End of Term Report: Jan - May 2021 Term

mcmasterdonia · May 10, 2021

Dear residents,

I am pleased to present you with my end of term report.

I thought I would start this term with some initial reflections before getting into the usual detail that I am known for.

I decided that I needed to run for Delegate in January of this year after what I would describe as a particularly disappointing period in the history of our regional government. There was an overwhelming sense from our community that a change absolutely needed to occur, that the change needed to happen immediately, and that the course of our region needed to be corrected.

As a result of the difficulties the region had been experiencing, as well as the state of our regional government, especially the North Pacific Army, the Ministry of Culture, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular, I answered this call to serve.

This has been one of the most challenging terms of government in my many terms as Delegate of The North Pacific. It has been challenging for a few reasons. The first being the low level baseline that we inherited as we came into office, secondly the considerable decline in the number of personnel available to operate in key areas, which we have worked very hard to correct, and thirdly a number of personnel related difficulties that have arisen during the term.

Despite this, we have more than risen to the occasion. The North Pacific and its Executive is in a far better state than what it was when we started. Whoever wins the next election will inherit a much better oiled machine of government. A not-perfect government, but a strong and well performing government that they can take to further heights of success.

Many were surprised and even disappointed that I decided not to seek the office again. Of course, I appreciate that vote of confidence. However, I operated this term with a particular goal in mind - that is, to correct the course of our region and to put us back on the path to prosperity, and secondly to ensure there were a greater number of future leaders who could carry that responsibility into the year ahead.

I am absolutely confident in the team that I chose to serve alongside me. Each of them have worked incredibly hard, day in, day out, to deliver positive outcomes for our region. I am confident that they could step forward and run this region effectively and that hopefully in future, I am not called upon to serve as regularly as has been the case recently.

Administration

I thank @Oracle for his assistance during the term as my Chief of Staff. From revitalising and fixing the Executive Server, to maintaining staff records, to editing statements, and providing his wise counsel and advice, I am very thankful for your assistance and service.

Gameside Advocates

I believe that some were sceptical of the change in personnel in the Lead Gameside Advocate position. @Rocketdog has more than proven that he was an excellent choice for this position. He has provided consistent and fair stewardship over the regional message board. The Gameside Advocates that support him, Skaraborg, Republic of Guilleana, Illusia, and others, have also worked incredibly hard on our regional message board. I am constantly flooded with notifications from their welcome messages and reminders to endorse the Delegate, which is a great reminder of the effort they take to welcome new members of our community.

In particular, we have seen a significant reduction in the number of bans being handed out for low level offending. In my opinion, this has been a significant positive step. We are ensuring that bans are handed out as a last resort, fully in compliance with regional laws, and giving new people ample opportunity to correct their behaviour.

I thank @Rocketdog and the Gameside Advocates for their service. Your hard work is greatly appreciated by me and by your region mates.

Foreign Affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has met all of the goals that I set for it, for the term. These were significant and meaningful goals. Most importantly, we’ve reestablished The North Pacific’s foreign policy as an assertive and pragmatic one, and our diplomatic corps as the most formidable and knowledgeable in the world.

In terms of reporting, Praetor has established a new golden standard for the Ministry in terms of keeping the region informed of its activities, successes and failures:

We have also been confronted with a number of significant issues on the world stage. We released a number of statements on NPA anti-fascist operations, including this one in the Defence subforum and this one. Praetor and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been crucial in continuing to assertively and fairly outline The North Pacific’s critical foreign policy interests to our allies and friends, even where there is disagreement.

The IRC Pact was another signature initiative that we took to the Regional Assembly and was implemented into law. I would encourage my successor to continue to monitor the IRC pact to make sure that it remains relevant to our regional interests. While initially it proved to be fruitful, I have become concerned that the pact will become another closed off regional server, rather than an open opportunity for all to engage. Like any agreement, we will need to continue to monitor it to ensure it remains in compliance with our foreign policy goals.

We also undertook a considerable review of our embassies, as well as our embassy requests, foreign policy procedures and other administrative guidance. We opened embassies with the Augustin Alliance, Brightonburg, Caer Sidi, Philippines, Thaecia, and United Regions Alliance.

I am very satisfied with the work of Praeceps and his team this term. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in an extremely strong position. The next Delegate will inherit a very positive Ministry, with all the groundwork laid, and the external outreach completed and ready for them to expand upon as necessary.

Defence

At the beginning of the term, we inherited a Ministry of Defence that had suffered from relatively poor leadership and oversight. It was in large part many of the NPA members who felt demoralized and neglected, who assisted me in realising how important it was for change to occur.

Since then, the North Pacific Army has performed exceptionally well. The level and complexity of operations undertaken has continued to inspire and delight me. I am very thankful to the leadership of the Minister of Defence @Nimarya and the other members of NPA High Command.

Anti-fascist activities and our broader foreign policy goals have remained a signature part of our approach to NPA operations.

A detailed list of the training operations undertaken this term is available here.

