Ridgeway State Senate
Senate Portal
Handbook
Everything a member of the Ridgeway State Senate staff needs to operate the Senate Staff Portal — what each role can access, what it cannot, and how to get the everyday jobs done. Written for Senators, Chairs, Leaders (House Leader & Clerk), and the State Registrar.
Overview
The Senate Staff Portal is the working chamber floor of the Ridgeway State Senate: where bills are drafted, sessions are run, votes are cast, and the Code of Statutes is maintained. It is a restricted area — you must be signed in and hold at least State Senate access to enter.
What you see inside the portal is not the same for everyone. The portal presents up to four views — Senator, Chair, State Registrar, and Administrator — and shows you only the ones your role unlocks, landing you on the highest one you hold. This handbook explains each role in turn: where you land, what tools you get, where the walls are, and the recipes for the common tasks.
How access works
Your powers come from two independent layers. Understanding the split explains almost every "why can / can't I…" question.
Layer 1 — Your site role (from your Roblox group rank)
You sign in with Roblox, and the portal reads your rank in the Ridgeway Roblox group and maps it to a site role and numeric access level — State Senate becomes Senator, Chief Justice becomes Chair, Lieutenant Governor becomes the Registrar, and so on. Your role re-syncs from your group rank every time you sign in, so a promotion or demotion in the group takes effect on your next login. (A Registrar can also set a role by hand under Manage Users; a hand-set role is pinned and then stops following the group until it's changed again — this is how the Administrator super-role, which no group rank grants, is held.)
Layer 2 — Chamber appointments (offices layered on top)
Some jobs — presiding, setting the agenda, keeping the motion record — are appointed offices, not group ranks. The Registrar grants them inside the portal under Manage Users. There are three:
Each office has exactly one holder; granting it to someone new removes it from whoever held it before. An appointment can only be given to a member at Senate level or above.
Getting in
- Go to
/senate-portaland sign in with Roblox. - The server checks your rank. Below Senate level, you get a polite access denied page.
- At or above Senate level, you land on your highest view. A newly assigned role or a fresh appointment? Reload once to pick it up — the portal doesn't live-update mid-session.
The permission ladder
Levels are cumulative: a higher role can do everything the roles beneath it can, plus its own tools. A Registrar is also a Chair and a Senator; a Chair is also a Senator.
| Role | Roblox rank | Level | Portal view | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senator | State Senate | 200 | Senator | Draft legislation, cast floor votes. |
| Chair | Chief Justice ·or· Pro Tempore appt. | 300 | Chair | Preside: sessions, agenda, floor votes. |
| Registrar | Lieutenant Governor | 400 | Registrar + Chair + Senator | Edit the law; codify, moderate, manage users. |
| Governor | Governor | 500 | Registrar + … | All Registrar powers. |
| Administrator | Developer Oversight | 900 | Administrator + all | System: API keys, roles table, broadcasts. |
Appointments (granted in-portal, independent of rank): President Pro Tempore → full Chair · House Leader → agenda only · Senate Clerk → motions only.
How to read this guide
Each role section below follows the same shape, so you can skim to your own and stop:
A ✓ means full access, a ◑ means limited or scoped access, and a — means none. Every write action in the portal is recorded in the activity log.
Senators
Senator
The baseline for everyone in the chamber. Every member with portal access — Chairs and the Registrar included — is a Senator first and keeps every power on this list.
Where you land
Can do
- Draft documents — bills, resolutions, and nominations, auto-numbered
for the sitting Senate (
S12-01,R12-03,N12-02). - Structure them with formatted sections: preamble, findings / WHEREAS, sections, definitions, repealer, and more.
- Add co-sponsors by username. Co-sponsors can edit the document's sections and save revisions with you.
- Version control — snapshot revisions with a message; a snapshot is taken automatically when you submit.
- Submit for review — hand a finished draft to the Chair's queue.
- On the floor (while a session sits): propose a motion, cast your Yea / Nay / Abstain on any live vote, and withdraw a motion you proposed.
