Sonnel

These are the positions in the regional government, listed in order of importance/power:

• FOUNDER: Founder of the region, generally most important in governmental matters, and as Founders do, has non-negotiable power over the region.

• PRIME DELEGATE: Position held by the current WA Delegate. The Delegate has the most power second to the Founder, and also represents the region in the World Assembly, as per the standard.

• BETA DELEGATE: Elected position. The Beta Delegate has all the power that the Founder and Prime Delegate do, but they do not hold Executive power and they do not matter in the WA, at least not as much as the Delegate.

• EXTERNAL OFFICER: Elected position. The External Officer has power over Border Control and Embassies, and will assist the Founder and Delegates in representing and protecting the region to and from outside entities.

• INTERNAL OFFICER: Elected position. The Internal Officer has control over Appearance and Communication, and so will assist the Founder and Delegates in keeping the region in control on the inside, pertaining to the RMB and other such functions.

Here are the Term Lengths and Restrictions of each position:

• FOUNDER: The Founder is in ultimate control of the region for the most part, and thus cannot be removed from power. Not only is this logical, but it's enforced due to the fact that NationStates does not have any function to remove a Founder and likely never will. Therefore, the term is unlimited and unrestricted for the Founder.

• DELEGATES & OFFICERS: The 2 Delegates and the 2 Officers originally had terms of 3 months, but knowing us we'll probably forget about it and stretch them. Once the government is rebooted we may decide on an official term length again. There is no limit on the amount of terms that can be fulfilled, if a candidate consistently wins elections from the people then there is no point limiting that as such. Unlike previous times, the Beta Delegate is elected like any other position and IS NOT appointed by the newly elected delegate.

A full listing of Sonnelian Political Parties will be written into a dispatch once parties are refounded.

Roles and Procedures for political parties

• To form a valid political party, a nation needs to create a list of platforms, have a cool name, and more than 1 member. It's highly suggested a "home dispatch" of sorts is created for the party so more in-depth information can be obtained by interested nations.

• Political Parties are used for elections. Each party can submit one (1) nation from its party per office. If a nation loses an election for one office, it can run for another. Parties are not required to send a nation to run for office if they do not wish it so.

• Who is submitted to run for office is entirely at the discretion of the party. It could be the sole decision of the Party Founder, or it could be a democratically reached decision. What matters is that the choice is sent to Drawkland before the election.

• If a party runs out of members (all its members leave for other parties or CTE), it is officially dissolved, but can be revived if at least 2 nations wish to revive and rejoin the party.

• Political parties' members who reach office are expected to follow through on the platforms their party stands for, or else they may be suggested to change parties, platforms, or to resign. There's no point in being in a party if you don't follow through with it. This is more of a suggestion and something that should be policed by the party's members.

• Internal organization of members and candidates within a party is entirely up to what the party wants. It could be a founder-dictated party which is essentially a single nation or two running for office with support from cronies, or it could be a democratic council which votes on all of its charter, members, and candidates.

• Nations in a party aren't required to vote for their party's candidate (they should), but that's more of an internal thing, something that the party's members agree on. Elseways, there's no purpose in the party existing.

• Parties can converse however they please, via group message, Discord, group telegram, individual contact run by leader, private forum thread, or any other medium they please. If the demand arises, party-specific channels may be created on the Sonnel Discord server.

Procedures for Nations interested in political parties

• Nations are not required to join a political party, if so, they'll be registered as independent. Any nation which votes in an election and hasn't joined a political party yet will be assigned Independent.

• After the first membership poll, Nations will have to join a political party by confirming their choice with both the party's leader and Drawkland or the current Prime Delegate. The party leader, once confirming the new recruit, should telegram whoever the recruit telegrammed to confirm the joining. A new nation will not be confirmed in a party if Drawkland or the delegate do not receive confirmation from both the party leader and the new recruit.

• Nations are strongly encouraged to contribute to their parties and become influential within them. Dead weight or useless lurkers are no fun.

Elections occur in this manner:

• Elections, as stated before, occur every 3ish months to create approximately 3ish-month terms.

• Once the Founder (Drawkland) states that it's time for elections, parties may submit candidates for voting. Once all parties have been accounted for (confirmed candidate or no candidate), or it's been a week since submissions opened, the polls will be conducted.

• The elections go in power-first order, therefore position elections are held in this way:
  Prime Delegate
  Beta Delegate
  External Officer
  Internal Officer

• Once the Prime Delegate is elected, it's highly mandatory that all WA members in the region Endorse the said nation so their position will be confirmed. Punishment is that a member's vote in regional elections will not be counted. Endorsement of the Beta Delegate is loose and not required.

• If an election results in a tie, another poll will be held with only the tying nations involved in the vote. If this results in a tie, then the tie will be broken by the favor of the Founder.

This describes how the government is run and proceeds:

• All the members of the Sonnel Regional Government, the Founder, Delegates, and Officers, will be in contact via Discord or some medium, where they will discuss issues, amendments, and whatever else concerning the region.

• Any member of the region can suggest rule additions, removals, or amendments, provided they have a government sponsor who can introduce the bill to the other members of government and make their suggestion in the following format:
  

  Addendum

  1. The title should read Resolution to [insert goal here] followed by a empty line
  2. The following three lines should be that of the Author:[insert author here] the Government Sponsors:[insert government sponsors], and an empty line
  3. Next there is traditionally a preamble which is a number of short sentences addressing why the author decided to write it. It should be formatted as sentences that start with a verb, ends in a comma, and are separated by empty lines.
  4. Lastly the author may continue onto their suggestion, traditionally simply by saying "Requests Changes to [item wishing to be changed] to read [what to change it to]"

  This format was required in the old regional government but it may change. The regional officers will vote on a resolution once it is submitted.

