Council of Shipwrights
Representation: Council

Overview
The firms involved in shipbuilding, together with their workers, choose a group of representatives to represent the state of the art in large-scale trade negotiations and other venues requiring a representative of the whole of the shipbuilding industry. Only deals involving a single vessel are commissioned with the actual builder. By ordering vessels singly, the customer has the chance to discuss the vessel with both the firm responsible for its creation and the artist who actually designs the vessel. Some collectors will only purchase starships from the Mon Calamari this way, as each vessel "speaks" to its creator, and only this artist can truly interpret his or her work.

In general, customers are directed first to the Council. Larger orders are communicated to the single larger firms or numerous smaller firms, while orders for individual vessels are generally contracted to one of the many smaller organizations. Collectors tend to request specific firms or even artists, and those that do not are generally placed in contact with a suitable firm. The recently founded Republic-Calamari Partnership is one of the few firms that does not receive its business through the Council; under agreement with the Council and with the approval of the Diet, RCP instead receives all orders from the New Republic directly, then contracts the work itself.

Council Facts
The representatives of the industry form a Council of five beings, each selected individually by the Diet. One of these is then selected, also by the Diet, to serve as the Speaker, the chair of the Council. Although many Quarren serve in the industry, no Quarren has ever been named Speaker. Although this has resulted in some tension throughout the Council, Quarren have (and one currently does) sit on the Council. Terms for Council members and the Speaker are one year apiece.

The current Speaker of the Council is Cirden, one of the few Speakers to come from an artist's background. Cirden began his career with a now-defunct firm of shipwrights, designing vessels, before he began serving as a trade representative. He has served on the Council for six terms, and was recently elected Speaker at the beginning of his seventh.

The Diet
Once every year, a single representative of every firm meets in the Council audience hall in the famed city Reef Home, one of the many floating cities on the surface of Calamari. There, they discuss the state of the art, the recent policy of Restoration, and any difficulties that have arisen in the past year in an attempt to bolster and support each other. The highlight of the week-long Diet comes the last evening, when new Council members are elected and a new Speaker chosen. The next morning, the closing ceremony of the Diet also serves to install the new Council.