Council of Co-Leaders

The **Council of Co-Leaders** (COCL) is the main governing body of The Republic. A deciding vote in Council of Co-Leaders holds the most power in the clan. Together the Co-Leaders make the decisions that run the clan.

## History

### Creation

In the earliest talks of creating The Republic between the founding fathers, all four were in agreement that the Leader position held too much power within any given clan. They agreed that the Leader should be stripped of all power other than the ability to uphold a written constitution . The powers that any normal Clash of Clans Leader would hold would be given to a council of elected officials to safeguard against tyranny. The office of Co-Leader was decided to bestow this power upon and the Council of Co-Leaders was created. In its infancy the COCL was seen being two to five people all sharing the power of Leader. Their job would be to use this power to make the clan the best it could be.

### First Council

Upon The Republic's creation on January 1, 2020, the founding fathers made a unanimous decision that Captain Magma  and Joe would be the inaugural members of the Council of Co-Leaders. Captain Magma took a leading role in operations such as declaring the first wars, player recruitment, and running elections. In this earliest form of the council there was no debates or disagreements between the two members.

By February 8, 2020, the clan had grown to thirty members and an election was held to decide the third member of the council. Nate won in a landslide victory and would be named to the council the following day. With Nate added to the council things remained the same, with Magma handling most of the council’s tasks. On March 2, 2020, Nate called for the kicking of SusanCZE on the grounds of inactivity. This would be the first person kicked by the COCL. Nate also suggested a future plan “to trim some fat off”, but whatever he had in mind would not be seen through to fruition.

By March 25, 2020, the clan had grown to forty members and another election was called to vote in a fourth member of the council. The election would be the closest in clan history between mikeRob22 and James . After the first day of voting it was a dead tie. Nate would suggest adding another 24 hours to the vote and Captain Magma, acting as Election Chairman, would agree. mikeRob22 would win and be named to the council on March 27, 2020. With now four members on the COCL, things still remained mostly the same, with no sweeping motions being introduced. Captain Magma continued his main role of handling most of the council’s workings, with the occasional vote coming up to kick a member for inactivity. The month of May 2020, in particular was one of low activity for the clan and therefor the council. On June 6, 2020 the COCL planned out the first set of midterm elections to be held later that month.

### Second Council

Due to The Constitution stipulating that Co-Leaders must be elected and placed into office on July 2nd of every year, a plan was put forth that the first COCL served half of a full term. The second form of the council would take office on July 2, 2020. Captain Magma and mikeRob22 had been reelected to a second term with ease. Surprising many Nate opted out of running for Co-Leader for a second term and instead was elected a second time to the Council of Elders (COE). Joe saw a loss of support at the polls and would not be reelected to a second term. Taking their place would be Chris and Jake The Snake (jq22jq), who had both previously served on the Council of Elders.

On his first day in office Chris motioned for his plan to purge the clan of inactive members. Jake The Snake and Captain Magma were in agreement. The movement he had dubbed “The Great Cleansing ” was the first major act by the COCL, since its creation. Twenty members were kicked for inactivity in the span of two weeks. The weeks of The Cleansing were some of the most active weeks on the clan in months. Many new members joined during and following the process. The Cleansing would lead to debate about having inactive members on the Council of Elders and what should be done with them and eventually debate about powers between the COCL and the COE. Around this time Chris would create the clan discord for further debates and more organized chat.

The debate among the councils would lead to the proposal and ratification of theFirst Amendment to The Constitution. The amendment was passed by the COCL on July 7, 2020 and passed in the COE on July 12, 2020. Proposed by Captain Magma, the First Amendment laid out abstention rules when voting in both councils and clan wide votes. After the ratification of the amendment debate turned back to the inactive Elders and on July 21, 2020, the demotion of billinidaho and D2AK3 passed both councils, but not without compromise.

The second form of the COCL was very active in its early days. As time went on things settled down. Captain Magma continued to handle most of the elections. Jake The Snake began staring many of the clan’s wars. His decisions on who to put in the war would become questioned more and more. On August 11, 2020, Nate left the clan upon disagreeing with certain Co-Leaders about whether or not he should remain in the war lineup directly after upgrading his Town Hall. On August 29, 2020, mikeRob22 would leave The Republic to join Nate’s separatist clan dubbed “True Republic”. This would leave an empty seat on the Council of Co-Leaders which would be filled by a founding father, James, who was a long-time member of the Council of Elders. James won the seat in an election on September 1, 2020, over name.loading and King Arthur .

The beginning of 2021 would bring a long stretch of inactivity. At the start of May, the council would agree that the month would need to be the most active in a while. The Co-Leaders felt that the issue of inactive members being elected to the Council of Elders the year prior needed to be avoided in 2021's midterm elections. New members would be welcomed to the clan as well as some inactive players being kicked.

