Domesday Act

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

WHEREAS it is entirely in the best interest of the nation's people to know themselves, as admonished by the temple of Apollo at Delphi, and

WHEREAS this will yield not just interesting information about the character of our nation, but also useful knowledge that we might use to better tailor our recruiting processes, and

WHEREAS there have been a variety of attempted censuses in the past, achieving results that have been negligible at best, and

WHEREAS if something is worth doing, it is worth doing properly,

THEREFORE the Ziu hereby directs the Secretary of State of the Kingdom of Talossa to take whatever steps he deems necessary to conduct a census of all the citizens of Talossa, including whatever extraordinary degree of delegation that will be required before he finds someone to do it, and compiling to the best of his ability information about the demographics of our country and including age, sex, and level of activity level in Talossa. The Secretary of State is directed to release only the aggregate information, rather than individual results, so as to preserve the privacy of our citizenry.

Uréu q'estadra så:
Alexander Davis (M-M, RUMP)

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

Sorry to be "ants at the picnic" but... Arestadify Senator Davis! Uréu q'estadra sa (no bolle)

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

Unfortunately, I cannot. That phrase is organically mandated, at least until edits are made. It won't make much difference either way, but I do not presume to be an authority on the matter and prefer to stay safe rather than throw out diacriticals willy-nilly.

[Owen Edwards]

I'll second this when it comes to the Ziu.

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

I'm not sure I understand what the purpose of this is. Is there particular information you expect the census to collect? Maybe you could specify more details about that, so that the results actually fulfill the purposes of the act. Also, there is a Bureau of the Census within the Chancery, so the Secretary of State is probably the appropriate official to oversee a census (with the authority to delegate, of course).

[Capt. Sir Mick Preston]

Yeah, it's pretty much already assigned to the SoS...


www.kingdomoftalossa.net/index.cgi?lingo=&page=Chancery

The main duties of the Chancery include:

* The compilation and publication of the monthly Clark, the legislative journal of the Ziu. (Each issue of the Clark is in two parts; the first part reports the results of the previous month's voting, while the second part presents the Bills currently before the Ziu.)
* The conduct of national elections; certifying and reporting on election results.
* Maintenance of the master list of citizens, including voter registration information.
* Assisting with the immigration of new citizens.
* Giving new citizens their provincial assignments, according to applicable law.
* Registration of political parties.
* Official communications between the national government and the political parties.
* Maintaining official membership lists and seat assignments of the Cosâ and the Senäts.
* ... and other similar functions.

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

My intention was to achieve census data about our citizenry, along the lines of: age, sex, activity level in Talossa, and so on.

I was unaware that there was such a Bureau; naturally I will change the bill to reflect this.

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

agbdavis said:

My intention was to achieve census data about our citizenry, along the lines of: age, sex, activity level in Talossa, and so on.

That makes sense. We could also solicit the views of our less-active citizens on what they think Talossa is missing.

I think it might be a good idea to provide that the aggregate information collected by the census will be a public record, but that individual responses will not be publicly disclosed. Might help the response rate if people knew that their age, sex, and occupation were not going to be posted on the Internet. Or at least not in a form that can be connected to them individually.

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

Another good suggestion, that has been added to the bill.

[Capt. Sir Mick Preston]

Maybe if someone came up with a poll , or questionnaire - that could be mass mailed to all the Citizens of the Kingdom?

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

I tried that once. Don't do it... I got about 20 of my questionnaires back... not good.

[Capt. Sir Mick Preston]

Why did you do it, Dreu?

What was YOUR reason ?

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

For an article in the Talossan voice... help

[Capt. Sir Mick Preston]

ok, to play Devil's Advocate:

Pollster: This is a national census, sir, designed to obtain a variety of information which we can use to benefit the country. In order to ensure your privacy, such information is never released, even from one minister to another. So you can be assured of confidentiality.


Why would I want to tell YOU personal information about myself?
I already gave it to the Minister of Immigration
Why can't you get it from him?
Why do you need my age?

Pollster: Talossa has citizens of every age. By finding out your age and the age of other citizens and combining them into a series of demographics, we can analyze the makeup of the nation and possibly help target activities and recruitment to that end.

Why? What activities? Online Shuffleboard?

=========================================

See, I don't think age should be a question. We already know what region of the World they live in.We know their sex, and their Email.

Those people that are already active will respond.

Every 7 months, I beg people to take 5 mins of their life to at least vote "Present". I can't get 30% to do even that.

Asking them to do more than that?

Honestly- while very noble and with good intentions, I think that unless you have King John, Hooligan, and myself going door to door, with a Six-pack of the finest ale/lager/stout (on Hooligan's tab) , you won't get a return that will make it worth the effort you put into it.

[Flip Molinar]

I would be in favor of a questionare on Talossa itself, not just the citizenry. As stated earlier, we already know the sex, age, phone, email, and many other pieces of information. Since it is all already on the record, but not visible to all, why not just ask how to improve Talossa in the areas of...

- Government/politics
- Socialization (Means of contact, topics discussed, etc.)
- Culture
- Other

What does everyone think?