Administratively, we also rolled out a new NPA Directive to replace the extremely outdated NPA Code of Governance. I also promoted @Rom, @Robespierre and @BMWSurfer to the rank of NPA General.

A key change to the Code of Governance is allowing the NPA High Command to be more flexible in its membership, to ensure that it does not remain a lounge chair of the NPA, and instead is a proactive leader of NPA Operations. I am hopeful that this will bode well for the future and give future Delegates greater leeway to make changes there, as required.

Finally given a further departure from NPA High Command recently, I hereby promote @Nimarya to General of The North Pacific Army. This is in recognition of her phenomenal and revolutionary work as head of the NPA.

Despite the positives of the term, there have been a number of challenges, particularly in relation to the behaviour and attitude of some NPA personnel. These have been managed and dealt with as necessary.

The next Delegate will inherit an incredibly strong, active and well trained North Pacific Army. I am hopeful that whoever the next Delegate is, that they provide it the strong oversight and direction it requires, as well as supportive guidance to their Minister and High Command Officials. That is crucial to its continued success.

World Assembly Affairs

In World Assembly Affairs, I acknowledge the work of Minister @Westinor and their Deputies, in particular @Boston Castle, who have done fantastic work this term. Westinor is a high performing Minister who is far too pessimistic about his own achievements, so here, I shall do my part to sing their praises and acknowledge his work.

The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs has, at the time of writing, written 45 information for voters telegrams and dispatches for release to our community. This is an incredible undertaking, and a clear sign of Westinor’s ability to provide strategic direction to their Ministry, and to individual WA staffers, and Boston Castle in particular, for taking such a keen interest in this work.

Westinor and their team have remained a crucial part of our external affairs engagement as well. Westinor has led our campaigns against anti-fascist proposals, from the counter-campaign stage, to the NPA operations phase, to the response phase due to international reaction. I am grateful for their efforts in that respect.

In addition, Westinor and Praetor have been working together on establishing a framework to mitigate quorum raiding and to establish a broad coalition of partners to enact that framework. This is close to fruition, but not quite there yet. I hope that whoever the next Delegate is, that they commit to continuing to explore this option and to maintain The North Pacific’s position as a responsible world power, that takes necessary and proportionate action.

The World Assembly Legislative League has continued to work together on matters of WA significance. The WA Ministry has also been a very useful brains trust for considering new ideas to grow and expand WALL. Again, this is something I am confident can be re-examined in the new term.

Finally, I thank @Westinor for their leadership and hard work as Minister of World Assembly Affairs this term. The next administration inherits a Ministry of World Assembly Affairs in a very strong position and I am excited to see this work built upon once more.

Culture

The Ministry of Culture was in dire straits when I came to office. As a former incredibly overworked and tired Minister of Culture, it pained me to see the state of the Ministry of Culture when we came to office.

@MadJack and his formidable team have done an incredible job at bringing the Ministry back up to where it needs to be.

The Ministry of Culture worked incredibly hard on our representation at Nationstates Grand Exhibition and the United Regions Alliance Global Showcase where our efforts were widely commended and resulted in significant positive attention for our region.

Theme Thursday also continued to be a prominent part of Culture’s calendar of events, that resulted in the following award winners:

The Most Delicious Dessert: Kyle
The Most Elite Gamer: Praetor
The First Decades of Delirium: Arc
TNP’s Memeiest Memer: Wondereess
Trailblazing Women: Dreadton
Action Heroes: Greater Ale Permars:
Sports: Ianmey7
2010s: Paxioslange
2000s: Fujiwara
Spring: Koopa
Suit Up: Prydania
Yellow: Wondrous
Hanna Barbera: Robespierre
Professional Wrestling: Prydania
Tastiest Snack: Dreadton

We had message in the bottle here, a poetry competition won by Westinor, and overhauled the North Pacific University announced here.

The Ministry of Culture performed incredibly well and I am sure there are many other matters that I have not mentioned in this report. I again thank @Madjack and his team for their hard work. The next Delegate will inherit an incredibly strong Ministry of Culture, thanks to our efforts, and I am excited to see what happens next.

Cards

The Ministry of Cards was once again under the leadership of @DGES.

The Ministry had a strong first half, despite significant technical difficulties. A key goal for my administration was the hosting of a full scale Cards festival, known as the Cards Symposium. This was a significant event that drew wide scale attention to our Cards programs and to the region itself. We had over 11 special events, 5 speakers, and over 100 participants. I was incredibly proud of this event and thankful to DGES for his efforts.

The Ministry also worked very hard to publish the Cards focused edition of The Northern Lights, which generated further attention to our event and to the speakers.

A new Cards Awards competition was also launched in order to recognise the contributions of players to all aspects of NS Cards. I once again thank and acknowledge Noahs Second Country for his hard work in this respect.

The Ministry of Cards suffered in particular from difficulties as well as the profound loss of time dedicated to the gifting programs by r3n. In my opinion, many of these programs quickly become unsustainable when they rely upon one person having considerable amount of time to gift cards.

