Our Purpose

[Hersfold]

So... here we go.

All of us, at some point, with the exception of NH, have been MoCE at some time. From what I can tell, our job here is to see if that office, created by Constitutional Amendment, should remain or be merged into another existing office, or is multiple offices (MoC, MoAE, MoCE) should all be smashed into something new.

I personally would like to see the office of MoCE remain. But I have to admit there is next to nothing to do while holding that post. JAL, if you haven't figured that out already, you probably will soon. The only excitement was running the TNPAC's each year, although that wasn't exactly in the job description.

Speaking of job descriptions, it would probably help if we knew what they were. Quoting The North Pacific Constitution, Article III, Section 2, Clauses 7-9:

7) Minister of Communications.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for initiating, directing and moderating debates on subjects of Regional and national interest, such as legislative and Cabinet issues within the Regional Government, UN proposals and resolutions, and general interest discussions.
B- The Minister, in conjunction with the Prime Minister or the minister with appropriate jurisdiction, shall be responsible for the publication of the actions of the Regional Government, both within and outside of the Region.
C- The Minister, unless required for specified identifiable reasons of regional security to withhold specific material (as determined in each instance by a majority vote of the Cabinet), shall provide the publication if full of the records and minutes of Cabinet proceedings and debates. The vote of the Prime Minister and each Cabinet Minister in a Cabinet meeting shall be a matter of public record.

8) Minister of Arts and Entertainment.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for moderating the Out-of-Character, Role-Playing and Games forums at the Regional off-site forums.
B - The Minister shall initiate and oversee activities and topics for the general entertainment of The North Pacific's member Nations.

9) Minister of Culture and Education.
A - The Minister shall encourage the Cultural and Educational arts and industries, protect The North Pacific's heritage, and advance the public information system of the Region in order to maximize their contribution to the region's awareness and social vitality.

It should be noted that if the University is formed, it may be placed under the jurisdiction of the MoCE - however, looking at their discussions, it appears as though they're leaning toward an appointed Chancellor. (I know I'm not on that commission, but their work may have an effect on our findings, for that reason).

Looking at these, it's obvious that the MoC has the most to do. But have the other Ministries done enough to make their positions worthwhile?

When I was MoCE, I had placed myself in semi-official custody of the archives. I had Flem or Ananke (whoever was admin at the time) set up some forums, and whenever I saw something that needed archiving, I harassed them until they moved it into one of those forums. And as previously mentioned, I ran the TNPAC with the help of Cakatoian, whose idea it actually was in the first place.

What did everyone else manage when they were in office? JAL, what have you managed so far / plan to manage? That should be a good start for our study.

 

[Grosseschnauzer]

Hersfold, let me help a little.

The Commission needs to address what functions have been placed in all three Mnistries (Culture and Education, Arts and Entertainment, and Communications), and figure out what functions in all three should remain in the government or return to forum administration independent of the government.

As it turned out, only folks who had held the MoC, and MoCE, positions were willing to serve on the Commission, and have remained active in the region.

There have been numerous generalities about what each Ministry does but it hasn't been broken down into specifics so everyione in the RA can participate in the debate operating from the same set of facts. As long as we have that analysis, the Commission is free to suggest how it would align those functions.

As to the TNPU Commission, it's still early to predict, but the likely role right now would be to have the MoCE serve as chairman of the boad/committee/council that would oversee the dat-to-day chief of the University. There also been some discussion of moving some subforum into the University, so that may mean the MoCE would gain some real active topical forums to moderate. I think a general consensus is emerging, but some specifics still haven't been worked out, such as the starting point, and the time frame for expansion from the initial course offierings.

 

[Grosseschnauzer]

Notwithstanding Heft's decision to resign from all connections with the Region, the Ministry Study Commission should go ahead and proceed with its work.

 

[north harmoneia]

I must admit, that during my term as MoC, I was a lazy ass, being MoC isn't an easy job and requires a lot of dedication. I'd personally have the Communications Ministry set apart from the MoAE and MoCE in the event of a possible merge.

 

[King Durk the Awesome]

For me, being MoC was easy when there were actually going-ons in NS to report on; otherwise you have to come up with things to talk about and that's a lot harder. I'd agree with keeping the MoC seperate.

MoCE and MoEA, merge those I'd say.

 

[Hersfold]

So, duties of the ministries:

7) Minister of Communications.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for initiating, directing and moderating debates on subjects of Regional and national interest, such as legislative and Cabinet issues within the Regional Government, UN proposals and resolutions, and general interest discussions.

Moderation is mainly a forum concern, although it is nice to have someone specifically set aside for that purpose. The Delegate tends to manage the UN debates, so that particular duty is somewhat removed.

B- The Minister, in conjunction with the Prime Minister or the minister with appropriate jurisdiction, shall be responsible for the publication of the actions of the Regional Government, both within and outside of the Region.

