The Magisterium in its storied history, has played host to a multitude of Magisters and Provosts, each with their own approach towards their roles and the region as a whole.
Some, view the role of Provost as a stepping stone for their ambitions. A way to further their own career within TEP, establishing themselves by pushing policy agendas and wide-ranging reforms legislatively.
Others, view the role as more as a “Presiding Officer”, duty-bound to ensure the cogs and gears of the Magisterium and its legislative agenda continue to tick along.
Of course, there have been Provosts that don’t align fully to any of those approaches either.
After having served as the Provost for 5 straight terms, including a term as Deputy, I must admit, that I fall into the latter of the two approaches I have mentioned.
That being said, there are a few points of contention that I will touch upon.
- Legislation formatting
- Magister applications
- Legislative discussion followups
- Voting Records
The first is the formatting of the various pieces of legislation authored by the Magisterium;
The current formatting is dated and a relic of a time where we had to make do to fit within the confines of an even more limited platform.
As per my submission in the discussion thread regarding legislative formatting, I view it as a more cleaner and simpler format that works well with both the current platform, and doesn’t add clutter such as the ellipsis used in each clause marker.
Second, Magister Applications;
For the most part, admittance of new Magisters have followed the same procedure for many years.
Whilst I do see room for improvement in the process, it is by its virtues already a fairly optimized process.
If anything, I would say that the requirement to supply the nation name and WA nation alongside the Magister’s Pledge to be redundant as the Public Official Disclosure forms are included in the applications now.
Third, Legislative Discussion & Follow-up;
Throughout the last five terms, I have taken a very hands-off approach in regards to legislative discussion. That is, I have only prompted Magisters to follow up on active votes, and have allowed proposals to fall to the wayside and be tabled as per the Standing Orders.
An active discussion of a proposal is good for the Magisterium, it indicates that Magisters are still connected and willing to work for the betterment of the region. However, I hold the view that Sponsors or Co-Sponsors if any have been appointed are responsible for their own proposal.
Sponsors and Co-Sponsors have multiple opportunities to maintain the longevity of a proposal over 60 days, and even should a proposal lapse, it is always able to be brought back on request.
Fourth, Voting Records;
Historically, the Record of Votes has just been a numbered list, with a link to the vote and whether the vote has passed or failed.
It has only been recently that former Provost Halleyscomet introduced a supplementary document that augmented this list.
My key project in this aspect has been the adoption of the Legislative Records spreadsheet, inspired by The South Pacific’s own spreadsheet.
This spreadsheet, allows others to view a summary of votes taken with additional statistics without having to navigate to each vote individually and additionally provides a breakdown of each Magister’s key information and voting history each month allowing greater access to a holistic view of the state of the Magisterium.
I believe such information would be greatly hindered by being limited to an “on-forum” presence only.
Finally, The Future;
There are a few projects I am considering to further modernize the Magisterium and provide a better integration between the various platforms our community is spread across.
These are slow-going and not yet beyond the drawing board, but they do exist, if only in my mind.
I don’t see myself as an “Eternal Provost” as some others in our community have good-naturedly dubbed me. I do however, see myself continuing to dutifully serve the Magisterium and TEP in any capacity I find myself in for as long as the community thinks fit.
Maybe that time will be soon, maybe it won’t be for a while. After all, we are all here to contribute to the Magisterium and to the region in our own ways.