Greetings all,
First of all, I must apologize for posting this so late. The election period was ill-timed for me, coinciding with the first week of the fall semester and my moving to a new workplace, both of which ended up being a lot more time-demanding than I expected.
I recently provided a report on the activities of the various Ministries during this past term. I am satisfied to see substantial progress being achieved in all five Ministries of the Executive Government, and I believe the Government has delivered at least partially on most of the items that were promised during my agenda. However, there are areas where progress is still pending, as well as projects where, even though successfully executed, the feedback during this past term indicates that they require a different approach before they are considered a success.
Therefore, I am running for another term in order to continue the execution of my previous agenda, and consolidate the gains we have achieved during this past term. I outline below what my plans are for the various areas of the Executive Government.
Executive Staff
The Executive Staff has been successful in getting new nations involved in the Executive Government. Much of the progress achieved in our various Ministries has been thanks to the work of their staff members. We have also seen a few of the members joining the Executive Government through the Executive Staff rise to the higher ranks of Deputy Minister and Minister.
One issue during this past term has been a slow processing of applications. This is a critical issue, as the quick response to an application by a new member can make a big difference in terms of whether the applicant will stick around or disappear into inactivity. In the new term, I intend to handle applications to the Executive Staff personally, to make sure that they are processed in a timely and effective manner. I will also be looking for ways for the Ministries to better utilize the staff members assigned to them, through smaller-scope Ministry-specific projects that can be tackled by individual staff members.
Home Affairs
The Ministry of Home Affairs has been successful in organising and running extensive game-side recruitment campaigns, involving scripted, mass, and manual telegrams. We have also been running a mentoring program on the forum-side, by contacting new forum members to provide them with information and encourage them to get involved. These measures appear to have been quite effective in terms of boosting the number of contributors to our forum community. With the introduction of the Citizenship Bill, I hope that these new members will find a bigger role for themselves here on the forum.
One part of the Ministry's agenda that was not completed was the reorganization of our introductory material, both on the forum and in the game. I bear most of the blame for this, as it was a project I undertook personally, and while I have prepared a lot of the material, I never saw it to completion. Finalizing this will be a priority for the new term. During the new term, in addition to continuing the various recruitment and naturalization methods it employs currently, I would like the Ministry to additionally emphasize other ways of engaging our nations. I expect that the Ministry will work to increase governmental presence in the RMB, something which already happens but almost exclusively by myself. Furthermore, the Ministry will be expanding upon the feedback surveys we ran back in July, asking nations for their opinions on many aspects of the regional government. Those surveys received a large number of responses, providing us with very useful ideas, and resulted in many members becoming interested in and eventually joining the forum. I expect the Ministry to run more frequent such surveys and on a larger variety of subjects.
Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been successful in negotiating and completing the WALL treaty, as well as making sure that we are represented in all international affairs that affected our interests. The Ministry continued to maintain a highly effective diplomatic service, and we have seen an increase in the number of reports provided by our diplomats abroad.
During the new term, we will be focusing on novel treaties and diplomatic documents, fostering interregional cooperation on principles that are integral to our regional identity and diplomatic direction. As I reported in the progress report, the Ministry is currently in the process of negotiating an interregional treaty, though I will refrain from making any definite promises about when it will be presented for ratification. With regards to topical diplomatic events, I intend to continue with our policy of neutrality in the Osiris-Lazarus war, assuming that the participants in the war remain the same. Should the conflict expand to include treaty allies, I will revisit our stance as necessary.
Defense
The Ministry of Defense has been successful in developing a mighty, well-organized, and very active military force for our region. As I mentioned in the progress report, we currently have the largest military among all GCRs, as well as one of the largest in the game overall. It is also near-constantly active, by engaging in diverse operations either on its own or jointly with our allies and friends abroad. Together with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry is also maintaining a large recruitment system, which has already resulted in many new members enlisting in the NPA.
During the new term, I intend for the Ministry to continue along the same model of frequent training operations jointly with our allies. In addition to these missions, I expect the NPA to organize more rigorous, one-to-one training. This will be done in order to develop more broadly among our troops critical skills for modern NS warfare, such as good triggering skills, split-second moving, stealth techniques, and so on.
World Assembly Affairs
The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs has been successful in better utilizing our voting power in the World Assembly. We have been creating polls on almost all resolutions that went to vote, and we made sure to create those in a timely manner so that the Delegate’s vote can be cast within the first hour of the WA vote starting. Thanks to successful advertising, participation in our offsite polls has increased drastically. Moreover, the Ministry has reinstated the Information for Voters program, which has resulted in a near doubling of WA nations in the region that vote in WA resolutions. The Ministry has also been running successful campaigns in order to increase our overall WA population, the success of which was reflected in the fact that our WA population was affected by the summer slump much less severely than those of other feeders.