- Weigh in on amendments — register support or opposition on statute amendments the Registrar puts forward.
- Follow the chamber — session calendar, agenda, attendance, the activity feed, and the roster of chamber leadership.
Cannot do
- Edit another member's draft unless you are a co-sponsor — and never rename, delete, or submit someone else's document.
- Schedule or run a session, build the agenda, or open and close votes.
- Process motions — proposing is yours; putting one to a vote is the Chair's or Clerk's.
- Touch the law — no editing statutes or the Constitution.
- Manage people or petitions — no user roles, appointments, or petition moderation.
Chairs
Chair · President Pro Tempore
The presiding officer of the chamber. You reach this view either by holding the Chief Justice rank or by being appointed President Pro Tempore, which raises your effective level to the Chair tier. Everything a Senator can do, you can do too.
Where you land
Can do
- Schedule & run sessions — create a session, then open, recess, and close it from Session Control.
- Build the agenda — add items, reorder them, and remove them.
- Review the bills queue — send a submitted bill to the agenda, or return it to its author with a note.
- Preside over voting — open and close floor votes on agenda items, tally roll-calls, and record voice votes.
- Handle motions — put a member's motion to a roll-call, record a voice vote on it, or table it.
- Keep the record — record attendance and read the full member-by-member vote matrix.
- Move amendments — advance a statute amendment through review, grant floor approval, or table it.
- Set the sitting Senate number — the value that drives document numbering.
Cannot do
- Edit the Code of Statutes or the Constitution — presiding is not drafting the law.
- Publish an amendment into the code (you approve it on the floor; the Registrar publishes).
- Codify a passed bill into statutes.
- Moderate petitions or manage users, roles, and appointments.
- Issue Developer API keys or send portal broadcasts.
Leaders — House Leader & Clerk
Two appointed offices carry a single slice of Chair power without the full chair. They are granted by the Registrar in Manage Users and layered on top of a member's Senate rank. Both keep the Senator view as their home — legislating is still the day job; the office is a tool for one specific responsibility.
House Leader
Sets the chamber's business. Gains a trimmed Chair view, relabelled “House Leader,” with only the agenda-setting tools — the presiding panels are hidden.
Where you land
Can do
- Schedule sessions and put them on the calendar.
- Compose the agenda — add, reorder, and remove items.
- Triage the bills queue — add a submitted bill to the agenda or return it to its author.
- See the chair overview statistics.
Cannot do
- Open, recess, or close a session — scheduling is not presiding.
- Run floor votes or record attendance.
- See the vote matrix or move amendments.
- Set the Senate number. These all need an actual Chair.
Senate Clerk
Keeps the motion record while the Chair presides. Works from the Floor Motions card on the Senator dashboard — there is no separate Clerk view.
Can do
- Put a motion to a roll-call vote.
- Record a voice vote on a motion.
- Table a motion.
- Open and close the vote on a motion item on the agenda.
Cannot do
- Build the agenda or schedule / control sessions.
- Review the bills queue or record attendance.
- Open or close votes on bill items — the Clerk's reach is motions only; bill votes are the Chair's.
Registrar
State Registrar
Keeper of the law. The Registrar has full edit-and-publish authority over the Code of Statutes and the Constitution, moderates petitions, and manages the chamber's people. Because the level is 400, a Registrar also holds every Chair and Senator power — they can preside, set the Senate number, draft, and vote as well.
Where you land
Can do
- Edit the Code of Statutes — create, edit, and delete titles, chapters, and sections; rewrite body, history, and notes; set offense classification (class, max fine, max jail).
- Edit the Constitution — create, edit, delete, and reorder articles and sections.
- Publish amendments — put an amendment forward, then once the floor approves it, publish: the old text is archived and the section is rewritten (or repealed).
- Codify passed bills — map a passed bill's sections into a target chapter; the bill becomes enacted. (Bills only — resolutions and nominations don't codify.)
- Record court rulings — log a ruling that strikes down, narrows, stays, or upholds a section; it shows as a badge in the public grid.
