[Point] Creation of Senate Whip

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-08-11 10:30am

I recently received a private message from Lord Zentei. He proposes the following:

Lord Zentei wrote:The suggestion is to create a new office for the Senate: Senate Whip (sort of like the party whips in the US Congress - only this one would be absolutely required to be impartial).

The reason is that on a number of occasions only a few votes have been accumulated for some of the vote threads. If such low attendance becomes the norm, there is the risk that the senate will become somewhat dysfunctional with the new rules for quorums.

Fellow Senators, what think ye?

EDIT: Oops. I forgot a title.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2006-08-11 10:36am

No. We dont need more red tape.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2006-08-11 10:45am

Pointless. Policy is rare that it needs a majority. The only one we had was the thoughts on a quorum and honestly that sort of vote is rare and far between. Policy changes that come to the senate are few anyways, and bans and such are usually handled with given amount of time with how many voters and their choices(most bans are not of the variety we need a minimum of 26 votes in most cases).

This would create another office with a useless title essentially.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2006-08-11 11:48am

The quorum rules apply to all votes though the requirements are lower (only 40% on non-policy/banning issues) so having someone remind the Senators would not be a bad thing. That said I honestly think it would be a job better left with the Chancellor (or his designated representative) so as to avoid reating additional posts and red tape.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-08-12 03:28pm

Before this idea totally goes down in flames, I'd like to express my support for, if not a new post, then at least a new responsibility for at least one Senate member, likely the Chancellor. Maybe it could be done through an email list, so all that person would have to do is type up a quick message along the lines of, "Hey, there's a vote on Issue X in the Senate. Please weigh in with your vote. [Link]" and email it to the entire list. It's a shame you can't send multiple PMs simultaneously, because that would work even better.

At the very least, if we have a vote that's dragging on without a quorum, someone should send out some kind of reminder to the rest of the Senate. It probably won't be an issue often, but we ought to have some kind of procedure in place so we're not left scratching our asses if it comes up.

Post by **fgalkin** » 2006-08-12 05:31pm

And here I thought it actually involved whipping the senators until they vote.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Ender · Post by **Ender** » 2006-08-14 12:06am

I say we don't need it, but can I have it as a title anyways?

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2006-08-14 12:45am

Let me clarify my position somewhat as I realize its more neutral than I intend to be. I think this is a job that NEEDS to get done just as I think the concept of quorums and minimums was neccessarry. I don't think it requires a whole seperate office but it could be very critical to gaining the minimums needed to pass a vote.

Sonnenburg · Post by **Sonnenburg** » 2006-08-14 07:05am

I think it's something that needs to be employed only if, after X time has passed, sufficient numbers of votes haven't arrived, and then send it only to those who haven't voted. I realize it means more work, but I don't see the need of cluttering up the inboxes of those who show up.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2006-08-14 07:44am

The senate forum doesnt see enough traffic to push votes off the first page in a hurry, they wont get lost in the shuffle...all it takes is senators checking the forum once a bleedin' week.

Do we need to make more red tape to accomplish that?
If they arent checking the forum, odds are that a PM wouldnt help either.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-08-17 02:34pm

Lord Zentei private messaged me again, with this message:

Lord Zentei wrote:Some clarification on the idea of the Whip:
The reason for using PMs is that one can tell whether a PM is actually received, as opposed to an email.

It is possible to require that Senators have "send me email notification when I receive PMs" in their profiles, so they will still receive a headsup even if they are not actually browsing the forum.

The Whip was to have sent PMs when the poll opened as well as when half the alotted time was up, and then only to those that had not chimed in to the thread in question. The latter of the two is probably the only neccesary one, really.

There is really no reason the Chancellor cannot do the job, I just thought that it might be better not to dump all the work for the Senate on one person.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2006-08-17 02:44pm

The thing is...we'll just let one of the mods or the creator of the thread if they deem it worthy to do so.

Creating a position that would amount to "Pointless" is the problem. If the vote is one that requires the full majority of the Senate or it won't pass(something that pretty much seems to be shaky ban or rules amendment) then we have either a mod or a Senator to do it.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2006-08-18 01:04am

Actually having the thread creator do so would probably work out best as anyone who puts something to a vote probably wants that vote to pass so it becomes incumbent upon them to see the vote thru.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-08-18 01:41am

Post by **Rob Wilson** » 2006-09-06 02:09am

The idea behind this has merit, there is however an obvious solution. Rather than create a new post, why not simply have the person that starts a vote Pm everyone else to let them know it's happening?

This would of course mean finding a way to do mass PM's efficiently.