Minister's Desk

[Syrixia]

Monthly Report - Culture - May 2020​

About time this thread was re-established! Let's kick it off strong. May was an interesting month. The Ministry has undergone significant organizational changes in the weeks following the election, and we've both organized and prepared for the commencement of operations this month and on.

So, how did things go with the term's agenda this month?

• Roleplay Reel: A writing team has been assembled composed of myself, Deputy Minister @Highton, @Kasu, @Yamantau Em, and @Haven. We have brought on two RMB Mods, @Lotion and @Vapia, to act as Moderation Consultants for the RMB RP community, and @North Timistania has volunteered to act as a Moderation Consultant for the Forum RP community.
• Sporting Events: @Highton is hard at work organizing the 2020 Odinspyl Games. Bidding has concluded and Pataliputra, Syrixian Empire was chosen as the host city, for which I am immensely honored! Signups are in progress, as is logistical planning for the running of the event. @Nessuno is also hard at work on the FIDAC World Cup over on the RMB. Bidding has concluded and @BritishBayonet has been chosen as the host nation. Signups are complete and the schedule is in progress.
• RP-related NBS shows: We have conversed with @Dreadton and the Ministry of Radio regarding the technicals, and have put together a list of show ideas, including a general worldbuilding guide, a geopolitical guide to Eras and Strangereal, a guide to getting started in TNPRP, a guide to creating mythologies and religions, a guide to roleplaying domestic politics, a guide on the difference between character RP and national RP, a guide to Eras Sports, a guide to RMB Sports, a guide to the dos and don'ts of TNPRP, and a spotlight on the Odinspyl before the event begins. We're excited to put these into action in the coming weeks!
• Revitalization of TNP Games: Conversation has begun regarding social deduction games, a project which @Praetor is working hard on. The Ministry has decided that Assassin in the Palace will for the first game to be test-run, and Praetor and his team have completed a ruleset and are discussing possible revisions and ways of implementation. We hope to premiere it and other similar games with all haste!
• The Secret Project: Highton and I have an outline for the project and we have conferred on it with the Delegate. Active planning will begin in at least July, once all other agenda items are on track in a robust, sustainable manner.

Finally, I want to make an announcement. Now, I'm not going to mince words or beat around the bush. I want to be unapologetically clear to all that the Ministry of Culture, this term, is primarily focused on RP-related initiatives. We want to refine, expand, and perfect RP promotion initiatives and endear them to RPers and non-RPers alike in order to foster the environment envisioned by the Delegate in his campaign as best as possible. As part of this, we want to encourage greater RPer participation in the Ministry. However, many RPers do not have citizenship, and some don't even have nations in TNP, as certain parts of the RP community, such as Eras, don't require that. While I cannot open the Ministry to those who do not have TNP nations, effective immediately I am waiving the Ministry of Culture's citizenship requirement for anyone who has been a part of TNPRP for 30 days or more. This will be judged by their presence on the Discord server, in order to encourage use of said server by RPers both on the forum and RMB; as well as by their presence on any of the officially sanctioned RP maps in order to prevent loopholes. If only the former is the case and the latter is not, the applicant will be judged for waiver qualification based on the nature of their RP participation as opposed to map presence. Exceptions will, of course, be made as needed.

All that being said, I look forward to the beginning of implementation in June and forward! It's time to get this gravy train going!

SYRIXIA
Minister of Culture of the North Pacific​

 

[Yuno]

Wow you have done incredibly well

 

[Pigeonstan]

will there be more elaboration on these points because i cant tell what you mean by games do you mean
count to ten before so and so posts or do you mean
like the assassin games and more RP like games
but good job on getting all this done!

 

[Syrixia]

will there be more elaboration on these points because i cant tell what you mean by games do you mean
count to ten before so and so posts or do you mean
like the assassin games and more RP like games
but good job on getting all this done!

All the relevant information can be found here.

 

[Balaslandia]

Nice job!

