Okay, so, here goes nothing.
Recruiting Diplomats
From my experience, recruitment messages that include the variety of work that one can participate in can be a good form of ministry recruiting as well as regiopnal recruiting. I have gotten replies such as "I wanna be a diplomat, how am I gonna do that?" and "I will register on your forums and apply for diplomatic work. So, I think that perhaps the FA ministry can arrange something with the I&IAM to include a a description of what an ambassador does, and how fun it s, or how one will benefit from being an ambassador. Also, the yellow pages are good, but perhaps we can add something to our news box directing members to Ministries. I don't the ADs section are being used productively, anyway.
Training Them
Ok, so, this really isn't hard, but I do think that the newly built university would cover it. If not, a training program within the ministry would be good.
Cementing relationships
This, I believe is already the job of the EA Minister, because besides from interacting with the assigned region's members, ambassadors can't really do much, unless they are given the power by the EA Minister. The best we could do is to encourage interaction between our ambassador and his or her assigned region, but of course, the EA Minister should also dedicate time to regularly supervise the regions we have relations with.
Treaties
So, we have this embassy template, which I think is good. I also do think, though, that we should have a defensive template. This makes things easier for everyone else, but of course, this isn't a necessity, and we could always dedicate time to have representatives and ourselves compose drafts.
I also think that we should pursue new agreements that are more culturally and politically inclined. This includes syndication deals, agreement of political support, etc..
Activity
When I say activity, I'm referring t both embassies/consulates, and our own activity within the NS world.
First, when there is a happening or a commotion, we are not to remain silent. There are, of course some things that requires silence, but some may be opportunities. For example, Region A and Region B are friends of TNP, but they just happened to be at war with each other. We shouldn't remain silent. Say, we believe that Region A is the reasonable one, then we should say so, and make a statement regarding that. Another good example would be a civil war, when they split up, then we should choose, and make statement and perhaps help that one side. This will mean more publicity, attracting some experienced players, and an opportunity to let people know what TNP stands for. It is always better to stand for something, than nothing. Of course, don't get me wrong, nobody likes a busybody, so we should know when to do this, and when not to. Which , in no doubt, believe that TNP can easily decide on. We condemn, we support, and we compromise, but all, only when necessary.
Second, I am of the opinion that if a party isn't interested anymore, or is dead already, then their embassy or consulate should be closed. Perhaps we could do an inactivity closure with a span of, let's say, 3-4 months at most. BUT when we do this, we should also make sure that our embassies outside are active, because we do not want some things to bounce back at us.
[*]More to come, but please feel free to ask and comment.
