"Archduchess, your proposal or one like it is unquestionably of the most pressing Need in the current case. However, the Majority of committees have not descended into such Acrimony as to become a Matter of Contention on the General Floor, and I would be saddened to see such a Productive and Collegial Committee as for example that on Virtuous Churches forced to bring its Minutiae to the General Floor, which is already heavily burdened with Debate. I have not enumerated the Committees now active but there are at least seven, of which but one is known to have devolved into Fractious Chaos, and it is a Useful Maxim that hard Cases make poor Law. Moreover the Chairs of my own Committees were chosen with little Strife. I would propose that in the Ordinary Course, a Committee's membership be the purview of said Committee, bringing to the Floor only those Disputes proving Intractable, yielding to such Proposal as you would make for such Intractable Cases."

"The aforesaid Remarks nonwithstanding, I would find myself on firmer Ground were there General Rules on the composition of Committees, the choosing of their Chairs, and other Procedural Matters. I merely do not wish to find an Amicable Committee operating by General Consensus unduly Burdened with Rules tailored towards the most Disagreeable. If a Committee invite a useful Member with no Opposition, need the General Floor concern itself? Therefore whatsoever may attain Unanimous Consent of a Committee, or even a Supermajority fixed at some useful Fraction considering that Amicable Disagreement is assuredly possible, should be able to dispense with such General Rules, treating them as useful Guidelines but not as Binding in the face of Collegial Consensus."

"Yes, I agree with the general thrust of your thoughts, Delegate Oriol. I think two-thirds vote by the committee ought to suffice for adding and removing members, and while the floor could override them, or replace them, as is currently being proposed, only by two-thirds vote. I've written some notes while others were speaking and can start distributing copies; I'd like to pass them by the President to ensure there aren't obvious flaws that he'd notice from experience, but I'm happy to propose them to the whole convention."

This archduchess knows how you do a Constitutional Convention correctly.

After a pause while people are either waiting for the papers to go around or bored, and in which Archmage Cotonnet makes no objections, Jilia reads the rules:

"Proposed rules for committees:

First: committees shall be at least five delegates and as many as eleven. Committees formed before this proposal are not required to shrink but may not grow beyond their current size. As agreed yesterday, the composition should reflect at least one delegate from each of the four major categories of delegate, to represent the convention properly.

Second: The committee chair may be set by a proposal which creates a committee, or by majority vote of the committee. It may be changed by majority vote of the committee. Committee chairs have the power to break tied votes and guide the procedural functioning of the committee.

Third: A committee may add or remove delegates by two-thirds vote of the committee. Additions are voluntary; delegates may refuse. Removals may not break the representation requirements; the committee must first add another delegate of the proper type before they can remove the last of that type already sitting.

Fourth: The floor of the convention may, by two-thirds vote, replace a committee with new membership of at least as many people, or add a slate of delegates to a committee, up to the maximum size. If this passes, the committee may not refuse, but if the slate is bigger than can be taken on, the chair may choose which to add. They can remove any of them the normal way, if they have the majority to do it afterward.

Fifth: A proposal to create a new committee may propose a chair, or impose special requirements on the membership. No one may propose themself as chair of a new committee. This proposal can pass by simple majority. New committees take signups on sheets like we used yesterday. Again, five to eleven members, and the representation requirements are in force. If that cannot be achieved the committee is not valid and cannot meet until it can be achieved.

Sixth: If there are too many, the volunteers should try to agree among themselves. If they cannot, and a chair has been set, the chair may select the members; if there is no chair, the President may select them, or if he declines to intervene they will be selected by lot, attempting to balance the number randomly chosen to the four main types of delegate in proportion to the number of volunteers of each type."

"These rules are not perfect and I am, thank the gods, not a lawyer, but I think they will do well enough, and if they fail in some unusual case we can still appeal to the President."

Someone who is a lawyer is broadly in favor of Rules, and will quibble in various ways like "what if the lone cleric on a committee of 11 wants to leave but can't add a replacement cleric first before leaving because this would bring the committee up to 12" or "should the limit instead be 13" or "is a supermajority 2/3, or 2/3 + 1" or another attempt to require proportional representation.

She's having fun.

And they argued about details, and some of them changed, but it largely stayed intact and got passed by a comfortable margin, because almost no one else could manage to have an opinion on rules of order either.