Here are my reactions to Brian's statements, probably heavily influenced by my experiences working within the government this term. Thanks again to him for the detailed and helpful posting:
1. Encourage greater community participation.
- Continue Events support, encourage private events.
Agree strongly. This term we've upped the events budget a lot -- and it appears to have produced more new citizens. Of course you need land to do that too ... but with LA we had a lot more lots to sell, than AM, and it was really the events that got the attention of many - or maybe even most - newcomers who joined us by buying new land.
2. Maintain sensible fiscal policy.
- Formal creation of a citizens fiscal oversight committee to assist Treasurer.
- Reduce loopholes in tier collection policies that negatively affect the C.D.S.
- Future Expansion should be pre-sold to a break-even point before purchasing the region.
Oversight? Brian's idea. I see it as more levels of foolish committee/commissions/politics. We need toy run like a lean volunteer org, based on transparent, wise, agreed guidelines. The people who administer our money (Sudane, me, PIO, etc) are in exactly the same position as our creative contributors (guild, builders, even planners) -- they need to be given some encouragement, some guidelines, and predictability -- and then trust. le A tree full of non-creating owls, hooting at a creator or volunteer, is the surest way to DISCOURAGE volunteer contributions -- in CDS or anywhere. I'm agin' it.
What SHOULD happen in my view is that we should have more precise laws that constrain us, get more periodic clear plans out for public review and RA comment .. and then allow our elected officials to do their jobs. Whoever they are.
Loopholes in collection? Agree strongly. I have proposed bills to the RA that do this, Some already have passed. Others (regarding stuff like non-resident-citizens-through-a-group) are in process.
Presales? As a blanket rule, not so sure. I think RA should decide whether to approve that on a case by case basis. A mindless application of that rule might, otherwise, prevent ideas like Arria's or voids, in some cases. Rose made the same point, I think.
3. Support reasonable, productive expansion.
- "Normal" regions should be pre-sold to the break-even point before region purchase.
- No Normal regions should be purchased until ratio of unsold land to total land is below 25%.
- Openspace regions, if planned, should be offset by budget surpluses, not tier increases.
As for pre-sales, see above. On the rest? I'm just plain not sure. I think we are in a disruptive and unusual market, for SL virtual land right now, during which we will have *opportunities* to do one-time great things. I doubt a formula approach is the right one.
4. Rebuild the C.D.S. image and reputation.
- Work to increase in-world and RL media coverage of major events.
- Encourage the reformation of a NGO Merchants organization to drive commercial activity. Provide some starter funding.
I hope it's obvious that we agree with the RL media point, and are starting to make some progress there, with telegenic activities now that we've cleaned up some of the backlog of administrative matters from neglect.
Merchants? Maybe. It would require a willing, involved leader, and a critical mass of native vendors. Do we have those? CDS, and especially its majority legislative party, have long seem to oppose strong moves to attract commerce... and lately the economy simply doesn't make it fruitful, either. So to me this seems like :"good idea, but lower priority",
5. Continue pushing for simple, coherent legislation and regulations.
- Encourage continuation of RA Archivist work to demote archaic and repealed legislation.
- Repeal unneccesary or archaic legislation at the R.A. level.
- Insist that any new legislation be organized in a clear, concise, and coherent manner to promote accessibility and usability.
On points one and two, agree, the current RA archivist is from our faction, and Brian himself has done great work to clear up and reorganize access to our legal code.
On point three, hmmm. I'd love to :D But many have tried, and failed, to get even professional, Tangible World legislators to write well :D
So best we can do is (a) set an example (which Brian and Beathan and Jamie, who have written a LOT of CDS law) have tried to do ... (b) encourage future rewriting work on key old laws ... and that HORRID constitution, which would certainly get a flunking grade if submitted to a undergraduate university level course in political science .... and (c) encourage the SC to be more concrete, and less mystical and subjective, in its approach to interpreting law.
Other opinions warmly encouraged.
Regards JP
== My Second Life home is CDS. Retired after three terms
== as chancellor of the oldest self-governing sims in SL.