Stormwind Council

The Stormwind Council acts as a guiding parliament of Stormwind City. In their wisdom, the House of Nobles has considered it beneficiant to the city to include both the commoners and foreign relationships. It's lead by a chairman, whom mostly serves an office of paperwork and civilry, while holding little power of its own.

What's this council?
For those who don't know the Council, it is a minor sub community aimed at political roleplay AND guild collaberation. By discussing current events and RP as it happens in and around Stormwind City, it strives to bring unity within the RP community. It allows guilds and people to find eachother and involve eachother on a different level than an inn would, as well as being a good central source for newspapers (as we had before) to get their information.

How does it work?
Any topic may be mailed to the Chairman for discussion, which will be offered on a meeting with the three Houses. From here on, the three houses may gather and discuss, publicly, or amongst themselves. Depending on the issue it may be decided on swiftly during the meeting, or delayed for next meeting as each house works out their view on the subject. When a topic comes to a close and a suggestion or solution has been offered (if applicable), each house will have one single joint vote. As there are only 3 houses, and therefor 3 votes, there should always be a clear outcome.

What can be discussed? / How will this affect me?
Anything from WoW-lore related current issues, to suggesting new events, to wondering why the guard are so annoying. However! There is one major but to butt in: The Council holds no power over any of the guilds. We cannot and will not dictate how others must RP. Keep that in mind. Ideally though, all guild representatives will attend with the backing of their guild, and hopefully can make things interesting enough for their guilds to play along. When this happens, the atmosphere of the city can grow into that of an vibrant and eventful city. This is the intended way to affect the casual and hardcore RP'er alike: By inspiration.

And politics?
Ofcourse, next to such events, there is the political roleplay at heart of this. Don't shy away from it, as it doesn't have to be that bad, especially with the houses split up. You may expect the House of Nobles to tend to resort to political backstabbing and manipulation, this is part of the political game. While the House of Commons could resort to a form of powerplay if they can threaten to gather their guild into a revolt to counter this if it gets out of hand. In essence, the internal politics and their RP struggle of each of the 3 houses may vary, so if one doesn't suit your style, perhaps one of the others will. Either way, this incarnation of the Council is designed to be stable, by dividing into three groups, and reducing the job and power of the Chairman to a more organisational level. No matter the quarrels and backstabbing and disagreements, there shall be 3 votes and 1 decission. So as long as two houses agree, the third can bicker all they want.

House of Nobles
As the lore goes (see wowwiki on Stormwind Kingdom), the city is ruled by a House of Nobles, so the king can focus on the greater issues. These nobles come from the Stormwind Kingdom and its regions: Elwynn Forest, Northshire Valley, the Redridge Mountains, and Duskwood (no, not Westfall). These are people with titles, wealth, land, education or other resources.

House of Commons
The second house, as introduced in the 2nd Stormwind Council, is the House of Commons. These are representatives of the common people, read: Representatives of the guilds local to Stormwind and its regions. They are the working force for any of the larger scale events that may come out of the council if they wish so. This could include the local guardforce, the church, the academy, Starlight or any other interested non-criminal guild with a clear affiliation.

House of Emissaries
Thirdly, the last house is a new sight. The House of Emissaries. This house is comprised of emissaries from the other races, as well as the northern nobles. Alterac nobles, Draenei emissary, or guild representative of f.e. the Mountaineers. It is a mix of all external relations of Stormwind, who deal plenty with the city and care for its welfare.

The Chairman
The chairman plans and leads the public discussions on the meetings of houses. Keeping people informed when they'll happen, and what will be discussed, as well as keeping the debates as civil and tidy as possible. Due to being stripped of its power, this makes it less of a requirement to replace the chairman with elections, therefor ensuring more continuenity of the Council-project. The first chairman will also add a code of conduct, which gives him the power to remove disruptive house members and keep a finger on the sizes of the houses.

Proposals
Any person related to Stormwind, be it citizen, farmer or trader, is welcome to suggest a topic towards the chairman. The chairman will evaluate these to see if they're worthy to be discussed by the Council, the House of Nobles, or can be dismissed.

Meetings
The public meetings are to be held once more in the Stormwind Keep, in the chamber which is already in place for the House of Nobles. Communication about when these meetings are planned will be sent over mail to the members, as well as publicly announced.

