2014-03: Calling the Estats Xhenerais to Order

[Trotxâ]

Good evening, fellow Citizens of the Great Province of Vuode, fellow subjects of His Majesty King John, and assembled cestours. As it is the third Full Moon of 2014 has risen, I am pleased as the duly-elected Presiding Officer of the Estats Xhenerais of the United Provinces of Vuode and Dandenburg, I declare that our third legislative session is hereby open.

<bangs gavel>

This body shall remain is session until the first quarter moon rises on Saturday, 23 March 2014. This body shall recess at approximately 11:00PM, unless or until the Premier of Vuode shall ask the Estats Xhenerais to remain in session.

<bangs gavel>

The Chair recognizes that today, 16 March is National Artichoke Heart Day. Our good friends in the kitchen of Lake Park Golf Course have prepared some special artichokian treats for us to celebrate this day. Please help yourself to the snacks while they last.

As this full moon falls in the month of March, the only appropriate musician to celebrate this month is John Philip Sousa, the March King. We have invited Maestro Sousa’s former band, a band his father also played in, to join us for this session. Please give a warm Vuode welcome to – the President’s Own, the United States Marine Band, conducted by Colonel Michael J. Colburn. The Marine Band will start tonight’s concert with a Sousa tune that is the official march for the United States Marine Corps. It is titled “Always Faithful” in old Talossan, and it is the 1888 Sousa composition Semper Fidelis.



Thank you, Colonel Colburn, for sharing your wonderful music. The chair recognizes that the U.S. Marine Band has several connections to Talossa. The Marine Band’s principal clarinetist, Master Gunnery Sergeant Jeffrey Strouf, graduated from Laramie High School with our own Count of Florencia and Baron of Hooligan, the inimitable Ma Ups Patritz la Mha. You saw MGySgt. Strouf at 2:29 in the previous video of “Semper Fidelis”. Please join me in welcoming Master Gunnery Sergeant Strouf to Talossa! Huzzah!

We’ve asked the Colonel Colburn and the Marines to share one more song for our opening, and they have agreed. (You’re welcome, Baron Q!) Here they are with a tune that we all should recognize: Sousa's 1893 Liberty Bell March.



Thank you so much to Colonel Colburn, Master Gunnery Sergeant Strouf and the United States Marine Band. We hope you will be able to join us next week for our closing ceremony. Let's give them one more round of applause! Huzzah!

<bangs gavel>

Now we turn to the business part of our meeting. Citizens of Vuode Province – this is your democratic government in action. We invite you share your thoughts and ideas here in this meeting.

We open with the required disclaimers:

All citizens and cestours of this, the finest province in the Kingdom of Talossa, are invited to stand now, and to present to us their Councillors any petitions, proposals, projects, programs or policies. Please come forward to the microphone, state your name and canton, the organization represented (if any), the title of the matter addressed and your position in favor or against; then proceed with remarks topic that brings you before the assembled Counselors. Generally, speakers will have at least one (1) minute to speak, but generally not more than five (5) minutes. Speakers should limit remarks to the designated time limit as determined by the Chair. Speakers are cautioned that only topics specifically related to the operations of the United Provinces of Vuode and Dandenburg and the function of the Estats Xhenerais are appropriate in this forum. Please be aware that all comments, documents, exhibits, evidence, petitions or writs presented shall become part of the public record.

Councillors and citizens are required to use proper language when addressing the Estats Xhenerais. Councillors, citizens and cestours shall not use profanity or cursing, aggressive or threatening behavior when addressing the Estats Xhenerais or other participants. All comments are directed to the Presiding Officer and not to individual Councillors or to the audience. No personal verbal attacks toward any individual will be allowed during the conduct of a Estats Xhenerais session. Any Councillor, including the Presiding Officer, may have individual(s) removed from the podium and/or Estats Xhenerais Chambers if such conduct persists after a warning has been issued.

No person, including but not limited to registered lobbyists, except Councilors and the staff of the Estats Xhenerais, shall be permitted access to the Members Bar and Lounge, except that employees of liquor distributors and employees of the Lake Park Golf Course may be granted admission for the purpose performing their employer-requested duties. Attendees of these meetings are heartily encouraged to tip the wait staff for services provided.

It is the intent of these rules that the deliberations and actions of the Estats Xhenerais be conducted and taken openly in order that the citizens and cestours may be fully informed, it being the finding of the Estats Xhenerais that the citizens must be fully informed if they are to be intelligently advised as to the conduct of public business by their duly elected Councilors.

This public meeting is now open for the good of the People and Province of Vuode.

God Save the King!

[Eðo Grischun]

Good Morning my fellow Vuodeans,

First, I wish to thank the Presiding Officer for his service to the province.

I am pleased to welcome to our province the participants of the Talossan Interprovincial Chess Tournament. I am very much looking forward to watching the event unfold and I thank the event organizers for choosing our wonderful province to hold their tournament in.

