Ministry of WA Affairs Office

This thread will be used for short announcements from the Minister of WA Affairs.

I will be away for one week starting from today. The Delegate is aware of this and I have asked Morover to take responsibility for approving our IFVs while I am away.

Hello all. I have returned. Things appear to have been running smoothly. Thank you to @Morover for that.

Good morning.

I have advised Delegate Prydania of my intention to resign as Minister of World Assembly Affairs. The Delegate is undertaking his search for a replacement and an announcement should be made shortly.

It has been a pleasure to serve as Minister of World Assembly Affairs for the first half of the term. During this time, our IFV's have been promptly published and released early into votes, we have maintained a positive presence on the NationStates forum, and have been able to successfully work with our WALL partners. I would like to thank my Deputies for their support during the first half of the term: @Morover, @Cretox State, @Fregerson and @Bobberino.

As some of you would know, I have been recently made redundant as a result of COVID-19 affecting my employment. My new job search is a priority and I would like the ability to focus on that, without necessarily feeling guilty if I don't check in each day. Nonetheless, I will still be around and will support the Delegate and their administration where required.

Yours,
McMasterdonia

I would like to thank @mcmasterdonia for stepping up early in the term when the MoWAA slot opened on short notice. His steady hand and council has been a G-dsend as I learnt the ropes of the Delegacy.

Thanks McM, and best of luck

Good luck on your search McM! Thank you for all that you've done and do

Hi, all.

After a brief conversation with @Cosmosplosion on the subject, I have decided to appoint them as a Deputy Minister of WA Affairs. They've recently returned, and since their return, they have helped out the Ministry in its internal discussions, as they had done before their initial leave of absence.

All the best,
Morover.

It is certainly a pleasure to be back in the Ministry in an official capacity. I look forward to working with @Morover and the rest of the team.

Morover:

After a brief conversation with @Cosmosplosion on the subject, I have decided to appoint them as a Deputy Minister of WA Affairs. They've recently returned, and since their return, they have helped out the Ministry in its internal discussions, as they had done before their initial leave of absence.

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A wise choice. I look forward to having @Cosmosplosion back on the team!

While I only became Minister of World Assembly Affairs somewhat recently, and within the last month, during that time we have made progress in a few specific areas. Perhaps most notably however, is the consistent and timely manner in regards to our release of our Information for Voters (IFV) dispatches for every proposal that has come to vote, with only one lapsing more than 12 hours from the start of vote to the posting of the IFV, due to an incredibly tight forum-side vote and split discussions from within the ministry.

I have also been working on a plan for a second World Assembly Symposium, which will hopefully have more public information released soon - but it is being worked on, nonetheless.

I think that in the upcoming month, I'm going to try and kickstart the Heroes of the North program, and get a few C/Cs posted on the NS forums for external drafting, which will hopefully result in at least a few being finished and passed before the end of the year.

Below are the voting logs for the last month:

Voting Logs

I am hereby tendering my resignation as Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs, as well as any other positions I may hold in additional ministries.

Cosmosplosion:

I am hereby tendering my resignation as Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs, as well as any other positions I may hold in additional ministries.

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Sad to see you have to leave yet again, but I understand everyone has their own priorities and their own reasons for departing. I sincerely wish you the best, and hope you'll be around in the future. Your presence here was always appreciated.

I'll try and keep this brief - both for my own sake as real-life continues to speed up, and for the reader, who almost certainly doesn't want to read a long winding report about the internal process of the WA Affairs.

For a majority of this term, I was a Deputy Minister under McMasterdonia where, as far as I can tell, it was pretty much business as normal. I'm not entirely equipped to make a comment on what all was accomplished during that part of the term, but to my faintest recollection nothing too astounding happened - though we did achieve our primary job, which is to stimulate discussion on the World Assembly and release IFVs. During this time, we also picked up our infinitely valuable Deputy Minister, Cretox State.

