Proposed Consitutional Amendment: Strike Down Article IV, 4

[Flyingroc Chung]

Hi,

I seem to recall that there were some constitutional amendments that were slated for the last RA to consider before we got, uh, derailed. Here's one.

Summary:

Strike down Artivle IV, section 4

Explanation:

Detailed campaign rules should be a matter of ordinary law, and not part of the constitution. This section has been largely ignored anyway.

Furthermore in the April 21 SC meeting, it was determined that this section has "no place in the Constitution," and the SC voted to recommend the RA to amend the section.

For your reference, here's Article IV, section 4 :

Section 4 - Campaigning

Campaigning for factions can be done in-world only by means
of unscripted items that are placed in a predetermined central
location or by discourse between two avatars directly. No spamming
of any kind is allowed, including the dropping of items on avatars
without permission, sending messages by group IM, or by shouting
messages to large groups. Only two emails are allowed in a given
election by any faction or representative of a faction.

[Claude Desmoulins]

A possible change would be to alter Iv,4 to read:

[quote:10f21azz]The RA shall have the power to regulate campaigning and election procedures by means of appropriate legislation
[/quote:10f21azz]

There are many things we do by tradition (think the 15 day campaign period for example) Do we wish to enshrine those, and if so, do any of them need to be in the constitution, or will standard legislation suffice?

[Flyingroc Chung]

I think the 15 day campagin period tradition comes from Article IV, 2 which says in part:

"No later than 15 days prior to the opening of the polls, faction members will report to the SC Dean their willingness or unwillingness to serve in the RA."

So that's the time when everyone has to have decided whether to run for an RA position or not; making it a natural start for the official campaign season. I submit that traditions like these should *not* be part of the consitution, but rather a matter for ordinary legislation.

[Claude Desmoulins]

Remember however that that change to IV, 2 was passed in April of this year. In that sense it reflects the existing tradition of a 15 day campaign rather than having caused it.