An Idiots Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces

[Yuno]

Title: An Idiots Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces

Description: Things I did when first elected to TEP Delegate (you can use this guide to develop your own region or leadership style.)


1. Ping everyone, and ask "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, the Discord, the Skype, and a mass telegram to the full region.



2. Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available to log in or play NS.


3. (Great, you grabbed a massive number of followers! But you haven't even invented any jobs for them yet, yet you already started hiring?) well, time to fix that! Therefore, step 3 is to INVENT JOBs.



GUIDE: How to invent Jobs!


1. ask people "what are you good at?"

Examples:


If people say Roleplay, invent a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government,) direct him there. Join that department as well so that you know what's going on; then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If the RPs pretty much don't exist, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.


If people say Coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your playerbase.


If people say storywriting, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor Chief/Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

Like Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB, and plopped him into the position of Lead Journalist, and he created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first timer for me, I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, that it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knows how to run. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; beforeI hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish 10+ visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.


If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do," (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get) -- give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them. If you think there aren't any, that means you haven't invented them yet.


These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, or writing telegram drafts for YOU to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/anyDepartment (hey, that could be a department of its own; called Recruitment/Outreach Department.) Or a super boring job, like being assigned to do weekly checks of every citizen's nation, to ensure their nation does not CTE and to revive the nation if it did.


These boring jobs are beneficial because they are easy to teach to people who have no creativity and want to follow instructions without much thinking.



Now that I've explained two categories of jobs, the first category being the "Creative Jobs" (what creative people are good at; such as Newspaper writing, Programming, Roleplaying) and the "Boring Jobs" (what uncreative people are good at; they are taught about the statistics of the region, and given instructions on what to do, such as "write specific telegrams for me to send to the region," or "post these dispatches by following this format I give you," or, "count how many citizens have nations in this region," or "approve these citizenship applications for me.")


These are actually mislabeled. The so-called "Boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?"


The labels of “Creative Jobs” vs “Boring Jobs” are simply terms for separation; boring jobs are what’s SET as departments (departments that nearly all regions possess,) and Creative jobs are custom departments that you INVENTED (that only your region has.)


I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. So you might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. So that’s a skippable step 1 (that you can revisit later,) which consists of inventing the Creative Departments for Creative Jobs.


Step 2) Invent the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”


The standard template consists of these listed departments:


1) Ministry of Home Affairs

2) Ministry of Foreign Affairs

3) Ministry of Communications

4) Ministry of Culture

5) Ministry of World Assembly Affairs


AND, you have to put descriptions under each department name. You will have to WRITE those descriptions, detailing exactly WHAT exactly the job does. (If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know WHAT he’s expected to DO once he’s hired for that department.)


I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3nnaissance, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing, heh heh heh. (Ok, for real, I gotta credit him.) Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite not even joining his Executive Staff:


https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/


(Honestly, now that I think about it, he helped a lot. Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore, but that’s fine.)


Now let’s start with an example, and if you follow this example, you should easily be able to do the same for the rest of your writing project.

1. Department of Home Affairs, Integration, Outreach, or whatever you call it.
   

DESCRIPTION: Write the job duties here!


Okay, I looked at TNP’s thread, and saw R3n write:

Ministry of Home Affairs - Minister Marcus Antonius


Recruiter of nations in The North Pacific: The North Pacific has over 10,000 nations, but only a few dozen of them are active on the forum. One of the functions of the Ministry of Home Affairs is to encourage as many of these nations as possible to join the forum, so that they can enjoy the full experience of The North Pacific. As a Recruiter, you will be expected to maintain a regular presence on the Regional Messaging Board, where you will be posting to promote forum membership and involvement. Furthermore, you will be contacting nations by telegram, to invite them to join the forum and assist them with any issues they may encounter in the process. Good communication skills are required for both of these functions. You will also need to make a considerable time commitment towards watching and participating in the game-side aspects of The North Pacific. Of course, this also means that you get to engage with the entire nation population of The North Pacific, which as you will discover is a very enjoyable experience.


Forum Mentor: Our forum receives more than a dozen new members a week and these members often need help learning about the opportunities and the things to do in The North Pacific. Our mentoring program assigns each of our mentors to a few mentees twice a week. You will get to meet new nations every week and will find it to be a very rewarding experience. Applicants should be long-standing and experienced members of the region or be willing to take on more responsibility than they are normally used to. We have 2 spots available so apply soon if you want to become a part of this program.

Wow! I’m not sure if I’m allowed to copy word-for-word, most likely not. (I was the Delegate of a different Pacific at the time.) So instead, I wrote this:

Department of Integration

Minister of Integration: [INSERT NAME OF a PERSON YOU HIRED, HERE]


If you join the Department of Integration, you will become an Executive Staff member. We have over 6,000 nations that we can recruit from to join our forum and Discords. As a Recruiter, you will be active on the Regional Message Board, where you will interact with your REGIONMATES and drag them into our forum. You'll also telegram them and help them. This basically means you'll be interacting with all of [REGION NAME,] which is very well worth it (I personally post on the RMB regularly). Once they are in the forum, they might have questions on how to navigate the forum or how to use it or what to do next, so you should explore the forums just to know where to direct people or what answers to give them (i.e. this is the government job thread, and the citizen app thread is above this thread, and there's also the army application thread..) The Ministry may also create/organize fun events in coordination with Information and Culture.

---


I used that. So I did this, for the 5 Departments. Now I have 5 Departments on hand, in an Application thread.


Here comes the fun part; the actual APP that the reader fills out.


This is TNP’s,



Nation in The North Pacific:

Ministry you are interested in joining:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:


I copied TNP but added onto it:



Name:

Nation in
Discord Username:

Status within Regional Discord: Present or Absent

Status within Executive Discord: Present or Absent

Ministries you are interested in joining:

Reason for joining:

Anticipated duties:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:





ALL DONE! Now, your thread (of Executive job applications) is ready to post! (Add a short summary of what’s the purpose of the thread- (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the TOP of the thread.)


So you posted it, now what?


Now, you LINK the thread to all the people you hired, and have them FILL out the form. This way, they become “OFFICIAL” AND you look active- like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes.


(Naw, the reality is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.)



---


STEP THREE [INVENTING JOBS, and the GUIDE on “how to invent jobs”] COMPLETE. Reminder, you just read a tutorial WITHIN a tutorial. Let’s get back to on topic, to the next step; what do you do after you invented the jobs and job application thread.


Step 4) I believe you already HAVE a normal Discord server, for anyone in the Region to enter and hang out. If you don’t, make one. But most Delegates/Founders do.


Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the Main Chat; that discord server will be your Government Server. (Create it if it doesn’t exist.) Your newly hired government workers will be invited to that Discord server.

Within that server, you will create a separate channel for each government department, and give access to each government member to their respective departments.


You will also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. And a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.


These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup. I took a lot of setup ideas from The North Pacific’s own government server.


Anyway, with a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.


Step 5) Constantly advertisee the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional Server to the Government Server (and have them fill out the app you made.) Then tell them what job you want them to do, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.


Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

----

I can go deeper, and talk about the Foreign Department, a very sensitive department that you can’t just hire random noobs for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls, who are better suited for newspaper writing.


