LRA pro tem

[Justice Soothsayer]

Our Constitution and rules do not provide specifically for what happens in the event of the absence/illness/removal/resignation etc. of the LRA.

Last term the LRA stepped down midstream and was replaced by Jamie Palisades, elected by the RA to fill the job, and no one challenged the RA's right to do so.

I think good practice would be to codify LRA succession as part of the Constitution, so I am proposing the following Constitutional Amendment to add the following sentence to the end of Article I, Section 3:

"The Representative Assembly may elect one of its members to serve as Leader pro tem who may act as Leader in the event of the absence of the Leader or if the position of Leader is vacant."

[Sonja Strom]

Justice, I think this is a brilliant way to deal with the problem of not having an LRA when that happens.

It makes sense for the LRA to be the Leader of the faction receiving the most votes in the election, but then if that person is gone there is no clear way to arrive at who should fill the role, as you described. If the RA were to choose a pro tem replacement this would make sense, as the RA would have to arrive at a replacement by majority vote, which naturally favors the majority faction. It would be a clean and respectful way for the RA to continue to function.

[Justice Soothsayer]

After feedback from the RA, I'm changing the title of this position to be "LRA pro tempore". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_pro_tempore

So the new constitutional amendment will read:

The Representative Assembly may elect one of its members to serve as Leader pro tempore who may act as Leader in the event of the absence of the Leader or if the position of Leader is vacant.

This will be on the agenda for the next RA meeting, scheduled for 7 December 2008.