First off, please do not vote for me. Seriously. Bad things might happen. I am not in a RL position where I am able to assume the Delegacy. Should I be elected, I will pull a r3n and not take my oath (I am currently unsure if I will even be around to take an oath even if I wanted to). However, if you think that it would be entertaining to see what happens if the Delegate-elect does not take their oath, by all means, vote for me. During this platform though I will generally take the mindset that I am running.
That being said, I am running as I have found that in Delegacy platforms—exceptions exists—there is less policy discussion than I would like and can frequently focus more on abstract concepts to the absence of concrete steps and goals. Although over time, I find campaigns have improved in terms of what they offer, they can still lack. As such, I have put forward a campaign which I believe demonstrates what I would like Delegacy campaigns to be. Additionally, I am putting forward multiple policy pieces I do not believe have recently been discussed in the hopes that other candidates or Ministers see them and adopt them for their administration.
With that in mind, I would like to preface how I have approached each section of the Executive government, beginning with a discussion of the administration as a whole and then discussing each Ministry (in alphabetical order). For each section, I have attempted to explain where I see the Ministry as currently being, what the issues facing the Ministry are, how to solve these issues and how to measure success (to ensure accountability). In each place where I have a goal, I have bolded it.
Also, quick FYI, there is no TL;DR. Sorry, not sorry. :p
Administration
In the process to selecting Ministers for my administration, I will not offer any positions ahead of time and have not done so (which would be weird to ask: “Hey, so I’m running for Delegate and if I’m elected I won’t take my oath but still, want to be my MoFA?). I will accept applications for Ministerial positions from the citizenry as a whole and select from them. While I may encourage certain individuals to apply for certain positions, I would consider all applications. I believe this method will assist in providing the best Ministers possible and was a method which has permitted individuals such as Kasch, Ghost and myself entry into Cabinet.
I have always been a big fan of transparency and self-accountability demonstrated by making weekly reports as Minister. I would require all of my Ministers to periodically make reports to the region. I would require at least a beginning of term, a mid-term and an end of term. However, I recognize the activities of each Ministry are different in how publicly available they are and would permit them to make more frequent reports if that was more appropriate for their Ministry and would personally encourage more frequent reports.
Additionally, a change I plan to make is granting access to the Executive Council Chambers for Deputy Ministers. Deputy Ministers are the future of the Executive, as such I would like for them to be brought into the Cabinet areas to prepare them should they become a Minister. This will permit them to have an idea on how Cabinet works together.
Ministry of Communications
The Ministry of Communications (MoComm) currently has three different deliverables which it produces: The North Star (TNS), The Northern Lights (TNL), and the Northern Broadcast Service (NBS). One of the most important features for the Ministry is to produce content which is able to be distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to embassies. As mentioned by the Minister El Fiji Grande, this is accomplished by the TNS which can be easily and quickly produced and as such the core function of the Ministry is accomplished. The Ministry has done well from a period where they were having significant difficulty producing content to the point in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was outputting their own content to ensure our embassies in other regions were active. The Ministry can now expand into creating higher quality content in the form of TNL and the NBS. The publication of TNL has declined recently with the past term seeing no releases. However, more importantly, the NBS has seen a revival under El Fiji Grande and should be the priority to ensure the program does not lapse as it is more difficult to run a radio show than a newspaper. Radio shows in NS are far and few in between, Europeia is the only major region which consistently produces shows. While other regions (such as TSP) have dabbled in radio, they have all tended to be rather inconsistent. My goal is to increase the ability of the Ministry to produce shows. Currently, the broadcasts have been produced almost exclusively by El Fiji Grande barring the exception of Dinoium. This ability needs to be diffused amongst other members to ensure the program does not lapse as it previously did with the absence of Kasch and Scorch.
In order to ensure content from the NBS is consistently produced in the future, I aim to increase the bus factor (a measurement of risk for a project to fail resulting from a lack of sharing knowledge and technical skills). By the end of the term, to ensure we have an organization in which to minimize the risks of the NBS ending there will be three different individuals who ran a show. Instructions already exist on how to run a radio show. To facilitate the ease with which staff members are able to run a show, I propose to increase the frequency with which shows are broadcast and diminish the length for which a show runs. As it stands, the infrequent nature of the shows (which tend to be a commentary on current events and domestically consumed) can result in not having the opportunity to discuss topics repeatedly (for example, the vote on Artemis’s Security Application was nearly finished or finished (not quite sure with timing) by the time the NBS discussed it despite the process taking over two weeks) and as generally all that happened in TNP is discussed extensively, the show goes on for quite some time. For those who want to listen to the show, they need to set aside a chunk of time where they can listen it, for me, as it is so long but I find it quite interesting, I end up listening to the show while it is sped up. By increasing the frequency but reducing the length of broadcasts, on top of being more appropriate for the audience, it facilitates the ability for different staff members to run broadcasts.