Since I have become Minister, though, I can recount a few more things. We have made incredible progress on Deputy Minister-Minister communication, especially regarding the release of IFVs which has led to what I have been told is the fastest consistent release time for IFVs in recent TNP History - this is the one thing that I have achieved that I encourage whichever Minister comes next to continue. It not only reflects well on the Ministry, but it helps us achieve our goals better. We have also coordinated the second annual World Assembly Symposium, with very few issues. The conversations didn't go on for quite as long as I would have liked them to, but it's a learning curve. Hopefully next time, a better balance can be struck by someone who is better at planning events such as these.

Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to kickstart Heroes of the North, which seems to remain on the metaphorical backburner for the time being - I do hope that in the future, it can be revived, but I was not properly equipped to do so.

All in all, I think it was a successful term for WA Affairs. I wish the best of luck to the next Minister and for the future of the Ministry as a whole - my DMs are always open, and it never hurts to ask if you're hesitant about it.

Thank you for all the help, everyone. It's been a pleasure to be your Minister.
-Morover.

This was a solid term by all counts, and I'm happy to have been a part of it. I sincerely hope @Morover considers pursuing similar government positions in the future, real life permitting of course.

I am pleased to take over the reins of World Assembly Affairs for the duration of this term, and will publish a full opening address tomorrow when masking is sorted out and the dust settles a bit.

In the meantime: I hereby appoint, in no particular order, @Robespierre, @Fregerson, and @Bormiar as Deputy Ministers of World Assembly Affairs. Please take your oaths.

Congratulations to both you and your new deputies! I'm really excited for this term!

'grats everyone

I hereby appoint @saintpeter as a Deputy Minister. They've been an enthusiastic and contributing member of the Ministry thus far, and I have no doubts they will continue excelling in the future.

The following have been removed from the Ministry due to loss of citizenship and inactivity (feel free to reapply at a later date): @Aexo @Aprenencia @AravindB @Asterguard @Aurelianab3 @bootsie @Bosako @Brasesco @Calsolato @Capt Pegleg @Cuyan @Empress Amara @Greifenstolz @Haven @Hiero @Joshua ferreira @Kaschovia @Melody Grant @Pakchi @Pierce @Polihy @Robbie DeVine @Scukey1 @Somniaureus @Trashpacking @Turpotia2 @UKDSSA @Veles Draco @Zaz @Zerulu

I'm pleased to announce the trialing of two new initiatives:

• A Ministry card rewards program to recognize certain contributions
• A proposal updates system to broaden our reach

Attention staffers and others! The Heroes of the North project is getting a major shock, and I'm opening up proposals to be claimed by anyone willing to follow through. Anyone who wants to work on one of these proposals will get assistance with research and drafting (not to mention the shiny badge at the end). You can sign up, or suggest more nominees, here. This project will be coordinated via the WA HQ subforum and Executive Discord.

If you'd like to participate, but aren't a WA Affairs staffer, I highly encourage you to apply!

The WA Mentorship Program is live! I highly encourage anyone with an idea for a GA or SC resolution that they feel is promising to apply!

Additionally, I am appointing @Dragonstar5674 (aka Westinor) to the position of Deputy Minister of WA Affairs. They are an active, enthusiastic member of the Ministry, and have already been hard at work writing IFVs and maintaining voting threads. With the introduction of proposal discussion and accelerator threads, in addition to new programs, I feel it is prudent to add an additional deputy to the team to help keep things running smoothly.

Absolute last call to complete the IFV Survey if you have not done so already: https://forum.thenorthpacific.org/pages/ifvsurvey2020/

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The Results of the 2020 IFV Survey are available here for your viewing pleasure. Overall feedback was remarkably positive, and I'm excited to see where this Ministry goes next.

The Ministry of Cards has been hard at work getting an inter-ministry card rewards framework up and running (huge props to @r3naissanc3r), and I'm pleased to report that we'll be switching to that points-based system for our card-collecting purposes. After cards for November are sent out to those who completed the relevant tasks this month, staffers' contributions will be recorded in the new Executive Rewards spreadsheet. I'll detail exactly what this entails once rewards are sent out and this interim program can finally be wrapped up.

