- TNP Nation
- McMasterdonia
I'm sure most of you have noticed, (then again maybe not) that activity has dropped off significantly in the past week or so. This is not limited to the public, often there could be 16 or so people online, but nothing is being discussed. I see this as largely a failure of the government to act. If we are not leading the region, and engaging in discussion, it is unlikely for others to do so. If we don't stir the pot, nobody else will.
To be frank, the only real work that I have seen get done is in the Defence, and Foreign Affairs department. Mahaj has done some work in World Assembly Affairs, but Internal Affairs and Communications have been severely lacking. Unless work, is presumably going on behind the scenes (doubtful), this is not a good thing.
I have discussed this with Tim and some others today and we have come up with some ideas.
1: Ditch Internal Affairs
What does it do? Is it needed ? Is there better use for the minister than internal affairs. We could replace this with a Minister for Culture and Entertainment. The North Pacific has a rich history and culture, it could be this ministers reponsibility to help enhance this, and perhaps even plan joint cultural events.
If it is absolutely necessary for Internal Affairs to be kept as a ministry, we may want to reconsider what its responsibilities are. This is no fault of Romanoffia's, I believe that the responsibilities of Internal Affaris beyond maintaining the help desk is small.
2: Get a Foreign Update Out
The Government was elected on the basis of maintaining and active foreign affairs department. Tim has reorganized the department, has got the ambassadors to do their diplomatic reports, everything is at full readiness. We really need to get a foreign update out.
This may mean that we need to reconsider the relevance of the TNP-wire and a possible split of government positions. While Ator maintained the TNP-Wire impeccably, it has slipped since then. Either we need to think of articles to put into this wire quickly, or we consider appointing an official editor of the paper to be responsible for it.
While I like the articles. I am unsure how many people when viewing our foreign update, actually click on the links to read the articles. I'm not sure if there is someway to check the amount of viewers for each page, but we might get them to know more about the goings on in TNP if we actually write the update out in full, instead of just links.
3: Better use of the Deputies System
Deputies are appointed for a reason. They want to get experience in the running of the government (ideally). Scandigrad has helped me a lot as a deputy, though his activity has been somewhat sketchy recently. I recall talking to a former deputy, who told me that she was bored shit-less. As our deputies, we need to give them opportunities to get involved and assist us in our duties.
4: Issues with the Council of Five itself
We have not addressed these issues, and I have tried to bring them up for discussion on several occasions to no avail.
Issues with it are:
a) Ministers are elected, but no guarantee of activity. If appointed a Minister can be easily removed for inactivity. How can this be dealt with in this elected system? Frankly I feel if a minister is inactive, a Delegate should sack that minister. It should not be a Co5 decision, the Delegate leads the executive.
b) Short terms - constant elections- informed electorate
To what extent do short terms affect our ability to serve as ministers? Do they at all? Should they be longer, or do shorter terms make us more accountable?
To be honest I don't think it makes a difference at all. Despite the sending out of telegrams and the blurbs and whatever else, the region wide electorate is still massively uninformed. Citizens I believe vote based on name recognition. The fact that Gov was almost elected last time, shows that anything is possible when you have region wide voting. He is a name that is recognised, and if he continues to stand, I believe his votes will continue to be steady as he becomes more recognised.
Secondly it is virtually impossible for a new person to get his way into a ministry, besides becoming a deputy. I don't want the Council of Five to become an oligarchy, with every 4-8 months the Delegacy switching between us as the recognised names in the region. Whereas before, appointment provided new people that opportunity and foot in the door to learn more, and to prove themselves.
If I was to resign today as Defence Minister, the most capable and respected soldier in the north pacific army, would have to fight an election, as a new individual, an unrecognised name individually to earn his opportunity to serve. I consider this to be really hard, if not impossible. Effectively, unless we enforce term limits, it will only get harder for new candidates to unseat us. If we are to retain new citizens we have to provide them the opportunity to get involved into the government and leadership of the region.
So how do we make the region more informed? Do we stop going for a region wide vote, and vote from the forum instead? Do we put names before the assembly for confirmation? Primarily the concern being is that new people, who are recognised internally on the forum for their hard work, but lack that renown inter-regionally won't be able to get into office.