Over the last few years, publications have been consistently produced by the Ministry, through this plan, I aim for broadcasts to join publications in being consistently published.
Ministry of Culture
The work of the Ministry of Culture is important as it creates internal activity. Typically, in most regions, this is frequently done by roleplays. However, the NP is fortunate enough to have a roleplaying community which is self-sustaining, one of the largest and continuing to expand. For our Ministry, it tends to focus on events. However, I would like to focus on an opportunity that has just presented itself: NS Cards. As NS Cards have just been released, I would like to capture some of the interest in the project and continue to capture it among our region given the interest many residents have in it.
Currently, I have not heard of any regions which have any initiatives related to Cards meaning we would be setting a trail-blazing path. Given the newness of Cards, many facets of what I would like to do in launching a TNP Cards project would be subject to revision as the administrators continue to make changes to the mini-game. However, of interest to me, and what I propose exploring are multiple areas for the government to get involved.
Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence is doing quite well from the days in which Gladio and QuietDad were the ones who were leading all the operations. We have quite a large number of officers who are able to lead operations. Additionally, we have a significant force of updaters and are able to consistently pull some of the largest updating forces out there that has the rest of gameplayers remarking on our ability. However, where we tend to be weaker is in our Auxiliary. While we were able to pull one of the largest pilling forces (19)during the operation in Stabby, we were outpaced by the NPO (which had the bonus of having two other games from which they could pull from) and closely approached by the South Pacific’s 18. This is what we need to focus on during the term to build up our forces that we can call upon to pile. By the end of the term, I would like to have an operation which deploys 30 pilers. Additionally, by keeping the Auxiliary active, we increase the chances they will join the Special Forces.
To increase our pilers I propose to ease the ability for individuals in which they can join the NPA. Currently, to become an active, updating member of the NPA, one needs to join the WA, join the forums and join Discord. Each of these requirements have multiple steps which individuals may be resistant to (providing their email address, joining an off-site forum held by us, etc.). In order to increase the number of individuals which are willing to pile we need to methodically reduce the barriers in each step to joining. To begin with, we would open the NPA to individuals who are not on the forums, nor on the Discord. If we are assisting with a Delegacy transition or gathering influence in a region to evict raiders and liberate it, our deployment is frequently not secret and is publicly known by anyone watching our jump point or the activity feed. As such, it makes little sense to require nations to join the Discord or the forums to check for security. We are able to telegram them orders and have nations follow those (which has been used previously by other organizations, primarily GCRs). Appropriately, we would limit promotions and access to classified information from individuals who do not go through the admin check on the forums.
In terms of operations that the NPA completes, I plan to work with each of our allies who are willing to do so (allies with a military or without one) on a training liberation in order to ensure should an event arise in which we must deploy to fulfill treaty obligations, our regions have practice working together and practice working on a mock “crisis” scenario.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tends to be more complex, on top of the internal functions it does (assigning ambassadors, distributing updates, and collecting reports), it also requires interaction with other regions and tends to set the foreign policy which is collaborated on with the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs. As such, I have separated my case for the Ministry into External changes and Internal changes and will discuss them separately.
External
In the wider NS community we are seeing the NPO’s diplomatic isolation and a period in which numerous regions are going to war and is consuming a lot of the oxygen in the interregional room so to speak. For us, I would prefer to work on improving our positive relations. Frequently, there is a push to work towards outreaching to new regions and working with them whenever the idea of positive diplomacy emerges. However, in my experience I have found that typically, a lot of regions which are emerging do not always last long. Back when I was active as MoFA, the emerging region on the time was The Universal Allegiance, nowadays, this region is inactive. Unfortunately, given that focusing on newer regions can often result in a waste of time (and I am not opposed to working with them), I would like to primarily focus on strengthening our ties with our existing allies: regions who have been around for a considerably long time. Our allies are quite diverse in government systems and how they run their regions and what they offer to their residents. I believe there is much we can learn from each other (indeed many parts of my platform have come after observing other regions) and I would like to work with our allies to share with us and with each other our knowledge and skills for region building. As this part of my plan requires cooperation from our allies, the implementation details would be up in the air as to whether a permanent forum is created, a periodical discussion occurs or a one-off event. Typically, most regional cooperation done is promoted along the lines of our military and the WA. I believe we can expand that by sharing with other regions our systems and vice versa.
