I was bored, had a few minutes of free time, so given the discussion here and the informal poll results elsewhere, I took a quick look at what laws need changing. I'd approach such a change (if we do it) in the following manner:

• Rewrite Charter VI in a way that just has one item per Cabinet Minister rather than subheadings with multiple sections, so as to make changes/enhancements in the future much easier to manage.
  
• Remove MoRA from the list, and add one each for the others we decide upon (names TBD - if we want symmetry such that all names follow the "MoXA" format, we'll have to be a bit creative)
  
• In the RO Act, remove specific mandates for the Cabinet Ministers
  
• In the RO Act, give one slot for the Prime Minister with all RO powers sans BC
  
• Furthermore, add a provision that allows the Cabinet to assign up to N RO slots for itself freely (N = 2 or 3, probably)
  

Something like that.

Imagine Viet running for Integration Minister in February. That'd be incredible.

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Why is that first point necessary? There aren’t really any superfluous sections where the Charter describes the roles of the different ministries. Specific separate powers are given by each section.

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This is against my better judgement but ...

You do a lot of work Tsu, but what irritates me is that I know what I'm talking about, and, if you think that I don't know anything, then Kris does, and he's only been a fellow for six years. The thing is, you do things, but it is truly bizzare when you say that you wish to run for a media minister despite not being in the media department. Although no one expects you to be a fellow, I'm of the opinion that, if one wishes to make major changes to the structure of the Ministry, one should be involved in the ministry that is being changed.

It was a comment made in passing, not something I'm angling toward. I started my NS career working for the SPIN and I work in journalism IRL. It would be something natural for me to do and something I would consider rather than run for MoRA which has a huge portfolio, most of which I don't care about.
 

The Advisory Council exists for a long list of reasons. To name a couple of main ones:

1. There's too much for one Minister to manage on there own. That's not to say there's too much for the Minister to handle, just that having one person try to manage a list of projects singlehandedly is unreasonable. The AC can serve as project leads, department heads, etc. In this regard, they're basically a replacement for deputies.
   
2. Institutional memory. MoRA does tend to have a lot of less experienced people take the reigns. The Advisory Council theoretically serves as a more permanent institutional memory, composed of a team of individuals who are well experienced in RA that can help the Minister. A council that can advise the Minister, if you will. Before the AC there was a tendency to essentially restart the entire ministry from scratch every time we had a new minister come in.
   

In terms of "normal", well it's basically another element to the fictional bureaucracy of our fictional government agency. It's like with real-world government ministries. There are the politicians at the top you elect, but there's also the more permanent bureaucrats just below them. Experts in the field that handle many of the operations while the politicians handle the more political agenda stuff.

Far — I'm not questioning what the Advisory Board does. I'm aware we have one, but I'm somewhat flabbergasted by my argument ("MoRA is unruly") being answered by ("No, we have a whole bureaucracy here to run things.") The former literally proves the point I've been trying to make.
 

I don't know, I just feel slightly miffed and offended by the torrent of ridiculous comments that I've had to deal with. To be frank, I'm not going to last long here anyway, so, even if you did join the MoRA, you wouldn't be working for a ministry run by me for particularly long.

To be frank, we are wasting our time attacking each other about superfluous changes when we could be having meaningful discussion about the current state of the MoRA and how it can be improved.

Yes, I understand the difference between working for you and working for the ministry. However, I don't appreciate the repeated attacks that I don't know in the RA so I have no standing to talk. I'll also point out that I have repeatedly said this isn't personal — I'm literally talking about the structure of things not what any one person is being here. As such, the personal tone of why *I'm* not swooping in to save a ministry is misguided and uneven because I'm not singling you or anyone out for their actions.

I do apologize if my comments weren't made in the most diplomatic ways earlier on. I mean no offense to anyone involved.

I'm not trying to imply that you don't know anything about RA, or that you don't do any work. Quite a bit of our infrastructure relies on you, and for that, we thank you. What I am trying to imply (and miserably failing) is that how Regional Affairs works has changed quite drastically, and people are making snap judgements and assumptions about how RA works.