- Moderate petitions — set a petition active, qualifying, certified, or rejected, or remove it as a takedown.
- Review history & restore — read the change log and restore archived statute text.
- Manage users — assign site roles, grant or withdraw the chamber appointments, and remove members.
Cannot do — the guardrails
- Act on a peer or a superior — you can't change the role, remove, or re-appoint any user whose level is at or above your own.
- Touch a protected account — protected super-admin accounts are untouchable from the portal entirely.
- Appoint a non-member — offices only go to members at Senate level or above.
- Issue Developer API keys, send broadcasts, or invite — those are Administrator-only.
Administrator
Administrator
The top tier — technical oversight of the whole system. Most staff will never hold this. Included here for completeness.
On top of every Registrar, Chair, and Senator power, the Administrator issues and revokes Developer API keys (for CAD/MDT and other apps — see the Developer API docs), edits the underlying roles table, reads the full activity log, sends portal-wide broadcasts, and issues invites. The same "can't act on a peer or superior" and "protected account" guardrails still apply.
Capability matrix
The one-screen reference. ✓ full · ◑ limited / scoped · — none. Remember: Chair, Registrar, and Admin all include every power beneath them.
| Capability | Senator | Clerk | House Leader | Chair | Registrar | Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter & legislate | ||||||
| Enter the portal | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Draft / submit documents | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Co-sponsor & save revisions | ◑ | ◑ | ◑ | ◑ | ◑ | ◑ |
| Cast floor votes · propose motions | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support / oppose amendments | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Preside & set business | ||||||
| Process motions (vote / voice / table) | — | ✓ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schedule sessions | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Build / reorder the agenda | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bills queue: add-to-agenda / return | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open / recess / close sessions | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open / close votes on agenda items | — | ◑ | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Record attendance · vote matrix | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advance / floor-approve amendments | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set the sitting Senate number | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Maintain the law & the chamber | ||||||
| Edit statutes / Constitution | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Publish amendments into the code | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Codify passed bills → statutes | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Record court rulings | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Moderate petitions | — | — | — | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Manage users / roles / appointments | — | — | — | — | ◑ | ◑ |
| Developer API keys · broadcast · invite | — | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
◑ notes — Co-sponsor & revisions: only on documents you author or co-sponsor. Open/close votes: the Clerk only on motion items, never bill items. Manage users: never on a peer, a superior, or a protected account.
Common workflows
From idea to law — a bill's full journey
Draft the bill Senator
In Draft Bills, create a new document, write it in structured sections, add co-sponsors, and snapshot revisions as you go.
Submit for review Senator
Hit Submit. The draft moves to the Chair's queue and an initial revision is snapshotted automatically.
Agenda it (or return it) Chair / House Leader
From Review Bills, add the bill to a session agenda — or return it to the author with a note if it needs work.
Take the floor vote Chair
Open the session, open the vote on the item, let members cast, then close it. A passing bill lands in passed status.
Codify into statute Registrar
In Codify Bills, map the passed bill's sections into a target chapter. The new statute sections go live and the bill is marked enacted.
Amending an existing statute
Propose the amendment Registrar
Target a section and write the proposed text; the current text is snapshotted for comparison.
Gauge the chamber Senators
Members register support or opposition on the amendment.
Advance & floor-approve Chair
The Chair advances it through review and grants floor approval (or tables it).
Publish Registrar
The Registrar publishes: the old text is archived, and the section is rewritten — or repealed — in the live Code.
Appointing a chamber officer
Open Manage Users Registrar
Find the member — they must already hold Senate level or above.
Grant the office Registrar
Assign President Pro Tempore, House Leader, or Clerk. If someone already holds that office, they are automatically stepped down.
They reload New officer
The new officer reloads the portal once and their added powers and tabs appear.
Moderating a citizen petition
Open Petitions Registrar
Review the petition and its signature count.
Set its status Registrar
Move it to qualifying or certified, mark it rejected (stays visible, signing closed), or remove it as a takedown (disappears from the public list).