Internal
Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is running similarly as to how it has in previous terms. Embassies are being accepted or declined appropriately, applicants are being accepted, ambassadors are being dispatched to their regions and so on. This is fairly similar to how the Ministry has operated over the past two years, the majority of programs implemented in the past while implemented for a term or two are discontinued shortly afterwards, from my Hoppy Hoppenings or my Weekly Reports to Bootsie’s Diplomatic Teams or Guy’s Mentor Program. The sole program which remains in existence are the Weekly Reports modified in which frequency is irregular and scope is reduced (informing the region of changes in diplomatic postings mainly as of late). On all four counts, these programs are no longer run by the Ministry. I find there are two likely reasons these programs (as well as other programs in the Ministry) were discontinued: a lack of value or a lack of organizational capability to continue the program. I believe generally the vast majority of recent programs implemented have failed due to a lack of organizational capability to continue the program, mainly from not having enough resources. I believe this can be attributed to the frequency with which leadership (barring Owenstacey) changes. Mainly, the turnover rate Ministers see. While it is good to have a variety of individuals gaining experience in the position, a consequence is most Ministers spend their time acclimatizing to their office and ensuring the core functions run rather than continuing new projects or releasing new ones. Since 2017, we have had 10 different Ministers in the span of 7 terms. The tendency for Ministers most recently late has been to pull them from pools of previous Delegates or from the related Ministries of Defence and World Assembly Affairs. Generally promotions are not coming from within the Ministry which I think back cycles back to the cause of lack of adequate resources.
In order to address this issue, a mentoring program will not be sufficient as while it may work for the duration of my term, it runs the risk of being discontinued. Accordingly, the solution must meet two dimensions for success, first, it must help with education, secondly, it must not be anything which requires upkeep from the administration unless they wish to focus attention towards improving it. What is needed is a document similar to what we have for training the NPA. While one was previously begun, it was not finished. This document was planned to discuss, issues such as how the WA and R/D affect FA, the different types of embassies, treaties, multi-regional treaties and more. By the end of this term, the previously begun Diplomatic Training Modules will be completed and made available to the Diplomatic Corps. The content was designed to answer the questions that would be repeatedly received from new individuals to Foreign Affairs. Additionally, it was built after receiving feedback from ambassadors on what they wanted known. As the requested information is from late 2016, we should revise the content to see if there is anything that will require modification my surveying newer members of the Diplomatic Corps. As the original author of the document, I do know the outline will need to be modified (such as including ideologies) prior to finish the writing. Once published, this document will not need to be modified regularly by any Ministers or their administration. However, this will help train the Diplomatic Corps, it would not be as effective as a mentorship program (which we do not have resources for) but it will help to improve the status of ambassadors prior to being deployed and in the future, should the Ministry have more resources, can be used as a launching point for a mentorship program and provide future administrations with a base.
Ministry of Home Affairs
This one is short and sweet. You're getting there. Only two Ministries left.
Home Affairs continues to send telegrams. A lot of them. I can tell as I have recently been creating a multitude of puppets to farm cards. To me, it seems as though I am receiving way too many telegrams. I believe it would an appropriate time to review what the Ministry sends out and accordingly combine and revise telegrams.
For the Gameside Advocates, I generally do approve of their presence and behaviour on the RMB. I think they are doing quite well. I would like to build on their success by launching games that can be played on the RMB, eg. Sniper.
Ministry of World Assembly Affairs
Currently, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs (MoWAA), is performing their core tasks admirably of producing however, I do believe that the Information For Voters (IFVs) could be published quicker, ideally, prior to a resolution going to a vote. However, that is not the main focus of my plan for the MoWAA. As generally, everything that needs to be done is getting done and we continue to work with our allies in WALL as well as other region’s Delegates, I would like to shift focus to our perception internationally. While we are recognized for our unparalleled power in the WA, due to the influence our vote carries when a vote is not going the way individuals like, we are often singled out as being elites who do not understand what is going on. Consequently a reflection is individuals tend to complain to the NS administrators there should be changes made to the system. Within the past year: There are at least 7 different suggestions. As a note, I am only including technical suggestions that are directly tied to changing the voting system and not other suggestions designed to counter our influence.
