Opening Address: September 2022-January 2023
For the fifth time (wow!) I have the honor of serving as your delegate. Thank you all so much for continuing to put your trust in me, and in responding well to the work we have done so far and the work that is to come. I have no illusions about how some may read the fact that I ran unopposed, something that, while common in our early days, is not the norm for the TNP we have come to know in recent years. I fully recognize that we have a lot to do to boost participation and engagement, and I do not take the fact I had no opponent in this race to mean everything is going perfectly and I have no room to improve. I am often my own harshest critic, and I know there is much we can do better in the next four months. That is what I pledged to do and it is what I will get done for you by the time we bring this year to a close.
We have looked to the outside aspects of this game in the previous term, sometimes perhaps at the detriment to the inside aspects, our internal ministries and activities. I am increasingly confident that much of the outer pressures and concerns that demanded our attention when I first resumed this office in May have been addressed and will not be nearly as pressing as we head into the fall. We can look inward with more gusto and without losing focus of the bigger picture, because that bigger picture includes a vibrant and healthy community in our region, and we must make sure it stays that way.
For the term ahead, I am pleased to bring back the team that helped us finish off the previous term on an upswing after a rocky middle. These outstanding citizens serving you again are the following:
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Hulldom
Minister of Defense: Cretox
Minister of World Assembly Affairs: Chipoli
Minister of Culture: Kaschovia
Minister of Home Affairs: Kastonvia
Minister of Cards: Rewan Demontay
Ethnon (Marcus Antonius) will continue to serve as the Lead Gameside Advocate. Further Gameside Advocate appointments will be announced in the days ahead.
Last term when I announced my cabinet, I highlighted their strengths and qualities that I felt demanded heir consideration for their roles. Looking back on the term that just completed, I can say they lived up to those expectations, and I will not repeat them here. But I did want to say a few words about the areas changing from last term. I am pleased Cretox can return to the role where I daresay he has done some of his finest work. We were sad to lose him in the middle of the term, but we must always be responsive to the needs outside of the game, and sometimes life gets in the way. We were glad to have Nimarya return to the role, especially as she herself had to resign HA minister for personal reasons, but I am even more glad that she can now take a well-deserved break.
Her successor as HA minister, Kastonvia, who is also our outgoing Vice Delegate, did a fine job picking up where she left off, and his enthusiasm and fun outlook rally helps to spur the members of the ministry to do what is often rote and thankless work. Combined with his successful engagement onsite, and his personable nature, he has been a natural in the role and I look forward to continuing to work with him as we form a stronger, more consistent-plan keeping players motivated and enticed to do more in the region. Chipoli is staying on after taking over for Deropia, and he has so far proven that the potential he showed as a deputy is only just starting to be realized. The continued improvement he has shown as we kicked the WA ministry back into gear following a sleepy start can only mean good things for us in the months ahead, and I am happy to have him on board for the new term.
I am also keeping Kaschovia, our Minister of Culture, who succeeded Bootsie after they had to leave the game during the summer. This is not the first time Kasch has done most of the projects under his portfolio, since Communications and Radio have been incorporated into Culture – he served in both capacities numerous times over the years, and that experience comes in handy when he is also juggling responsibilities he never has before. He comes with fresh eyes but practiced hands, and his preparation and focus on his projects is some of the best I have seen.
And finally, I must note that while Hulldom is returning as FA minister, he does so, like Kasto before him, while simultaneously serving as our Vice Delegate. I have always believed that he can do anything, and I know he will treat his new responsibilities with the same seriousness and study that he has the others he has held over the years. I believe that a delegate with FA experience can more easily bring on a newcomer to take on that role, and that is just what we did with Hulldom last term. Going into this term, I believe he has more than proven himself to be capable in this capacity, and while the urgent matters in May have largely subsided, the gameplay landscape is still unpredictable and there are likely to be new challenges that will require a forceful response. We have much still underway, and a new officer would be hard-pressed to keep up. I expect that he can safely scale back his duties in FA as needed to accommodate the office of the Vice Delegacy, if only because I can handle tackling more of these affairs directly.
In my campaign I spoke about legislative priorities, and highlighted additional reform to our citizenship process, so that all members of our community could have access to the same rights and privileges that we have to offer, and so we could better respond to the needs and realities of the world as it exists today, and not as it did in the 2000s. But that is not the only thing we must contend with. Our Regional Assembly will need to consider the question of frontiers, and how they will fit into TNP’s interests and visions for our community, and our commitment to democracy. I am not the first delegate to keep an eye on what that might look like since this idea was first announced, but I mean to be the first to take concrete steps to prepare us for that future NS world. And besides laws, we will continue to retool and reconsider the policies and practices we have in place currently, with a particular focus on how they may need to better incorporate our gameside community. This will be a huge part of the equation that improves our participation and staffing levels and will be more representative of every stripe of our region. As always, I invite you to come to me with your suggestions, your dreams, your direct assistance. Get citizenship, join an executive staff (which does not even require citizenship in most cases!), sign up to the NPA – whatever interests you in this game, join us as we explore it, and if we’re not doing that to your satisfaction, be the one who steps up and shows us the way. I’ll keep working to make this the best region it can be, and hopefully the best region around, so you can look to our flag and raise your rum glass with pride.
Appointees, please take your oaths! @Hulldom @Cretox @Chipoli @Kasch @Kastonvia @Rewan Demontay @Marcus Antonius
