Lecture 2: Your First Days As Ambassador!

First Days As Ambassador​

Hello! I am Egalotir, your Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Hopefully by now you have moved into your new office, and have given a glance at this introductory thread about the Foreign Affairs of The North Pacific (FA of TNP) right here: http://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9066438/1/#new

Alright good, so now you're ready to embark on your first assignment as a diplomat/ambassador of TNP. You're probably wondering how to actually go about all of that, and this thread is here to help you out. This post borrows heavily from the Diplomatic Corps Protocol written by r3n and others years ago.

First off, you should have received your post either from the Minister, or Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs through a private message or post in the Diplomatic Corps. This is your official assignment to another region, and a big first step! What's next?

First you need to find your new region. This is done through in-game Nation States or, if an embassy already exist, you can find a link to embassy on their forums right here: http://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9040904/1/#new. In NS, go to world, and you can then search for the region you are assigned to. DO NOT MOVE YOUR NATION TO THE REGION. When you find it, their front page is usually very similar to TNP's. You see a lot of information all at once: Delegate, government set up, a million links and bright colors. What you want to look for is something like "regional forum" or anything relating to foreign affairs/embassies. This will be where you will do majority of your work. Some regions do not have forums, and instead conduct most of their roleplaying or government through the Region Message Board (RMB) or through PMs or discord servers, either way, everything below applies. If no forum, follow the procedures to where the citizens and other ambassadors interact.

Regions often prescribe certain procedures for granting diplomatic forum permissions, and for embassy requests. Most commonly these take the form of filling out an application by means of posting or making a new topic in a certain forum area. As an Ambassador, you must actively search for the prescribed procedures and comply with them, when requesting diplomat masking or applying for the opening of The North Pacific Embassy, as applicable. You will not be able to initially post all over their forums or see everything, and your "office" is in that embassy row location. You must also change your signature on their forum to indicate you are an ambassador of TNP by displaying this:




Now that you are set up in your region, and have introduced yourself. What is next? The ambassador section of the Diplomatic Corps protocol lists the responsibilities perfectly, and I have listed them directly below with a few additions.

1. The Ambassador should visit their assigned region at least once a week.
-You should strive to do at least once a day if you can. Check the forums, regional message board, discord, etc. Interact with your region as much as possible.

2. The Ambassador must provide a monthly update of news from their assigned region in the designated Ambassador Reports thread set up in the Diplomatic Corps forum. The Ambassador must be able to answer any questions concerning their reports and their assigned region in this thread.
-I will be going over writing reports in the next lecture, but you should be updating the DC whenever you deem it necessary. Do not wait till the end of the month to update about a coup, or news of high importance. Keeping us, and yourself up to date on your assigned region is critical to the running operations of the FA. Reports are all written here: http://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7180482/1/

3. The Ambassador must immediately report any events of grave importance to The North Pacific, as well as any diplomatic incidents or information of exceptional concern to The North Pacific, that take place in or involve their assigned regions. They may do so either in the Ambassador Reports thread, or by directly contacting either the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Delegate, depending on the sensitivity of the issue.

4. The Ambassador must answer all inquiries for information regarding The North Pacific from members of their assigned region timely and to their best ability.

5. The Ambassador must provide copies of The Northern Lights to their assigned region, to be delivered in The North Pacific Embassy in their assigned region.
-The Northern Lights is like our newspaper. You will receive the code to post to your assigned region from us, and it will be checked that you posted it in a timed manner.

6. The Ambassador must post any publications produced by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for embassy distribution, when instructed so by the Delegate, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs or a government official with the authority, in a timely and efficient manner.
-Self Explanatory. If you unsure how to post something or have trouble posting, always reach out and do not leave the post incomplete or incorrect.

7. If ever an Ambassador comes upon a situation in the execution of their duties that leaves them unsure of what the prudent manner of proceeding is, they must immediately contact either the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Delegate.

8. At no time may any Ambassador divulge information of a sensitive nature to any foreign official without express and direct permission from the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Delegate.

A lot of the above is self explanatory but if you unsure on any of it, always reach out to us via PM or discord. It's also important to note the behavior expected of TNP ambassadors. You are now at your assigned region, and there are certain professional expectations you must uphold. These have also been taken from the Diplomatic Corps Protocol and are straightforward:

1. The Ambassador must at all times be mindful of the fact that they are representing The North Pacific, and act accordingly.

2. The Ambassador must be aware of the statutes and conventions of the assigned region and comply with them at all times, as long as these do not require that they violate statutes of The North Pacific or rules of NationStates.

3. The Ambassador should only take part in internal affairs or WA resolution discussions if this is welcome in their assigned region.

4. The Ambassador should try to participate in the forums of their assigned region in order to acquaint with the regional community and help develop the relationship between The North Pacific and the assigned region. Specifically, activity in areas such as roleplays, spamming games, and other types of games, participating in discussions and debates on real life issues, and attending cultural events organized by the assigned region are encouraged, as long as these are permitted. Participation in the regional Discord server, IRC channel or Skype chat, if any exist and as long as these are permitted, are strongly encouraged.

5. If the Ambassador wishes to borrow or adopt ideas from their assigned region for use in The North Pacific, or reproduce material from their assigned region in The North Pacific forums, they must first seek permission to do so from someone in a suitable position of authority, and abide by that decision. The Ambassador must always clear such requests through either the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Delegate.

6. The Ambassador may not place a puppet nation in their assigned region, unless it is explicitly required for accreditation.

7. The Ambassador must refrain from impolite speech, aggressive or over-bearing behavior, and vulgarity. Politeness and good manners should be the hallmark of the Ambassador. The Ambassador should always endeavor to use proper spelling and grammar when communicating within their assigned region.

I really want to stress the importance of discord and active chat servers because this is where you will be able to interact with your assigned region and it's citizens directly. It will be where the relationship can grow quickly, and it will reflect very well on yourself as well as TNP. While we do stress professionalism, we do also understand this is a game and "letting loose" within those chats are of course ok and encouraged. It is ok to join the fun on whatever server you are on.

Lastly, if you have other updates to post to your assigned region, such as election news or laws passed, etc. please see the following thread for the proper format and code to different forum hosts to properly post your update:

http://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/9022067/1/

This should conclude the second lecture! You should now be able to find your assigned region, be able to sign up on their forums and be masked as an ambassador, and post the letter of credence. You should understand all of your responsibilities as ambassador on a daily to weekly basis, and understand the expectations of your behavior during your post as a TNP ambassador. I understand this A LOT of information so take the time to read it through carefully, even more than once if you need to. Overall, your office is what you make of it. You can update us ten times a week or once a month depending on the activity of your region. Sometimes you might not have anything to report at all and that is ok. If there are ever any problems or issues or need to reach us urgently, Sankami and myself are always available on discord and through PMs.

Up next I will be posting on how to properly write updates to and from TNP, and other miscellaneous information. Feedback on these lectures are always welcome and encouraged. These are for you to improve so all feedback, especially critical, is helpful.

Thank you,
Egalotir