Ministry of Cards Office - End-of-Term Report 5/12/2021
To All Citizens,
These last 4 months have proven to be very interesting for the Ministry of Cards. A series of unusual occurrences took place during this term, and a certain degree of progress was achieved by the end of April. As for what I mean by this, I have laid down what has transpired for the cards management of The North Pacific:
Administrative Tasks
All of my previously appointed deputies (@9003 , @Noah's Second Country, and @r3naissanc3r) remained as part of this administration. Additionally, actions were taken in order to allow @Sven to join in overseeing the Ministry of Cards. Sweden has been one of the most devoted and respected cards traders as of this moment (currently ranked within the top 5 in deck value as well!), so all of us were enthusiastic about adding them to the leadership team.
Key Projects Completed
To summarize what has been accomplished, multiple large and small-scale projects were completed by the Ministry of Cards during this term. This included the following:
Increasing Regular Staff Participation in Regular Guild Activities
Through the efforts of several users (including @North Pacific UPC, @Rewan Demontay, and @Sven, though the latter is more of a deputy at this point), MoCa has been ensured that many of its everyday functions will be able to be continued by users other than the long-time ones you might have already known. The full extent of what these users are capable of has not been fully researched, but I believe that they will serve to potentially run the Ministry of Cards in the coming future.
Hosting a Full-scale, Cards Festival for Enjoyment by the Region (and those who might be outside the region)
This cards festival, henceforth known as the 2021 Cards Symposium, was the first of its kind, and could be considered the most notable achievement within this term (and my personal favorite as well, since I was literally planning it while the stupid Texas power outages were occurring lmao). Planning began 1 month before the Symposium actually began, and attendance rates were unexpectedly higher than anticipated (a minimum of 110 users managed to join the celebratory Discord server). Overall, while the task was extremely time-consuming, we were glad that many were able to enjoy the event to some degree or form.
(Additionally, an issue of The Northern Lights was released going over several aspects of the Symposium. This is thanks to the efforts of former Communications Minister @BMWSurfer and current Communications Minister @Fregerson: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1530739)
Producing a Card Awards Competition
In conjunction with the Cards Symposium, the Cards Awards competition was started (and could also be considered the first of its kind) in order to recognize the achievements of notable cards players, organizations, and/or events within the trading community. This was primarily achieved thanks to the dedicated efforts of @Noah’s Second Country, and without their help it would be hard to tell if people would have even bothered to give the Cards Awards a glance.
Planning for this event also took a long time to complete, and the results were favorable as a result.
Through the efforts of several users (including @North Pacific UPC, @Rewan Demontay, and @Sven, though the latter is more of a deputy at this point), MoCa has been ensured that many of its everyday functions will be able to be continued by users other than the long-time ones you might have already known. The full extent of what these users are capable of has not been fully researched, but I believe that they will serve to potentially run the Ministry of Cards in the coming future.
Hosting a Full-scale, Cards Festival for Enjoyment by the Region (and those who might be outside the region)
This cards festival, henceforth known as the 2021 Cards Symposium, was the first of its kind, and could be considered the most notable achievement within this term (and my personal favorite as well, since I was literally planning it while the stupid Texas power outages were occurring lmao). Planning began 1 month before the Symposium actually began, and attendance rates were unexpectedly higher than anticipated (a minimum of 110 users managed to join the celebratory Discord server). Overall, while the task was extremely time-consuming, we were glad that many were able to enjoy the event to some degree or form.
(Additionally, an issue of The Northern Lights was released going over several aspects of the Symposium. This is thanks to the efforts of former Communications Minister @BMWSurfer and current Communications Minister @Fregerson: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1530739)
Producing a Card Awards Competition
In conjunction with the Cards Symposium, the Cards Awards competition was started (and could also be considered the first of its kind) in order to recognize the achievements of notable cards players, organizations, and/or events within the trading community. This was primarily achieved thanks to the dedicated efforts of @Noah’s Second Country, and without their help it would be hard to tell if people would have even bothered to give the Cards Awards a glance.
Planning for this event also took a long time to complete, and the results were favorable as a result.
Partially Completed Projects
Multiple projects were partially completed in one way or another this term. They have been separated into the following (in no particular order):
Revamping and Expanding the Executive Card Rewards
Planning was being undertaken regarding how the Executive Card Rewards could be further developed during this term. Progress was made; however, r3n’s absence ended up calling into question whether the ECR program would survive in the long term.