Here’s what I wrote as a Description for the Foreign Department: If you become a Diplomat in the Ambassador Corps: The Department of Foreign Affairs maintains interregional relations by communicating with other regions. Each embassy of TEP is either a treaty-ally or potentially-ally of TEP, and represents us abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The East Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The East Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


I wrote this, based off of TNP’s Foreign Affairs department:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Minister McMasterdonia


Ambassador in the Diplomatic Corps: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a presence for The North Pacific abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The North Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The North Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


Team Leader, Mentor: An internal role which is appointed by the Minister in communication with the Delegate and Senior Diplomats, these are experienced diplomats and Ambassadors who are ready to move up the ladder and begin passing on their knowledge to newer Diplomats. A demonstrable knowledge of foreign affairs and diplomacy will be essential in order to achieve this position and subject to an interview with senior ministry staff and passing vetting procedures.


Senior Diplomat: This is a senior leadership role within the executive staff that will advise on diplomatic issues, treaty viability, treaty-law and other high-level foreign affair and diplomatic matters. They will set the curriculum for mentoring, will oversee assessments and will advise the government on foreign affairs matters including embassies. This is an internally appointed role subject to application and vetting.

That’s all, I merely wanted to show another example.


With all that said, good luck.


P.S. I actually did all this when I was the delegate of TEP (smug because TEP still uses the systems I set up.) Mostly thanks to TNP for their ideas ^-^ I always wanted to join TNP since this region is the place that originated most of my inspiration. While I’m no longer active, it’s always comfortable to stay close to the source(s) of my admiration.



P.S. Now I’d like to expand on this.


OPTIONAL Step 5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department.) You should create a separate Military Application thread. However, you’ll still describe the military as a department (as a pre-set/“boring jobs” section department) in your Executive Application thread, but link your thread to the military app. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military, automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to PILE, or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to Update, or how to LEAD Updates, there are plenty of guides out there; this article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.


Step 6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.


Step 7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an Endorsement # goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. (I can go deep onto which steps to take.) This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department.


Step 8) Thank your workers, and award them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do. (Speaking of that, thanks Ghost for suggesting this article and bugging me to write this.)

Step 9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities, you're running a community when you're a delegate, and people get bored fast (including you) if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! (And don't burnout, take breaks too, like with all games.)
-----'>:

Discord Username:

Status within Regional Discord: Present or Absent

Status within Executive Discord: Present or Absent

Ministries you are interested in joining:

Reason for joining:

Anticipated duties:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:





ALL DONE! Now, your thread (of Executive job applications) is ready to post! (Add a short summary of what’s the purpose of the thread- (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the TOP of the thread.)


So you posted it, now what?


Now, you LINK the thread to all the people you hired, and have them FILL out the form. This way, they become “OFFICIAL” AND you look active- like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes.


(Naw, the reality is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.)



---


STEP THREE [INVENTING JOBS, and the GUIDE on “how to invent jobs”] COMPLETE. Reminder, you just read a tutorial WITHIN a tutorial. Let’s get back to on topic, to the next step; what do you do after you invented the jobs and job application thread.


Step 4) I believe you already HAVE a normal Discord server, for anyone in the Region to enter and hang out. If you don’t, make one. But most Delegates/Founders do.


Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the Main Chat; that discord server will be your Government Server. (Create it if it doesn’t exist.) Your newly hired government workers will be invited to that Discord server.

Within that server, you will create a separate channel for each government department, and give access to each government member to their respective departments.


You will also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. And a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.


These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup. I took a lot of setup ideas from The North Pacific’s own government server.


Anyway, with a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.


Step 5) Constantly advertisee the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional Server to the Government Server (and have them fill out the app you made.) Then tell them what job you want them to do, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.


Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

----

I can go deeper, and talk about the Foreign Department, a very sensitive department that you can’t just hire random noobs for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls, who are better suited for newspaper writing.


Here’s what I wrote as a Description for the Foreign Department: If you become a Diplomat in the Ambassador Corps: The Department of Foreign Affairs maintains interregional relations by communicating with other regions. Each embassy of TEP is either a treaty-ally or potentially-ally of TEP, and represents us abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The East Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The East Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


I wrote this, based off of TNP’s Foreign Affairs department:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Minister McMasterdonia


Ambassador in the Diplomatic Corps: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a presence for The North Pacific abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The North Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The North Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


Team Leader, Mentor: An internal role which is appointed by the Minister in communication with the Delegate and Senior Diplomats, these are experienced diplomats and Ambassadors who are ready to move up the ladder and begin passing on their knowledge to newer Diplomats. A demonstrable knowledge of foreign affairs and diplomacy will be essential in order to achieve this position and subject to an interview with senior ministry staff and passing vetting procedures.


Senior Diplomat: This is a senior leadership role within the executive staff that will advise on diplomatic issues, treaty viability, treaty-law and other high-level foreign affair and diplomatic matters. They will set the curriculum for mentoring, will oversee assessments and will advise the government on foreign affairs matters including embassies. This is an internally appointed role subject to application and vetting.

That’s all, I merely wanted to show another example.


With all that said, good luck.


P.S. I actually did all this when I was the delegate of TEP (smug because TEP still uses the systems I set up.) Mostly thanks to TNP for their ideas ^-^ I always wanted to join TNP since this region is the place that originated most of my inspiration. While I’m no longer active, it’s always comfortable to stay close to the source(s) of my admiration.



P.S. Now I’d like to expand on this.


OPTIONAL Step 5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department.) You should create a separate Military Application thread. However, you’ll still describe the military as a department (as a pre-set/“boring jobs” section department) in your Executive Application thread, but link your thread to the military app. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military, automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to PILE, or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to Update, or how to LEAD Updates, there are plenty of guides out there; this article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.


Step 6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.


Step 7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an Endorsement # goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. (I can go deep onto which steps to take.) This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department.


Step 8) Thank your workers, and award them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do. (Speaking of that, thanks Ghost for suggesting this article and bugging me to write this.)

Step 9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities, you're running a community when you're a delegate, and people get bored fast (including you) if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! (And don't burnout, take breaks too, like with all games.)
-----'>:

Nation in the World Assembly:

Brief summary of your history on NS:

How long have you been in -----'>:

Discord Username:

Status within Regional Discord: Present or Absent

Status within Executive Discord: Present or Absent

Ministries you are interested in joining:

Reason for joining:

Anticipated duties:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:





ALL DONE! Now, your thread (of Executive job applications) is ready to post! (Add a short summary of what’s the purpose of the thread- (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the TOP of the thread.)


So you posted it, now what?


Now, you LINK the thread to all the people you hired, and have them FILL out the form. This way, they become “OFFICIAL” AND you look active- like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes.


(Naw, the reality is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.)



---


STEP THREE [INVENTING JOBS, and the GUIDE on “how to invent jobs”] COMPLETE. Reminder, you just read a tutorial WITHIN a tutorial. Let’s get back to on topic, to the next step; what do you do after you invented the jobs and job application thread.


Step 4) I believe you already HAVE a normal Discord server, for anyone in the Region to enter and hang out. If you don’t, make one. But most Delegates/Founders do.


Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the Main Chat; that discord server will be your Government Server. (Create it if it doesn’t exist.) Your newly hired government workers will be invited to that Discord server.

Within that server, you will create a separate channel for each government department, and give access to each government member to their respective departments.


You will also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. And a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.