 

[Syrixia]

Monthly Report - Culture - June 2020​

Hello all! Syr here for my June report. Just under a couple weeks late, but things have been going a mile a minute both online and off, so I hope you'll forgive me for that. That being said, June was naturally a bit slower than May, being a more average month, but we still got a lot done!

So, how did things go with the term's agenda this month?

• Roleplay Reel: This was by far the highlight of the term! The fourth issue of the Roleplay Reel was formally released - the first with the new format - and garnered significant viewership amongst GPers and RPers alike. The writing team is now much more well versed in the process, as am I in editing issues; and we hope to refine said processes in subsequent issues! The June issue of the Roleplay Reel can be found here. Expect the July issue to be released around the turn of August! Major props to everyone on the writing team, as well as the Moderation Consultants and the Culture Staff as a whole for their feedback!
• Sporting Events: @Nessuno continues to progress the FIDAC World Cup over on the RMB. On the forum, meanwhile, @Highton, myself, and a team of RPers under our aegis have made major strides on the Odinspyl. June saw the majority of the planning and preparation as we constructed a massive apparatus for keeping track of what has already become the largest sports RP event in TNPRP history. Events have been divided into groups and are being scorinated by the aforementioned teams. Said events are coming out very well and very frequently and RP posts are slowly, but surely, coming in as well! We are very proud with how the Odinspyl is going and we hope to see it through to a successful height and conclusion throughout this month.
• Democracy Day: Myself and @Praetor have been hard at work alongside such amazing and talented individuals as @El Fiji Grande and @Crushing Our Enemies to present both the 2020 Pocket Constitution and the upcoming physical cards! A form for the former has already been released and Praetor, along with his Cards staff, is working on finalizing the card lineup. A Kickstarter to fund manufacturing of these items will be released the day after the release of this report, at the latest. Stay tuned for that!
• Other Initiatives: The NBS shows, the secret project, and TNP Games were more or less on the back burner in June, as we got to work on the higher-priority projects. We have not, however, forgotten these projects, and we also have an additional collaborative project with the Cards Guild - one unrelated to any projects previously mentioned - in the works. Stay tuned for all that during the rest of this month and especially next month once the Odinspyl ends! We have been making incremental progress on these whenever possible and hope to pick up on them at those times. For example, we have come up with a format for the assembly of RP NBS show scripts, one that will be quite easy to employ and knock out a bunch of scripts to be recorded and released in the near future, given a day or two of free time to devote to it.

All that being said, I look forward to what the rest of this month will bring! We've come far, but there is still much of the journey ahead of us; let's make it happen!

SYRIXIA
Minister of Culture of the North Pacific​

 

[CD- betterThanFlash]

I don't if this is the appropriate thread so correct me if this is not the place. I am now a staff of the university and would like access to TNPU General discord channel. I asked Marcus but it seems you have masking powers since the channel is within MoC. Thanks.

Sorry for the ping but can you please help @Syrixia ? Thanks again.

 

[Syrixia]

Monthly Report - Culture - July 2020​

Hello all! Syr here for my July report. Fashionably late as usual, but as with last month, things have been going a mile a minute both online and off, so I hope you'll forgive me for that. Now see, here's the thing. I said June was slower than May. I've come to realize that slow is relative. May was quicker because it was the term's first month. June was more of a regular month. But July? I can't tell if July was slower or faster. Honestly, I think it was both!

So, how did things go with the term's agenda this month?