I have been working on a new initiative that will allow multiple members of the staff to have access to gifting cards from The North Pacific’s extensive collection. I am hopeful that either this weekend or next week, we will be able to launch this. This will make our gifting programs more sustainable.

It is important to recognise the successes of the term, while also acknowledging that there have been some difficulties here. The goal for the next term should be on eliminating unsustainable cards programs, and strengthening the ones that do exist.

I am thankful to DGES for his efforts in these difficult circumstances. Nonetheless, the Cards Ministry has a clear path ahead that must be followed in order to address these challenges. The new administration will need to rise to the occasion and address these difficulties in order to keep the Ministry prosperous long term.

Communications

The Ministry of Communications started under Minister BMWSurfer and concluded under Minister @Fregerson. I thank them both for their efforts in what is a challenging Ministry.

Communications continues to struggle from a lack of authors, which results in a considerable amount of work falling upon the Minister themselves directly. In addition, senior and experienced staff are typically prepared to edit work, but not necessarily to create new topic. As a result, it requires continuous and conscientious work on the part of the Minister - which was demonstrated by both Freg and BMW.

Despite these challenges, we made significant changes to the Ministry. The end of The North Star was announced, with the Ministry transitioning to the polaris article format. The Polaris articles published so far this term are available here.

The Northern Lights edition on the Cards Symposium was published and is available for reading here click. The edition on regional development index is well under development, and should prove to be an early victory for the next administration in its publishing goals.

The goal for the next term needs to, in my view, be on the recruitment of authors and on brainstorming regular ideas for Polaris articles. Communications must be prepared to move on Senior staff who are no longer active, and provide better opportunities to retain engaged staff.

Radio

The Ministry of Radio has performed well this term under the leadership of @The Cascadian Bioregion. This was Cascadian’s first time as a Minister, and in his first role he was handed the challenging task of the Ministry of Radio, which requires specialised skills with editing, as well as the confidence to host shows on a wide variety of topics.

I am proud of the work completed by Cascadian, as evidenced by the below published shows for the Ministry this term:

Cascadian has established that it is possible for the Ministry of Radio to be consistently putting out shows. WIth the support of his staff, roleplay in particular has had a very prominent place in the Ministry of Radio.

It is worth noting that there were a few other shows that didn’t make the above list due to a couple of missteps at the beginning of the term. Nonetheless, the Ministry learned from these experiences and ended on a positive note.

For the next term, the Ministry is in a strong position to diversify its regular shows into other areas of interest for North Pacificans. It has also established a growing base of staff with editing and hosting ability, which will hopefully lead to an exciting new future in the next administration.

Home Affairs

The Ministry of Home Affairs led by Minister @Owen, Deputy Minister @Vivanco and @New Celoveniortan and @Sanjurika has performed strongly this term.

Under their leadership, 12 lists, 1715 rows were claimed and 11701 telegrams were delivered to members of The North Pacific. This is a significant milestone and breaks almost all records for previous terms. I’ve outlined these lists below.

Minister Owen also began to rewrite a number of the regular recruitment telegrams that are sent by Home Affairs, important work that is often missed in the lightning speed of government.

In Press Releases, we faced difficulties with the publishing tools going down for maintenance and having since not been restored requiring manual posting across all platforms. Despite this, the Ministry managed to publish four press releases on key issues. The Press Releases area had been neglected entirely for the preceding 8 months, and while it is an area I am personally passionate about, I am sure that some of you did not immediately notice they were not as regular as I’d hoped.

The Ministry ends once more on a strong foundation for future success for the next administration. I thank Owen for his service as Minister of Home Affairs. The key focus in my view for the next term should be on expanding the mentorship program. Otherwise, work must be put in to maintain the significant recruitment momentum that has been re-asserted by this term.

In conclusion..

As I said at the beginning of this address, I was called to serve as Delegate again as I saw a number of serious missteps in the direction of our region and a lack of leadership in important areas.

This has been a challenging term for me and for my team. Despite this, we have worked incredibly hard and delivered great results for our community.

The next administration inherits a stronger, more assertive, and better TNP than what it was when we started.

I thank all of my Ministers, Praetor, Nimarya, Westinor, Madjack, DGES, BMWSurfer, Fregerson, The Cascadian Bioregion and Owen for their hard work this term. It has been a tremendous pleasure to serve along side you all.

I also again acknowledge the hard work of Chief of Staff Oracle and Lead Gameside Advocate Rocketdog.

Finally, I acknowledge the Vice Delegate Cretox for his advice and input into executive council matters.

I wish the new Delegate, whoever that may be, the very best in taking the region forward. You are inheriting from a good administration and I hope that will ease the burden for you. I will remain available for advice, assistance, or simply to lend an ear, should you require it.

To my region mates, I say once more - thank you for electing me, it has been a great honour to serve you once more.

Yours,

Delegate of The North Pacific

End of Term Report: Jan - May 2021 Term

mcmasterdonia

Just like a queef in the wind, so is life