These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup. I took a lot of setup ideas from The North Pacific’s own government server.


Anyway, with a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.


Step 5) Constantly advertisee the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional Server to the Government Server (and have them fill out the app you made.) Then tell them what job you want them to do, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.


Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

----

I can go deeper, and talk about the Foreign Department, a very sensitive department that you can’t just hire random noobs for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls, who are better suited for newspaper writing.


Here’s what I wrote as a Description for the Foreign Department: If you become a Diplomat in the Ambassador Corps: The Department of Foreign Affairs maintains interregional relations by communicating with other regions. Each embassy of TEP is either a treaty-ally or potentially-ally of TEP, and represents us abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The East Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The East Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


I wrote this, based off of TNP’s Foreign Affairs department:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Minister McMasterdonia


Ambassador in the Diplomatic Corps: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a presence for The North Pacific abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The North Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The North Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


Team Leader, Mentor: An internal role which is appointed by the Minister in communication with the Delegate and Senior Diplomats, these are experienced diplomats and Ambassadors who are ready to move up the ladder and begin passing on their knowledge to newer Diplomats. A demonstrable knowledge of foreign affairs and diplomacy will be essential in order to achieve this position and subject to an interview with senior ministry staff and passing vetting procedures.


Senior Diplomat: This is a senior leadership role within the executive staff that will advise on diplomatic issues, treaty viability, treaty-law and other high-level foreign affair and diplomatic matters. They will set the curriculum for mentoring, will oversee assessments and will advise the government on foreign affairs matters including embassies. This is an internally appointed role subject to application and vetting.

That’s all, I merely wanted to show another example.


With all that said, good luck.


P.S. I actually did all this when I was the delegate of TEP (smug because TEP still uses the systems I set up.) Mostly thanks to TNP for their ideas ^-^ I always wanted to join TNP since this region is the place that originated most of my inspiration. While I’m no longer active, it’s always comfortable to stay close to the source(s) of my admiration.



P.S. Now I’d like to expand on this.


OPTIONAL Step 5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department.) You should create a separate Military Application thread. However, you’ll still describe the military as a department (as a pre-set/“boring jobs” section department) in your Executive Application thread, but link your thread to the military app. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military, automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to PILE, or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to Update, or how to LEAD Updates, there are plenty of guides out there; this article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.


Step 6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.


Step 7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an Endorsement # goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. (I can go deep onto which steps to take.) This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department.


Step 8) Thank your workers, and award them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do. (Speaking of that, thanks Ghost for suggesting this article and bugging me to write this.)

Step 9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities, you're running a community when you're a delegate, and people get bored fast (including you) if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! (And don't burnout, take breaks too, like with all games.)
-----

 

[Gorundu]

Ok, I'm going to attempt to edit this whole mess article. A lot of it is just fixing errors and improving cohesion, which I didn't bother to show the original text. For the parts where I made significant changes to the text, I made sure to indicate it with red and blue ink.

Spoiler: With markings

An Idiots Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces
AKA Things I did when I was first elected WA Delegate of TEP

First steps

1) Ask everyone in the region: "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" (or something to that effect) Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, Discord, Skype, or a mass telegram to the whole region.

2) Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available.

3) Great, you grabbed a massive number of followers! But wait, you don't even have any jobs for them yet. Well, time to fix that!

How to invent jobs!

1) Ask people what they're good at. Here are some examples of what they might say and what you could do:

If they say Roleplay, create a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government), direct them there. Make sure you know what's going on there - then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If RP doesn't exist yet, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.

If people say coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your player base.

If people say writing, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor/Chief Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

(An example of that would be Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB and plopped into the position of Lead Journalist. He created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I just founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first timer for me, I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, that it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knows how to run. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; before I hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish 10+ visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.)

If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do" (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get) -- give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them.

These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, writing and posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, approving citizenship applications, doing the region's statistics (like checking every citizen's nation, counting them, making sure they haven't CTEd), or writing telegram drafts for you to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/any Department (hey, that could be a department of its own - Recruitment/Outreach Department). Or a super boring job, like doing weekly checks of every citizen's nation, to ensure their nation does not CTE and ask the citizen to revive the nation if it did.

Actually, this is a bit misleading. The so-called "boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?" Nonetheless, they are easy to teach to people who just want to follow instructions without much thinking.

Now that I've explained two categories of jobs, the first category being the "Creative Jobs" (such as Newspaper writing, Programming, Roleplaying) and the "Boring Jobs" (what uncreative people are good at; they are taught about the statistics of the region, and given instructions on what to do, such as "write specific telegrams for me to send to the region," or "post these dispatches by following this format I give you," or, "count how many citizens have nations in this region," or "approve these citizenship applications for me.")(Unnecessary repetition - some of this added to previous paragraphs, denoted in blue)

These are actually mislabeled. The so-called "Boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?"(moved up, denoted in blue)


The labels of “Creative Jobs” vs “Boring Jobs” are simply terms for separation; boring jobs are what’s SET as departments (departments that nearly all regions possess,) and Creative jobs are custom departments that you INVENTED (that only your region has). (This part I feel is unnecessary and somewhat false - many regions have these same "creative jobs" like newspapers/RP/etc.)

I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. You might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. Don't worry, you can revisit that later. But now...

2) Create the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”

The standard template consists of these listed departments:

• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of World Assembly Affairs

You will have to write the descriptions for each department, detailing exactly what each one does. (If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know what he’s expected to do once he’s hired for that department.)

I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3naissanc3r, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing . (For real though, I gotta credit him.) Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite never joining his Executive Staff: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/

(Honestly, now that I think about it, he helped a lot. Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore.)

Now let’s look at an example for the Ministry of Home Affairs (or Integration, or Outreach, or whatever you call it), and if you follow this example, you should easily be able to do the same for the rest of your writing project.

I looked at TNP’s thread, and saw R3n write:

Ministry of Home Affairs - Minister Marcus Antonius

Recruiter of nations in The North Pacific: The North Pacific has over 10,000 nations, but only a few dozen of them are active on the forum. One of the functions of the Ministry of Home Affairs is to encourage as many of these nations as possible to join the forum, so that they can enjoy the full experience of The North Pacific. As a Recruiter, you will be expected to maintain a regular presence on the Regional Messaging Board, where you will be posting to promote forum membership and involvement. Furthermore, you will be contacting nations by telegram, to invite them to join the forum and assist them with any issues they may encounter in the process. Good communication skills are required for both of these functions. You will also need to make a considerable time commitment towards watching and participating in the game-side aspects of The North Pacific. Of course, this also means that you get to engage with the entire nation population of The North Pacific, which as you will discover is a very enjoyable experience.

Forum Mentor: Our forum receives more than a dozen new members a week and these members often need help learning about the opportunities and the things to do in The North Pacific. Our mentoring program assigns each of our mentors to a few mentees twice a week. You will get to meet new nations every week and will find it to be a very rewarding experience. Applicants should be long-standing and experienced members of the region or be willing to take on more responsibility than they are normally used to. We have 2 spots available so apply soon if you want to become a part of this program.