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The WA Ministry's Interim Card Rewards Program is now successfully completed and retired, with a total of 37 epic and 7 legendary cards being sent out for 2 months of work. The Ministry will be moving to the recently released inter-ministry card rewards program from here on out. Under this new program, making certain contributions to any ministry gets citizens points. Accumulating 100 points will result in a random legendary card being sent to your nation.

For WA Affairs, these are the current rewardable tasks:

• 10 points - Opening a proposal voting thread.
• 15 points - Writing an IFV.

You can keep track of your progress toward card rewards with this sheet. Several staffers have already received legendary cards. If you do not wish to receive cards, feel free to contact me via forum DM, NS telegram, or Discord.

In an exciting turn of events, the Ministry of Cards will be expanding the number of rewardable tasks for each ministry to 4! This means it's up to us to come up with 2 more rewardable tasks for WA Affairs. Ordinarily, I'd consult with ministry leadership regarding these tasks. However, the rewards program could easily be expanded further in the future. Therefore, I've decided to hold a ministry-wide contest regarding these rewards. Anyone in the Ministry of WA Affairs can nominate up to 1 rewardable task. Serious nominations will earn an epic card per person. Afterwards, the ministry will hold a vote. The winning 2 nominations will receive a legendary card per person.

Contributions here will help shape the future of this ministry. If you would like to get involved in this or our other projects and operations, now is a great time to apply!

Citizens,

The past month has been rather busy for the Ministry. With the Death Penaltypalooza over in the GA and a bit of chaos in an unusually empty Security Council, we’re all understandably a bit fatigued and a few projects I wanted to get to have not received as much attention as I would’ve liked. However, I’m looking forward to this next month - the Ministry is up and running with several projects looking to see breakthroughs in the near future. With this next month looking like things in the WA will settle d… hey, wait a second.

Administrative Tasks
First off, we’ve retained Deputy Ministers @Fregerson and @saintpeter from last term, with @Bobberino being added on to the roster. Things have gone smoothly so far, with IFVs being sent out on time and without a hitch. We’ve seen the addition of a few new staff as well, some of whom have already gotten situated in the Ministry and are getting right to work! I’d like to thank my current Deputy Ministers for their hard work, and I’m looking forward to the work they do throughout this term.

Key Projects Completed
A few events and incidents meant less progress was made in completing some projects than I had hoped to do. However, we’ve already seen several staffers stepping up to post voting threads and write IFVs! I’d particularly like to note Boston Castle and saintpeter’s excellent participation in recent weeks. Because of the hard work of staffers in the Ministry, IFVs have been sent out on time. Additionally, a new contest will be announced shortly that will hopefully better reward those who complete most of these tasks successfully…

On top of that, I ran two counter-campaigns against the proposal “Repeal ‘Liberate Confederation of Corrupt Dictators’”, which sought to remove the liberation from a region that had violated our regional sovereignty just a year ago and supported fascism in the past. With the help of the NPA, we managed to keep the proposal from reaching quorum.

We also published an IFV for every proposal this month, totalling at 7. They can all be found below:

• Commend Singapore No2 (For) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1487124
  (Written by our very own @Honeydewistan! Congratulations)
• Commend Northrop-Grumman (For) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1488956
• Repeal “International Criminal Protocol” (For) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1490960
• Fair Treatment of Prisoners (For) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1493324
• Death Penalty Ban (For) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1495251
• Protecting Sapient Life (For) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1497417
• Repeal “Freedom Of Assembly” (Against) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1499508

Projects Partially Completed:
Some issues prevented the revision of the WA Recruitment Telegrams from getting completed, but we are looking to make much more progress on this soon. Additionally, there has been significant progress in working on some of the Heroes of the North drafts - with luck, we will be seeing some of these publicly soon.