That's the main duty of the MoC, IMHO. That's the stuff that takes up so much time, and the reason the MoC needs to be left alone.

C- The Minister, unless required for specified identifiable reasons of regional security to withhold specific material (as determined in each instance by a majority vote of the Cabinet), shall provide the publication if full of the records and minutes of Cabinet proceedings and debates. The vote of the Prime Minister and each Cabinet Minister in a Cabinet meeting shall be a matter of public record.

This is just fluff, since we don't have meetings any more.

8) Minister of Arts and Entertainment.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for moderating the Out-of-Character, Role-Playing and Games forums at the Regional off-site forums.
B - The Minister shall initiate and oversee activities and topics for the general entertainment of The North Pacific's member Nations.

Moderation again, although there's even less to do in regards to that as MoAE - the OOC forums are unmoderated unless someone goes completely berzerk in there. And the oversight thing isn't much either - usually whenever someone has an idea to start a tournament or even the awards ceremony, it's handled by whoever came up with the idea, with little to no involvement from the MoAE.

9) Minister of Culture and Education.
A - The Minister shall encourage the Cultural and Educational arts and industries, protect The North Pacific's heritage, and advance the public information system of the Region in order to maximize their contribution to the region's awareness and social vitality.

The only thing here that isn't worth merging with something else is the Educational bit - technically, the MoCE would be in charge of the University if it were to ever get started. But everything else can be merged with something else - archival (TNP's heritage) to the admins, Cultural arts to the MoAE, and public information to the MoC.

I agree with JAL, Culture & Ed can be trashed, and most of its duties sent to the MoA&E. The public information system (i.e., Wire) would be best handled by the MoC anyway, and I think has been in past years despite the Constitution.

 

[Grosseschnauzer]

First, the current discussion about a regional report to the region internally is focusing on the Minister of Communications as the co-ordinator. I think the first item listed about the government activities bears out the idea that the MoC should be responsible for it.

The next question is the University; it's impossible to predict what the time requirement is going to be but the current idea is that the Minister will be the ex officio chair of the board of regents and be the liaison//interface of the University with the regional government (Cabinet and RA). The board will set University policy and overview the Chancellor so as the chair, the Minister of CE or whoever will have demands on their time for that area.

The U would also take over day-to-day discussion of the Nationstates forum, the daily issues forum and other specific subforums. (They need to be specified but this should give the general idea.)

If we look at a merger/devolution of the MpAE and MoCE that probably leaves us with Arts, Culture, and Education as the areas of the proposed merged Ministry.

One other thing -- can we get y'all to agree on what functions each of the ministries have been doing that are not mentioned in the Constitution or the Legal Code. We do need to break down the tasks for each of the three Ministries and then say if it goes to forum administration, stays as a Ministry function, and then which Ministry.

 

[Grosseschnauzer]

I know Hersfold guoted individual clauses in his earlier post, but it would be helpful to put the constitutional provisions in full context:

7) Minister of Communications.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for initiating, directing and moderating debates on subjects of Regional and national interest, such as legislative and Cabinet issues within the Regional Government, UN proposals and resolutions, and general interest discussions.
B- The Minister, in conjunction with the Prime Minister or the minister with appropriate jurisdiction, shall be responsible for the publication of the actions of the Regional Government, both within and outside of the Region.
C- The Minister, unless required for specified identifiable reasons of regional security to withhold specific material (as determined in each instance by a majority vote of the Cabinet), shall provide the publication if full of the records and minutes of Cabinet proceedings and debates. The vote of the Prime Minister and each Cabinet Minister in a Cabinet meeting shall be a matter of public record.
8) Minister of Arts and Entertainment.
A - The Minister shall be responsible for moderating the Out-of-Character, Role-Playing and Games forums at the Regional off-site forums.
B - The Minister shall initiate and oversee activities and topics for the general entertainment of The North Pacific's member Nations.
9) Minister of Culture and Education.
A - The Minister shall encourage the Cultural and Educational arts and industries, protect The North Pacific's heritage, and advance the public information system of the Region in order to maximize their contribution to the region's awareness and social vitality.

We need to pull in the Legal Code provisions, and if someone else doesn't beat me to it, I'll try to get to it later today, or really late tonight.)

TNP Law 6 on Culture and Education provides

TNP LAW 6
Ministry of Culture and Education

Section 1. The North Pacific Wire.

The North Pacific Wire shall be the official News Publication of the region. The North Pacific Wire shall be administered by the Ministry of Culture and Education.

There are no legal code provisions for the Minister of Arts and Entertainment, or the Minister of Communications.

The current practice of placing the Wire under the Minister of Communications is obviously not in compliance with TNP Law 6. Why some past Cabinet chose to ignore the law and not seek amendment of it is totally beyond me.