Psycept Council meetings are twice a month, every other Saturday, and are held in the council chamber built specifically in our Civic Center. As the Civic Center is only a decade old, our chamber is quite modern. The chamber room is an auditorium with bolted-in chairs facing downwards in a gentle slope towards the depressed center of the room, which is the council bench area. The PsyCouncil’s large, crescent-shaped elevated bench has seven seats in a typical bench-to-floor design. The central seat is the farthest point back in the widened horseshoe, with three seats curved toward the audience along either side of the central seat. We have two floor-level desks attached to the front of either end of the curve, one for each of our two administrative officers. At the base of the audience seating area, a podium microphone stand is set to one side to allow attendees to speak to the Council and room at large. There is also an upper gallery for additional seating, though there is no speaker stand there. Two medium projection screens hang from the ceiling on either wall beside the bench, with a third large screen directly behind the center curve. The screens to the side are used to display any presentation material while the central screen typically shows the occupied council bench.
The Psycept Council Clerk and Bailiff are not elected positions, they are part-time administrative posts appointed by the new Council every year. At election time, we open the two admin postings through the ABQ Area Council website and only received one application each for clerk and bailiff. At least the administrative positions are paid, being a member of the PsyCouncil is a voluntary seat. We’re paid in headaches, I suppose.
This is Miss Sonia’s eleventh year as the PsyCouncil Clerk. She’s an energetic sixty-three-year-old former high school teacher that moved to SWACon twelve years ago with her then thirteen-year-old PsySentient daughter. The first eight years, being Clerk was just additional income as she was considered a teacher’s apprentice for a few years after their arrival. She retired from teaching three years ago but decided to continue in the thankless job of Council Clerk, I know not why. But, hey, we appreciate her willingness to deal with all the administrative tasks of taking minutes, publishing our agenda, maintaining the video library archive of our meetings, and posting announcements.
The bailiff is also long-term, beginning his tenth year as PsyCouncil Bailiff. Bailiff Dichali is a retired Bosque deputy from out near Tucumcari Mountain. His family wanted him to move closer to ABQ, so he relocated here eleven years ago and quickly became bored. Dichali saw the opening for our bailiff and came to check it out. He attended our election meeting and had a hoot at how self-important we came across. PsyTown may be the largest Psycept community of the seven conservatorships which have Psycept settlements, but we only make up about six percent of the population of ABQ and a measly three percent of Bosque region. Bailiff Dichali still has fun calling our meetings to order, organizing the applicants and audience speakers, handling any documents or objects that come from the podium, and other administrative support. Miss Sonia and Bailiff Dichali also arrive early to arrange the name plaques, test the microphones, and check that the cameras are properly set up and recording. They get along well together, and I believe they enjoy their jobs, more power to them.
During our transitional meeting a month ago, I realized the amount of work being a good councilmember would entail, so I quickly engaged Eladio, one of the virtual assistants, as an aide. I pay him a small amount to set aside a few hours every Saturday. On PsyCouncil days, he attends the council meetings with me. On our off Saturdays, we read through proposals and reports and gripe about them on our calls, very exciting stuff. We also have a short prep session the Friday afternoons before the PsyCouncil meetings. On PsyCouncil days, Dio likes to sit at the outside end of the second-row on my side of the room. Next to him today is Soon Yee, one of the senior virtual assistants at the agency. Kyle is also a councilmember and he uses Soon Yee as his aide. I hope she charges him as I don’t think even love and marriage is enough to deal with some of this nonsense. Echo settles on a floor mat beside Dio and I leave two collapsible bowls, a reusable silicone storage bag of food, and a water bottle with him. Echo will let Dio know if he becomes hungry or thirsty during our ninety-minute meeting.
As the largest category of Psycepts, PsyMovers traditionally are in the central seat and serve as PsyCouncil Chair. Gloria Escudero, a Weather Guide, holds this dubious honor and is currently seated. Directly to her left is the seat for PsyWitches, though Wendy’s not present yet. Wednesday Randolph is my best friend and the twin sister of Sully. They arrived in Albuquerque thirteen years ago and I was introduced to them by Director Lowell. Sully viewed Lowell with a little bit of hero-eyes and it’s no wonder that he became a police officer. And with his insight into PsyWitches like his twin, he quickly fit in the Psycept police unit.
To the left of the empty PsyWitch chair is the PreCog seat, currently occupied by Jamison Mitchell. Finally, at the left seat farthest from the center thus closest to the audience sits Vito Mata of the Variegated. Like the name implies, the Variegated are a miscellaneous assortment of Psycepts, too few to form smaller groups, so we lump them together. Though the few add up to many and there are more Variegated in totality than either PreCog or TouchVoyants. Because of the diversity and perceived lack of cohesion,