• Roleplay Reel: Two in a term! We're on a roll! The writing team was able to deliver even quicker than last time, and all the material was prepared well and effectively. Due to A Drop In The Ocean 2, the magazine had to be pushed to today, but it's finally been released and looks to be another smash hit! The July issue of the Roleplay Reel can be found here. Expect the August issue to be released around the turn of September as seems to be the pattern. As with last month, major props to everyone on the writing team, as well as the Moderation Consultants and the Culture Staff as a whole for their feedback!
• Sporting Events: Both @Nessuno and Senior Deputy Minister @Highton ABSOLUTELY KILLED IT! Both the FIDAC World Cup and the Odinspyl came to an end this month, with this month seeing the majority of the Odinspyl's activity. I am beyond proud of both Highton and the rest of the planning committee for their work. We learned a lot, we had fun, we made it happen, and we have a lot of ideas for how to improve future sports events as well! Overall, a great success. The Odinspyl's associated threads can be found here, in the Sports RP subforum.
• A Drop In The Ocean 2: I don't even know how to describe how amazing this one was. Four years ago, myself and TSP RA Minister Seraph did a festival to celebrate the TNP-TSP alliance. Now, four years later, we've just concluded a successful sequel! Myself and Junior Deputh Minister @Praetor have been hard at work alongside the rest of the planning crew both from this region and our southern neighbors on organizing and executing it. The subforum for the festival can be found here, where you can find all the amazing stuff the festival spawned!
• Other Initiatives: The NBS shows, the secret project, and TNP Games remained on the back burner, unfortunately, though we have started to make progress on them. @Dreadton and I announced the IC Interviews series, a test run for the upcoming NBS shows. We hope to release said series as well as the proper shows in the future, so stay tuned for those! Praetor and I also used ADITO 2 as an opportunity to test Social Deduction Games, and they were a wild success! We'll be using the model we ran on there in this region, so stay tuned for those as well. As August continues we hope to be able to cap off the term's agenda as promised, though I do think I'll be taking a break this week

All that being said, I look forward to what the rest of this month will bring! Let's finish strong!

SYRIXIA
Minister of Culture of the North Pacific​

 

[Syrixia]

Announcement - Project Update System Changes​

Hello all! Throughout most of this term, we've been posting messages in the TNP Executive Staff Discord Server's Culture channels inviting discussion on project updates and/or smaller events. This allowed members of the staff to discuss such things in real time, taking full advantage of the perks of Discord.

However, a particular response in Greitbart's recently-released poll caught our eye:

[The Ministry] does not offer any specifics on what is actually being planned. Likewise, there are less opportunities now for staffers to be involved in planning.

At the Ministry of Culture we strive to follow the Delegate's example of transparency, integrity, and teamwork. We've brought on numerous staffers for projects ranging from the Roleplay Reel to the recent festival with The South Pacific and more, and we will without a doubt continue to do so in the future. That being said, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of conduct, and therefore, having discussed the matter with my staff, I have decided to make a slight change to our procedures.

Going forward, the project update system will be following a hybrid model. Messages regarding projects, smaller events, and other Ministry of Culture endeavors - whether they are simply inviting discussion or offering members of staff jobs in said endeavors - will henceforth be posted in informal posts in this thread as well as in Discord. Conversation will remain in Discord, but all forum posts will contain a succinct invitation to participate in said conversation, so that as many people as possible know exactly where the action will happen.

We hope this change will be helpful to both members of the public viewing Culture business and members of the staff participating in it. As always, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc., please feel free to ask away in this thread!

SYRIXIA
Minister of Culture of the North Pacific​

 

[Syrixia]

Hello all! Here's the first of these updates.

I know I promised I'd come back from my break yesterday or today but it's looking more like this weekend, depending on how busy tomorrow will be for me. After I spent my break on vacation IRL I've been getting ready for college, which for me begins in less than a week. I was out all day today and I'm doing the last preparations tomorrow.

When I return, as promised I'm gonna get the staff in order (there are a bunch of people waiting to be properly integrated!) and then finally revamp TNP Games. Between then and the end of the month, when I have time free from college-related stuffs, I'll be writing NBS show scripts and having as many recorded and released as I can before the month ends, at which point I will write and release the August RPR.

The secret project is the one thing, however, that may not be able to happen this term. However, due to the nature of the project, it's something that can easily be done independently should I not wind up retaining this office next term (though I would love to! ) Therefore, I can say with confidence that it will happen next term and I will be announcing it publicly when everything is ready.

See you all this weekend!

~Syr

ADDENDUM EDIT: Fuck it. If I can write this message I can get the staff in order. The staff is, accordingly, now in order.