• In a vote, the Founder's vote counts as 2, the Prime Delegate's as 2, and the Beta Delegate/External Officer/Internal Officer have 1 vote each. This way, if the Founder and Delegate disagree, the tie is broken by the other officers, and if the Founder/Delegate are on one side versus the other 3 members, the F/D side will prevail (since their views are more important and valuable, as they are higher members of the council, so to speak). This totals to 7 votes, and cannot end in a tie unless a nation abstains.

• Amendments, removals, or additions to the Ruling Charter are all fair game from any officer or delegate.

1. POSITIONS OF POWER

   1. There are five positions in the Sonnel Regional Government, The Founder, Prime Delegate, Beta Delegate, External Officer, and Internal Officer.

   2. Each position of power has its own set of control over the region:

      1. Founder: Executive, Appearance, Border Control, Embassies, Communication, Polls.

      2. Prime Delegate: WA Ambassador, Appearance, Border Control, Embassies, Communication, Polls.

      3. Beta Delegate: Appearance, Border Control, Embassies, Communication, Polls.

      4. External Officer: Border Control, Embassies, Polls.

      5. Internal Officer: Appearance, Communications, Polls.

   3. Each position power has the following term limits:

      1. Founder: None, unlimited term.

      2. Delegates and Officers: 3ish-month terms, punctuated with elections for next term. There is no limit on the amount of terms a nation can hold, as long as they're elected by fair vote.

2. CHANGING THE CHARTER

   1. The members of the Regional Government will communicate via some sort of platform (likely Discord), whichever is most convenient for all members involved.

   2. Any member of the Government can suggest rule additions, removals, or amends (Marked As such, As such, and As Such).

   3. After discussion on suggestions, the members of the regional government will hold a quick and semi-informal vote.

      1. The Founder and Prime Delegate's vote count as 2.

      2. The Beta Delegate, External Officer, and Internal Officer's votes count as 1 each.

      3. There must, therefore, be a total of 7 votes.

   4. If and when a new policy is passed, it will be added/changed on this charter by the Founder, using the aforementioned syntax.

   5. Policy that doesn't directly affect this charter is also treated in a similar manner.

   6. Any changes or additions in policy will either be performed by the Founder or the Government Member that proposed it.

3. USAGE OF POWERS

   1. If usage of a nation's regional power is permitted in the rules and does not affect the region in a huge way, a regional officer can use the power at their discretion.

   2. More major actions should be consulted with Founder first. The exception to this is times in which the region is in danger, for example, in the time of a raid.

   3. The following powers can be used without consultation or discussion:

      1. Appearance: Minor modifications to World Factbook Entry, or Dispatches.

      2. Border Control: Eject or Ban extremely troublesome nations.

      3. Embassies: Propose new embassies.

      4. Communications: Send relevant region-wide telegrams, control recruit settings, suppress/unsuppress valid messages.

      5. Polls: Open non-election or non-region official polls which don't last too long.

   4. The following powers can be used after consultation with Founder and approval:

      1. Appearance: Change Tags, change flag, major World Factbook Entry revamps.

      2. Border Control: set regional password, eject/ban non-universally hated nations.

      3. Embassies: Accept or close embassies, or change embassy posting settings.

      4. Communications: change the Welcome Telegram.

      5. Polls: Run official polls or create long polls.

   5. In the case where a Delegate wishes to perform a consulting action, they must consult the Founder first.

   6. The Founder or Delegate may remove or undo any changes done without approval that should've had consultation.

   7. Excessive use of power in a way that is annoying, overt, or unnecessary can result in loss of that power for the affliated officer for the rest of that term.

4. POLITICAL PARTIES

   1. Political Parties may be formed by any region member.

   2. To be officially recognized, a party must have at least 2 members or more.

   3. Political parties' main purpose is to have groups of residents convene on topics and send candidates to elections.

   4. It's highly suggested, but not mandatory, that nations vote for their party's candidate.

   5. It's highly suggested, but not mandatory, that nations join political parties in the first place.

      1. To join a political party, a nation must submit a request to a party's leader.

      2. If the party head confirms the acceptance of the nation into the party, they must send a confirmation telegram to the Founder, and the nation that joined must also send one, so that both parties confirm.

      3. Discord messages can be used in lieu of telegrams.

   6. When election time rolls around, political parties should convene and send candidates to the Founder, so that the candidates may be present in the election polls.

   7. A party can only send one candidate per office.

5. OTHER PLATFORMS & RULES

   1. "The 7 Commandments" is the official rule set for general conduct on Sonnel. Here are these rules (which can be found in more detail elsewhere):

      1. Obey Authority, especially that of the Founder and Prime Delegate.

      2. Do not complain about rules, rule enforcement, or events.

      3. No excessive arguing, especially on the RMB.

      4. Keep conversations relatively relevant and drama-less.

      5. No excessive talk of real-life politics.

      6. Do not refer to Drawkland as "Drawkie."

      7. Participate in at least some way in the region.

   2. Event facilitation shall commence in this manner:

      1. Discord is the main area for chatter not really involving NationStates, or involving things in NationStates which don't need to be on the RMB.

      2. Regional Government will be operated via private Discord channels.

      3. Sonnelian events, such as RPs and Sporting Events, should be held on the NationStates Forums.

      4. The offsite forum for Sonnel is defunct and will no longer be used in operation.

   3. These rules and procedures can be edited like any other mandates in this charter.