Before the start of the New Guild, there was a branch of government called the Guild, that was also designed to be a place for designers and builders to coordinate their work. This was also a seat of power in the CDS. The Guild Master actually was mandated to make decisions on the CDS treasury and budget and was not elected by the RA or any kind of general election. The Guild Master was elected by a small group of masters who themselves were elected by other masters. It was a clearly undemocratic corner of the constitution.
By the time I become a member of the RA (I was one of those elected quickly after joining the CDS) the Guild was non-functional as an organization and its masters included people who's focus was not building, but government. This was a natural result the organization and role of the Guild.
Colonia Nova was not built by the Guild, but by a small group of volunteers called the SPC who worked under direct RA supervision. Moon, as chair, knowing we were skilled and enthusiastic volunteers guided us with a light hand. It was an exhilarating process for all of us. I know that my skills zoomed ahead. Take a close look, someday, at the Colonia Nova bridge, which I still count as among my best work.
When I sat down to design the New Guild structure I had several goals in mind. Most important was to create a group that would not go down the road of the old Guild in becoming a seat of unelected power. I wanted us to focus on the issues of getting work done and leave the resolution of conflicts in social vision where it belongs, to the elected representatives in the RA.
In other worlds the Guild was carefully designed to be a place where new ideas are hatched, and if they will have a serious public impact would get submitted to the CDS government (the executive, legislative, and judicial branches) for approval. It was designed not to ever become a seat of power.
There is this very weird idea, especially in the US, that non-profits should be non-political. This works fine for some, art museums, to be sure. But the ideas we are hatching in the Guild are ones that will change the face of the CDS. They are inevitably political in the sense that they have huge and direct impact on what the CDS is and who lives here. Do we focus on commercial development (as we did in Colonia Nova) or reserve more space for public and religious spaces? Do we design the space with small, closely spaced plots (as in NFS) or with larger more expensive plots? In effect we are the Chicago 2020 ([url:ahddcp3n]http://www.chicagometropolis2020.org/[/url:ahddcp3n]) of the CDS.
Because these issues of land use and design are so important they deserve consideration and approval by the whole of the CDS, which under our constitution means consideration by our representative government. No final decision should ever be made by the Guild. This means that the Guild should not hold the legal use rights to our streets and Bridges, because otherwise it could make decisions, without public approval, on what is to be done with those streets and bridges. It would turn us back into the old Guild.
The New Guild was designed to diffuse power within its own structure. The Guild has two bodies, the Faculty and the Advisory Board with different roles. The Faculty is supposed to lead the creative work, the actual planning and design of the sims and streets and buildings. The Advisory Board is supposed to decide on policy and promote Guild ideas to the RA who will then weigh and decide if our ideas are worth using. Both bodies are led by elected leaders who have no formal power other than to call meetings, and generally are there to pester people into doing more stuff.
[quote="Dnate Mars":ahddcp3n]I don't understand how being anything within the Guild could be a undemocratic. It would be like telling someone that is head of the local neighborhood watch group that they can't also serve as the mayor of a city.[/quote:ahddcp3n]
Exactly.