I cannot express my regret enough at the comments made, and do not wish to imply that you (or anyone else) do not know what they're talking about. I generally try not to single people out, so, I do apologize if it seemed that way.

I won't quote Roa's post, due to the fact that I am on mobile, and find it difficult to so so, but, my suggestions for names would be:

Minister of Journalistic Affairs (MoJA)
Minister of Education Affairs (MoEA)
Minister of Cultural Affairs (MoCA)

Aga/Eunopiar

Mostly does boring things.

(This post was last modified: 12-26-2019, 07:53 AM by Aga.)

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Why is that first point necessary? There aren’t really any superfluous sections where the Charter describes the roles of the different ministries. Specific separate powers are given by each section.

It's not superfluous, I just think it'd be easier to follow and amend if there's just one subheading that enumerates the ministries, one ministry per section.

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I was bored, had a few minutes of free time ...

*imagines Roavin's pot belly hanging out as he lays on the couch after a massive Christmas feast*

... so given the discussion here and the informal poll results elsewhere, I took a quick look at what laws need changing. I'd approach such a change (if we do it) in the following manner:

• Rewrite Charter VI in a way that just has one item per Cabinet Minister rather than subheadings with multiple sections, so as to make changes/enhancements in the future much easier to manage.
  
• Remove MoRA from the list, and add one each for the others we decide upon (names TBD - if we want symmetry such that all names follow the "MoXA" format, we'll have to be a bit creative)
  
• In the RO Act, remove specific mandates for the Cabinet Ministers
  
• In the RO Act, give one slot for the Prime Minister with all RO powers sans BC
  
• Furthermore, add a provision that allows the Cabinet to assign up to N RO slots for itself freely (N = 2 or 3, probably)
  

These look like sound suggestions.

...
Imagine Viet running for Integration Minister in February. That'd be incredible.

Viet running for MoRA has been my naughty dream for the last twelve months.

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Why is that first point necessary? There aren’t really any superfluous sections where the Charter describes the roles of the different ministries. Specific separate powers are given by each section.

It's not superfluous, I just think it'd be easier to follow and amend if there's just one subheading that enumerates the ministries, one ministry per section.

I guess my concern here is I’m having flashbacks to the 2011 era Charter. What would “one subheading with one ministry per section” look like in contrast to what the Charter already looks like? The ministries are separated into sections already.

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Why is that first point necessary? There aren’t really any superfluous sections where the Charter describes the roles of the different ministries. Specific separate powers are given by each section.

It's not superfluous, I just think it'd be easier to follow and amend if there's just one subheading that enumerates the ministries, one ministry per section.

I guess my concern here is I’m having flashbacks to the 2011 era Charter. What would “one subheading with one ministry per section” look like in contrast to what the Charter already looks like? The ministries are separated into sections already.

I suppose that rather than what we currently have ...

Current Text

VI. THE EXECUTIVE

Establishing an executive branch consisting of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

(1) The Prime Minister will be the head of government and the leader of the Cabinet. They will be responsible for the overall coordination of executive activities, being a liaison between the government and the community, and protecting the Coalition.

(2) The Cabinet will consist of ministers with the following portfolios: Foreign Affairs, Regional Affairs, and Military Affairs.

(3) As leader of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister is responsible for overseeing a collective Cabinet agenda, and may give directions and instructions to the ministers. Disputes within the Cabinet are subject to the majority decision and collective responsibility; where there is no majority the Prime Minister’s vote shall be the deciding one.

(4) Members of the Executive are required to hold Legislator status.

Elections

(5) Executive elections will be held every four months, where the Prime Minister and all Cabinet positions will be up for election.

(6) The date, time, and manner of elections will be set by the Assembly in a law.

Minister of Regional Affairs

(7) The Minister of Regional Affairs will be responsible for promoting regional and forum activity, integrating new players into the forums, organizing cultural events, and communicating with the world about the South Pacific’s activities.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

(8) The Minister of Foreign Affairs will be the Coalition’s chief diplomat. They will be responsible for establishing the government’s foreign policy program, communicating with allies, and coordinating with the military on foreign policy priorities when necessary.

