to respond and doesn't put too much pressure on people to feel like they have to be constantly checking the UH forum - but this is from my experience nearly four years ago when there was, on the whole, slightly less activity in the political side of Wintreath. I'd be intrigued to see this proposal debated.

To answer your second question, I feel that, if anything, my position as Skrifa would help my position as Thane of Roleplay. I don't see anywhere where they would clash, because roleplay and regional legislature are very far apart from one another when it comes to areas of interest. I personally like to keep my responsibilities separate, but if there is crossover, I will endeavor to make sure that both of my responsibilities are fulfilled to the fullest extent possible.

I think this is a very solid response to my question, thank you. It's important not to seek to legislate too much and allow the opportunity for spontaneous growth in other areas of the community.

Thanks for taking the time to respond!

I think you'll find a lack of support for changing the Fundamental Laws too much in regards to the five day response time. It allows those with busy lives plenty of opportunity to respond and doesn't put too much pressure on people to feel like they have to be constantly checking the UH forum - but this is from my experience nearly four years ago when there was, on the whole, slightly less activity in the political side of Wintreath. I'd be intrigued to see this proposal debated.

I feel that this is where the motions come in. Motioning to extend the debate is still a viable opportunity, and especially since it only requires two out of the five Skrifa to support it. I think a reduction from 5 days to 4 days isn't too drastic, and if that doesn't pass, I think the auto-tabling of a proposal if no motions have been made can still be discussed. A good example is the current bill at vote, which was introduced March 11, yet is being voted on March 27, way over the 5 day deadline. I think that that span of time is needlessly long, especially since nothing new was added after the final discussion up until the vote. We'll just have to see who gets elected

I appreciate your feedback!