Wow! I couldn't copy it word for word, so instead, I wrote this:

Department of Integration

Minister of Integration: [INSERT NAME OF a PERSON YOU HIRED, HERE]

If you join the Department of Integration, you will become an Executive Staff member. We have over 6,000 nations that we can recruit from to join our forum and Discords. As a Recruiter, you will be active on the Regional Message Board, where you will interact with your REGIONMATES and drag them into our forum. You'll also telegram them and help them. This basically means you'll be interacting with all of [REGION NAME], which is very well worth it (I personally post on the RMB regularly). Once they are in the forum, they might have questions on how to navigate the forum or how to use it or what to do next, so you should explore the forums just to know where to direct people or what answers to give them (i.e. this is the government job thread, and the citizen app thread is above this thread, and there's also the army application thread..) The Ministry may also create/organize fun events in coordination with Information and Culture.

Now, do this for all 5 Ministries on hand, and create an application thread to put all this in.

Here comes the fun part: the actual application that the reader fills out.

This is TNP’s:

Nation in The North Pacific:

Ministry you are interested in joining:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:

I copied TNP but added some things:

Name:

Nation:

Discord Username:

Status within Regional Discord: Present or Absent

Status within Executive Discord: Present or Absent

Ministries you are interested in joining:

Reason for joining:

Anticipated duties:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:

ALL DONE! Now, your thread (for Executive job applications) is ready to post! Add a short summary of the purpose of the thread (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the top of the thread.

So you posted it, now what?

You link the thread to all the people you hired, and have them fill out the form. This way, they become “official” AND you look active - like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes. (Naw, the reality is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.)

STEP TWO COMPLETE. Reminder - you just read a tutorial within a tutorial. Let’s get back to on topic, to the next step: what do you do after you invented the jobs and job application thread?

3) Make a Discord Server. Hopefully, you already have a normal Discord server, for everyone in the region to hang out. If you don’t, make one.

Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the main server; that discord server will be your Government Server. Invite your our newly hired government workers there.

Within that server, you should create a separate channel for each government department, and give each government member access to their respective departments.

You should also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. And a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.

These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup. I took a lot of setup ideas from The North Pacific’s own government server.

Anyway, with a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.

4) Constantly advertise the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional Server to the Government Server (and have them fill out the app you made). Then given them jobs, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.

Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

---

A few more things to note:

The Foreign Department is sensitive department that you can’t just hire anybody for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls who are better suited for newspaper writing.


Here’s what I wrote as a Description for the Foreign Department:

If you become a Diplomat in the Ambassador Corps: The Department of Foreign Affairs maintains interregional relations by communicating with other regions. Each embassy of TEP is either a treaty-ally or potentially-ally of TEP, and represents us abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The East Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The East Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.

Again, I based this off TNP's description.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Minister McMasterdonia


Ambassador in the Diplomatic Corps: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs maintains a presence for The North Pacific abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The North Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The North Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.


Team Leader, Mentor: An internal role which is appointed by the Minister in communication with the Delegate and Senior Diplomats, these are experienced diplomats and Ambassadors who are ready to move up the ladder and begin passing on their knowledge to newer Diplomats. A demonstrable knowledge of foreign affairs and diplomacy will be essential in order to achieve this position and subject to an interview with senior ministry staff and passing vetting procedures.


Senior Diplomat: This is a senior leadership role within the executive staff that will advise on diplomatic issues, treaty viability, treaty-law and other high-level foreign affair and diplomatic matters. They will set the curriculum for mentoring, will oversee assessments and will advise the government on foreign affairs matters including embassies. This is an internally appointed role subject to application and vetting.(unnecessary)

P.S. I actually did all this when I was the delegate of TEP (smug because TEP still uses the systems I set up.) Mostly thanks to TNP for their ideas ^-^ I always wanted to join TNP since this region is the place that originated most of my inspiration. While I’m no longer active, it’s always comfortable to stay close to the source(s) of my admiration.(moved down, denoted in blue)

There are also some optional steps if you want to expand your region further:

5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department). You should create a separate Military Application thread. Still describe the military as a department, like Ministry of Defense, (as pre-set/“boring jobs”) in your Executive Application thread, but link to the military application. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to "pile", or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to "update", or how to lead updates, there are plenty of guides out there; this article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.

6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.

7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an endorsement goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. (I can go deep onto which steps to take) This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department, maybe Home Affairs.

8) Thank your workers, and reward them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do. (Speaking of that, thanks Ghost for suggesting this article and bugging me to write this.)

9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities. You're running a community when you're a delegate, and people (including yourself) get bored fast if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! (And don't burnout, take breaks too, like with all games)

P.S. I actually did all this when I was the delegate of TEP (smug because TEP still uses the systems I set up.) Mostly thanks to TNP for their ideas ^-^ I always wanted to join TNP since this region is the place that originated most of my inspiration. While I’m no longer active, it’s always comfortable to stay close to the source(s) of my admiration.
-----'>:

Spoiler: Without markings

An Idiots Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces
AKA Things I did when I was first elected WA Delegate of TEP

First steps

1) Ask everyone in the region: "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" (or something to that effect) Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, Discord, Skype, or a mass telegram to the whole region.

2) Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available.

3) Great, you grabbed a massive number of followers! But wait, you don't even have any jobs for them yet. Well, time to fix that!

How to invent jobs!

1) Ask people what they're good at. Here are some examples of what they might say and what you could do:

If they say Roleplay, create a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government), direct them there. Make sure you know what's going on there - then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If RP doesn't exist yet, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.

If people say coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your player base.

If people say writing, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor/Chief Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

(An example of that would be Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB and plopped into the position of Lead Journalist. He created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I just founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first timer for me, I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, that it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knows how to run. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; before I hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish 10+ visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.)

If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do" (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get) -- give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them.

These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, writing and posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, approving citizenship applications, doing the region's statistics (like checking every citizen's nation, counting them, making sure they haven't CTEd), or writing telegram drafts for you to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/any Department (hey, that could be a department of its own - Recruitment/Outreach Department).

Actually, this is a bit misleading. The so-called "boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?" Nonetheless, they are easy to teach to people who just want to follow instructions without much thinking.

I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. You might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. Don't worry, you can revisit that later. But now...

2) Create the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”

The standard template consists of these listed departments:

• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of World Assembly Affairs

You will have to write the descriptions for each department, detailing exactly what each one does. (If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know what he’s expected to do once he’s hired for that department.)

I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3naissanc3r, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing . (For real though, I gotta credit him.) Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite never joining his Executive Staff: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/

(Honestly, now that I think about it, he helped a lot. Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore.)

Now let’s look at an example for the Ministry of Home Affairs (or Integration, or Outreach, or whatever you call it), and if you follow this example, you should easily be able to do the same for the rest of your writing project.

I looked at TNP’s thread, and saw R3n write:

Ministry of Home Affairs - Minister Marcus Antonius

Recruiter of nations in The North Pacific: The North Pacific has over 10,000 nations, but only a few dozen of them are active on the forum. One of the functions of the Ministry of Home Affairs is to encourage as many of these nations as possible to join the forum, so that they can enjoy the full experience of The North Pacific. As a Recruiter, you will be expected to maintain a regular presence on the Regional Messaging Board, where you will be posting to promote forum membership and involvement. Furthermore, you will be contacting nations by telegram, to invite them to join the forum and assist them with any issues they may encounter in the process. Good communication skills are required for both of these functions. You will also need to make a considerable time commitment towards watching and participating in the game-side aspects of The North Pacific. Of course, this also means that you get to engage with the entire nation population of The North Pacific, which as you will discover is a very enjoyable experience.