5) Engagement with the region
How can the Co5 help the region to be more invigorated and active? What can we do? Do we need to appoint a Co5 spokesperson to get the government moving again. What agenda does the Co5 have? What do we want to implement? We need to pave the way for new policy and a brighter TNP.
To be frank, the only real work that I have seen get done is in the Defence, and Foreign Affairs department. Mahaj has done some work in World Assembly Affairs, but Internal Affairs and Communications have been severely lacking. Unless work, is presumably going on behind the scenes (doubtful), this is not a good thing.
I have discussed this with Tim and some others today and we have come up with some ideas.
1: Ditch Internal Affairs
What does it do? Is it needed ? Is there better use for the minister than internal affairs. We could replace this with a Minister for Culture and Entertainment. The North Pacific has a rich history and culture, it could be this ministers reponsibility to help enhance this, and perhaps even plan joint cultural events.
If it is absolutely necessary for Internal Affairs to be kept as a ministry, we may want to reconsider what its responsibilities are. This is no fault of Romanoffia's, I believe that the responsibilities of Internal Affaris beyond maintaining the help desk is small.
2: Get a Foreign Update Out
The Government was elected on the basis of maintaining and active foreign affairs department. Tim has reorganized the department, has got the ambassadors to do their diplomatic reports, everything is at full readiness. We really need to get a foreign update out.
This may mean that we need to reconsider the relevance of the TNP-wire and a possible split of government positions. While Ator maintained the TNP-Wire impeccably, it has slipped since then. Either we need to think of articles to put into this wire quickly, or we consider appointing an official editor of the paper to be responsible for it.
While I like the articles. I am unsure how many people when viewing our foreign update, actually click on the links to read the articles. I'm not sure if there is someway to check the amount of viewers for each page, but we might get them to know more about the goings on in TNP if we actually write the update out in full, instead of just links.
3: Better use of the Deputies System
Deputies are appointed for a reason. They want to get experience in the running of the government (ideally). Scandigrad has helped me a lot as a deputy, though his activity has been somewhat sketchy recently. I recall talking to a former deputy, who told me that she was bored shit-less. As our deputies, we need to give them opportunities to get involved and assist us in our duties.
4: Issues with the Council of Five itself
We have not addressed these issues, and I have tried to bring them up for discussion on several occasions to no avail.
Issues with it are:
a) Ministers are elected, but no guarantee of activity. If appointed a Minister can be easily removed for inactivity. How can this be dealt with in this elected system? Frankly I feel if a minister is inactive, a Delegate should sack that minister. It should not be a Co5 decision, the Delegate leads the executive.
b) Short terms - constant elections- informed electorate
To what extent do short terms affect our ability to serve as ministers? Do they at all? Should they be longer, or do shorter terms make us more accountable?
To be honest I don't think it makes a difference at all. Despite the sending out of telegrams and the blurbs and whatever else, the region wide electorate is still massively uninformed. Citizens I believe vote based on name recognition. The fact that Gov was almost elected last time, shows that anything is possible when you have region wide voting. He is a name that is recognised, and if he continues to stand, I believe his votes will continue to be steady as he becomes more recognised.
Secondly it is virtually impossible for a new person to get his way into a ministry, besides becoming a deputy. I don't want the Council of Five to become an oligarchy, with every 4-8 months the Delegacy switching between us as the recognised names in the region. Whereas before, appointment provided new people that opportunity and foot in the door to learn more, and to prove themselves.
If I was to resign today as Defence Minister, the most capable and respected soldier in the north pacific army, would have to fight an election, as a new individual, an unrecognised name individually to earn his opportunity to serve. I consider this to be really hard, if not impossible. Effectively, unless we enforce term limits, it will only get harder for new candidates to unseat us. If we are to retain new citizens we have to provide them the opportunity to get involved into the government and leadership of the region.
So how do we make the region more informed? Do we stop going for a region wide vote, and vote from the forum instead? Do we put names before the assembly for confirmation? Primarily the concern being is that new people, who are recognised internally on the forum for their hard work, but lack that renown inter-regionally won't be able to get into office.
5) Engagement with the region
How can the Co5 help the region to be more invigorated and active? What can we do? Do we need to appoint a Co5 spokesperson to get the government moving again. What agenda does the Co5 have? What do we want to implement? We need to pave the way for new policy and a brighter TNP.
