Improving Government Commnication

Recent discussions on a variety of different topics have highlighted a lack of communication between the government, and the region as a whole. There seems to be growing sense that the general forum members aren't being informed of what various government departments are up to, which in itself leads to the impression that no-one is actually doing anything.

From my own experience within the Ministry of External Affairs, I know that there is often a vast amount of work being done that never really gets mentioned or highlighted to a great degree. The same, I assume is true of other ministries. For instance, although I believe the NPA is quite active these days, I can think of just a handful of its missions that I have heard of.

I was thinking if it would be worth implementing some sort of report, to be delivered by each ministry in a set time frame, that would cover what the ministry has been doing. For example the Ministry of Immigration and Internal Affairs, could report on the numbers of new RA members, and how long its taking them to process each application. The Ministry of Defence can report on previous missions, and what regions or organisation we worked with on them.

It would seem to make sense to bring the deputy minister in on this, make it their responsibility. This would hopefully allow the minister the concentrate on running their ministry, while giving the deputy a set role within that ministry.

Thoughts? Comments? Insults?

(note 1: I posted this here because I don't think this really requires a constitutional amendment. I'd prefer to see it as something ministries took up as an internal policy than something we have to beat into them. The fact I can't post in the RA boards with my suspended membership has nothing to do with it. )

(note 2: My use of examples weren't meant as criticism of any particular ministry, just the first examples that came to mind. Personally I would say every ministry is equally guilty of not communicating enough, and has been for the year I've been here, so I'm not trying to assign any kind of personal blame.)

We had a report with WishyWashyWonder, I remember giving updates as delegate. It pretty much fell by the wayside though. It'd be lovely to bring it back.

Couldn't agree more....

Dai....

Seems a great idea!

In my opiniion, I've always thought that this was one of the responsibilities that should have been exercised by the Minister of Communications. It's not the same thing as the North Pacific Wire, which seems to be oriented towards a multi-regional audience.

This should be passed on to the members of the Ministry Study Commission, which is to look at the function of the Ministry of Communications, as well as the Ministry of Arts and Entertainment and the Ministry of Culture and Education.

I don't think it needs to be in the Constitution, either, but it is a function that should be addressed. I'm not sure, but in the past, the only report that was being posted was for the diplomatic missions of TNP, but it was visibile to all forum members here if they chose to read it.

(The members of the Commission are Hersfold, North harmoneia, and John Ashcroft Land. I'm more than willing to add another member or two; I wanted people on it who had past involvement with those ministries, as its task is to analyze what functions these three ministries have had, which one they should have, and which of their current functions should be returned to forum administration.

My only problem with this being channelled through the MoC, is that it adds an extra step to the process. If the MoC is waiting on a single ministry to publish a report, the ministries that did report on time may as well not have bothered, and the information becomes increasingly inaccurate the longer there is between ministries reporting to the MoC and the MoC publishing a combined report. If individual ministries are responsible of their individual reports, it easy to see which ministries aren't working on it.

Saying that, a MoC lead initiative, would have a certain efficiency to it, if it worked correctly. I seem to remember when WWW was writing the reports for the MoEA there were problems with ministries reporting to the MoC, that lead to delays, and eventually the whole thing collapsing in. I sure if we could get into the groove of this kind of thing, very soon it would become less of a chore and more of a habitual action.

I'll be interested to see where the Study Commission thinks the MoC's direction is.

Namyeknom, my UN was the Foreign Minister during the last term of office for the International Democratic Union. The Delegate that term decided to start posting regional reports at the IDU missions, including their embassy here. So I set up the boilerplate. The IDU report is planned to be twice per month, and if an area has noting to report, then it isn't covered.

There's no reason why a report has to wait on someone who is running late or not rreporting at all. (My UN is now delegate there, and I've been known both here and there to ask why something hasn't happened that should have.)

One reason for that study commission is to have facts rather than generalities about those three ministries and the different proposals for aboilition, consolidation, and-or merger of two or all three ministrie.

We had a report with WishyWashyWonder

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What happened to her? I miss ol' www

Anway the issue at hand:

Regions have had reports for years. Usually its been either the EAs job (posting in foreign lands etc) and/or the MoCs job. Dont see why this needs to go to any commision, at least it shouldnt stop us from doing something.

Just write a report. UN delegate, nation numbers etc, then some current news. Doesnt have to be too long. If other ministryswant to chip in, give them a date and make sure things are with you by then. God, I'll write it if anyone ask me to or wants a hand some weeks/months

FL, someone needs to take responsibility for it; leaving it to "whoever" simply means that it will end of not getting done.