Forum Mentor: Our forum receives more than a dozen new members a week and these members often need help learning about the opportunities and the things to do in The North Pacific. Our mentoring program assigns each of our mentors to a few mentees twice a week. You will get to meet new nations every week and will find it to be a very rewarding experience. Applicants should be long-standing and experienced members of the region or be willing to take on more responsibility than they are normally used to. We have 2 spots available so apply soon if you want to become a part of this program.

Wow! I couldn't copy it word for word, so instead, I wrote this:

Department of Integration

Minister of Integration: [INSERT NAME OF a PERSON YOU HIRED, HERE]

If you join the Department of Integration, you will become an Executive Staff member. We have over 6,000 nations that we can recruit from to join our forum and Discords. As a Recruiter, you will be active on the Regional Message Board, where you will interact with your REGIONMATES and drag them into our forum. You'll also telegram them and help them. This basically means you'll be interacting with all of [REGION NAME], which is very well worth it (I personally post on the RMB regularly). Once they are in the forum, they might have questions on how to navigate the forum or how to use it or what to do next, so you should explore the forums just to know where to direct people or what answers to give them (i.e. this is the government job thread, and the citizen app thread is above this thread, and there's also the army application thread..) The Ministry may also create/organize fun events in coordination with Information and Culture.

Now, do this for all 5 Ministries on hand, and create an application thread to put all this in.

Here comes the fun part: the actual application that the reader fills out.

This is TNP’s:

Nation in The North Pacific:

Ministry you are interested in joining:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:

I copied TNP but added some things:

Name:

Nation:

Discord Username:

Status within Regional Discord: Present or Absent

Status within Executive Discord: Present or Absent

Ministries you are interested in joining:

Reason for joining:

Anticipated duties:

(Optional) Previous experience in this area of government:

ALL DONE! Now, your thread (for Executive job applications) is ready to post! Add a short summary of the purpose of the thread (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the top of the thread.

So you posted it, now what?

You link the thread to all the people you hired, and have them fill out the form. This way, they become “official” AND you look active - like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes. (Naw, the reality is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.)

STEP TWO COMPLETE. Reminder - you just read a tutorial within a tutorial. Let’s get back to on topic, to the next step: what do you do after you invented the jobs and job application thread?

3) Make a Discord Server. Hopefully, you already have a normal Discord server, for everyone in the region to hang out. If you don’t, make one.

Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the main server; that discord server will be your Government Server. Invite your our newly hired government workers there.

Within that server, you should create a separate channel for each government department, and give each government member access to their respective departments.

You should also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. And a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.

These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup. I took a lot of setup ideas from The North Pacific’s own government server.

Anyway, with a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.

4) Constantly advertise the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional Server to the Government Server (and have them fill out the app you made). Then given them jobs, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.

Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

---

A few more things to note:

The Foreign Department is sensitive department that you can’t just hire anybody for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls who are better suited for newspaper writing.


Here’s what I wrote as a Description for the Foreign Department:

If you become a Diplomat in the Ambassador Corps: The Department of Foreign Affairs maintains interregional relations by communicating with other regions. Each embassy of TEP is either a treaty-ally or potentially-ally of TEP, and represents us abroad by establishing embassies in other regions. Each embassy is run by its own ambassador, and by joining the Diplomatic Corps you can also become one. As an ambassador, you will be a diplomat representing The East Pacific abroad. You will be expected to deliver any materials provided to you by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Delegate, and keep an eye out for anything in your assigned region that may be of interest to The East Pacific. Of course, you will need to conduct yourself in a manner appropriate to a diplomat at all times. Being an Ambassador is a great way to get exposure to different regional cultures, meet new people, and make a name for yourself interregionally.

Again, I based this off TNP's description.

There are also some optional steps if you want to expand your region further:

5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department). You should create a separate Military Application thread. Still describe the military as a department, like Ministry of Defense, (as pre-set/“boring jobs”) in your Executive Application thread, but link to the military application. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to "pile", or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to "update", or how to lead updates, there are plenty of guides out there; this article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.

6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.

7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an endorsement goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. (I can go deep onto which steps to take) This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department, maybe Home Affairs.

8) Thank your workers, and reward them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do. (Speaking of that, thanks Ghost for suggesting this article and bugging me to write this.)

9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities. You're running a community when you're a delegate, and people (including yourself) get bored fast if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! (And don't burnout, take breaks too, like with all games)

P.S. I actually did all this when I was the delegate of TEP (smug because TEP still uses the systems I set up.) Mostly thanks to TNP for their ideas ^-^ I always wanted to join TNP since this region is the place that originated most of my inspiration. While I’m no longer active, it’s always comfortable to stay close to the source(s) of my admiration.
-----'>:

 

[Pallaith]

Spoiler: Revision 2

An Idiot's Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces

When I was first elected delegate of The East Pacific, I set out to do a few very specific things, and I hope that what I did can be a model for regions everywhere. These things were done in TEP, but I have The North Pacific to thank for being the inspiration behind these ideas. While I’m no longer active, I'm comfortable staying close to the source(s) of my admiration and inspiration. I wrote these from the perspective of a region's delegate, but the principles should be the same no matter how the region is set up.

First steps

1) Ask everyone in the region something to the effect of: "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, Discord, Skype, or a mass telegram to the whole region.

2) Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available.

With that done, you should have grabbed a massive number of followers! But wait, you don't even have any jobs for them yet. Well, time to fix that!

How to invent jobs

1) Ask people what they're good at.

If they say Roleplay, create a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government), direct them there. Make sure you know what's going on there - then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If RP doesn't exist yet, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.

If people say coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your player base.

If people say writing, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor/Chief Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

A great example of that in TEP would be Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB and plopped into the position of Lead Journalist. He created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I just founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first for me, as I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, but it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knew how to run something. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; before I hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he had only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish over ten visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and were read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.

If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do" (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get), give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them. These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, writing and posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, approving citizenship applications, doing the region's statistics (like checking every citizen's nation, counting them, making sure they haven't CTEd), or writing telegram drafts for you to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/any Department. This could form a Recruitment/Outreach Department.

The so-called "boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?" Nonetheless, they are easy to teach to people who just want to follow instructions without much thinking.

I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. You might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. Don't worry, you can revisit that later. But now...

2) Create the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”

The standard template consists of these listed departments:

• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of World Assembly Affairs

You will have to write the descriptions for each department, detailing exactly what each one does. If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know what he’s expected to do once he’s hired for that department.

I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3naissanc3r, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing . Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore. Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite never joining his Executive Staff: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/

Now let’s look at an example for the Ministry of Home Affairs (or Integration, or Outreach, or whatever you call it), and if you follow this example, you should easily be able to do the same for the rest of your writing project.

I looked at TNP’s thread, and saw R3n write:


Wow! I couldn't copy it word for word, so instead, I wrote this:


Now, do this for all 5 Ministries on hand, and create an application thread to put all this in.

Here comes the fun part: the actual application that the reader fills out.

This is TNP’s:

I copied TNP but added some things:


ALL DONE! Now, your thread (for Executive job applications) is ready to post! Add a short summary of the purpose of the thread (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the top of the thread.

