WA Affairs Opening Address August 2021

[Hulldom]

August 2021 - World Assembly Affairs Opening Address ​

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Well everyone,

These were not the circumstances I, or anyone frankly I hope, expected me to be appointed in. To be absolutely clear, and this may be a bit hubristic, but I had a speech all planned out for this very eventuality, and now it’s moot. Anyway, making things more sweet and to the point, I want to extend my gratitude to Fregerson and Sil for crafting and moving the motion which got me here and Robes for taking the chance on appointing a Resident to the Minister’s office. Further, I want to thank Fiji for his unwavering confidence I could do this job (and for authoring the resolution--like the discussion--in the RA that got me here) and of course, Cretox. Whether any of you knew it or not, Cretox was many things to me. A pain at times. My boss. A venting partner. A mentor. And most importantly, a friend. Seeing him vacate office on Sunday morning was incredibly painful to witness, as is the knowledge that we might have just seen the last of this incredibly talented, incredibly funny, and incredibly caring person. For his getting me involved in the MoWAA initially, his work within the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs, in the Security Council, and as Vice Delegate, I salute him. TNP will be slightly less, I’m afraid, without him.

As for me though, I’ve got some stuff up my sleeve in the (hopeful?) event I’m reappointed for a full term by the Delegate elected in September. Though for now, I’m only going to announce an administrative change and my slate of Deputy Ministers, leaving more ambitious ideas for when I can coordinate with the incoming Delegate/we have time to actually implement some of them.

• The Administrative Change. I will be making slight changes and tweaks to the Voting Templates Thread. (Thanks me for not catching my modly powers in the HQ before posting this!) This will involve two main things: a reformatting of the Co-Authorship slot in templates and the addition of a template for Declarations. I’ll also be adding some important voting thread things, such as preferred RGB codes for concluded votes and the appropriate thread titles.
  
• The Deputy Ministers. For at least the next few weeks, Deputy Ministers will be taking a single scope policy brief with the goal of allowing them to focus on or specialize in an area they have shown an intense and abiding interest in. I want to emphasize that this is, in fact, an experiment. I want to see if this system works. If it’s an unmitigated failure, either the next Minister or myself will revert to the old system. If it works out, I’ll keep on keeping on. Without further ado, the slate of Deputy Ministers for the remainder of this term:
  
  • Executive Deputy Minister and Deputy Minister for Proposals and Discussions, @Greater Cesnica. Cesnica has been an absolutely fine staffer and has been absolutely wonderful to work with both where he’s my boss in Europeia and where I’m *his* boss here in TNP. While originally my goal was to have Jedinsto serve as a Deputy specifically for the SC, this will instead be an all-encompassing brief for both GA and SC and I cannot be happier to have someone like GC in the role. I should also note that the World Assembly Affairs Ministry is always looking for talented players who want to focus on the SC, as we have precious few, but for now, GC will have the task of making sure everything campaigned on gets a vote and that discussion at least starts in voting threads.
  • Deputy Minister for Engagement, @Sir Kasto. Kasto has similarly been absolutely invaluable to this region’s Ministry of World Assembly Affairs of late. While GC and I have dealt with some tech glitches, Kasto has been sending out just about every IFV. He’s been incredible when it comes to making sure that all of our publications get out (mostly) on time to our audiences and in making sure that they get the love and attention they deserve . This role will allow Kasto to do what he does best, talk with others, working with me to ensure that we continue to accept new folks and that we also develop a plan for expanding our footprint gameside. I’ll also be working with him, and with Robes, for a more general plan for outreach about the WA, its proposals, and voting for the region and its residents.
  • Deputy Minister for Technology, @East Isles. East has not been the most active staffer this term, and I will freely admit that the necessity of someone else to work our spreadsheets while GC and I work through a tech glitch was of paramount importance. I also, however, know East to be a wonderfully hard worker and someone I can rely upon. His role will be very simple, sending out our IFVs (often when Kasto cannot) and checking behind me to make sure our sheets run and our counts (especially cards rewards counts) are up-to-date.

Once again, thank you all for your trust and for your willingness to embrace me over the last year and change. It has been a long road to where we are now, and I think even the person who encouraged me to join the MoWAA would be absolutely shocked that one year in the future, I’d be metaphorically sitting in this chair--much less that I wrote 5 voted-on GA proposals in that time. It has meant a whole lot to me that I have your faith, trust, and friendship and it will continue to do so as we continue to work to raise the bar for excellence in World Assembly Affairs.

Ever Yours,
~~Boston Castle

 

[Simone]

Good luck.