During the new term, I will not be appointing a Minister of World Assembly Affairs this new term, instead taking up this role myself, along with my other duties as Delegate. The emphasis of the Ministry will be expanding on all of these fronts through the WALL system. It is unfortunate that the full deployment of the WALL has been delayed for so long - the treaty was ratified by our RA almost two months ago, but due to a very long-drawn ratification process in the other signatories, it only came into effect last week. I have already been in discussions with the ambassadors from the other signatories on various plans for improving on recruitment, authoring education, voting effectiveness and regional development; I am sure you will be seeing many of these get rolled out in the coming weeks.
Communications
The Ministry of Communications has been successful in re-branding the regional newspaper and producing some high quality and widely read publications. However, maintaining frequent and voluminous has proven challenging. Several times we had writers contribute good articles that could not be published because we did not have enough material to put out a full issue. Then, once we did have enough material, those articles were so out-of-date that were either useless or, best case scenario, needed to be rewritten. In addition to articles going unutilized, this also resulted in several events important for TNP not receiving adequate or timely coverage.
To address this issue, in the new term I will be moving The Northern Lights to a different publication format. As soon as they come in and are edited, articles will be published in individual form in dispatches, our forum, and NationStates gameplay. This will ensure that all of our writer submissions all get used, and that we can swiftly cover important happenings in the region and internationally. The previous, lengthy issues will continue to be published, in the form of monthly digests of all individual articles, to be distributed to all of our embassies.
Culture
The Ministry of Culture has successfully overseen several cultural endeavors during the past term: our first theme week, the new map, the Democratic Union, Regional Identity Crisis, the RMB trivia game, Stories of The North Pacific, as well as other endeavors run by members of the Ministry Staff.
A second theme week that was planned for August has been unfortunately delayed, for reasons relating to unsuccessfully attempting to expand the event to include some of our allies. All of the material is ready, but I decided not to run the week during election period. It will instead run immediately after the conclusion of elections, with an expectation of having at least one more during the term. Furthermore, we will be focusing on more events that combine forum- and game-side aspects, such as the Regional Identity Crisis, trivia game, and Stories of TNP: in addition to keeping life game-side busy and entertaining, these events have acted as excellent tools for bringing nations to our forum community. Finally, as you have seen the Democratic Union has been launched by the Ministry staff. A focus of the Ministry in the new term will be expanding the scope of the Union, turning it into a full-fledged RP government, where all TNP nations can participate. This expanded Union will be advertised in a manner analogous to institutions of our "real" government, such as the Regional Assembly and the Executive Staff, in the hopes of becoming a remarkable RP project that will be a major attraction to the forums for our nations.
Thank you for your attention, and once again I apologize for the delay in posting my campaign. I will gladly take any questions you have.
~r3naissanc3r
First of all, I must apologize for posting this so late. The election period was ill-timed for me, coinciding with the first week of the fall semester and my moving to a new workplace, both of which ended up being a lot more time-demanding than I expected.
I recently provided a report on the activities of the various Ministries during this past term. I am satisfied to see substantial progress being achieved in all five Ministries of the Executive Government, and I believe the Government has delivered at least partially on most of the items that were promised during my agenda. However, there are areas where progress is still pending, as well as projects where, even though successfully executed, the feedback during this past term indicates that they require a different approach before they are considered a success.
Therefore, I am running for another term in order to continue the execution of my previous agenda, and consolidate the gains we have achieved during this past term. I outline below what my plans are for the various areas of the Executive Government.
Executive Staff
The Executive Staff has been successful in getting new nations involved in the Executive Government. Much of the progress achieved in our various Ministries has been thanks to the work of their staff members. We have also seen a few of the members joining the Executive Government through the Executive Staff rise to the higher ranks of Deputy Minister and Minister.
One issue during this past term has been a slow processing of applications. This is a critical issue, as the quick response to an application by a new member can make a big difference in terms of whether the applicant will stick around or disappear into inactivity. In the new term, I intend to handle applications to the Executive Staff personally, to make sure that they are processed in a timely and effective manner. I will also be looking for ways for the Ministries to better utilize the staff members assigned to them, through smaller-scope Ministry-specific projects that can be tackled by individual staff members.
Home Affairs
The Ministry of Home Affairs has been successful in organising and running extensive game-side recruitment campaigns, involving scripted, mass, and manual telegrams. We have also been running a mentoring program on the forum-side, by contacting new forum members to provide them with information and encourage them to get involved. These measures appear to have been quite effective in terms of boosting the number of contributors to our forum community. With the introduction of the Citizenship Bill, I hope that these new members will find a bigger role for themselves here on the forum.
One part of the Ministry's agenda that was not completed was the reorganization of our introductory material, both on the forum and in the game. I bear most of the blame for this, as it was a project I undertook personally, and while I have prepared a lot of the material, I never saw it to completion. Finalizing this will be a priority for the new term. During the new term, in addition to continuing the various recruitment and naturalization methods it employs currently, I would like the Ministry to additionally emphasize other ways of engaging our nations. I expect that the Ministry will work to increase governmental presence in the RMB, something which already happens but almost exclusively by myself. Furthermore, the Ministry will be expanding upon the feedback surveys we ran back in July, asking nations for their opinions on many aspects of the regional government. Those surveys received a large number of responses, providing us with very useful ideas, and resulted in many members becoming interested in and eventually joining the forum. I expect the Ministry to run more frequent such surveys and on a larger variety of subjects.