So you posted it, now what? You link the thread to all the people you hired, and have them fill out the form. This way, they become “official” AND you look active - like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes. The reality of course is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.

3) Make a Discord Server. Hopefully, you already have a normal Discord server, for everyone in the region to hang out. If you don’t, make one.

Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the main server. That discord server will be your Government server. Invite your newly hired government workers there. Within that server, you should create a separate channel for each government department, and give each government member access to their respective departments. You should also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. Finally, add a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.

These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup, based on the setup in TNP’s own government server. With a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.

4) Constantly advertise the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional server to the Government server (and have them fill out the app you made). Then give them jobs, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.

Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

A few more things to note:

The Foreign Department is sensitive department that you can’t just hire anybody for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls. There are also some optional steps if you want to expand your region further:

5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department). You should create a separate Military Application thread. Still describe the military as a department, like Ministry of Defense, (as pre-set/“boring jobs”) in your Executive Application thread, but link to the military application. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to "pile," or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to "update," or how to lead updates, there are plenty of guides out there. This article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.

6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.

7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an endorsement goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department, most likely Home Affairs.

8) Thank your workers, and reward them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, but whatever you do, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do.

9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities. You're running a community when you're a delegate, and people (including yourself) get bored fast if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! As with all games, you can burn out if you don't take breaks, so be sure to take a break now and then so the game always remains fun.

Speaking of giving credit where credit is due I want to thank Ghost for coming up with this concept and pushing me to write it. I believe these ideas work (and they must be good because TEP still uses the systems I set up) and can really help regions engage with their players and keep the players invested.

This is almost ready to go, but I have italicized the section most in need of help. I agree that we shouldn't put such large quotes into the piece, but if we're going to take them out, we have to have something in mind to replace the void the quotes leave behind. How do we rework the section? I figured we could summarize the thing being quoted by describing the kind of content that makes them up, sort of like coming up with the formula to how they were drafted, but this could also be lengthy. I am open to suggestions, worst case scenario that section gets gutted aside from a sentence or two.

 

[Gorundu]

This is almost ready to go, but I have italicized the section most in need of help. I agree that we shouldn't put such large quotes into the piece, but if we're going to take them out, we have to have something in mind to replace the void the quotes leave behind. How do we rework the section? I figured we could summarize the thing being quoted by describing the kind of content that makes them up, sort of like coming up with the formula to how they were drafted, but this could also be lengthy. I am open to suggestions, worst case scenario that section gets gutted aside from a sentence or two.

I like the formula idea, with perhaps a link to TNP's Executive Staff thread in the end just as a reference. I've made a possible replacement of that italicized section:

Spoiler

Here's what to do:

1. Read the TNP description for the ministry you want to establish
2. Modify the description to fit the conditions of your own region (or just for the sake of appearing different)
3. Repeat for all ministries

After that, you want to create an application form, with basic personal information such as nation name and Discord tag, as well as relevant information such as reasons for joining or previous experience.

 

[Yuno]

I just realized I screwed up the formatting (as in, hyperlinking the whole article to a dead link) when I initially posted this article.

I accept all these changes! Thanks for the edits!

This is almost ready to go, but I have italicized the section most in need of help. I agree that we shouldn't put such large quotes into the piece, but if we're going to take them out, we have to have something in mind to replace the void the quotes leave behind. How do we rework the section? I figured we could summarize the thing being quoted by describing the kind of content that makes them up, sort of like coming up with the formula to how they were drafted, but this could also be lengthy. I am open to suggestions, worst case scenario that section gets gutted aside from a sentence or two.
This is almost ready to go, but I have italicized the section most in need of help. I agree that we shouldn't put such large quotes into the piece, but if we're going to take them out, we have to have something in mind to replace the void the quotes leave behind. How do we rework the section? I figured we could summarize the thing being quoted by describing the kind of content that makes them up, sort of like coming up with the formula to how they were drafted, but this could also be lengthy. I am open to suggestions, worst case scenario that section gets gutted aside from a sentence or two.

I don't know, I much rather include the quotes and [-spoiler-] them so that people know HOW to create ministry descriptions. >_<

Here's what to do:

1. Read the TNP description for the ministry you want to establish
2. Modify the description to fit the conditions of your own region (or just for the sake of appearing different)
3. Repeat for all ministries

After that, you want to create an application form, with basic personal information such as nation name and Discord tag, as well as relevant information such as reasons for joining or previous experience.

I suppose THIS works, albeit not as effective.

I'll throw it in and show how it looks:

 

[Yuno]

Beaver's and Ghost's revision with Gorundu's addition:

Spoiler: Revision 3

An Idiot's Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces

When I was first elected delegate of The East Pacific, I set out to do a few very specific things, and I hope that what I did can be a model for regions everywhere. These things were done in TEP, but I have The North Pacific to thank for being the inspiration behind these ideas. While I’m no longer active, I'm comfortable staying close to the source(s) of my admiration and inspiration. I wrote these from the perspective of a region's delegate, but the principles should be the same no matter how the region is set up.

First steps

1) Ask everyone in the region something to the effect of: "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, Discord, Skype, or a mass telegram to the whole region.

2) Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available.

With that done, you should have grabbed a massive number of followers! But wait, you don't even have any jobs for them yet. Well, time to fix that!

How to invent jobs

1) Ask people what they're good at.

If they say Roleplay, create a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government), direct them there. Make sure you know what's going on there - then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If RP doesn't exist yet, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.

If people say coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your player base.

If people say writing, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor/Chief Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

A great example of that in TEP would be Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB and plopped into the position of Lead Journalist. He created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I just founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first for me, as I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, but it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knew how to run something. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; before I hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he had only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish over ten visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and were read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.

If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do" (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get), give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them. These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, writing and posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, approving citizenship applications, doing the region's statistics (like checking every citizen's nation, counting them, making sure they haven't CTEd), or writing telegram drafts for you to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/any Department. This could form a Recruitment/Outreach Department.

The so-called "boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?" Nonetheless, they are easy to teach to people who just want to follow instructions without much thinking.

I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. You might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. Don't worry, you can revisit that later. But now...

2) Create the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”

The standard template consists of these listed departments:

• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of World Assembly Affairs

You will have to write the descriptions for each department, detailing exactly what each one does. If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know what he’s expected to do once he’s hired for that department.

I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3naissanc3r, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing . Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore. Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite never joining his Executive Staff: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/

Here's what to do:

1. Read the TNP description for the ministry you want to establish
2. Modify the description to fit the conditions of your own region (or just for the sake of appearing different)
3. Repeat for all ministries

After that, you want to create an application form, with basic personal information such as nation name and Discord tag, as well as relevant information such as reasons for joining or previous experience.


ALL DONE! Now, your thread (for Executive job applications) is ready to post! Add a short summary of the purpose of the thread (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the top of the thread.

So you posted it, now what? You link the thread to all the people you hired, and have them fill out the form. This way, they become “official” AND you look active - like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes. The reality of course is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.

3) Make a Discord Server. Hopefully, you already have a normal Discord server, for everyone in the region to hang out. If you don’t, make one.

Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the main server. That discord server will be your Government server. Invite your newly hired government workers there. Within that server, you should create a separate channel for each government department, and give each government member access to their respective departments. You should also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. Finally, add a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.

These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup, based on the setup in TNP’s own government server. With a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.