Now to business:

a) I have recently produced and provided drafts of an updated version of our provincial emblems. I am not sure if we require any legislative procedure to officially adopt the new versions of our emblems or not, so I yield to the Presiding Officer to make a decision on this.

b) I have been working on the ongoing street-maps project again. Last session, our Parishes and Townships were officially named and I anticipate that the task of producing maps, wiki pages and detailed descriptions of borders and landmarks will be completed by the next General Election.


I wish you all a wonderful Ides of March,

Yours for Vuode,
Yours for Talossa,

Éovart Grichun,
Premieir dal Estats Xhenerais.

[Trotxâ]

The Chair recognizes the Premieir dal Estats Xhenerais.

Mar 17, 2014 22:33:22 GMT -6 Eðo Grischun said:

First, I wish to thank the Presiding Officer for his service to the province.

Thank you, good sir, for your invaluable service and for your good thoughts.

Mar 17, 2014 22:33:22 GMT -6 Eðo Grischun said:

b) I have been working on the ongoing street-maps project again. Last session, our Parishes and Townships were officially named and I anticipate that the task of producing maps, wiki pages and detailed descriptions of borders and landmarks will be completed by the next General Election.

Thank you for taking on this project.

Mar 17, 2014 22:33:22 GMT -6 Eðo Grischun said:

a) I have recently produced and provided drafts of an updated version of our provincial emblems. I am not sure if we require any legislative procedure to officially adopt the new versions of our emblems or not, so I yield to the Presiding Officer to make a decision on this.

Thank you for asking. Your question is a good one. The Chair would like to ask for a sense of the Province. Your work is superior, and the people of this province should get a chance to comment, indeed, they should get a chance to praise it. I ask for a period of public comment, followed by a vote of this body.

For our official record, the Chair asks you to please post an official version of your updated versions here in this thread.

Public Comment is open. While we wait for for our citizens and cestours to queue up, the Chair asks Colonel Colburn to share another tune. For their next number, the United States Marine Band will play the "George Washington Bicentennial" by John Philip Sousa.



Thank you. The floor is open for comment.

[Eðo Grischun]

I thank you for your Kind comments, Sir Trotxâ. You and the province are most welcome.

I agree that a sense of the province is a good course of action. Attached you will find a copy of the old version of our emblem along with the new updated emblems.

The Premier requests that the Presiding Officer allow the Estats Xhenerais to remain in session beyond the scheduled close on the 23rd of March to allow ample opportunity for the citizens of our wonderful province to contribute to the Sense of the Province on this business. I suggest we simply allow this session to roll right into the next session.


To close tonight's discussions, I have invited along Molly Jenson, whose birthday is today! Happy Birthday to Miss Jenson! She has agreed to sing a wee song for us on her birthday. Such a gem!



God bless Vuode!
God save the King!

(Note on attached files: First file is the old flag (barely legible), second file is the new updated version of the provincial Arms, third file is the new updated version of the provincial flag.)

Attachments:

[Trotxâ]

The Chair thanks the Premieir for inviting Molly Jenson to our chambers. We appreciate your music, good lady. We hope you may be available to join us again at a future date. We hope you have a very happy birthday. Let's give her a round of applause. Huzzah!

<bangs gavel>

And I ask the Premieir and the citizens and cestours to do two things: first, to forgive my delay in responding, and second, to keep my father in your prayers. My father suffered a bad fall, and ruptured tendons in both knees. After his two surgeries and subsequent immobility, I have performed my filial duty by assisting at his sickbed. I thank the Premieir and the citizens of Vuode for their understanding.

The Chair thanks the Premieir for posting the updated artwork. All the citizens and cestours of our great province are invited to share their impressions of this new artwork. Your government is listening.

Mar 20, 2014 23:33:33 GMT -6 Eðo Grischun said:

The Premier requests that the Presiding Officer allow the Estats Xhenerais to remain in session beyond the scheduled close on the 23rd of March to allow ample opportunity for the citizens of our wonderful province to contribute to the Sense of the Province on this business. I suggest we simply allow this session to roll right into the next session.

Thank you for the suggestion. It is worthwhile. This body remains in session.

Unfortunately, we only have the United States Marine Band booked with us until tonight. We will ask them to play their planned closing program, but we will not recess. I invite Colonel Colburn to return to the podium and to share their planned program: two more of John Philip Sousa's most famous compositions. First, the 1889 piece that led to a British journalist naming Sousa as "The March King"; the famous "Washington Post March."



The final selection is one of Sousa's most famous. When Russian born pianist Vladimir Horowitz became a citizen of the USA, he wrote a famous transcription of this march for solo piano. In an interview, Horowitz opined that this march, being a military march, is meant to be played at a walking tempo. Horowitz complained that many conductors played the piece too fast, resulting in music that is "hackneyed." So here, presented in the key of A-flat at a tempo that would make Lord Q, Vladimir Horowitz and John Philip Sousa both pleased and proud, is the March King's magnum opus, "The Stars and Stripes Forever."