Projects for the next month:
Once we complete the TG revision, the next step is revising the staffer guides to provide a better explanation of how to complete tasks in the Ministry. Additionally, I want to announce a new monthly competition for the Ministry - the staffer (or Deputy Minister) that writes the most IFVs will be awarded with a Legendary Card from my own deck! I hope this will continue to forward activity in our Ministry, and I encourage staffers to write IFVs for as many proposals as they can - this way, as many staffers as possible may get to complete work in the Ministry, while getting a chance to look through and learn from debate threads and proposals. Additionally, several IFVs may be written for a single proposal to better round out the Ministry’s stance. Thus, staffers should not hesitate to take their time and write up a good IFV, even if one has already been supplied.

WALL Motions

WALL has been very active this month, with the bloc first moving to oppose Jocospor’s repeal of “Liberate Confederation of Corrupt Dictators” and later discussing proposals from other authors within member regions. The motions and votes of this month are as follows:

• 1/06/2021 - the TNP Ambassador motioned to Oppose “Condemn Alantejo and Algarve”. Europeia and Europe both supported the motion. The proposal failed to reach quorum.
• 1/16/2021 - the TNP Ambassador motioned to Oppose “Repeal ‘Liberate Confederation of Corrupt Dictators’”. Europeia, Europe, and the IDU all supported the motion to oppose. The proposal failed to reach quorum.
• 1/22/2021 - the TNP Ambassador motioned to Support “Death Penalty Ban”. Europe, Europeia, and Balder all supported the motion. The IDU did not support. The proposal passed, becoming GAR#535
• 1/23/2021 - the Europeian Ambassador motioned to Support “Repeal ‘Right of Assembly’”. TNP and Europe supported the motion. Balder abstained. The proposal is currently at vote.
• 1/31/2021 - The European Ambassador motioned to Support “Commend King HEM”. TNP, Europeia, and Balder supported the motion. The proposal has reached quorum at the time of writing.

In all, this has been a great start to the Ministry! I’d like to thank my Deputy Ministers and staffers once again for their excellent work - keep it up! I’d like to apologize on my part for my inexperience and inability to finish some projects I wanted to get started on. However, I hope that with the support of the Ministry, we can get some real work done in the coming months.

-Westinor
Minister of World Assembly Affairs

Only TNPer to pass something in this term so far :pikathink:

Honeydewistan:

Only TNPer to pass something in this term so far :pikathink:

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I've grown lazy...

Cretox State:

I've grown lazy...

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true

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Hey all! Seeing as they've been doing an awesome job in maintaining threads and writing IFVs, I'm glad to announce that I will be appointing @Boston Castle to the position of Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs. Their work has been invaluable especially with the recent state of the World Assembly queues, and I'm glad to welcome them onboard to the Deputy team.

Congrats! Well deserved

Congrats Boston Castle!

Hey everyone!

Seems I jinxed us all with that opening note last month, since I’ve developed a reflex in which I throw up whenever I see an undrafted and/or bandwagon proposal in the… anywhere. I’d like to say that we got a lot more done this month than we did in the last, but that’d be a bit of a stretch. However, I’d like to say that a few long-term projects are looking closer and closer to completion, so hopefully we’ll be having an eventful March. In a good way, of course. Please.

Administrative Tasks
With the continuing chaos in the WA, I found it fitting to appoint @Boston Castle Deputy Minister. They’ve been doing an absolutely fantastic job, and have shown great enthusiasm for the workings of this Ministry. Despite a couple hiccups due to problems out of our control, they’ve been doing a great job so far.

Key Projects Completed
The WAA Recruitment Telegrams have been revised. I’d like to thank Owen for his work on this and getting it done. IFVs and proposal threads have been written and posted punctually - I’d like to praise @Greater Cesnica and @Boston Castle, among others, for their great work in these areas.

