The new house/city political system is now active! See changes
in HELP RULING COUNCIL, HELP POLITICS, and new information in
HELP APPOINTMENTS, HELP RESIGN, and HELP APPOINT.

Current city leaders have been moved into the new system.
Now there are 7, not five seats on the ruling council for each
city. In most cases the extra seats have not yet been filled,
but we expect them to be, and soon.

Each house's score in HOUSE INFLUENCE (or CITY INFLUENCE <city>)
is used every second year to award appointments to that house.
The highest influence score in each city is given appointment
of seats 1 and 2 in that city. The second highest influence score
for a house is given appointment of seat 3. For all cities except
Eleusis, the third highest influence score is given appointment
of seat 4.

Then it's up to the House Leader to offer that appointment to
someone who is a citizen of that city, including himself. Then
the appointee can decide to accept or decline the appointment.

The balance of the seats are elected.

For all cities but Eleusis, that means that there are 3 elected
seats. For Eleusis, there are 4. Those seats can be contested,
resigned, etc., as they always have been.

Given that this is the beginning of this new political system,
the first re-evaluation of House Influence and resulting award
of political appointments in the cities will take place in the
year 415, right near the end, about 2 and a half years hence.

HOUSE LEADERS: try APPOINTMENTS. You'll see if you have any.
You may wish to use the APPOINT command to get your people
into office.

HOUSE MEMBERS: try APPOINTMENTS. You will see if any appoint-
ment has been offered to you, and what appointments, if any,
are available to your House.


A bit more on how it works:
Once a person has been appointed, and has accepted, that
House doesn't get to re-appoint/replace until (and if) the
House gains the appointment of that seat via influence at
the next reckoning about 2 years later. Choose your
appointees wisely!

Only citizens may be appointed. Yes, a House Leader can
appoint himself, but only if he is a citizen of that city.

At least two houses - Druids and CIJ - have no city
affiliation. They have no way to gain appointments. Their
members may be citizens, though, and could be appointed if
other Houses so choose.

RESIGNATION -
This has always been a bit awkward, so it's now better!
If you are a City Leader, you can resign just that position
as city leader, and remain as a member of the ruling council.
If you are on the ruling council, you may resign your post
on the ruling council without quitting your city.

Doubtless there will be some minor misWeaves to attend to
as we get used to this new way of doing things. We will be
vigilant in handling those quickly, as always. My ears and
eyes are especially turned in this direction and will remain
so for quite some time. Use BUG freely, and give all the
detail you can imagine to give. Exact commands. Exact
messages seen. Exact everything!

My thanks to all of you who know that this is not the
sort of BUG command that'll do any good "BUG I can't appoint
anybody. umm. excuse me. I think this is a problem. could you
fix it please? ok, thanks, bye!" Such bug filings will be
given all the attention they so richly deserve!

Penned by my hand on the 9th of Valnuary, in the year 412 AF.