Fortunately for everyone, one user who could be considered the most crucial in actually handling the program was Vice Delegate @Cretox State. All throughout this term, Cretox was the most committed towards encouraging every other ministry to expand, update, et cetera regarding their own individual executive cards programs, and for that we sincerely thank them for everything they have done. Additionally, delegate @mcmasterdonia has been working with MoCa in order to ensure that cards could still be sent to staff members (which, for the record, is now something we know we may continue).
What we still need to complete is actually getting the program back to a more regularized state, something which will require prioritization within the next few months.
Amending the North Pacific Cards Guild Charter
This project was unfortunately something that I was unable to complete. A draft has been completed, but actually posting the thread to officially help amend the Charter still had yet to be posted.
Interestingly enough, however, Season 3 has yet to be released to all of NationStates, which was a primary motivation for my desire to amend the Charter. Perhaps it could be said that revisiting the Charter was not too high of a priority as a result (though it will eventually be done regardless).
Planning was being undertaken regarding how the Executive Card Rewards could be further developed during this term. Progress was made; however, r3n’s absence ended up calling into question whether the ECR program would survive in the long term.
Fortunately for everyone, one user who could be considered the most crucial in actually handling the program was Vice Delegate @Cretox State. All throughout this term, Cretox was the most committed towards encouraging every other ministry to expand, update, et cetera regarding their own individual executive cards programs, and for that we sincerely thank them for everything they have done. Additionally, delegate @mcmasterdonia has been working with MoCa in order to ensure that cards could still be sent to staff members (which, for the record, is now something we know we may continue).
What we still need to complete is actually getting the program back to a more regularized state, something which will require prioritization within the next few months.
Amending the North Pacific Cards Guild Charter
This project was unfortunately something that I was unable to complete. A draft has been completed, but actually posting the thread to officially help amend the Charter still had yet to be posted.
Interestingly enough, however, Season 3 has yet to be released to all of NationStates, which was a primary motivation for my desire to amend the Charter. Perhaps it could be said that revisiting the Charter was not too high of a priority as a result (though it will eventually be done regardless).
Assessment of Term
At the start of this term, the Ministry of Cards provided a set of clearly defined goals in order to complete (or at least mostly complete) by the end of April. However, many of these goals either had to be revised or de-prioritized due to the unexpected absence of our largest provider and developer of The North Pacific’s card programs (i.e. r3n); they remained a deputy in the off-chance that they would return, but such an event did not take place.
Despite this, however, MoCa chose to strive as hard as it can in order to make ends meet. As one might have already deduced, this was achieved in several ways, whether it be the expansion of MoCa’s presence in TNP’s community or the hosting of events (such as the Cards Symposium) which were desired to be released by our Delegate. Unexpected situations resulted in adaptations to address those situations, and I am happy that my deputies, staffers, etc. were able to achieve this much during this term.
With regards to my personal performance as Minister, I believe that my performance was not as achieving as I had hoped. My fellow users in the Ministry of Cards have consistently been online and have performed to a certain degree of effectiveness whenever it was needed. For me, I too had managed to perform adequately during the near-majority of this term. However, my ability to head the ministry was then significantly reduced due to an unusually high amount of crises that continue to plague me to this day in real-life. This unfortunately caused a near-complete absence of me from the ministry during the month of April (which I would have otherwise utilized to finally resolve the issues regarding r3n’s absence). Not only this, but I was already experiencing several instances of on-and-off activity even before what occurred during April, and for that I extend my greatest apologies for everything that had transpired.
As I still need to address those issues, I believe that it is best for a different user to take the reins on the Ministry of Cards. I will still be willing to do so if it is required, but I strongly believe that another dedicated TNPer who possesses a relatively firm background in cards (and our internal cards policies) will go an extremely long way. At this point in time, MoCa has grown in membership, and to facilitate such growth it is probably of everyone’s best interest to diversify who will continue to run it going forward.
All in all, the overall performance of the Ministry of Cards had been adequate. Its members responded to their given tasks with enthusiasm and efficiency, and it is only due to my own inability to consistently maintain activity that has led to any sort of potential underperformance within this term (which I will once again sincerely apologize for). The Cards Guild subservient to the Ministry of Cards will require a replenishing of activity - along with further development - in order to adapt to the issues caused by r3n’s absence, but I believe that MoCa will eventually overcome this. Everyone here is fully dedicated to what they are here for, and that is the advancement of the cards community - both within this region and NationStates as a whole.
This concludes the report I have for the end of the term. Thank you all very much for reading, and I can’t express how truly grateful I am to everyone for continuing to support the growth of this newly-evolving ministry.
Yours Truly,
DGES, Minister of Cards of The North Pacific