The Region That Has No Big BanksBoard

And to clarify, you don't have to take any of my advice here. None of it's mandatory, it should just help you get started while you figure out what process works best for you.

FIRST: Make sure to check out THIS dispatch! Using this, and practicing a bit, is going to clear up 99% of the problems you'll run into.

Confirmation Committee and Debate:

People are going to send you some bills. Before you ask for votes, it's best to talk to the Confirmation Committee. Their job is to look over every bill and report back to you with info about where each bill might conflict with the Constitution or existing regional law. If there are any conflicts, it's your job to talk to the bill author and get them sorted out before a bill goes to a vote. Make sure that you check carefully so that you don't accidentally bring an illegal bill up to vote!

Once the Confirmation Committee has looked over the bills, it's time to announce the Session, which I'll go into in our next section. After that's done, talk to the Rules Committee and get to work on the debate!

Debates are a good way to get people talking about the bills at vote, and it helps ensure that people really read the bills and know what they're voting for. Your job is to encourage this debate, on whatever platform you and the Rules Committee choose, by asking questions. Keep the questions impartial and just look for places that you think might clarify specific parts of the bill. If you're confused about something, chances are somebody else is too, so you should ask about it! See if you can get everyone to fully explain their position, so you end up with a couple tidy arguments to publish on the RMB.

Announcing the Session and Results:

• RMB:

  To begin with, I usually announce the session by making a list of each bill. I'll explain how to do that in a second. After that, I'll talk about the important changes that each bill would bring, and encourage every MP to vote. It's a pretty simple process.
  When I announce the results, I like to follow a specific format. I begin with a basic explanation of what happened during the Session, maybe clarify any questions that came up, and then make a Spoiler leading to the list of results. Within that spoiler, I put a list, which has an entry for each new bill. Like this:
  

  Results

  • Example bill 1, authored by America the Greater, has passed with a vote of 2 For - 1 Against - 0 Abstain.

  • Example bill 2, authored by America the Greater, has failed with a vote of 1 For - 2 Against - 0 Abstain.
    

  If you're confused about how to do this, click that little green button at the bottom that says Raw. It'll let you find this section of the text and see exactly what I typed to make that spoiler box appear.

  Once I've done that, I wrap up by explaining any important changes that have been made by these bills, and then I close the Session.

• Discord:

  On Discord, it's really simple. Just take a look at the RMB post you've already made, and click on the part that probably says "Seconds ago," or maybe "2 minutes ago," etc. Grab the link to your post and ping Members of Parliament on the Parliament channel, and let them know that a Session has been either announced or concluded. That's it! Keeps things simple.
  

Here's an example of one of my announcements: page=rmb/postid=55467459

Here's an example of one of my conclusions: page=rmb/postid=55576804

Hosting the Session:

Hosting the session can be a little more tedious, especially the first time. I like to use Google Forms. To begin with, I make a new form, and title it something like "TRTHNBB Parliament Voting Session: February 31 - February 38", it's descriptive and simple. After that, I check a couple settings:
Don't ask for email addresses.
Don't give a link to vote again.
If you want, you can go ahead and make a custom message like "Thank you for voting!" when people submit a response, but you don't have to.
Also, make sure every question is required.

I begin by asking for everyone's nation name and whether they're a Member of Parliament. You can ask for text responses for the nation name, and use options for the rest.
After that, I like to make a Section. I usually make one section for Amendments and Repeals, one for General Legislation, and maybe one for something like Appointments or Motions of No Confidence, if any of those are there.
In those sections, I first add a bit of text. That text just has a link to the bill in question, and credits the author(s) of the bill.
After that, I add a question. Basically it's just "How do you vote on [this bill]?" followed by creating options for For, Against, and Abstain. Do that a bunch of times, once per bill that's being voted on.

Displaying the Results:

This is really up to you. I put some extra work into this because I want the results to look pretty, and maybe if you ask me, I can do this for you or show you specifically how it's done in detail. But here are the basics:
On the Google Form with the election stuff, I click the button in Settings that says Link to Sheets. Open up that sheet and take a look, it'll populate the spreadsheet with a Timestamp, followed by each answer a nation gives. For, Against, Abstain are all there, along with Nation name and Are you an MP? You'll see a lot of data here.

First off, I like to use Conditional Formatting to make every Yes appear green and every No appear red. Look up conditional formatting to see the specifics of how that's done.