I see the reason individuals hold such animosity towards the NP is that they often do not understand who determines our votes, why we vote the way we do and that we are not as inaccessible to WA authors as we appear to be. I would like to increase our accessibility to WA authors so they are able to understand we are not as elitist as they have the impression of us being. This term, I aim for 10 different WA resolution authors to post their resolution on our forums or come on them to discuss them here to show we are not as inaccessible to authors are we appear. Additionally, I would like our IFVs to be posted in the appropriate WA thread so the reasons why we are recommending a vote for or against are clearly explained. I believe this perception in the WA of us as malevolent beings by certain individuals can be cleared up by proactively working on our transparency.
Summary
This is what I have proposed to do:
[th]Ministry[/th][th]Goal[/th]
I do know that typically, questions are asked along the lines of am I online at update to vote in the WA, who would I appoint as Cabinet members, etc. Now, while these questions may be asked, as I will (hopefully) not be elected, I would prefer for them to focus on the specific policies I have put forth.
Now remember, whatever you do, don’t vote for me!
That being said, I am running as I have found that in Delegacy platforms—exceptions exists—there is less policy discussion than I would like and can frequently focus more on abstract concepts to the absence of concrete steps and goals. Although over time, I find campaigns have improved in terms of what they offer, they can still lack. As such, I have put forward a campaign which I believe demonstrates what I would like Delegacy campaigns to be. Additionally, I am putting forward multiple policy pieces I do not believe have recently been discussed in the hopes that other candidates or Ministers see them and adopt them for their administration.
With that in mind, I would like to preface how I have approached each section of the Executive government, beginning with a discussion of the administration as a whole and then discussing each Ministry (in alphabetical order). For each section, I have attempted to explain where I see the Ministry as currently being, what the issues facing the Ministry are, how to solve these issues and how to measure success (to ensure accountability). In each place where I have a goal, I have bolded it.
Also, quick FYI, there is no TL;DR. Sorry, not sorry. :p
Administration
In the process to selecting Ministers for my administration, I will not offer any positions ahead of time and have not done so (which would be weird to ask: “Hey, so I’m running for Delegate and if I’m elected I won’t take my oath but still, want to be my MoFA?). I will accept applications for Ministerial positions from the citizenry as a whole and select from them. While I may encourage certain individuals to apply for certain positions, I would consider all applications. I believe this method will assist in providing the best Ministers possible and was a method which has permitted individuals such as Kasch, Ghost and myself entry into Cabinet.
I have always been a big fan of transparency and self-accountability demonstrated by making weekly reports as Minister. I would require all of my Ministers to periodically make reports to the region. I would require at least a beginning of term, a mid-term and an end of term. However, I recognize the activities of each Ministry are different in how publicly available they are and would permit them to make more frequent reports if that was more appropriate for their Ministry and would personally encourage more frequent reports.
Additionally, a change I plan to make is granting access to the Executive Council Chambers for Deputy Ministers. Deputy Ministers are the future of the Executive, as such I would like for them to be brought into the Cabinet areas to prepare them should they become a Minister. This will permit them to have an idea on how Cabinet works together.
Ministry of Communications
The Ministry of Communications (MoComm) currently has three different deliverables which it produces: The North Star (TNS), The Northern Lights (TNL), and the Northern Broadcast Service (NBS). One of the most important features for the Ministry is to produce content which is able to be distributed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to embassies. As mentioned by the Minister El Fiji Grande, this is accomplished by the TNS which can be easily and quickly produced and as such the core function of the Ministry is accomplished. The Ministry has done well from a period where they were having significant difficulty producing content to the point in which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was outputting their own content to ensure our embassies in other regions were active. The Ministry can now expand into creating higher quality content in the form of TNL and the NBS. The publication of TNL has declined recently with the past term seeing no releases. However, more importantly, the NBS has seen a revival under El Fiji Grande and should be the priority to ensure the program does not lapse as it is more difficult to run a radio show than a newspaper. Radio shows in NS are far and few in between, Europeia is the only major region which consistently produces shows. While other regions (such as TSP) have dabbled in radio, they have all tended to be rather inconsistent. My goal is to increase the ability of the Ministry to produce shows. Currently, the broadcasts have been produced almost exclusively by El Fiji Grande barring the exception of Dinoium. This ability needs to be diffused amongst other members to ensure the program does not lapse as it previously did with the absence of Kasch and Scorch.
