For your consideration, I present the Forest Omnibus ReESTablishment proposal - aka The FOREST amendment. Please provide any feedback you may have as soon as possible. In a couple days time, I will be formally requesting Ruinenlust’s approval to bring it to a vote, and will then do so will all speed.

If the amendment vote is successful, we will once again have full control of our region, and can then proceed with the Executive WAD in place to carry out our elections, further amendments as needed, and otherwise continue with the life Forest deserves.

The Forest Omnibus ReESTablishment Proposal (the FOREST Amendment)

Combined constitutional amendment proposals affecting Articles 4 and 7 of the Forest Constitution.

What follows is the proposed wording for amendments to articles 4 and 7 of the Constitution of Forest. These amendments serve to clarify certain details around the election process, to alter some no-longer-necessary legal requirements in the unfortunate event of a Founder CTE, and to allow the region’s healthy operation into the future.

Following the section for each article is a brief description and discussion explaining the perceived need for the change, and what the intention of the proposed new or altered text.

Proposed Text:

Article 4 – Forest Keeper Elections

4.1

Replace

“The Forest Keeper shall be elected for a 6 month term. Election season begins on March 16th and September 16th at 12:01 am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).”

With

“The Forest Keeper shall be elected for a nominal 6 month term. Election season begins as soon after March 16th and September 16th at 12:01 am GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) as the Founder is able to initiate the steps listed in this article.”

Discussion

The purpose of this alteration to Article 4 is to avoid having an interregnum in the event the election process is delayed, as we experienced in the spring 2020 election. As currently written, the term and authority of the Forest Keeper ends at 12:01 GMT on the identified date, regardless of whether or not the the election process has actually been initiated. In spring 2020, this left us for a number of weeks with no legal government in place, and a great deal of uncertainty about how to proceed. Ever since the the fall election which never occurred, we have been forced to overlook this technical language in order to have a functioning region. This minor wording change redefines the election season to begin when the Founder triggers the process, rather than just at a specific time, and so allows serving government officers to continue legally performing their jobs if there is a delay.

Article 7 – Founder Ceasing to Exist

7.1

Replace

“Should the founder cease to exist, the WA delegate has emergency authority to take on the roles generally reserved for the founder. The WA delegate shall only have those powers identified in this constitution and should he step outside of these authorities, a new WA delegate shall be informally selected by the WA nations, preferably with the Forest Keeper’s (if separate nations) recommendation. Change of the WA delegate during this emergency period shall be undertaken only if absolutely necessary.”

With

“Should the founder cease to exist, the WA delegate has emergency authority to take on the roles generally reserved for the founder. The WA delegate shall only have those powers identified in this constitution. Should the delegate overreach their authorities, the Forest Keeper (if separate from the WA delegate) or a majority of regional officers (if the WA delegate and Forest Keeper are the same) may initiate the process for replacement of the WA delegate, using the procedures outlined elsewhere in this constitution for WA delegate selection. Should a WA delegate eliminate all regional officer positions or otherwise cause the officership to go rogue, the WA nations of Forest retain final authority to replace the delegate via informal means with their endorsements. Change of the WA delegate during this emergency period shall be undertaken only if absolutely necessary.”

“In addition to the powers specified above, the WA Delegate shall have the authority to temporarily password lock the region, if it is necessary to protect the region from imminent threat. Such a lock shall exist only for the duration of such a threat, and must be removed after no more than two weeks unless extension is approved by at least 50%+1 of native resident WA nations participating in a poll lasting at least 3 days.”

7.2

Replace

“The WA delegate shall password protect Forest without distributing the password as soon as possible. Forest will then take a 3 week (21 day) waiting period. During this time plans may be made for re-founding but no active re-founding actions will be undertaken. All elections and recall elections are suspended until the founder returns or Forest is successfully re-founded. Should the founder return at any time of the re-founding process, Forest shall return to normal. If the WA delegate also cease to exist the nation with the most endorsements is the new WA delegate.”

With

“In the event that section 7.1 is in effect, the WA delegate and the Forest Keeper (if different), or the WA delegate and a minimum of three other regional officers (if the Forest Keeper and WA Delegate are the same individual) may mutually determine whether or not the refounding of Forest is worthy of consideration. If both parties are in agreement that it is worthy of consideration, the following poll shall be created: “Shall we begin preparations to refound Forest with a new Founder?” with the response options of “Yes” and “No.” The poll shall be open to all native resident WA nations of Forest, and must be open for a period of at least one week. The series of actions outlined in this section shall only be legal if the WA delegate has held that position for at least one full week.”

7.3

Replace

“The WA delegate shall work to re-found Forest. First an election will be held similar to elections in Article 4.”

With

“If the result of the poll is at least 50%+1 in favor of refounding, the WA Delegate shall place a password lock on the region for the remainder of the refounding process. Additional polls shall then be held to identify a new founding nation. These polls shall follow the same procedures as those for the election of a Forest Keeper, with the necessary language changes to reflect the position in question. The region shall then follow the steps outlined in the remaining sections of Article 7″

“If the result of the poll is not in favor of refounding as previously described, the region shall remain in operation in its present status and with its present laws. Another such poll may not be held until 3 months have passed.”

7.4 and 7.5

Unchanged

7.6

Add New Section

“Should the CTE’d Founder return to active status at any point during the Article 7 process, and indicate that they are prepared to resume their role, the Article 7 process shall be cancelled, the password removed, and regional status shall return to its previous normal condition."

Discussion

There are a number of changes to Article 7 that are necessary to address the fact that Forest is no longer a small region. These changes are critically important because the Constitution, if not amended, leaves no wiggle room - it demands that if the Founder should CTE, Forest must be destroyed and refounded. This is no longer appropriate. This set of changes is designed to provide the necessary flexibility for Forest to continue operations under the auspices of an executive delegate, while allowing for the refounding process to occur if (and only if) it is determined to be necessary. Specifically:

Section 7.1 - Changes to clarify process, provide further options before calling for informal mob rule, remove gendered language, and clarify who can execute certain powers.
Section 7.2 - Remove the requirement to immediately lock the region and commence planning for refounding. Replace with language that makes it strictly optional, and provides for a poll of our native resident WA nations in the event it should be determined necessary.
_Section 7.3 _- Further removes the requirement to refound with steps for proceeding should that option be chosen by the population. Moves the requirement to lock the region to occur if, and only if, the population does decide in favor of refounding.
Section 7.6 - A new section added to include language (moved from elsewhere) that the return of the original Founder will cancel the process, if they indicate they wish to resume their duties (a source of consternation when Devdan returned but remained silent during the founderless period 13+ years ago.