(9) The Minister of Foreign Affairs holds the sole power to initiate treaty negotiations with other regions, groups, and organizations, but may designate officers to handle those negotiations. Upon completion of a treaty negotiation, the Minister must present it to the full executive for majority approval, before submitting it to the Assembly for ratification.

(10) The Minister of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for establishing standards for the creation and maintenance of consulates and embassies.

Minister of Military Affairs

(11) The Minister of Military Affairs will be the civilian leader of the armed forces of the Coalition, the South Pacific Special Forces. In conjunction with a group of Generals, the Minister of Military Affairs will be responsible for the defense of the Coalition, building military activity, and conducting military operations.

(12) The Minister of Military Affairs may elect to establish an intelligence office, in equal coordination with the Council on Regional Security.

... we move to shorten the wall of text into a more manageable portion ...

Such as this

VI. THE EXECUTIVE

Establishing an executive branch consisting of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

(1) The Prime Minister will be the head of government and the leader of the Cabinet. They will be responsible for the overall coordination of executive activities, being a liaison between the government and the community, and protecting the Coalition.

[Substitute the current Sections 2 and 3 with each other]

(2) As leader of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister is responsible for overseeing a collective Cabinet agenda, and may give directions and instructions to the ministers. Disputes within the Cabinet are subject to the majority decision and collective responsibility; where there is no majority the Prime Minister’s vote shall be the deciding one.

(3) The Cabinet will consist of ministers with the following portfolios: Foreign Affairs, Regional Affairs, and Military Affairs.

(4) The Minister of Regional Affairs will be responsible for promoting regional and forum activity, integrating new players into the forums, organizing cultural events, and communicating with the world about the South Pacific’s activities.

(5) The Minister of Foreign Affairs will be the Coalition’s chief diplomat. They will be responsible for establishing the government’s foreign policy program, communicating with allies, and coordinating with the military on foreign policy priorities when necessary. The Minister holds the sole power to initiate treaty negotiations with other regions, groups, and organizations, but may designate officers to handle those negotiations. Upon completion of a treaty negotiation, the Minister must present it to the full executive for majority approval, before submitting it to the Assembly for ratification. The Minister will be responsible for establishing standards for the creation and maintenance of consulates and embassies.

(6) The Minister of Military Affairs will be the civilian leader of the armed forces of the Coalition, the South Pacific Special Forces. In conjunction with a group of Generals, the Minister of Military Affairs will be responsible for the defense of the Coalition, building military activity, and conducting military operations. The Minister of Military Affairs may elect to establish an intelligence office, in equal coordination with the Council on Regional Security

(7) Members of the Executive are required to hold Legislator status.

Elections

(8) Executive elections will be held every four months, where the Prime Minister and all Cabinet positions will be up for election.

(9) The date, time, and manner of elections will be set by the Assembly in a law.

Minister of Regional Affairs

(7) The Minister of Regional Affairs will be responsible for promoting regional and forum activity, integrating new players into the forums, organizing cultural events, and communicating with the world about the South Pacific’s activities.

Minister of Foreign Affairs

(8) The Minister of Foreign Affairs will be the Coalition’s chief diplomat. They will be responsible for establishing the government’s foreign policy program, communicating with allies, and coordinating with the military on foreign policy priorities when necessary.

(9) The Minister of Foreign Affairs holds the sole power to initiate treaty negotiations with other regions, groups, and organizations, but may designate officers to handle those negotiations. Upon completion of a treaty negotiation, the Minister must present it to the full executive for majority approval, before submitting it to the Assembly for ratification.

(10) The Minister of Foreign Affairs will be responsible for establishing standards for the creation and maintenance of consulates and embassies.

Minister of Military Affairs

(11) The Minister of Military Affairs will be the civilian leader of the armed forces of the Coalition, the South Pacific Special Forces. In conjunction with a group of Generals, the Minister of Military Affairs will be responsible for the defense of the Coalition, building military activity, and conducting military operations.

(12) The Minister of Military Affairs may elect to establish an intelligence office, in equal coordination with the Council on Regional Security

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Yes, Amerion, that's pretty much what I was thinking. Thank you!

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