— Begin quote from ____
Now, I haven’t been around here much, but it looks to me this bill is rushed into a vote. The debate concurred basically between two Magisters only (out of 20+), in a timespan of one day, and when there were no comments in the next three days, we suddenly get to vote on it. From my point of view (or better, my time zone), this was posted late on a Sunday evening close to midnight, and before the next Saturday morning it is at vote. So people who are mostly on-line during the weekend didn’t even had a chance to give their opinion. I understand the need to not let debate linger for weeks, but this is absurd.
— End quote
Apologies, but this resolution has been up for a while now. I admit my thought process excluded Magisters, and I’m sorry for that though. 
My thought process was basically this:
- This has been around in some form for months now, so people must have seen it.
- We have two debates, on on Article F and one on EPSA, and if I move this to vote then I’ll free up Magister-thinkspace for those proposals.
- This isn’t that big of a resolution, so surely no one would really care about it much, especially with Bach’s rewrite.
In hindsight, point 1 was stupid and unrealistic, and point 3 was also stupid and assuming too much. Thus, I apologize for my idiocy on this matter. However, I showed my thought process because (at the time) I thought I was being pragmatic. I wasn’t trying to slight you nor any of the other Magisters, but I did and I apologize for that profusely.
— Begin quote from ____
And what resolution is left to vote on?
One that is nothing more than just a recommendation to the Executive that they will not recognize any other cards organisation in TEP besides TEAPOT.
So, it’s just a recommendation, so the Executive can just ignore it.
Also, is the fear of another organisation legit? Do they have disgruntled members that will try to create their own group? Do we know other regions that have multiple card communities, competing each other? In other words, do we really need a law recommendation like this?
(In fact, do we need to make recommendations to the Executive at all? But that is not the discussion here, so I’ll just post it here as a side note. I’m not sure the Magisterium should be wasting its time on mere recommendations.)
— End quote
Resolutions are Magisterium opinions. So yes, they aren’t binding. That is what a resolution is. However, they are usually followed. Infact, if you look at our resolutions, the majority of them are followed in some shape or form to this day; including those from 2009. So it isn’t the most useless thing in the world.
I do believe a fear of another organization is unlikely. However, it is unlikely, not impossible. We have seen people try to build up private militaries in TEP, so its possible they may try to build up a card organization. This is mainly to give TEAPOT support as the overarching regional card-guild of TEP.
Its a resolution to give TEAPOT some form of legitimacy. I didn’t opt for a law, because I did not want to risk the government trying to gain more oversight of TEAPOT in the future. But if I left it to Executive policy, then support would eventually disappear as Executive policy is not the best recorded thing.
— Begin quote from ____
And if we pass this resolution, are we going to create one for the first organisation of challengers as well? Or the first group of providence trainers? Do we need something similar for the next big in-game game as well? Or for an upcoming association of issue-writers? Should we also write resolutions to recommend Executive to have our residents join only one certain faction during n-Day and z-Day and such?
I mean, if we start doing this, where will we end?
— End quote
This isn’t going to start a precedent. Cards has been a large growing part of the community in NS. Hell, they literally developed their own mini-language. TWP has an extensive guide on cards. People have been commended and condemned solely on cards. TNP has a cards guild.
Cards is not like challenges or April Fools events, which only last for one day. Nor is it like N-Day or Z-Day, which only lasts for two or three. Cards has been here for two or three years, and it has been growing. At this point, if we aren’t willing to support the community with “just a recommendation”, then what?
We’re already supporting RMB RP, which started three years ago, via the Bureau of Public Affairs. So why not support an organization for cards, albeit one that is separate from government oversight?
— Begin quote from ____
I largely agree with Bach’s concerns. However, I believe the current proposal is just a compromise on his account. It doesn’t take away all the concerns raised. And most of all, it accomplishes nothing.
— End quote
Bach addressed all his concerns with the resolution.
— Begin quote from ____
For all these reasons, and especially as there almost has not been any debate on this, I will vote against this. …for now. And I would like to urge other Magisters to do likewise.
(And for the record: I am not against TEAPOT - I’m a member myself - nor against TEAPOT being the only card organisation. I just oppose how this debate was not held, how this resolution was rushed to vote, and I am wondering if the Magisterium should even be spending its time on giving such recommendations.)
— End quote
Ultimately, I understand where I went wrong. I hope Magisters vote with their conscience, and I refuse to judge anyone who votes against due to the short debate time.
That being said, I believe this resolution is extremely important to help TEAPOT become more legitimate. Therefore, should the proposal fail due to the shortened debate, then I will re-propose it as it is, and this time be more grounded in reality; I’ll ping Magisters occasionally as I sometimes do and I’ll leave it up for a longer period of time.
I do want to make this clear that this was not an attempt of what I guess would be called “badge hunting” in the World Assembly, in which I’m trying to take fame for this proposal. Nor did I mean to offend all Magisters. This wasn’t done with malicious intent.
That being said, I apologize for trying to bypass the Magisterium and rushing this bill to vote. I will try to avoid doing this again in the future.