If you want to go above and beyond, look into using Sheets formulas to count up votes and display whether each proposal will pass or fail. Here's a link to my own results page, you can click on any cell to see the formula involved and figure out how it works: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PhVA2CCO83XoelrYk_sqtY3nqUOMTs38X_v6e-RPwxk/edit?resourcekey=#gid=1813231563

How far does your responsibility to remain impartial go?:

This is a tricky subject, and really it's up to every Speaker to draw their own line. Here's the way I see my position. I have a responsibility to give every bill a fair chance, as long as it's not illegal. I make sure that each bill gets equally broadcast, and is voted on in the same way as other bills. I also make sure debates stay about the topic at hand, without devolving into arguments, even if the 'winner' is the person I agree with. It's your job to do all of that, because making sure everyone has their say is what Parliament is all about. However, if you disagree strongly with a bill, I think it's your duty to speak up as an MP. You're still a citizen and an MP no matter your title, so make your voice heard. If you argue against or for every single bill, it's going to drown people out and make Parliament feel unwelcoming. But sometimes you've got to take a stand, and I encourage that.

Maintaining the Dispatches:
The good thing about this part is that theoretically, the MoDA is responsible for this stuff. Hopefully you'll be working alongside an active Minister of Domestic Affairs who may be willing to take on this part of the work.
If you want to, or have to, do it yourself instead, here's how it goes:

• Book of Laws:

  Similar to the announcement and results, you're going to make a separate spoiler for each bill. I like to structure it like this: (remember, click on Raw to see my formatting)
  

  Bill Title

  This is filler text, and the URL down there is unrelated.
  

  Authored by America the Greater, passed 25 April 2024

  Each bill goes in a specific section, so General Legislation is any bill that does something new. Amendments and Repeals is kinda self-explanatory, and the bottom section is for all appointments and Honorary Titles. If you need to add a new section, go for it!

  If you add an Amendment to a piece of legislation, not the Constitution, then you should find its entry in the Book of Laws and make the necessary changes. If you add anything, make sure to italicize it so people know it's from an amendment.

• The Constitution:

  If the Constitution is amended, it's easy to change it. Just add/remove the text people specify and italicize any new parts so it's clear that it's an amendment. You can mess with the formatting so it looks nice, as long as everything says what it's supposed to.

That's basically it! If you have any more specific questions or want help getting started, feel free to send me a telegram or a Discord message for as long as I'm still around! Hopefully that'll be a long time to come.

Thanks for reading and good luck in the election, or congrats if you've just been elected,

America the Greater,
Speaker of Parliament, November 2023 - May 2024

The Regional Capitalist Alliance

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Location: The Region That Has No Big Banks

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Founder: Claibornia
Founded:April 25, 2024

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Ideology:
Laissez-faire Capitalism
Liberal Conservatism
Anti-Socialism
Motto: "Freedom, democracy, and no communist autocracy"

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Party Leader: Claibornia
Chief Adviser: Vacant
Head of Communications: none

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Colors: Black, for the hard work capitalism advocates Yellow, for capitalism Blue, for democracy and unity

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Membership:

3

Claibornia
[nation][/nation]
[nation][/nation]

Chief Adviser - The Chief Adviser is the Party Leader's second in command. The Chief Adviser has the responsibility of taking the Party Leader's roles when the nation elected to that position is unavailable or when the seat is vacant. When the Party Leader is present, the Chief Adviser is responsible for advising the Party Leader on issues with other party members and if they feel that the Party Leader is going in the wrong direction with their actions or in a discussion. The position is not elected, but rather is appointed by the Party Leader.

Head of Communications - The Head of Communications is a Party Leader appointed position that is in charge of all communications to other parties and the region itself. The nation appointed has the responsibility of recording major happenings within the party in factbook(s) and/or other publicly accessible forms of writing. The nation appointed is encouraged to communicate with representatives from other parties in order to establish friendly ties and share information.

Racial Justice - The RCA believes that any citizen regardless of race, gender, culture, religion etc should be equal with each other.

Privacy - The RCA believes that private data should not be transmitted to a third party without the user's consent. However, if a user is suspected of being malicious, it is alright for the government to interfere with their data.

Welfare and Poverty - The RCA supports a welfare state and growing the middle class. In order to create a greater welfare state, more funding would be devoted to various social welfare programs and to Social Security. By devoting more funding to social welfare, the poverty rate will lower and more people will be able to join the middle class. In order to grow the middle class, lowering income inequality is necessary. To do this, the rich would be taxed at a greater rate, and a wealth cap at 100 million dollars is proposed. Due to the economic beliefs of the party, however, government intervention is still strongly disapproved of.
Homelessness in the Cities - The RCA supports increased welfare funding and new public housing projects to create a surplus in new jobs and create free housing for the homeless living in our cities, similar to FDR's "New Deal." By creating free housing and increasing welfare spending to assist the homeless, it will allow those living in poverty to utilize opportunities to pull themselves out of the poverty cycle and find a place in the working class of our great nation.

Drugs - The RCA seeks to ban all recreational drug use, including smoking and vaping, with restrictions on alcohol consumption.

