WSFS Business meeting take note
Mar. 30th, 2014 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dormouse1953I know there are people who find the procedures of the WSFS business meetings at Worldcons hard to follow. It could be worse. Something else I've discovered from Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire is how they did things in the old days.
In 438, the new set of Roman laws, the Codex Theodosianus, was presented to the Roman senate. As Heather points out, minutes of such meetings have not usually survived, but on this occasion the minutes were incorporated into the publication of the Codex itself and one copy of this from the 11th century still exists.
After massed acclaim for the current emperors (there were two at the time), reminiscent of the rounds of applause at meetings of the Soviet Union communist party, the assembled senators had to proclaim, "We give thanks for this regulation of Yours" - 23 times. Then "You have removed the ambiguities of the imperial constitutions." This was also repeated 23 times. "Pious emperors thus wisely plan" - 26 times. There followed nine further statements about keeping copies of these laws and the like, no statement repeated less that ten times.
In 438, the new set of Roman laws, the Codex Theodosianus, was presented to the Roman senate. As Heather points out, minutes of such meetings have not usually survived, but on this occasion the minutes were incorporated into the publication of the Codex itself and one copy of this from the 11th century still exists.
After massed acclaim for the current emperors (there were two at the time), reminiscent of the rounds of applause at meetings of the Soviet Union communist party, the assembled senators had to proclaim, "We give thanks for this regulation of Yours" - 23 times. Then "You have removed the ambiguities of the imperial constitutions." This was also repeated 23 times. "Pious emperors thus wisely plan" - 26 times. There followed nine further statements about keeping copies of these laws and the like, no statement repeated less that ten times.