Foreign Affairs
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been successful in negotiating and completing the WALL treaty, as well as making sure that we are represented in all international affairs that affected our interests. The Ministry continued to maintain a highly effective diplomatic service, and we have seen an increase in the number of reports provided by our diplomats abroad.
During the new term, we will be focusing on novel treaties and diplomatic documents, fostering interregional cooperation on principles that are integral to our regional identity and diplomatic direction. As I reported in the progress report, the Ministry is currently in the process of negotiating an interregional treaty, though I will refrain from making any definite promises about when it will be presented for ratification. With regards to topical diplomatic events, I intend to continue with our policy of neutrality in the Osiris-Lazarus war, assuming that the participants in the war remain the same. Should the conflict expand to include treaty allies, I will revisit our stance as necessary.
Defense
The Ministry of Defense has been successful in developing a mighty, well-organized, and very active military force for our region. As I mentioned in the progress report, we currently have the largest military among all GCRs, as well as one of the largest in the game overall. It is also near-constantly active, by engaging in diverse operations either on its own or jointly with our allies and friends abroad. Together with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry is also maintaining a large recruitment system, which has already resulted in many new members enlisting in the NPA.
During the new term, I intend for the Ministry to continue along the same model of frequent training operations jointly with our allies. In addition to these missions, I expect the NPA to organize more rigorous, one-to-one training. This will be done in order to develop more broadly among our troops critical skills for modern NS warfare, such as good triggering skills, split-second moving, stealth techniques, and so on.
World Assembly Affairs
The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs has been successful in better utilizing our voting power in the World Assembly. We have been creating polls on almost all resolutions that went to vote, and we made sure to create those in a timely manner so that the Delegate’s vote can be cast within the first hour of the WA vote starting. Thanks to successful advertising, participation in our offsite polls has increased drastically. Moreover, the Ministry has reinstated the Information for Voters program, which has resulted in a near doubling of WA nations in the region that vote in WA resolutions. The Ministry has also been running successful campaigns in order to increase our overall WA population, the success of which was reflected in the fact that our WA population was affected by the summer slump much less severely than those of other feeders.
During the new term, I will not be appointing a Minister of World Assembly Affairs this new term, instead taking up this role myself, along with my other duties as Delegate. The emphasis of the Ministry will be expanding on all of these fronts through the WALL system. It is unfortunate that the full deployment of the WALL has been delayed for so long - the treaty was ratified by our RA almost two months ago, but due to a very long-drawn ratification process in the other signatories, it only came into effect last week. I have already been in discussions with the ambassadors from the other signatories on various plans for improving on recruitment, authoring education, voting effectiveness and regional development; I am sure you will be seeing many of these get rolled out in the coming weeks.
Communications
The Ministry of Communications has been successful in re-branding the regional newspaper and producing some high quality and widely read publications. However, maintaining frequent and voluminous has proven challenging. Several times we had writers contribute good articles that could not be published because we did not have enough material to put out a full issue. Then, once we did have enough material, those articles were so out-of-date that were either useless or, best case scenario, needed to be rewritten. In addition to articles going unutilized, this also resulted in several events important for TNP not receiving adequate or timely coverage.
To address this issue, in the new term I will be moving The Northern Lights to a different publication format. As soon as they come in and are edited, articles will be published in individual form in dispatches, our forum, and NationStates gameplay. This will ensure that all of our writer submissions all get used, and that we can swiftly cover important happenings in the region and internationally. The previous, lengthy issues will continue to be published, in the form of monthly digests of all individual articles, to be distributed to all of our embassies.
Culture
The Ministry of Culture has successfully overseen several cultural endeavors during the past term: our first theme week, the new map, the Democratic Union, Regional Identity Crisis, the RMB trivia game, Stories of The North Pacific, as well as other endeavors run by members of the Ministry Staff.
A second theme week that was planned for August has been unfortunately delayed, for reasons relating to unsuccessfully attempting to expand the event to include some of our allies. All of the material is ready, but I decided not to run the week during election period. It will instead run immediately after the conclusion of elections, with an expectation of having at least one more during the term. Furthermore, we will be focusing on more events that combine forum- and game-side aspects, such as the Regional Identity Crisis, trivia game, and Stories of TNP: in addition to keeping life game-side busy and entertaining, these events have acted as excellent tools for bringing nations to our forum community. Finally, as you have seen the Democratic Union has been launched by the Ministry staff. A focus of the Ministry in the new term will be expanding the scope of the Union, turning it into a full-fledged RP government, where all TNP nations can participate. This expanded Union will be advertised in a manner analogous to institutions of our "real" government, such as the Regional Assembly and the Executive Staff, in the hopes of becoming a remarkable RP project that will be a major attraction to the forums for our nations.
Thank you for your attention, and once again I apologize for the delay in posting my campaign. I will gladly take any questions you have.
~r3naissanc3r