Healthcare - The RCA supports a universal single-payer healthcare system. Healthcare costs would reduce dramatically as resources are spread out efficiently and not biased towards richer individuals. Wait time on doctor visits or check-ups would increase slightly, but that would be a worthy sacrifice for ensuring healthcare to all citizens. Universal healthcare would be available to all, and for those who couldn't afford it would get it subsidized by the government. Private healthcare would be allowed as well, for those who wish to go to a higher institute of care.

Environment - The RCA supports the conservation of God's creation, supporting green energy policies and reversing climate change. However, radical changes are seen as a threat to the economy, so change will come fast, but not too fast.

Minimum Wage - The RCA supports the State's rights to decide their own minimum wage, provided that that wage is at least the cost of living in the region. By increasing the minimum wage, it will provide minimum wage workers who weren't able to get a college degree or can't find a better job a living wage which they can then use to move up in life. This would end the poverty trap and allow individuals to make something out of their life.

Big Banks - The RCA supports the dissolution of big banks, but not too radically, as capitalism could be hurt by this much intervention.

Jobs - The RCA supports creating more well paying jobs and bringing back unions. By forcing manufacturing companies to bring back exported jobs to the states, the economy would prosper with the addition of more good paying jobs and that would increase the middle class. Promoting unions within these industries would ensure that workers get good wages. Unions in general would have a positive effect on the economy, allowing the middle class to prosper while stimulating the markets.

War and Peace - The RCA supports dealing with foreign aggression and threats with a peaceful diplomatic approach with war kept for only the most major of things. Building up your defenses is advised. The RCA is not afraid to take action for democracy and capitalism.

Immigration - The Environmental Protection Party supports dealing with immigrants already within the region by offering them a direct path to becoming a citizen and giving them access to government sanctioned healthcare and other essential welfare programs offered to the citizenry. Illegal immigrants are to be treated as such: illegal, and will be incarcerated while background checks determine if they should be allowed to become citizens.

Refugee Crisis - The RCA supports granting amnesty to refugees fleeing from violence and war in their nations. With open arms we would accept as many refugees as we can support. They will be given necessary provisions and placed in shelters, and will recieve help in finding a job and permanent home.

Top

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COMMONWEALTH PARTY
F R A T E R N I T Y ,—C O L L A B O R A T I O N ,—S T R E N G T H
—

Commonwealth Party

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CONVENTUS MAGNUS

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Emblem & Cockade

Motto:

"Fraternity, Collaboration, Strength!"

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Founded	26th February 2024
Ideology	Unitarianism
Headquarters	Praesidium House, The Region That Has No Big Banks
First Secretary	Syrasia
Chairman	TBA
Councillors	TBA
Members	Syrasia Pyhdon
Colours	◼ Grey ◼ Gold ◼ Red

Party Flag

The All-Region Commonwealth Party (or simply the Commonwealth) is a political party in The Region That Has No Big Banks founded in April 2024 by Syrasia.

Put simply, Unitarian ideals are about strong, democratic government. Commonwealth rejects the notion of parliamentarian elitism, and believes that the true power of democracy lies with the people rather than any legislature. Every single member of NBB has the right to and deserves an equal say in the region's affairs.

Equally, NBB must not become a region of hyperbolic discussion on "working for the people" or that every election is the "crossroads" to a "new era". Talking in riddles is an easy way out of talking straight. Commonwealth can and will end this circus of hyperboles. We are the party that will work for the devolution of power from legislature directly to the people. Commonwealth is founded on the principle of being the party of the ordinary player; we are not a party which is of the political establishment. Commonwealth is perhaps the only party which has been truly formed from the bottom up, and is the only one which offers a democratic party structure.

The Constitution of Commonwealth is a governing set of rules by which the party operates.

FIRST SECRETARY

• Responsible for maintaining and growing the party

• Recognised as the head of the party and co-chair of party campaigns

• Able to select and recall the Chairman of the party in exceptional circumstances

• May raise the number of Councillors from three (3) to reflect party size

• No term limit is to be applied to the office of First Secretary
  

CHAIRMAN of the PARTY

• Serves as the Candidate for PM/DPM for the Party

• Recognised as the co-chair of party campaigns

• Recognised as the operational leader of the Party

• Elected from the three (3) Councillors by party members
  

COUNCIL of the PARTY

• Three (3) Councillors will serve on the Council of the Party

• Their terms will be defined by challenge elections; those wishing to be a Councillor must challenge a seat

• Recognised co-ordinators of party policy

• Aid the Chairman in selecting election candidates outside of the election the Chairman is running in
  

These are a broad range of ideals that Commonwealth generally holds about the status quo.