We published an IFV for every proposal this month, totalling at 13

• Repeal: “Death Penalty Ban” (against) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1501584
• Commend King HEM (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1499817
• Commend Northern Borland (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1502174
• Right To Assemble (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1503406
• Commend 1 very fast endotarter (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1504276
• Right To Secure Digital Communication (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1505501
• Liberate The Embassy (against) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1506159
• Whistleblower Protection Act (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1507278
• Repeal: “Commend Northern Borland” (against) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1507906
• Supporting People With Disabilities (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1509003
• Condemn Lily (against) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1509809
• Repeal: “Fairness In Collective Bargaining” (for) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1510999
• Repeal: “Liberate The Embassy” (against) - https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1511788

With that, our monthly IFV contest winner is @Boston Castle! Rather obviously, they took the lead with several IFVs written for SC and GA proposals. They’ve been a shining star of this ministry and have picked things up where I’ve slacked off. For their efforts, they have been gifted a Season 2 Drasnia! Congratulations, and keep up the hard work!

Future Projects
We’ve made substantial progress on a few Heroes of the North drafts, and are looking to push those out into the public stages soon (sounds familiar, huh?). I’ve also begun progress on reworking staffer guides, and with a bit of effort that should be done quickly. Hopefully we’ll see both of these come to fruition sometime this month.

WALL Motions
WALL’s much quieter this month, with only a few motions to start off before quieting down. The motions and votes of this month are as follows:

• 2/05/2021 - The Europeian Ambassador motioned to Support “Right To Assemble”. TNP and Europe both supported the motion to support. The proposal passed, becoming GA#537.
• 2/05/2021 - The TNP Ambassador motioned to Support “Commend Northern Borland”. Europe and Europea both supported the motion to support. The proposal passed, becoming SC#342.
• 2/05/2021 - The TNP Ambassador motioned to Support “Commend 1 very fast endotarter”. Europe, Europeia, and Balder all supported the motion. The proposal passed, becoming SC#343
• 2/18/2021 - The TNP Ambassador motioned to Oppose “Repeal:’Commend Northern Borland’”. The proposal passed, becoming SC#345.

Well, that was a bit shorter than last time. I can’t believe we’re already halfway through this term! I’d like to thank the staff for doing a wonderful job so far. I’m extremely thrilled to see what we can accomplish in the second half of this wild ride!

-Westinor
Minister of World Assembly Affairs

Congratulations @Boston Castle! Keep up the good work

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Hello all!

As a result of @Fregerson's appointment as Minister of Communications, they are no longer a Deputy Minister of World Assembly Affairs. I'd like to thank Fregerson for their all their work and I'm glad to be working alongside them in a different capacity. I'll be seeing you on our daily commu... no? Okay. I'm sorry.

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It's a new term and there's a lot of work to be done. Take a look at this opening address for specifics.

Deputy WA Ministers:

• @Boston Castle [Executive]
• @Westinor
• @East Isles
• @Greater Cesnica
• @Sir Kasto

Threads for staffers to look at ASAP:

1. Unofficial roll call
2. Cards for completing first-time tasks as a staffer!
3. Deputy WA Minister and Senior WA Consultant applications

Immediate focus will be on completing any outstanding clerical work (and of course on the Ministry's regular responsibilities).

The following WA Affairs staffers have been removed from the Ministry due to not being citizens (with exceptions):

• @ACR of Deerfenland
• @Arichia
• @Armandlandia
• @Comfed
• @Curacao
• @King JaMeSON X
• @Laeg
• @lol2639
• @Makdon/system failure
• @Reinoniananiananonanonona
• @Strland
• @The Death of Democracy
• @Tiny Walking Whale
• @uncl3frank

No citizens were removed. If you believe that you have been wrongly removed, feel free to contact me privately. If you would like to rejoin the Ministry, please reapply in this thread.

The WA Voting Policy has been updated in accordance with the February 16th Delegate Directive. Minor update made to the thread templates as well.

Some minor formatting updates (to Co-Authorship) have been made to the Templates in the thread. Additionally, a template for Declarations has been added and "correct" thread titles, thread notations (achieving quorum, falling out, withdrawal, etc.) and passed/failed notation colors at the end of a vote have been added in a subsequent post.