August 2021 - World Assembly Affairs Closing Address
Well all, what an eventful term it has been.
We’ve had controversies, legality challenges, new authors, old authors, and even personal attacks...well, in the wider world anyway. I’m pleased to report that our team has not had anything nearly so exciting, thankfully. That being said though, we did have a Minister vacate office, have a Deputy more or less shakily take the reins, and we’ve had a Ministry that’s at least off life support right now.
Without further ado, let’s dig into the term that was, with three main points of emphasis for the term that I’d like to point out as we spring into the fall term in a week or two.
- New Faces, Old Faces, Chugging Along.
The Cards Task Reward Sheet point counting sheet as it currently stands, points current as of Sunday night. Points counted since approximately December 26, 2020.
This particular sign is...well, not very encouraging at all. Some might accuse me of overdoing it on the threads, and in fairness, I’ve attempted to be a bit less “on top of it” for variety’s sake, but it’s very clear that the brunt of the action in the Ministry is falling on one or two people. However, that being said, this image also encompasses all activity in the Ministry since Christmas 2020 so it’s not exactly reflective of where we are now. That being said, we have gained some new staffers. @Jedinsto (even though he has since departed us), @Fauxia, and @Veltvalen stand out as three particular people of importance here. We’ve also had eight unique current or former staffers pass resolutions this term in myself, Jedinsto, Fauxia (as Co-Author), @Greater Cesnica, @Honeydewistan, @Morover, @Westinor, and @walrus. It’s quite encouraging that we have many people actually showing up in the World Assembly every day, even if they’re not as engaged here.
Next term (should I be asked to serve again by the next Delegate), my goal, as morbid and discouraging as it may sound, is to start the work of grooming a successor to myself. My life is changing. I have some pretty consequential stuff to do in this upcoming term relating to personal education goals and I’m not sure if that time commitment, along with my RL job and current education, will grant me enough time to be Minister in the near future (think January-May term). I have one or two candidates in mind that I’m hopeful will not only join the Ministry, but will be good fits as well. Hopefully that work will continue apace and we’ll be able to really make this Ministry hum with multiple cogs in the machine.
Many thanks, I should note, to the Deputy Ministers this term, who helped myself and Cretox with accepting new people into the Ministry, writing IFVs, and sending them out. You all were real troopers and I cannot thank you enough for your work.
- The Technical Side of Things.
As some of you may have been aware, we occasionally were not able to send out IFVs this term due to RL constraints on the part of who was, at one time, the only Deputy or higher who could send them out and technical challenges for the rest of the Deputy line-up. I’m pleased to report that at least for myself that these are no longer relevant and that I should be fine to actually work on things and ensure that they’re sent out on-time all the time going forward. Many thanks to all of you for your patience and your upvoting of these this term. My special thanks go out to @Eluvatar, who, on more than one occasion, helped myself and Kasto out of a bind.
- Special Initiatives
Unfortunately, this is perhaps the one area I think the Ministry failed more than anything this term. That’s not to say we didn’t have some successes. Thanks to the Deputy Ministers, especially Greater Cesnica and @East Isles, we’ve now updated our card task rewards sheet, something I’m sure you all know is ongoing. I’ve also managed to adjust our Templates thread to better reflect certain stylistic choices made with the introduction of co-author attribution (given that they are shortly supposed to receive some sort of badge for it) and to help standardize how we do certain things (thread announcements, colors for passage or failure).
That being said, certain things like the Talking to a WALL initiative broadly failed due to a lack of coordination and failures of timing on multiple people’s parts. I take the blame for some of that due to simply being a bit timid in the role of Deputy Minister, especially with our beloved Cretox at the helm, but...that being said, broadly speaking, that was what failed the most clearly and thoroughly.
So, I guess that all leaves you wondering…
- What’s Next?
Next term (if re-appointed), I do have plans to implement several changes in the Ministry’s bureaucracy, including hopefully a detailed overhaul of the Voting Policy both in threads and as a region (following in the footsteps of the wonderful recent revision of Europeia’s policy by GC) in concert with the next Delegate and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Further, I’m also going to be working with my WALL counterparts to start a more general project to commend significant people in the WALL regions. Lastly, I’ve also had some very preliminary discussions re: WALL expansion (no more than “hey, I’ve reached out to [insert established region], what would you think?”) and that, I hope, will be on the agenda as well.
For Boston Castle though, the next steps are very simple: keep writing, keep leading, keep trying to ensure we maintain the very high degree of excellence I know we can.
With hope for re-appointment and for a bright future ahead, ever yours,
~~Boston Castle
P.S. Yes, I'm aware it's early, I had some spare time on a Monday afternoon so I went on ahead and wrote it.
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