Senatus consultum on the creation of standing senate committees (Nova Roma)

SENATUS CONSULTUM ON THE CREATION OF STANDING SENATE COMMITTEES

I. The following standing Senate committees are forthwith abolished:

A. The Senate Committee on Rules

B. The Senate Committee on Incorporation

C. The Senate Budget and Finance Committee

D. The Senate Scholarship Committee

E. The Senate Conventus and Public Events Committee

F. The Senate Committee on Provincial affairs

G. The Senate External Relations Committee

H. The Information Technology Committee

II. The following standing Senate committees are forthwith established:

A. The Senate Finance Committee (SFC)

B. The Senate Communications Committee (SCC)

C. The Senate Public Enterprise Committee (SPEC)

D. The Senate Civic Education Committee (SCEC)

E. The Senate Policy Committee (SPC)

III. The mandate and scope of the committees at II.A to II E inclusive shall be as follows:

A. Senate Finance Committee:

1. To act in an advisory role to the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Nova Roma in respect of the functions of the CFO as per sections 7 to 10 inclusive of the Senatus consultum on the position of CFO, passed in January 2765 A.U.C. Such advice shall be non-binding upon the CFO.

2. To review all areas and/or processes of financial planning, the collection and disbursement of monies, the handling of any monetary investments, held in the name of Nova Roma Inc., and any other matter of finance and to make recommendations on any such matters that it sees fit to do so, to the CFO.

3. To make recommendations to the CFO for fundraising activities and/or projects.

B. Senate Communications Committee:

1. The delivery of consistent messaging both internally within Nova Roma, and externally. Such messaging shall only reflect the policies and goals of the Senate as defined within Senatus consulta or the work of the SFC, SPED, SCEC and SPC.

2. To seek new ways to publicize Nova Roma externally by means of articles, postings and communications on other electronic message boards and to maintain messaging to any such existing means of communications that Nova Roma utilizes and/or is featured in.

3. To prepare and deliver such content as the committee sees appropriate to do so that assists in the performance of its duties at III.B.1 and III.B.2.

4. To make recommendations to the Senate on the advisability and benefits, or otherwise, of any contact with a reconstruction, reenactment or otherwise ancient Roman themed group with a similar and/or compatible mandate and goals to Nova Roma. Such recommendations to the Senate shall include the presentation in the form of a draft Senatus consultum of any memorandum of understandings with such groups, as the committee considers appropriate and beneficial to Nova Roma.

C. Senate Public Enterprise Committee:

1. Oversight over any official Nova Roman project or undertaking, as established by lex, Senatus consultum or edictum.

2. To assist citizens in the creation, and management of projects, either proposed or actual, that it considers worthwhile and beneficial to Nova Roma, by means of promoting networking opportunities internally within Nova Roma, and externally, for the organizer(s) of such a project.

3. To identify ideas and projects suggested by citizens, or developed by the committee, that it finds worthwhile and beneficial to Nova Roma and to make recommendations to the Senate that any such idea or proposed or actual project that it considers worthwhile, should be adopted by Nova Roma as an official project.

D. Senate Civic Education Committee:

1. The establishment and/or oversight of programs, either self-study or delivered, that offer educational or informative content concerning the Rome, in all its aspects, from the founding of the City of Rome in 753 BCE to the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate in 394 CE.

2. The establishment and/or oversight of programs, either self-study or delivered, that offer informative content concerning Nova Roma.

3. Such programs may be offered internally to Nova Roman citizens, or externally.

E. Senate Policy Committee:

1. The research and development of strategic plans for the advancement of any goal and objective of Nova Roma, as described in the Constitution, or in any lex or Senatus consultum, or as determined by the committee.

2. The selection of items of policy to be included in any Senatus consultum that provides direction to the consuls in pursuit of maintaining any strategic plan or setting goals for their term of office.

3. Oversight of any plans that are created and/or recommended by the SFC, SCC, SPEC and SCEC in order to ensure that such plans do not conflict with the work of another committee.

4. To provide such direction to the SFC, SCC, SPEC and SCEC as is necessary to ensure that conflicts between the mandate and scope of those committees and its own scope and mandate is minimized or prevented. Those other committees must comply with such directions issued by the SPC.

5. To act as, and assume the mandate and scope of, any committee where the membership of that committee is zero.

IV. Recommendations made by a committee shall be by means of posting to the Senate list.

V. Each committee shall present an annual report on its work to the Senate, by means of posting it to the Senate list after January 1st and by no later than February 1st of the year following that year which the report speaks to.