In order to ensure content from the NBS is consistently produced in the future, I aim to increase the bus factor (a measurement of risk for a project to fail resulting from a lack of sharing knowledge and technical skills). By the end of the term, to ensure we have an organization in which to minimize the risks of the NBS ending there will be three different individuals who ran a show. Instructions already exist on how to run a radio show. To facilitate the ease with which staff members are able to run a show, I propose to increase the frequency with which shows are broadcast and diminish the length for which a show runs. As it stands, the infrequent nature of the shows (which tend to be a commentary on current events and domestically consumed) can result in not having the opportunity to discuss topics repeatedly (for example, the vote on Artemis’s Security Application was nearly finished or finished (not quite sure with timing) by the time the NBS discussed it despite the process taking over two weeks) and as generally all that happened in TNP is discussed extensively, the show goes on for quite some time. For those who want to listen to the show, they need to set aside a chunk of time where they can listen it, for me, as it is so long but I find it quite interesting, I end up listening to the show while it is sped up. By increasing the frequency but reducing the length of broadcasts, on top of being more appropriate for the audience, it facilitates the ability for different staff members to run broadcasts.
Over the last few years, publications have been consistently produced by the Ministry, through this plan, I aim for broadcasts to join publications in being consistently published.
Ministry of Culture
The work of the Ministry of Culture is important as it creates internal activity. Typically, in most regions, this is frequently done by roleplays. However, the NP is fortunate enough to have a roleplaying community which is self-sustaining, one of the largest and continuing to expand. For our Ministry, it tends to focus on events. However, I would like to focus on an opportunity that has just presented itself: NS Cards. As NS Cards have just been released, I would like to capture some of the interest in the project and continue to capture it among our region given the interest many residents have in it.
Currently, I have not heard of any regions which have any initiatives related to Cards meaning we would be setting a trail-blazing path. Given the newness of Cards, many facets of what I would like to do in launching a TNP Cards project would be subject to revision as the administrators continue to make changes to the mini-game. However, of interest to me, and what I propose exploring are multiple areas for the government to get involved.
- Creating a voluntary non-competition agreement among TNP card players in which we would not bid against each other. This would help TNPers by reducing prices of cards which they desire. The government would list participating nations in the agreement and they would agree to not bid against each other. In scenarios where a nation in the agreement is outbid by nations not in the agreement, another nation in the agreement would be able to enter. In cases where individuals attempt to use puppets to avoid the agreement, we would be able to track it using the history, etc.
- Create a nation run by the government (or use TNL depending on the potential available for implementation) as a TNP bank. Ownership of the bank could be determined by contribution to the bank in forms of cards and proportionately, returns on investments in cards by the government could be divided up. This presents the opportunity for us to create a semblance of an economy for those interested.
- Similar to the previous point, use a nation to collect cards of value or of interest which could then be awarded as prizes in competitions (such as in the Endo frenzy which was held). As the opportunity to reward nations is frequently limited to polls, changing the WFE, flags, customizable fields of government officials, or ribbons, this presents an opportunity to reward nations in a tangible way.
- Create achievements in card collecting and offering badges/ribbons for nations who meet the achievements whether they be collecting all Security Councillors or having a deck value of over 100 bank.
- Create a forum for nations to work together in situations where complex matches arise. Nations can work on preventing other nations from intercepting transfers of bank from puppets. For example, the other day, Yuno accidentally bid 1 on a common she had, but on an offer of another player. She was able to offer her own card for 1 and I bid the other nation’s ask price to stop Yuno from accidentally transferring bank to the wrong nation.
- Create a dispatch detailing how cards work for nations in the region from how to acquire cards to the more complex interactions during a matched auction.
Ministry of Defence
The Ministry of Defence is doing quite well from the days in which Gladio and QuietDad were the ones who were leading all the operations. We have quite a large number of officers who are able to lead operations. Additionally, we have a significant force of updaters and are able to consistently pull some of the largest updating forces out there that has the rest of gameplayers remarking on our ability. However, where we tend to be weaker is in our Auxiliary. While we were able to pull one of the largest pilling forces (19)during the operation in Stabby, we were outpaced by the NPO (which had the bonus of having two other games from which they could pull from) and closely approached by the South Pacific’s 18. This is what we need to focus on during the term to build up our forces that we can call upon to pile. By the end of the term, I would like to have an operation which deploys 30 pilers. Additionally, by keeping the Auxiliary active, we increase the chances they will join the Special Forces.