4) Constantly advertise the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional server to the Government server (and have them fill out the app you made). Then give them jobs, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.

Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

A few more things to note:

The Foreign Department is sensitive department that you can’t just hire anybody for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls. There are also some optional steps if you want to expand your region further:

5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department). You should create a separate Military Application thread. Still describe the military as a department, like Ministry of Defense, (as pre-set/“boring jobs”) in your Executive Application thread, but link to the military application. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to "pile," or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to "update," or how to lead updates, there are plenty of guides out there. This article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.

6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.

7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an endorsement goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department, most likely Home Affairs.

8) Thank your workers, and reward them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, but whatever you do, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do.

9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities. You're running a community when you're a delegate, and people (including yourself) get bored fast if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! As with all games, you can burn out if you don't take breaks, so be sure to take a break now and then so the game always remains fun.

Speaking of giving credit where credit is due I want to thank Ghost for coming up with this concept and pushing me to write it. I believe these ideas work (and they must be good because TEP still uses the systems I set up) and can really help regions engage with their players and keep the players invested.

 

[Pallaith]

I'm not sure if I want to encourage people to lift directly from our thread. Perhaps simply pointing that to an example of how to set it up and describing what features and information should be in your own description of executive staff?

 

[Gorundu]

I'm not sure if I want to encourage people to lift directly from our thread. Perhaps simply pointing that to an example of how to set it up and describing what features and information should be in your own description of executive staff?

I mean, pointing to it as an example is as good as telling them to lift from our thread. But I suppose using it as just an "example" sounds better, so here's my revised version:

Spoiler: Addition

Here's what to do:

1. Have a clear idea what the specific tasks of the ministry will be (e.g. recruitment and mentoring for Home Affairs) - use the TNP thread as example/inspiration
2. Create positions that fit the tasks you want
3. Write a descriptions based on the tasks and positions
4. Repeat for all ministries

After that, you want to create an application form, with basic personal information such as nation name and Discord tag, as well as relevant information such as reasons for joining or previous experience.

 

[Yuno]

Fixed using the above

Spoiler: Revision 4

An Idiot's Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces

When I was first elected delegate of The East Pacific, I set out to do a few very specific things, and I hope that what I did can be a model for regions everywhere. These things were done in TEP, but I have The North Pacific to thank for being the inspiration behind these ideas. While I’m no longer active, I'm comfortable staying close to the source(s) of my admiration and inspiration. I wrote these from the perspective of a region's delegate, but the principles should be the same no matter how the region is set up.

First steps

1) Ask everyone in the region something to the effect of: "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, Discord, Skype, or a mass telegram to the whole region.

2) Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available.

With that done, you should have grabbed a massive number of followers! But wait, you don't even have any jobs for them yet. Well, time to fix that!

How to invent jobs

1) Ask people what they're good at.

If they say Roleplay, create a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government), direct them there. Make sure you know what's going on there - then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If RP doesn't exist yet, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.

If people say coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your player base.

If people say writing, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor/Chief Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

A great example of that in TEP would be Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB and plopped into the position of Lead Journalist. He created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I just founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first for me, as I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, but it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knew how to run something. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; before I hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he had only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish over ten visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and were read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.

If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do" (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get), give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them. These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, writing and posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, approving citizenship applications, doing the region's statistics (like checking every citizen's nation, counting them, making sure they haven't CTEd), or writing telegram drafts for you to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/any Department. This could form a Recruitment/Outreach Department.

The so-called "boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?" Nonetheless, they are easy to teach to people who just want to follow instructions without much thinking.

I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. You might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. Don't worry, you can revisit that later. But now...

2) Create the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”

The standard template consists of these listed departments:

• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of World Assembly Affairs

You will have to write the descriptions for each department, detailing exactly what each one does. If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know what he’s expected to do once he’s hired for that department.

I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3naissanc3r, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing . Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore. Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite never joining his Executive Staff: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/

(Please do not copy TNP's Executive app, in case of plagiarism-- just write your own.)

Here's what to do:

1. Have a clear idea what the specific tasks of the ministry will be (e.g. recruitment and mentoring for Home Affairs) - use the TNP thread as example/inspiration
2. Create positions that fit the tasks you want
3. Write a descriptions based on the tasks and positions
4. Repeat for all ministries

After that, you want to create an application form, with basic personal information such as nation name and Discord tag, as well as relevant information such as reasons for joining or previous experience.


ALL DONE! Now, your thread (for Executive job applications) is ready to post! Add a short summary of the purpose of the thread (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the top of the thread.

So you posted it, now what? You link the thread to all the people you hired, and have them fill out the form. This way, they become “official” AND you look active - like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes. The reality of course is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.

3) Make a Discord Server. Hopefully, you already have a normal Discord server, for everyone in the region to hang out. If you don’t, make one.

Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the main server. That discord server will be your Government server. Invite your newly hired government workers there. Within that server, you should create a separate channel for each government department, and give each government member access to their respective departments. You should also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. Finally, add a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.

These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup, based on the setup in TNP’s own government server. With a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.

4) Constantly advertise the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional server to the Government server (and have them fill out the app you made). Then give them jobs, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.

Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

A few more things to note:

The Foreign Department is sensitive department that you can’t just hire anybody for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls. There are also some optional steps if you want to expand your region further:

5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department). You should create a separate Military Application thread. Still describe the military as a department, like Ministry of Defense, (as pre-set/“boring jobs”) in your Executive Application thread, but link to the military application. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to "pile," or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to "update," or how to lead updates, there are plenty of guides out there. This article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.

6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.

7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an endorsement goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department, most likely Home Affairs.

8) Thank your workers, and reward them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, but whatever you do, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do.

9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities. You're running a community when you're a delegate, and people (including yourself) get bored fast if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! As with all games, you can burn out if you don't take breaks, so be sure to take a break now and then so the game always remains fun.

Speaking of giving credit where credit is due I want to thank Ghost for coming up with this concept and pushing me to write it. I believe these ideas work (and they must be good because TEP still uses the systems I set up) and can really help regions engage with their players and keep the players invested.

 

[Pallaith]

Use this and it's good to go.

Spoiler: Revision 5

An Idiot's Guide to Building a Region's Internal Forces

When I was first elected delegate of The East Pacific, I set out to do a few very specific things, and I hope that what I did can be a model for regions everywhere. These things were done in TEP, but I have The North Pacific to thank for being the inspiration behind these ideas. While I’m no longer active, I'm comfortable staying close to the source(s) of my admiration and inspiration. I wrote these from the perspective of a region's delegate, but the principles should be the same no matter how the region is set up.

First steps

1) Ask everyone in the region something to the effect of: "WHO WANTS A JOB?!!!!" Post this question everywhere you can, wherever people might see. Places can include the RMB, the Forums, Discord, Skype, or a mass telegram to the whole region.

2) Wait for the large number of replies you'll be getting, and grab the contact info of everyone who replied. Ask them how active they are, and what days are they available.

With that done, you should have grabbed a massive number of followers! But wait, you don't even have any jobs for them yet. Well, time to fix that!

How to invent jobs

1) Ask people what they're good at.

If they say Roleplay, create a RP department. If one already exists (as the majority of Regions already have a RP branch that exists separately from the regional government), direct them there. Make sure you know what's going on there - then you can suggest changes to whoever runs that department. If RP doesn't exist yet, then you can go ahead and create a new RP department, and hire that Roleplayer to be a staff member.

