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Hello again, tonight I bring you the first report from a Congress meeting on IRC. This meeting lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes and I've condensed it down into a report, so all can see what we discussed!

We discussed these topics:

1. Congressional Communication
2. The PTO threat
3. Foreign Affairs and Defence
4. Finance
5. Home Affairs.

The Congressmen present were: Adrastos,Ayame Crocodile, Lonqu, Mario RIO Smerc, mwcerberus, Rob the Bruce, Robin Redcap, Sir Rex, Kravenn, Goku Jones, Pitcity, Sven Goran, Hotfuz, CottonPicken and Thomas765.

The way I've laid this out is that occasionally there are direct quotes from Congressmen making a useful point, and I have also added information to show the general flow of the debate. Hope you find it interesting, feedback on the layout appreciated o7



Acroc: We need better communication between the CP and Congress.

Rob the Bruce: Not sure we need to hide congressional discussion.. does it need to be private? Reddit could lead to players joining the game

Sven suggests the idea of an article based congress, accessible to the public and easy to see, Ingame. Speaker would publish an article on a particular issue, debate in the comments. Not use for sensitive discussion, but for public discussion. Public interjection and chaos in these debates an issue.

Could use articles for big public debates, but not for day-to-day. There is an issue with public not seeing congress debate if on forums

Sven: "many of the public just won't use forums, even if u paid them"

lonqu: the speaker should write articles weekly detailing what the congress has been discussing the previous week

Sven: we shouldn’t jump the gun and think "who's forum shall we use?" when there may be alternatives to what could be a divisive approach

Me: if congressmen aren't willing to discuss things they probably shouldn't be congressmen

lonqu: if there were more things to discuss then i'm sure congress would communicate more, in the last few months, i have seen a poor government-congress communication.

ACroc: we need greater governmental comms. as well as amongst congress

Goku: a private reddit for just congress, the posts there are not in time order so flamewars will be downvoted and end up at the bottom of the discussion. The good posts on topic will be at the top. It isnt linked to forums so there can never be any ban issues. I'd say atm the eUK forums have 0 issues, they could always pop up later if it gets more active

Lonqu: to make better use of the forums, there should be links to forums discussions in the ingame pms

A straw poll was taken, and the majority were in favour of moving to the eUK Forums for debate.




Hotfuz – Close borders.

However, unenforceable many point out.

ACroc said that we could draw up guidelines for Congressmen on immigration

Any agreement impossible without PP agreement – Sven

Name and shame congressmen who let in irresponsibly

Acroc: Speaker should publicly announce those who ignored guidelines at the end of Congress term

There was some general anger towards New Era for their perceived involvement in the PTO threat.

Sven: no, not all New Era support Hollen/Don's approach.

Acroc: Totally agree Sven, Clearly only a couple do... sadly they're the most vocal and entrenched NE members

RobinRedcap: Would it be worth making a guide for first time congress members? Just a quick one that mentions what to do regarding CS passes, rogue proposals etc.?

Lonqu: we all seem to agree the current system doesnt work

Sven: yes guidelines should be pm'd but the wording should be jointly agreed by congress. indeed, other party's may have an even more stringent internal policy re cit apps which would be above and beyond what any guidelines would require

Acroc: Opinions shouldn't be legislated against. Just acting without thought

Lonqu: it should also fall on the PP's, when they choose who to put in for congress, they make sure they understand the guidelines

Thomas765: but it should be up to congress to elect a speaker who would be willing to inform congress.

Speakers Note: The General Consensus was to create guidelines for CS, I will talk to PPs on the issue.



Discussion about the wars in Norway and against Moldova. There was some anger about the lack of information being given to congress about the wars.

Acroc: we need to be given information about the long term strategy

It was proposed that USA might be able to help us out with Moldova?

Then the question was asked 'have the Gov been communicating with the USA?'

Lonqu:I would like confirmation from the goverment as to communication with USA

There was lots of agreement with Lonqu on this point

ACroc: Info as to whether LT will continue their never ending war with Sweden and keep them distracted would be nice too

Speakers Note: I will be following up the Congressmen's request for information with the CP and relevant ministers





I raised the idea of getting an Org for Congress, this was met with general positivity

Congress to take a more active role regarding the money in the Country accounts,come up with own ideas for spending without waiting for the CP.

Lots of ideas for spending were suggested,such as Combat Orders, Company upgrade loans.

ACroc: Gov always has horded too much and been too scared of investment

Speakers Note:I have already spoken briefly to the current CP about getting an org (or two) for Congress to use, and I have ticketed the admins to see if they will recognise an org as being a 'Congress' org. We shall see





Suggested that Congress could take the lead on HA

Goku: Opening an article linked to each debate [As was discussed in the Communication section] is really going to do wonders for HA

Acroc: Needs moar MoHA staff

Goku: you need ACTIVE people with a few ideas on how to recruit and inform newbies, and also inform the rest of us via articles etc

ACroc: Answer should be make it as easy as possible for people to publish things as MoHA

We had a lot of discussion about potentially having Congress select people to to go into ministries, there was general approval of this idea

SirRex: Congress decide who are deputies means they have more power, in all ministries. More democratic, ministries a joint effort between Congress and CP.



That is the end of the report from this meeting. The next meeting will take place this Sunday at 7pm.

Thanks for coming guys, it was good fun o7

Adrastos
Speaker