To increase our pilers I propose to ease the ability for individuals in which they can join the NPA. Currently, to become an active, updating member of the NPA, one needs to join the WA, join the forums and join Discord. Each of these requirements have multiple steps which individuals may be resistant to (providing their email address, joining an off-site forum held by us, etc.). In order to increase the number of individuals which are willing to pile we need to methodically reduce the barriers in each step to joining. To begin with, we would open the NPA to individuals who are not on the forums, nor on the Discord. If we are assisting with a Delegacy transition or gathering influence in a region to evict raiders and liberate it, our deployment is frequently not secret and is publicly known by anyone watching our jump point or the activity feed. As such, it makes little sense to require nations to join the Discord or the forums to check for security. We are able to telegram them orders and have nations follow those (which has been used previously by other organizations, primarily GCRs). Appropriately, we would limit promotions and access to classified information from individuals who do not go through the admin check on the forums.
In terms of operations that the NPA completes, I plan to work with each of our allies who are willing to do so (allies with a military or without one) on a training liberation in order to ensure should an event arise in which we must deploy to fulfill treaty obligations, our regions have practice working together and practice working on a mock “crisis” scenario.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
As the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tends to be more complex, on top of the internal functions it does (assigning ambassadors, distributing updates, and collecting reports), it also requires interaction with other regions and tends to set the foreign policy which is collaborated on with the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs. As such, I have separated my case for the Ministry into External changes and Internal changes and will discuss them separately.
External
In the wider NS community we are seeing the NPO’s diplomatic isolation and a period in which numerous regions are going to war and is consuming a lot of the oxygen in the interregional room so to speak. For us, I would prefer to work on improving our positive relations. Frequently, there is a push to work towards outreaching to new regions and working with them whenever the idea of positive diplomacy emerges. However, in my experience I have found that typically, a lot of regions which are emerging do not always last long. Back when I was active as MoFA, the emerging region on the time was The Universal Allegiance, nowadays, this region is inactive. Unfortunately, given that focusing on newer regions can often result in a waste of time (and I am not opposed to working with them), I would like to primarily focus on strengthening our ties with our existing allies: regions who have been around for a considerably long time. Our allies are quite diverse in government systems and how they run their regions and what they offer to their residents. I believe there is much we can learn from each other (indeed many parts of my platform have come after observing other regions) and I would like to work with our allies to share with us and with each other our knowledge and skills for region building. As this part of my plan requires cooperation from our allies, the implementation details would be up in the air as to whether a permanent forum is created, a periodical discussion occurs or a one-off event. Typically, most regional cooperation done is promoted along the lines of our military and the WA. I believe we can expand that by sharing with other regions our systems and vice versa.
Internal
Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is running similarly as to how it has in previous terms. Embassies are being accepted or declined appropriately, applicants are being accepted, ambassadors are being dispatched to their regions and so on. This is fairly similar to how the Ministry has operated over the past two years, the majority of programs implemented in the past while implemented for a term or two are discontinued shortly afterwards, from my Hoppy Hoppenings or my Weekly Reports to Bootsie’s Diplomatic Teams or Guy’s Mentor Program. The sole program which remains in existence are the Weekly Reports modified in which frequency is irregular and scope is reduced (informing the region of changes in diplomatic postings mainly as of late). On all four counts, these programs are no longer run by the Ministry. I find there are two likely reasons these programs (as well as other programs in the Ministry) were discontinued: a lack of value or a lack of organizational capability to continue the program. I believe generally the vast majority of recent programs implemented have failed due to a lack of organizational capability to continue the program, mainly from not having enough resources. I believe this can be attributed to the frequency with which leadership (barring Owenstacey) changes. Mainly, the turnover rate Ministers see. While it is good to have a variety of individuals gaining experience in the position, a consequence is most Ministers spend their time acclimatizing to their office and ensuring the core functions run rather than continuing new projects or releasing new ones. Since 2017, we have had 10 different Ministers in the span of 7 terms. The tendency for Ministers most recently late has been to pull them from pools of previous Delegates or from the related Ministries of Defence and World Assembly Affairs. Generally promotions are not coming from within the Ministry which I think back cycles back to the cause of lack of adequate resources.