We again thank the United States Marine Band for the wonderful concert. What a great way to end the month of March.

[Eðo Grischun]

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your dad. Wishing him a full and speedy recovery.

[Trotxâ]

Citizens of Vuode -

Just a reminder that our current session will close with the dark of the moon, which means that we'll wrap up tomorrow evening. We look forward to your thoughts (public or private) on the updated provincial symbols.

The Chair thanks Premier Eðo Grischun for his support and kind thoughts, and thanks others for their good wishes. My father is doing better, as is my brother, who also had a recent knee surgery. It appears that knee injuries are contagious in my family.

Til Tomorrow,

T

[Trotxâ]

Good evening, fellow Citizens of the Great Province of Vuode, fellow subjects of His Majesty King John, and assembled cestours. Thank you for joining us tonight for the closing of the extended third session of the Estats Xhenerais. As Presiding Officer, I ask for your attention and your patience as we wrap up.

We start by thanking our hosts here at the clubhouse of beautiful Lake Park Golf Course. They've been very patient as we overstayed our welcome. Thanks guys!

[Hearty Applause]

Next, the chair would like once again to take a moment to recognize the hardworking and artistic Premier of our beloved province: the Honourable Éovart Grischun. I ask for a round of applause to acknowledge his service, and as a show of support for the changes he has proposed for our provincial symbols.

[Hearty Applause]

Motion carries! The symbols are approved!

<bangs gavel>

As the beginning of the end, we'd like to recall Molly Jenson to the podium. Molly - can you play that one tune where you're in the window? Yes? Wonderful. Friends, from her Maybe Tomorrow album, here is Give It Time:



Thank you, thank you, Molly, for joining us tonight to help us wrap up our legislative session. Friends, let's give Molly another round of applause. Huzzah!

[Hearty Applause]

<bangs gavel>

The following proposal has been brought before this body: This body shall adjourn and shall be in recess to match the National recess. We shall reconvene on the evening of the next full moon, Wednesday, 14 May 2014 Thursday, 12 June 2014. The Estats Xhenerais shall reconvene after the moon is full; unless or until the Premier of Vuode shall ask the Estats Xhenerais to gather in special session. Unless otherwise noted, this next session shall last until the evening of the day that the moon reaches her third quarter on Wednesday, 21 May 2014 Thursday, 19 June 2014.

The motion is to recess. Anyone present who objects to this motion, please make your will known by saying "Nay."

.
.
.

Hearing no objections, the motion carries.

<bangs gavel>

As the duly-elected Presiding Officer of the Estats Xhenerais of the United Provinces of Vuode and Dandenburg, I declare that the third legislative session of this year is hereby closed. Thank you to the good people of the Province of Vuode, the best place to live in Talossa. We'll see you again next month.

God Save the King!

<bangs gavel>

[Eðo Grischun]

Sir Trotxâ,

If I may point out something from our constitution;

"Article IV: Passing Legislation, SECTION 3: Each Grand Session of the Estats Xhenerais shall be made of six legislative sessions and shall mirror the schedule of the national Ziu. This includes any months of recess."

Prime Minister da Dhi has declared that the month of May is to be a month of recess for the national Ziu and as such your scheduled date of Wednesday, 14 May would go against our own constituted guidelines. I believe that we should recess during the month of May and reconvene for our next legislative session on the first full moon of June.

I rather like the system you have employed where our legislative sessions full in line with lunar cycles and I think that when we reconvene in June we should vote on amending Article IV, Section 3 removing Vuode's dependency on the national Ziu timetables and fully adopting the system you have been using so far in this Grand Session.

We could use the month of recess (May) to draft the amendment so that we can go straight to vote when you recall the Estats Xhenerais in June?

[Trotxâ]

Apr 29, 2014 23:09:06 GMT -6 Eðo Grischun said:

Sir Trotxâ,

If I may point out something from our constitution;

"Article IV: Passing Legislation, SECTION 3: Each Grand Session of the Estats Xhenerais shall be made of six legislative sessions and shall mirror the schedule of the national Ziu. This includes any months of recess."

Prime Minister da Dhi has declared that the month of May is to be a month of recess for the national Ziu and as such your scheduled date of Wednesday, 14 May would go against our own constituted guidelines. I believe that we should recess during the month of May and reconvene for our next legislative session on the first full moon of June.

I rather like the system you have employed where our legislative sessions full in line with lunar cycles and I think that when we reconvene in June we should vote on amending Article IV, Section 3 removing Vuode's dependency on the national Ziu timetables and fully adopting the system you have been using so far in this Grand Session.

We could use the month of recess (May) to draft the amendment so that we can go straight to vote when you recall the Estats Xhenerais in June?

Thank you, S:reu Grischun. Good catch.

T