Towards a More Perfect Union –
Towards a More Perfect Union
The case for a Virtual Bicameral Assembly
by Rob Boudrie L1571, September 1999
The IPSC world body currently consists of over 60 regions (generally
nations, but in some cases a distinct political sub division of a
nation such as Hong Kong). Each of these nations casts a single vote
in the general assembly.
The current voting system does an excellent job of assuring that
the General Assembly (GA or Assembly) actions reflect a plurality of a
multi-national constituency, however, it concurrently creates a
situation in which members of large regions are under represented in
the Assembly. It is very possible that that an Assembly vote
receiving a majority vote of regional directors could, in fact,
represents the views and desires of a minority of IPSC
members1.
The United States faced a similar problem when their constitution
was drafted. The solution was to create a bicameral legislature with
separate bodies - the Senate, in which each state receives two seats,
and the House of Representatives in which each state is represented in
proportion to its population. Legislation must be ratified by both the
house and senate before being enacted into law.
It is obviously impractical, at both a logistical and financial
level, for the IPSC General Assembly to be bifurcated into separate
legislative chambers.
We can, however, receive the benefits of such a system by use of
a "Virtual Bicameral Assembly" (VBA). The goals of
such assembly are as follows:
- The multi-national flavor of IPSC would be preserved. In order for
a motion to pass, it would require approval of a majority of
regions.
- Any motions passed by the GA would also require a support of the
majority of competitors, as represented by their area
director.
Now, for the specifics on how it would work:
- The composition of the GA would remain unchanged. Each region
would continue to send one Regional Director to the Assembly.
- Each matter before the GA would be subject to a single vote of the
Regional Directors, however, that vote would be tallied in two
different manners:
- "Tally A" would be a simple count – one vote per
RD.
- "Tally B" would be a weighted vote – each RD would
get one vote per member in their region. Fortunately, spreadsheet
software and laptops makes such a calculation trivial.
- In order for a motion to pass, it would require a majority of both
"Tally A" and "Tally B". This would assure that
each motion passed had wide support across the different
regions, as well as broad based individual member
support. Requiring a majority of "Tally B" would
eliminate the possibility that many small regions could use their
dis-proportionally large (on a per-capita basis) vote to pass a motion
most individual members oppose, while "Tally A" would
prevent a few large regions from dominating the smaller ones.
In order for this to work, we will obviously need to formalize our
membership reporting requirements. Each region should report its
total membership as of the date regional dues are assessed. It would
also be appropriate to consider removal of the minimum and maximum
per-member dues, and utilizing a flat-rate per-member amount to
calculate regional dues.
In order for the World Body to function effectively, it must have
the full support and confidence of not only the individual Regional
Directors, but also of the individual member within the
regions. Implementing a Virtual Bicameral Assembly is a vehicle which
will instill confidence in members who are currently under-represented,
while preserving the multi-national character of
IPSC.
| 1 |
IPSC constitution 5.1: "IPSC shall not accept individual
memberships, but individuals who are members of an IPSC-affiliated
body or members of the Executive Council are deemed to be members of
IPSC." It is therefore appropriate to refer to individual members of
the Regional Organizations as "IPSC Members".
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