The Commission has already been appointed, and charged with the study that I described. Asking them to work this into the mix is not a major task, but I expect it would help settle the responsibilities related to these three ministries going forward, whether the final result is one, two, or three ministries (s it is now).

The Commission has already been appointed, and charged with the study that I described. Asking them to work this into the mix is not a major task, but I expect it would help settle the responsibilities related to these three ministries going forward, whether the final result is one, two, or three ministries (s it is now).

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I wasnt saying dump that. I was saying that waiting for their results shoudnt stop us doing something now. As we live in a quagmire of red tape I think positive action now would be a good thing. get something done rather than sit on our hands all term.

FL, someone needs to take responsibility for it; leaving it to "whoever" simply means that it will end of not getting done.

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And I suggested that it should be a MoC/EA job. Then I offered to take on the task myself, should the proper authorities ask

( Just seen the typo in the title...)

Sorry, I may not have been clear with what my original suggestion was. I was thinking internal ones, rather than the MoEA type ones. I'm not talking about a run down on how big the region is, or what the RA is discussing. I want to know what each ministry has actually been doing.

For example, at the end of each month, the ministries would publish a post in the relevant ministers office. This needn't be anything in depth, maybe not more that 5 lines or so. In this post, they would explain the work that has gone on in the ministry over the last month, and any ongoing works. Using the MoEA as an example you might get a post like:

MoEA Report - November

The MoEA has concluded talks to open an embassy with The Pacific. The North Pacific's embassy in The Pacific can be found here (link). (Insert forum name) has been appointed as our Ambassador to The Pacific, and the Ministry would encourage all forum members to welcome (insert forum name), who is The Pacific's representative.

No new consulates have been open.

The Ministry has concluded an audit of current DC members, and has appointed embassy duties to each.

The Ambassador General has initiated training sessions for our newer DC members, in order to maintain the high standard of our Ambassadors across the NS world.

The MoEA is currently in discussions with The West Pacific, in order to strengthen our ties between our two regions.

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Obviously that's just an example, and some ministries might have less to report, or more mundane month by month duties. But its better having a post every month just to say what has been happening (even if it is boring), than assuming a particular ministry isn't doing anything.

Now people might feel its better being channelled through the MoC, and I'm fine with that. But that doesn't mean we can't get each ministry into the habit now of accounting for itself at a set point each month or what ever. At least then when the commission decides if it is something for the MoC to take on, the change over should be relatively smooth.

(BTW, I'm in agreement about the MoEA's report as well, which has been an ongoing headache for, well ever. Again, no personal blame there, I'm happy to admit it was a mess during my interim period as MoEA. And apologies to Flem for dragging the MoEA in as an example, it is just the easiest ministry for me to make stuff up for.)

didnt we have that before?

If it was within the last year, I haven't noticed it.

There was the period when WWW was writing reports, but these were more geared towards TNP wide events, for distribution within our embassies.

Yeah thats what I was thinking. Wouldnt the fact we had a minister doing that before set precedent as to who was responsible?

As for the ministrys monthly reports, all I see that needing is gorss to request the ministers do that for him as PM.

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.

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This comes from the listed responsibilities of the Minister of Communication in the Constitution.

The Minister of Communications has the primary responsibility to collect the information from the various officials for publication. (In the past some have argued that this clause meant Cabinet meeting minutes, but the actual language is far broader than that.)

And the language of this clause deals with the idea of a regional report within the region, and outside the region. As to the North Pacific Wire, I agree that is a separate issue, but I would think that the information collection function for the dual format regional reports (inside and outside the region) would make it easier for the Wire.

maybe what we really need is to move the subforum with the text of the Constitution, Legal Code, and treaties to a location outside of the Judiciary subforum -- maybe then people would take the time to read it, rather than constantly trying to re-invent the wheel. (And its length has absolutely nothing to do with using it.)

I admit, had I read that particular clause I would had know that it is the MoC's responsibility to collect and publish information regarding government actions. Then again, I would also know about the MoC's constitutional responsibilities if they actually did them. With as little disrespect as this can imply, I can't remember a single publication from the MoC's office regarding government actions since WWW's departure (and that was more of an arrangement with the MoEA than any serious attempt to internally broadcast the governments work).

So, there seems to be nothing more to argue on. The MoC should already be doing this. I shall eagerly await their report on the governments activities over the past month or so.