A meeting will have the following shape:
 * Chairman mails all House members, as well giving a public announcement
 * Casual greetings until start of the meeting
 * Agenda is announced by the Chairman, based on received mails, and possibly appended with current issues
 * Reports on running events
 * Each point is discussed. If a point requires intervention or cooperation of any sort, a vote will be held
 * All related commons and emissaries will form a plan to put the vote into effect
 * Chairman will compose a summary

During meetings there's room for OOC discussion on the topics in /raid. This is important as IC views may disagree, while OOC it would be good to still generate a proposed event.

Voting
During a voting, each House will cover a side of the parliament room. Simulatinously, all members are asked to vote, by stepping over the blue line as in favor, or standing backwards as opposed. Remaining between the two blue lines will be considered neutral.

Each House has their votes counted seperately and composed into a single vote for each House. Two out of three votes are therefor needed to decide on a subject. Should in some case one of the houses stay undecided, then the House of Nobles holds a superior vote.

Vote of non-confidence
Any member of the House of Nobles is able to raise a vote of non-confidence against any other member of the Stormwind Council. This can be mentioned during a topic, but will not be dealt with till the current topic has closed.

When such a vote of non-confidence has been raised, the House of Nobles will have to vote to agree with it to cast the vote of non-confidence. Should it be cast, then the chairman is forced to deal with the objections the House of Nobles has towards the target of the vote of non-confidence. Should the chairman himself be the target, then the House of Commons has the right to decide how to deal with the vote.

Code of Conduct

 * Any form of hostilities aside of heated debate are not allowed, and will result in removal.
 * The chairman will attempt to keep debates civil and tidy. Severe and repeated disruptions by house members will lead to warnings. 3 warnings will lead to removal.
 * Criminal records or pending investigations may (temporarily) remove a house member. Current criminal actions of represented guild members may allow the House of Nobles to issue a vote of non-confidence towards the representative.
 * Escorts / entourage should have a max of 2 people and they must come unarmed. Anyone who is part of the entourage may only whisper to the representative, and should otherwise remain silent.
 * Members are expected to arrive on time. Should a member show up late, they're prohibited from discussion and voting on the current topic till the next topic opens up.

Joining
Please send an application over in-game mail to the Chairman. State which house you wish to join, and whom you'll represent. Any details on what you could contribute as representative are welcome. Once we have enough people, we'll discuss on some ooc details like whether we'll need a forum or the likes.

Meeting Summaries
none yet

History
The Stormwind Council is the 4th generation of a Stormwind / Alliance parliament.

Council of Nobles
Originally there was merely the Council of Nobles, which seated in the Stormwind Keep and was restricted to nobles-only. While the child-king was unable to govern, and the High-Lord Bolvar was mostly dealing with the scourge and soon after the Blackrock conquests as well, these nobles took care of the city's more local issues and interests. However as time progressed, they found out that their backing by the townsfolk was diminishing and resistance increased against the decrees that were made. With even the city guard being beyond the control of the nobles, all decissions eventually had to be approved by a regent afteral.

Assembly of Stormwind
In their wisdom, the Council of Nobles had decided that input was required from the common people to prevent these resistances. Thus was created: The Commons, a second chamber to the parliament. Along with this came the power to more directly influence the guard forces of the city, as they too began to take a seating in the parliament for direct negotiations. The Nobles and Commons were lead by a High Chancellor, an electorate position of power bringing a third vote to the bicameral system. This system functioned until the Chancellor's position became a point of dispute. Granting such power as well as the administrative responsibility of planning and leadership to a quickly changing seat for a single individual. Interest in the chair quickly diminished and the Assembly ceased to function.

Alliance Council
In an attempt to govern cooperation on a grander level, the Alliance Council was formed. Many of the Commons and Nobles, as well as Emissaries of the Alliance, formed together in a single-chamber parliament. A simple single voting of all present members, aside of the powerless Chairman, was to deal with issues of the entire Alliance. However, the focus mostly turned to Stormwind, where their power was limited by the uprising child-king, as well as inside rivalry. The chairman still was an electorate position, with the same results as the Assembly of Stormwind's Chancellor.

Stormwind Council
The newest and current Council, attempting to combine the best of the Assembly of Stormwind and the Alliance Council by offering a tri-cameral system with a fixed chairman, and the proper legisletive powers over Stormwind.