by Aldus Marius on Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:06 pm
Salvete omnes...
As advertised, I'd envisioned doing a lot of basic Webwork; I can also help (maybe a lot) with the non-interactive side of the Censorial function.
I suppose we could call it the "Officers' Tent"; then I'd have an excuse to write everything ex papilionem! (Unless Pisci doesn't want me to, in which case I nominate "Officers' Open Mess".)
But seriously...I do miss the Consul-Censor-Aedile titles, simply because they had more color and they already indicated a division of labor; and whatever our confusions on the Rectorial side of the house, everybody knew what these three officers were supposed to do. Why reinvent the wheel...?
And I have to question the mandate any of us newly-electeds can claim when only nine people voted.
I said this in Concilium; it's a matter of public record: I did not and do not see the point in giving all the real decisions to the Comitia if said body is going to remain as passive as it has been to date. That's like boarding your pet with someone who knows nothing about animals and doesn't like them much. Even when the Societas was first formed, I (in my only stint as a Senator) questioned hard the need for a Senate and a legislative body in what I saw as essentially an educational institution. I later saw how such bodies might actually fit in that framework; I wrote on the Concilium about it.
But that's not the direction we went; someone(s) got breathless about "openness and democracy" at the expense of real-world functionality, and here we are. At the mercy of people who see this as merely a Web site with attached chatroom and bulletin-board, and probably wonder (like I did at first) why we even need a government, or any form of administration that involves anybody besides the administrators. These unwilling participants are to decide everything from who occupies what positions to (even) what those positions are to be called. We're going to ask them to elect Rectors, ratify or reject the current Collegia setup, vote on appointments and resignations and appeals, second-guess everything any one of us does...
And we couldn't get them into the sheep-pens twice a year before. I'd lay bets that everyone who did vote this time was a member of the Concilium! (And we didn't get all of them...)
Yes, this is why I voted Abstineo on the new Regula in Concilium, and Antiquo (Nego) in Comitia. Sodales at large, I don't trust you people. It would absolutely make my year if you were to prove me wrong.
In fide,
Aldus Marius Peregrinus.