If people say coding, invent a programming department, and have them code many projects that may be useful for your player base.

If people say writing, create a Newspaper Department and hire him to be a Journalist (or Lead Editor/Chief Publisher.) I recommend you being the Lead Editor Chief/Publisher yourself, at least for the beginning stages of the newspaper, unless that person you hired is a dedicated and expert organizer.

A great example of that in TEP would be Libertanny, who was a random dude I hired from the RMB and plopped into the position of Lead Journalist. He created his own Journalist Department and hired dozens of Graphic Designers and Writers for the newspaper department I just founded. He did 99% of the work, while I did the 1% work of hiring him. That was a first for me, as I was so used to doing all the organization work and telling people what to do, but it was an exciting and welcome change to find a person who knew how to run something. And this kid isn't even a veteran player; before I hired him, all he ever did was RMB RP and he had only played NationStates for one month. Yet when I hired him, he managed to run the Newspaper Department like a professional Delegate, and hire droves of hard workers! I was shocked and pleasantly surprised, and we managed to publish over ten visually appealing and fresh content-filled articles, some of which hit top dispatches and were read by all the RMBers, government officials and regular citizens alike.

If people say "I don't know, whatever you tell me to do" (which makes up the MAJORITY of responses you'll get), give them a boring job that needs to be done. Trust me, there are MANY of them. These "boring jobs" can include telegramming people to join the region's discord/forum, writing and posting "endorse the Delegate" dispatches, approving citizenship applications, doing the region's statistics (like checking every citizen's nation, counting them, making sure they haven't CTEd), or writing telegram drafts for you to mass-telegram to the entire region to encourage members to join the WA/forums/any Department. This could form a Recruitment/Outreach Department.

The so-called "boring jobs" do require creativity. For example, when a worker is drafting a telegram, he/she has to think "what items should I include in the telegram to integrate the reader closer to our platforms and retain him/her? How do I make the draft persuasive?" Nonetheless, they are easy to teach to people who just want to follow instructions without much thinking.

I’ve already gone ahead and explained Creative Jobs, which is the hardest part. You might be low on Creative Departments, or still have zero of them. Don't worry, you can revisit that later. But now...

2) Create the boring jobs/departments. These are PRE-SET departments, for players who want to do the “Boring Jobs.”

The standard template consists of these listed departments:

• Ministry of Home Affairs
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Ministry of Communications
• Ministry of Culture
• Ministry of World Assembly Affairs

You will have to write the descriptions for each department, detailing exactly what each one does. If someone has to choose which department to join, he/she will want to know what he’s expected to do once he’s hired for that department.

I have to give full credit to the retired NationStates player/former TNP Delegate/Guardian, R3naissanc3r, who is the first person to create these departments and write descriptions for them. He is a real innovator who I emulated to a large extent, without him knowing . Sometimes he helped without knowing, because strategic players look at his old threads; but sometimes he helped by openly providing TEMPLATES to people who asked/telegrammed him for them. But I’ll explain that later. Again, since he’s retired, I don’t think that’s a possible route anymore. Anyway, much of my previous leadership success is due to reading his “Executive Applications” thread here, despite never joining his Executive Staff: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/topic/7198621/ (I have used this thread as a template and for inspiration, but it is important that you design one suited for your on region when developing your own staff).

Here's what to do:

1. Have a clear idea what the specific tasks of the ministry will be (e.g. recruitment and mentoring for Home Affairs)
2. Create positions that fit the tasks you want
3. Write a descriptions based on the tasks and positions
4. Repeat for all ministries

After that, you want to create an application form, with basic personal information such as nation name and Discord tag, as well as relevant information such as reasons for joining or previous experience.

ALL DONE! Now, your thread (for Executive job applications) is ready to post! Add a short summary of the purpose of the thread (i.e. “you’re supposed to apply for jobs here if you’re bored on NationStates,”) at the top of the thread.

So you posted it, now what? You link the thread to all the people you hired, and have them fill out the form. This way, they become “official” AND you look active - like you’re an amazing Delegate who simply writes a thread and instantly 20 people apply within minutes. The reality of course is that you “hired” them beforehand, then invented some jobs after the fact, then forced them to apply for real.

3) Make a Discord Server. Hopefully, you already have a normal Discord server, for everyone in the region to hang out. If you don’t, make one.

Now, there should be an additional Discord Server, apart from the main server. That discord server will be your Government server. Invite your newly hired government workers there. Within that server, you should create a separate channel for each government department, and give each government member access to their respective departments. You should also create a Cabinet chat for the top brass to discuss more intricate stuff like department-creation and foreign policy, but have a lower-cabinet chat for people who want to get involved in those discussions too. Finally, add a general Executive staff channel, for all government members to be able to see.

These are just my suggestions for the Government server setup, based on the setup in TNP’s own government server. With a proper government (workers’) discord server, filled up with members you’ve hired, it’s going to become really easy to put everyone to efficient work.

4) Constantly advertise the Regional Server to the Gameside Region. Then, hire people from the Regional server to the Government server (and have them fill out the app you made). Then give them jobs, and set deadlines for results if that’s viable.

Congrats, you’ve created and established the foundation of a region!

A few more things to note:

The Foreign Department is sensitive department that you can’t just hire anybody for. You have to hire diplomatic players who know how to act respectful, and not embarrass you. Those players will be ambassadors representing you to other regions, so you don’t want to hire immature trolls. There are also some optional steps if you want to expand your region further:

5) Establish the Regional Military (considered a Department). You should create a separate Military Application thread. Still describe the military as a department, like Ministry of Defense, (as pre-set/“boring jobs”) in your Executive Application thread, but link to the military application. Anyone who applies and gets accepted to the military automatically becomes a “soldier” of your region, or at least a “recruit.”

You can always use them to "pile," or teach them to “update.” If you don’t know how to "update," or how to lead updates, there are plenty of guides out there. This article is not the place to learn that stuff. You can learn by joining the North Pacific Army, asking NPA officials, or tracking down good people who know how, or asking me.

6) Talk to show presence. Post things in the RMB, Discord, and forums; link your posts if they’re relevant to people. If the leader is active, people will naturally be active too.

7) Set goals/milestones. For example, if you want to attain many endorsements, set an endorsement goal you want to reach. Then devise strategies to reach those goals. This endorsement-related duty belongs to a Department, most likely Home Affairs.

8) Thank your workers, and reward them. Give them medals of appreciation, or honorary mentions, but whatever you do, CREDIT THEM. Always credit people who submit ANYTHING, whether writing or ART, especially art. People hate when they put in the work, but get their credit stolen (or don’t get credited.) It’s also the ethical thing to do.

9) Always be on the lookout for new ideas/activities. You're running a community when you're a delegate, and people (including yourself) get bored fast if you don't try new things. Don't be afraid to think outside the box. But most importantly, have fun! As with all games, you can burn out if you don't take breaks, so be sure to take a break now and then so the game always remains fun.

Speaking of giving credit where credit is due I want to thank Ghost for coming up with this concept and pushing me to write it. I believe these ideas work (and they must be good because TEP still uses the systems I set up) and can really help regions engage with their players and keep the players invested.

 

[Yuno]

Thanks/perfect! use that from now on