"I understand the president to dislike any proposals which view the estates differently, though of course this is not decisive, given the rule on committee membership requiring that no estate be left out." He has noticed how many of the people he has influence with are nobles, even if many of them are 'elected' in the eyes of the convention.

"I agree it would be a simple and understandable matter to order topics by a vote which could be held the previous day. But this assumes multiple provisions are already hitting the floor on the same day, and we must decide which happens first, and I imagine the most useful and formidable powers of this committee will be in choosing which day a proposal is to be considered on, and which amendments will be valid for that proposal or must be separate bills. I do not yet see a mechanistic way to prevent amendments from being added to bills without it being a vote on the amendment itself, or to delay a previously submitted bill to allow it consideration against a rival proposal submitted later, which we will need to truly put racing to bed."

"I agree that the scheduling committee will have to have the authority to decide those things, and cannot imagine any mechanistic guideline - other than banning amendments without the approval of the proposer - which would remove the significance of their judgment in that matter. Which means the committee has to be made up of men who we believe are sober, have good judgment, and can decide fairly and in the service of Cheliax. 

The archdukes are the men already chosen by the Queen for those qualities."

Hmm. It really is the simplest of the solutions before them; it just has the problem that the Hellcoast is vacant, Longmarch is as good as vacant, and Ravounel is often 'indisposed'. Sirmium's taste is questionable, Menador has outsourced all judgment to the church, and Molthune might well be the church soon enough. The Heartlands seems to be wise enough, so far, if not as ready for rulership as he would like.

"I note that the responsibilities of the archdukes, and thus the trust extended them by the Queen, vary significantly. Perhaps we should weight the strength of their votes by the number of counties they represent, and only require more votes in favor than opposed?"

Around a third of Cheliax's counties are in the Heartlands; it doesn't quite give him the ability to dictate things, but Blanxart would only need one other archduke to agree with him to settle any question in the committee, if Shawil isn't present. He is currently staying at Carlota's mansion, so this is less independence than he would like, but still seems less partial than other ways they could settle it.

Carlota doesn't particularly mind that because she trusts Blanxart and would be delighted for the principle of influence based on population density to be introduced, but she's not sure it'll pass the floor. She looks around the room to see what everyone else thinks of it. "I'd be perfectly happy with that, but I wonder, would our committee trust such a framework for rules and oversight of the convention?"

He’d be a lot happier about it if Blanxart hadn’t been so cravenly dishonorable about Voshrelka.

"I don't know that her majesty necessarily had her eye on how many subjects she was handing each one but I suppose I don't know that she didn't, either, sure."

"I am wary of the idea that we can judge a man's relative trustworthiness by the number of counties in his region. Under normal circumstances, this is determined by where he comes from, not by the Queen's judgement of his character. Direct appointments by the crown happened before the war, too, but when they were rarer, I think it was clearer that they are generally not preferable to a man who was raised to the particular position he occupies. More than anything, they are a sign of instability. The regions ruled by appointment on the eve of the war were the Hellcoast and Ravounel, and they were widely considered to be disastrously ruled. Those appointed were not from the regions in question, and did not understand them.

I do not mean to malign any of the appointed Archdukes we have. I think the Queen, in contrast to her predecessors, quite wisely elevated men from the regions in question, where she could. Bainilus rules Ravounel because she is from Kintargo, Narikopolus rules Menador because he is from Kantaria, and I understand that Blanxart rules the Heartlands because he is from Egorian. If the Queen trusted one more than another, she would still see much worse results from swapping them. We may be confident that the Queen places enormous trust in them, and that we can as well. But I don't think the number of counties in the region a man was born to is itself much evidence of character, and I am not eager to introduce more ranking systems."

.....there is no way to say this without it being transparently obviously about how Menador is the smallest Archduchy, but that doesn't mean he doesn't believe it.

.........this is also really completely unrelated to safe roads? But whatever.

"It was indeed a priority in the Queen's appointments to restore people to the lands they had a claim to. I do not think I would govern some other place as well as Chelam, where I grew up, where I remember what it can be. ...we could have each duke or above make an appointment to the scheduling committee, perhaps? That has some of the same effect without introducing an explicit ranking system. And it would involve buy-in from men known to be much at odds with one another, which would perhaps make the committee more credible."

"Ahh, a scheduling committee, is it now. But it just so happens that we already have a process for appointing committee members. Promulgated by you, in fact. Why not use it?"

"This committee is going to be gigantic all the ways you've proposed to slice it. Can't we consolidate somehow, if any three people who get to nominate someone can agree on a man then that man gets three votes on the committee or something like that?"

"Of course I was not speaking of trustworthiness," which could be insulting! " but rather how much has been placed in them. I apologize if my hasty speech gave you the wrong impression."

He angles towards Carlota.

"The dukes and above making an appointment each would give us an overlarge committee. That said, it may still be worth convening." If nothing else, it'll be a useful trial of that as a legislative body.

"That seems straightforward to make provisions for," she says to Raimon. And to Séfora, "It's particularly important that this committee's membership be trusted to be responsible. If an ordinary committee doesn't reflect the larger body or make good suggestions then their suggestions will simply lose in a vote; this one exercises power that isn't voted on, and so needs to be exceptionally well-composed from the start."

So that all delegates to the Constitutional Convention may have time to fully consider proposals and consult experts before voting:

All proposals shall be posted in writing three days before a floor debate on them is scheduled, unless it is the finding of the President, of Her Majesty, or of a unanimous vote of the archdukes of Cheliax that such an advance announcement poses serious risks to the stability and security of Cheliax. No floor debate and vote shall proceed on any proposal not posted for three days unless such a finding by the President, Her Majesty, or the archdukes is presented to the floor.

All amendments to a proposal shall be posted in writing two days before a floor debate on them is schedule. No amendment to a proposal will proceed to a vote if it has not been posted in writing for two days.

Amendments to a proposal must be accepted by the committee that approved the original proposal in order to be subject to a vote on the floor.

The timing of floor debates will be announced in writing and aloud at least one day in advance of the debate beginning. Where there are multiple measures under consideration for floor debate on the same day, the timing of the debates will be set by a committee on scheduling, with the following membership proposed:

"If we can get a membership list that meets broad approval I think it'll do a great deal to stop us from carelessly rushing laws."