In order to address this issue, a mentoring program will not be sufficient as while it may work for the duration of my term, it runs the risk of being discontinued. Accordingly, the solution must meet two dimensions for success, first, it must help with education, secondly, it must not be anything which requires upkeep from the administration unless they wish to focus attention towards improving it. What is needed is a document similar to what we have for training the NPA. While one was previously begun, it was not finished. This document was planned to discuss, issues such as how the WA and R/D affect FA, the different types of embassies, treaties, multi-regional treaties and more. By the end of this term, the previously begun Diplomatic Training Modules will be completed and made available to the Diplomatic Corps. The content was designed to answer the questions that would be repeatedly received from new individuals to Foreign Affairs. Additionally, it was built after receiving feedback from ambassadors on what they wanted known. As the requested information is from late 2016, we should revise the content to see if there is anything that will require modification my surveying newer members of the Diplomatic Corps. As the original author of the document, I do know the outline will need to be modified (such as including ideologies) prior to finish the writing. Once published, this document will not need to be modified regularly by any Ministers or their administration. However, this will help train the Diplomatic Corps, it would not be as effective as a mentorship program (which we do not have resources for) but it will help to improve the status of ambassadors prior to being deployed and in the future, should the Ministry have more resources, can be used as a launching point for a mentorship program and provide future administrations with a base.
Ministry of Home Affairs
This one is short and sweet. You're getting there. Only two Ministries left.
Home Affairs continues to send telegrams. A lot of them. I can tell as I have recently been creating a multitude of puppets to farm cards. To me, it seems as though I am receiving way too many telegrams. I believe it would an appropriate time to review what the Ministry sends out and accordingly combine and revise telegrams.
For the Gameside Advocates, I generally do approve of their presence and behaviour on the RMB. I think they are doing quite well. I would like to build on their success by launching games that can be played on the RMB, eg. Sniper.
Ministry of World Assembly Affairs
Currently, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs (MoWAA), is performing their core tasks admirably of producing however, I do believe that the Information For Voters (IFVs) could be published quicker, ideally, prior to a resolution going to a vote. However, that is not the main focus of my plan for the MoWAA. As generally, everything that needs to be done is getting done and we continue to work with our allies in WALL as well as other region’s Delegates, I would like to shift focus to our perception internationally. While we are recognized for our unparalleled power in the WA, due to the influence our vote carries when a vote is not going the way individuals like, we are often singled out as being elites who do not understand what is going on. Consequently a reflection is individuals tend to complain to the NS administrators there should be changes made to the system. Within the past year: There are at least 7 different suggestions. As a note, I am only including technical suggestions that are directly tied to changing the voting system and not other suggestions designed to counter our influence.
I see the reason individuals hold such animosity towards the NP is that they often do not understand who determines our votes, why we vote the way we do and that we are not as inaccessible to WA authors as we appear to be. I would like to increase our accessibility to WA authors so they are able to understand we are not as elitist as they have the impression of us being. This term, I aim for 10 different WA resolution authors to post their resolution on our forums or come on them to discuss them here to show we are not as inaccessible to authors are we appear. Additionally, I would like our IFVs to be posted in the appropriate WA thread so the reasons why we are recommending a vote for or against are clearly explained. I believe this perception in the WA of us as malevolent beings by certain individuals can be cleared up by proactively working on our transparency.
Summary
This is what I have proposed to do:
| Admin | accept applications for Minister positions |
| Admin | require Ministers to periodically make reports to the region |
| Admin | grant access to Executive Council Chambers for Deputy Ministers[ |
| Comm | have three different individuals run an NBS show |
| Culture | launch a TNP Cards project |
| Defence | deploy 30 pilers in an operation |
| Defence | work with each willing ally (with a military or without) on a training liberation |
| Foreign | work with our allies to share knowledge and skills on region building |
| Foreign | finish the Diplomatic Training Modules |
| Home | review what the Ministry sends out |
| Home | launching games that can be played on the RMB |
| WA | have 10 different WA authors post their resolution here or come here to discuss them |
I do know that typically, questions are asked along the lines of am I online at update to vote in the WA, who would I appoint as Cabinet members, etc. Now, while these questions may be asked, as I will (hopefully) not be elected, I would prefer for them to focus on the specific policies I have put forth.
Now remember, whatever you do, don’t vote for me!