### Third Council

The third form of the council would take office on July 2, 2021 following a close election on June 23. Captain Magma would be serving his third term on the council. Chris and Jake The Snake were both elected to their second terms and Manolete was newly elected after having served on the Council of Elders. Jake The Snake and Manolete were only closely elected over /name.loading/ and James (who conceded the election in support for Manolete). /name.loading/ actually received over half of the eligible vote numbers, but was one vote short of Jake and Mano.

This third form of the council would not make any governmental changes and focused more on the running of the clan such as declaring wars. The Republic would see a decline in activity among most all of its members through the early months of 2022. This inactivity would only halt with the Clash of Clans update in May of that year which would bring increased activity and the return of some former members. On May 7, 2022, Captain Magma motioned to kick the bottom thirteen members when sorted by last active. Many of these members had not been active in some months. This would be the most people kicked from The Republic on any one day.

### Fourth Council

A sentiment of change would ripple through the clan before the midterm elections of 2022. Nate, who had returned to The Republic, was a candidate in particular who was in favor of change. Chris would announce he was not running for reelection and Jake The Snake would see a sharp decrease in support. Manolete was elected to his second consecutive term, /name.loading/ was newly elected and Nate would be elected to a nonconsecutive second term. Captain Magma, Uncle Sam, and Mike would all tie on the first day of voting and a runoff election would be held the following day in which Captain Magma would win.

Nate would quickly work to implement his changes. The first of them being the Committee Establishment Act of 2022, which would form committees to handle different areas of governance within the clan. This first change would pass both councils and be implemented. About a month later Nate would motion for the Dereliction of Duty Act of 2022, which after brief discussion did not move forward. During the following months both Nate and name.loading would kick members of the clan without a voting process in the council. These infractions were discussed briefly, but ultimately nothing came of it. Nate claimed that he acted due to his fellow council members failing to vote.

Late in 2022, Mike , began leading a push for change within the clan. Originally he campaigned briefly for Leader, but then decided that change would be better implemented as a Co-Leader. He then called for a possible demotion of a Co-Leader. Before any demotion took place, Nate stepped down from his position stating that he would be supporting Mike for Co-Leader. Nate, becoming the first member of either Council to step down from office, mentioned that he hoped that Mike could intact change where he had not. An election would held to decide on Nate's replacement and Mike would win a landslide victory. Going into the new year, the council would increase the amount of wars declared and focus on Clan Capital and Clan Games involvement. Captain Magma would motion to repeal the Committee Establishment Act of 2022, which the council agreed on.

## Composition

### Size of the Council

The Constitution states that the amount of Co-Leaders is based on the number of people in the clan. There can never be more than one Co-Leader to every ten players and there has to be a minimum of two. From January 1, 2020 till February 9, 2020 there were only two members in the council (a total of 40 days). From February 9 to March 27, 2020 there was three members on the council (48 days). Since March 27, 2020 there has always been four members on the council other than a period of three days after mikeRob22's departure and a period of three days after Nate stepped down.

### Elections

The election to the Co-Leader position happens prior to July 2nd and is held over the course of a day or more. To be eligible for Co-Leader, a player must be a member of the clan for three months or longer (leaving the clan for over a week resets a player's time). The first day of the election everyone who is eligible for the position can be voted for. Depending on how many members the clan has the top vote getters get the position. In the event of a tie a second day of voting is utilized between those players and so on. The newly elected Co-Leader's must be assigned their positions on July 2nd.

In the case where a Co-Leader is demoted, or there is more than ten members per Co-Leader, a special election must occur. Since only one position is getting voted on, the process is carried out with just one winner. It's important to note that the candidate is only running for the remainder of the demoted Co-Leader's term.

* First Council of Co-Leader Election – Jan. 1, 2020
* Council of Co-Leaders Special Election – Feb. 8, 2020
* Council of Co-Leaders Special Election – Mar. 25, 2020
* Council of Co-Leaders Election - Jun. 23, 2020
* Council of Co-Leaders Special Election – Sep. 1, 2020
* Council of Co-Leaders Election - Jun. 23, 2021
* Council of Co-Leaders Election - Jun. 23, 2022
* Council of Co-Leaders Runoff Election - Jun. 24, 2022
* Council of Co-Leaders Special Election – Dec. 27, 2022

### Tenure

The Constituion states that a Co-Leader serves a term of 1 full year. There is no limit to how often a player can run for or hold the position of Co-Leader. If a Leader is demoted they cannot run for Co-Leader until what would have been their full term as Leader is over.

## Membership

* Timeline of Membership
* (\*) = as of March 1, 2022