Fregerson 4 Speaker: Bringing things back on track

[Fregerson]

I must admit, I wasn't prepared for this. I wasn't expecting the Special Election to show up barely a month and a bit more into the term, but given how things were going, well, a change is probably needed, especially in the eyes of the citizens, who felt something remains missing.

But hey, it is me, once again, running for Speaker following the previous run. You can refer to my previous thread for some ideas on who am I and my background, but I am going to take quite a different track in terms of the discussion of issues concerning the Office and all.

1) Issues with regards to handover
The first issue when I stepped into the Office was something that came off pretty obviously - that the handover from one Speaker to another wasn't as smooth as supposed to be. It might be partially due to the activity issues that have plagued the experienced Speaker. It may also be due to the fact that there was little overlap between the Office of East Isles' speakership and that of Oracle. In fact, I had to self-teach my way through the Speaker checks and all, based on whatever past conversation history and making sense of the Citizen Roll sheet on my own. That doesn't exactly make any sense in any position. Which is why I think the first order of business is to ensure that there is a smooth handover. It may be time to properly iron out a guide for Speakers and Deputies alike; as well as updated information on what the purpose of the various new sheets are in the Citizenship Spreadsheet. It also gives us the opportunity to make sure the entire Office is up to standard, as newer Deputies understand the process and inner runnings of the Office.

2) Activity Levels
All my points here are inter-related, as you may later realise. There are issues with activity levels among the current team, and I would be lying to say that I am not facing issues. To set the record straight, I have been deployed to important operations, and that would mean that I am without my computer for around 5 days a week for the next month or so. While that is the case, I believe that the impacts on my duties might not be as huge as it sounds. For one thing, I can still do vote counting and Speaker Checks for Citizenship. The only issue might come in tabulating the Loss of Citizenship sections, which is why, as part of my campaign, I am going to open the door to having more Deputies as part of the team. I think having more personnel is important in doing this important task, and helps the Office to maintain Activity Levels. I would even go to the extent of appointing 5-8 deputies should there be interest in the role, though on the other hand, maintaining activity will also be a key target I have for everyone, Speaker or Deputy. I will adopt the practice of setting out a fixed timetable for duty rotation, with swaps and changes where necessary. And at the same time, I will make sure every deputy is well equipped to handle the daily checks and all. And that would also go back to my point 1 - making sure that the necessary tutorials, guides are in place. And with more deputies, there would be more people available to step up and take over should I choose to step down as Speaker, and reduces the issues of transition problem (again, highlighted in 1).

3) Reducing overlapping taskings & streamling the process
The last time round, I wanted a tech review of the systems that the Speaker's Office has put in place. Now that I see what is the issue, I would be more inclined to believe that we don't exactly need a tech review, but rather, a review of the process in place. I understand that previous Speakers have been doing statistics on citizenship losses and gains; however, the current sheet doing the tracking is actually in a mess. And given that we already record (and don't remove!) all the citizenship applications in a separate sheet, some streamlining could be done there. Should I be elected Speaker, I will carry out a plan of having 1-2 reviews every term where we do a self-check and reflection on the current systems at place, and see if there can be improvements made. Of course, this would require input from the admins (who have an idea how this spreadsheet was designed and with what considerations in place); as well as every single member of the Office, who would by then be acquainted with the process and understand what could be done to make things easier and faster.

I will leave it at this 3 pressing issues for now. Open for any questions.

 

[Tim Kasto]

 

[Tim Kasto]

The statistics in my opinion are useless unless someone uses them. I honestly think it should be removed to reduce the workload on the office.

 

[Pallaith]

So at what point do you feel it is appropriate for deputies to step up from assigned dats and duties, and fill in when no one else in the office is doing tasks that need to be done? As of this moment there is still a vote that should have closed a week ago yet remains open and uncounted. I am also not sympathetic to the excuse that no one trained the new deputies - if the deputies are unable t do something isn't it incumbent upon them to speak up and try to get the training or knowledge they are missing? One of the issues with a schedule for deputies to perform tasks is they may not do them outside those windows. The best deputies do, the best deputies speak up, are present, and don't let things fall through the cracks. How can I have faith that more of the same won't happen on your watch, especially given you will not be able to be actively engaged on a daily basis (perhaps you can elaborate on that)?

 

[Fregerson]

So at what point do you feel it is appropriate for deputies to step up from assigned dats and duties, and fill in when no one else in the office is doing tasks that need to be done?

If I am speaker, I am going to make it clear to my deputies that they are free to swap around duties, step up when something is amiss, and all

As of this moment there is still a vote that should have closed a week ago yet remains open and uncounted. I am also not sympathetic to the excuse that no one trained the new deputies - if the deputies are unable t do something isn't it incumbent upon them to speak up and try to get the training or knowledge they are missing?

It takes two hands to clap, am I right? A competent deputy who actively takes the initiative to try to learn everything on their own cannot do it if there is no one to teach. Or no guide to reference from. That is why I think it is important to push out the guide and steps on how to do checks, so that even in the absence of someone to do a VC to teach, they are capable of learning and doing it themself.
I think this is an issue that resonates deeply with me. A huge number of TNPers live on American timezones, while I live on the Australian one. So when I am freer and able to do things, I wouldn't be able to coordinate with someone, who by then, will be busy/asleep etc. So with a reference guide up and ready, the learning could be self-guided and self-done.

One of the issues with a schedule for deputies to perform tasks is they may not do them outside those windows. The best deputies do, the best deputies speak up, are present, and don't let things fall through the cracks. How can I have faith that more of the same won't happen on your watch, especially given you will not be able to be actively engaged on a daily basis (perhaps you can elaborate on that)?

I mean, have to agree here, a schedule isn't necessarily the best way to ensure constant activity and make other deputies cover up others' work where necessary. But the opposite is true - when there is no duty system, the worst deputies might not even be bothered to start doing because they will assume someone else is covering for them. For a start, a duty system works well - at least we can clearly see who isn't pulling their weight, right? But this is a minor issue which can be discussed with the team as a whole. The main issue is just being accountable and pro-active in terms of keeping the daily routines in order.

As for the part where I won't be actively engaged, let me clarify on that. I am not getting cut from the Internet on weekdays, so therefore, I will still be able to go around and give reminders to ask others to do the necessary taskings. The issue here is just me not being able to complete all the taskings without a computer access - especially the loss of citizenship checks, because they require spreadsheet access on computer to run the scripts. Doing things on mobile, however, is possible (though difficult). For instance, I can manually look up a nation using the dossier on NationStates to check if the nation exists/is in TNP. I can do vote counting and tabulation on mobile either. Takes more time, but if there is a need for me to step in, I believe that as the elected Speaker, I have to do it.

I think one thing I will make clear from the get-go is that I am open to letting my deputies take over any taskings of the speaker. If the deputies want to do vote scheduling or vote closing, they don't really have to ask me for permission or something like that if there is a procedure in place

 

[mcmasterdonia]

You’re committed, hard working and a solid communicator. You have my support. Good luck!

 

[Simone]

I think at this stage, given it's the third election in a month and a bit already, the important thing for a speaker is to "stick around" as it appears to me to be a thankless gig.