VI. The consuls must include any such recommendation at section IV, or annual report at V, in the next formal meeting of the Senate in session following the posting of such to the Senate list. The chairperson of the committee posting such a recommendation or report shall supply to the presiding magistrate of such a session, the text for any proposed Senatus consultum that the committee wishes to be put to the vote, based on such recommendations or annual report. The presiding magistrate must include such a proposed Senatus consultum on the Agenda and must put such a Senatus consultum, unaltered in any way, to the vote.

VII. The definitions provided at section I DEFINITIONS of the Senatus consultum de ratione senatus MMDCCLXV shall be applicable to deriving meaning of a word or phrase included in this Senatus consultum that also appears in that list of definitions.

VIII. If an issue of interpretation of this Senatus consultum, on any matter pertaining to this Senatus consultum, arises then the opinion of the majority of the SPC shall determine the issue.

IX. Upon enactment of this Senatus Consultum the senior consul Gnaeus Iulius Caesar shall:

A. Poll voting members of the Senate for their preferences as to which committee they wish to be assigned to. Voting members shall indicate which committees they wish to serve on and rank them in an order of preference.

B. Select such members for each committee, where the maximum number of committee that each voting member of the Senate shall be allocated to shall not exceed 3. The maximum number of members of any committee shall be calculated by the formula ((X ÷ 5) × 3 = Y), where X is equal to the number of voting members of the Senate and where Y is rounded up to the next whole number. That result shall be the maximum membership number for each committee. Voting members will be allocated between the committees using their preferences as a guide. The complete list of appointments to the committees shall then be posted to the Senate list.

C. Appoint a chairperson. The chairperson of each committee shall determine the internal rules under which it operates.

D. Create a separate Yahoo! Group list for each committee and invite its selected members to that list.

X. Each member of a committee shall serve a term of five years, commencing on their date of appointment and at the expiry of that period shall be automatically prorogued for another five-year term unless he/she posts to the Senate list prior to the anniversary of his/her appointment a notice of resignation from that committee.

XI. A member of a committee may be removed from membership of that committee only by majority vote of the other members of that committee and only with the consent of the princeps senatus.

XII. Such removal at XI shall only be permitted and lawful when such a member has failed to participate in any discussions by way of a minimum of one post to the committee Group list within any period of 90 days, unless the committee has received prior notice of a period of absence that covers that 90 days or more. Such notice of forthcoming absence must be posted to the Group list of the committee.

XIII. A person who becomes a voting member of the Senate after the posting of initial membership at IX.B must within seven days of his/her joining the Senate list be asked to supply their preferences for committee membership, using the same process at IX.A. This shall be the responsibility of the chairperson of the SPC, who shall follow the process at IX.B in order to allocate committee membership to that new voting member of the Senate.

XIV. It shall be the responsibility of the chairperson of each of the committees the voting member of the Senate is a member of to send him/her an invitation to their committee’s Group list.

XV. A member of a committee may every year, between January 1st and January 7th, request the chairperson of the SPC to allocate them to a new committee of their choice, if that committee has not already reached its maximum membership number.

XVI. The chairperson of the SPC shall, before any allocation at XV, first allocate any voting member of the Senate who is not yet a member of any committee to any committees of their choice, if such committees have not already reached their maximum membership number, using the process at IX.A and IX.B. If after this process the committee of choice for the committee member at XV has reached its maximum membership number, then that request at XV shall be denied.

XVII. At the expiration of the term at X of a member of a committee who is also a chairperson, that committee may, should he/she be prorogued for a further term at X, either confirm him/her in that role, or elect a new chairperson by simple majority.

XVIII. The owners of the committee group lists shall be the current committee chairperson and the princeps senatus. The owners of the group lists of the abolished committees shall be the censors and the princeps senatus. These shall be maintained for archival purposes and any voting member of the Senate wishing access to any such list shall be added as a member.

XIX. In the event of a failure of the consuls to execute the requirements placed on them by this Senatus consultum, then that failure shall be deemed to be contempt of the Senate and shall be dealt with according to the process at section IX of the SENATUS CONSULTUM DE RATIONE SENATUS MMDCCLXV

XX. Upon enactment of this Senatus consultum:

A. The only lawful method of subsequently superseding, amending or repealing this Senatus consultum must be by way of a Senatus consultum that must achieve an extraordinary majority before it can be enacted. Any other method or attempt shall be illegal and forbidden.

B. No other Senatus consultum shall be enacted where the proposed content of which conflicts, negates, overrides, limits or otherwise affects in a negative manner the contents and/or purposes of all or any part of this Senatus consultum, whether directly or indirectly other than by the method at specified at XX.A of this Senatus consultum.