HOME POLICY

• Maintain and uphold the rights of NBB citizens

• Create a new Ministry of Roleplay, whose Minister is selected by the Governor, to both provide clarity on regional RP and to keep RP consistent by removing the coordination staff from regional politics

• Amend the Constitution to remove all barriers of entry to Parliament

• Consider tentatively a new layout for the NBB Discord server to cut down on the amount of channels

• Create a new merit system of banners, as seen similarly here, in a theme which reflects NBB's devotion to equality of citizens

• Update the regional banner and other regional graphics to not include any single or group of individuals in order to promote equality.

• Encourage more regional events outside general roleplay, such as films, videogames, and other events
  

FOREIGN POLICY

• Maintain the tenet of strong leadership in order to deter raiders

• Consider an independent review on embassy protocol to ensure it is up to standard

• Maintain the Sovereignty of the Region; not bending the knee to regions who dislike how we operate simply to keep an embassy open, and pre-empt them by closing the embassy ourselves

• Ensure that NBB does not join any more interregional pacts or unions outside of its current commitments to preserve regional sovereignty

• Support all viable means of recruitment and aid in the donations of stamps

• Continue the maintenance of the Embassy Thread of NBB
  

—
COMMONWEALTH PARTY
F R A T E R N I T Y ,—C O L L A B O R A T I O N ,—S T R E N G T H
—

Commonwealth Party

---

CONVENTUS MAGNUS

---

Emblem & Cockade

Motto:

"Fraternity, Collaboration, Strength!"

---

Founded	26th February 2024
Ideology	Unitarianism
Headquarters	Praesidium House, The Region That Has No Big Banks
First Secretary	Syrasia
Chairman	TBA
Councillors	TBA
Members	Syrasia Pyhdon
Colours	◼ Grey ◼ Gold ◼ Red

Party Flag

The All-Region Commonwealth Party (or simply the Commonwealth) is a political party in The Region That Has No Big Banks founded in April 2024 by Syrasia.

Put simply, Unitarian ideals are about strong, democratic government. Commonwealth rejects the notion of parliamentarian elitism, and believes that the true power of democracy lies with the people rather than any legislature. Every single member of NBB has the right to and deserves an equal say in the region's affairs.

Equally, NBB must not become a region of hyperbolic discussion on "working for the people" or that every election is the "crossroads" to a "new era". Talking in riddles is an easy way out of talking straight. Commonwealth can and will end this circus of hyperboles. We are the party that will work for the devolution of power from legislature directly to the people. Commonwealth is founded on the principle of being the party of the ordinary player; we are not a party which is of the political establishment. Commonwealth is perhaps the only party which has been truly formed from the bottom up, and is the only one which offers a democratic party structure.

The Constitution of Commonwealth is a governing set of rules by which the party operates.

FIRST SECRETARY

• Responsible for maintaining and growing the party

• Recognised as the head of the party and co-chair of party campaigns

• Able to select and recall the Chairman of the party in exceptional circumstances

• May raise the number of Councillors from three (3) to reflect party size

• No term limit is to be applied to the office of First Secretary
  

CHAIRMAN of the PARTY

• Serves as the Candidate for PM/DPM for the Party

• Recognised as the co-chair of party campaigns

• Recognised as the operational leader of the Party

• Elected from the three (3) Councillors by party members
  

COUNCIL of the PARTY

• Three (3) Councillors will serve on the Council of the Party

• Their terms will be defined by challenge elections; those wishing to be a Councillor must challenge a seat

• Recognised co-ordinators of party policy

• Aid the Chairman in selecting election candidates outside of the election the Chairman is running in
  

These are a broad range of ideals that Commonwealth generally holds about the status quo.

HOME POLICY

• Maintain and uphold the rights of NBB citizens

• Create a new Ministry of Roleplay, whose Minister is selected by the Governor, to both provide clarity on regional RP and to keep RP consistent by removing the coordination staff from regional politics

• Amend the Constitution to remove all barriers of entry to Parliament

• Consider tentatively a new layout for the NBB Discord server to cut down on the amount of channels

• Create a new merit system of banners, as seen similarly here, in a theme which reflects NBB's devotion to equality of citizens

• Update the regional banner and other regional graphics to not include any single or group of individuals in order to promote equality.

• Encourage more regional events outside general roleplay, such as films, videogames, and other events
  

FOREIGN POLICY

• Maintain the tenet of strong leadership in order to deter raiders

• Consider an independent review on embassy protocol to ensure it is up to standard

• Maintain the Sovereignty of the Region; not bending the knee to regions who dislike how we operate simply to keep an embassy open, and pre-empt them by closing the embassy ourselves

• Ensure that NBB does not join any more interregional pacts or unions outside of its current commitments to preserve regional sovereignty

• Support all viable means of recruitment and aid in the donations of stamps

• Continue the maintenance of the Embassy Thread of NBB