Hulldom for Delegate

I’ve always thought of life as being about learning. And in many ways, life is a task that’s all about learning on the fly and learning on the job. Of course, that may be a bit rich coming from a PhD student in any topic, much less political science. And just as our understanding of voter behavior and political parties have improved from the original conceptions of centripetal motion (Downs 1957; Sartori 1976), so too do I view our job as informed voters, informed citizens, and a region as something that involves learning. And learning means we continually strive for better.

Now, many of you who may be familiar with my career elsewhere will know that many would likely characterize me as ambitious and even a bit self-seeking at times, but I promise you all that nothing of the sort is in my calculus. I view my job as a player to learn and learning is only possible through advancement. And across my various positions on this game, I’ve learned a lot about myself, about the game itself, and about the preconceived notions I came in with. Crucially, though, I came to learn even as I came to serve and I always relish the opportunity to get to know someone or something else new. And now, my friends, in order to keep learning, I have to set my sights on something new. A new position, but a new opportunity to keep learning.

With that my fellow North Pacificans, I stand before you today in the hopes of becoming your next Delegate.

Over the last sixteen months, I have served this region in the Cabinet, serving as a leal and loyal advisor to Delegates MadJack and Pallaith. And while some of you may have expected me to run back in May, I realized that I needed more seasoning, more time to learn more about our region and how she works. However, I think that I’ve learned what I need to know to serve the region in her highest office. I also know that I want to learn a lot more about this game and how it works while also serving and leading the region. To that end though, I do want to explain just what it is that I want to do for this region and what my plans for this region are.

I’m going to use this opportunity to talk about my plans for our region. I also intend to use this opportunity to talk about my plans for the various Ministries that make up our wonderful Executive government. Following that, I’m going to detail my plans for the Government’s legislative agenda–and there are a lot of items on that list. I’ll be doing all of this by first introducing a brief overview of what I want to do before then providing specific detailed points about a Hulldomian Government’s agenda.

Foreign Affairs​

My vision for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very simple: to keep doing what we’ve been doing. I want us to keep being the bedrock of the Independent bulwark and to continue to foster deep and friendly relationships with our Modern Gameplay Compact and Pax Polaris Occidens allies.

How my government would do that:

• Prepare for the Frontiers/Stronghold updates by engaging in rigorous consultations with our allies and preparing our treaties and other agreements for this eventuality.
• Continue to explore deeper Security Council cooperation with our friends and allies, and not just ones in the Modern Gameplay Compact. This will include both joint authorship opportunities, but also opportunities for the North’s goals to be advanced.
• Engage with each and every region on issues of importance to them in their relationship with the North Pacific and create a game plan for stronger and/or closer relations with each partner we have moving forward.
• Seek out opportunities to put us on the cutting edge of interregional cooperation such as through festivals and joint operations, but also through educational opportunities, joint projects on items of importance like history, and media.

Defense​

My vision for the Ministry of Defense is both simple and comprehensive. It is the shallowest of shallow goals. I want to revitalize the North Pacific Army and make her a leader again on the battlefield.

How my government would do that:

• Rework Delegate Directive 5 (McMasterdonia 5). Using my authority as Delegate, I would rework the NPA Code of Governance that document functions as.
• Introduce rank parity with our MGC allied militaries.
• Formalize/maintain what has been the policy this term, that military members not involved in piling operations for allies or on operations themselves contribute to Stargate’s security by piling in it.
• Craft a plan to engage our Gameside community in military action.
• Create, with my Minister of Defense and High Command, a new rank and promotion system and engage in regular training of our enlisted soldiers and officers by creating a number of regions used explicitly for training runs.
• Plan out, and participate in, no fewer than 2 new Wargames operations with our allied militaries.
• Work with our friends and partners outside of the MGC to engage in wholesome military fun with the NPA.

World Assembly​

My vision for the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs is a bit circular. I want to cultivate the next generation of World Assembly leaders both in the General Assembly and the Security Council. I want to ensure domestically that our measurables are hit and hit consistently. Lastly, I want to work on something that has been discussed previously in ensuring that this Ministry becomes more visible Gameside.

How my government would do that:

• Expand on our current collaborations in the WALL and the MGC to work on co-authorships/mentorship program for new proposals.
• Maintain an active presence on the gameside WA forums to be on the lookout for potential newcomers who might wish to serve in our WA Ministry.
• Craft guides, with help of established GA and SC authors in TNP and beyond, to get newcomers into drafting proposals and provide clear, concise, but detailed instruction on how authors might achieve their goals.
• Relook at avenues of using the gameside platform for people to voice their opinions and contribute to the Delegate’s vote.
• Establish an activity-based rewards system to encourage staffers (and forum users) to contribute their reasoning for the Information for Voters (IFVs).

Culture​

Put bluntly, our Culture Ministry is in a shambolic state. It is not any particular person or Ministry’s fault, but it means that the position requires rethinking. Therefore, I want to reorient the Ministry to focus more explicitly on fostering TNP beyond the rum and Polaris. To this end, the Ministry of Culture will focus in my term on the promotion of activities, ideas, and interactions that are uniquely TNP, whether that be A Message in the Bottle around Valentine’s Day or promotion of N-Day or God knows what else. The Minister will work to create an all-encompassing strategy to coordinate the Gameside and the Off-site and leave us with a sense of togetherness and belonging in our beloved region.

How my government would do that:

• Merge the Culture department with our Gameside Advocates. My government will remove rules enforcement power from the Gameside Advocates. Gameside Advocates will be responsible for reporting violations, but will no longer be focused on calling out violations. Instead, their goal is going to be to engage with the Gameside community, foster a sense of what it means to be a TNPer there, and generate and execute activities and ideas that the Gameside community can engage with.
• Engage in closer coordination with the Foreign Affairs ministry so as to maximize the frequency and quality of our festivals and events with other regions.
• Endeavor to start cooperating in creation of events with new partners, and pursue building connections between communities both Gameside and Off-site with all embassy regions.
• Seek out opportunities for strengthening the bonds with governments of other regions, by collaboration in creation of events.
• Formulate a plan to educate about the culture and history of TNP, to both Gameside and Off-site communities.
• Establish a system of promotion of concepts of our region, and events it participates in with our allies.

Home Affairs​

The Ministry of Home Affairs is probably in the best place vis-a-vis its stated goals because its stated goals are to promote integration. However, it has slipped in one critical way in my mind: promoting retention. We need the Ministry to move away from the model of boilerplate that has prevailed and instead move to a new model built on interaction and responsiveness to our wants and needs.

How my government would do that:

• Redesign Home Affairs Telegram Templates to better fit our target audience.
• Connect with people through personalized interactions rather than templated interactions, especially with newcomers to the forum.
• Revitalize the Welcome Wagon programme, to make sure that our staff reaches out to newcomers to our discord, and guide them, as well as encourage them to sign up for our forums and apply for citizenship, executive staff, etc.
• Set up a reward system for our staffers, to encourage them to do the ministry’s tasks in exchange for rewards.
• Create spreadsheets to track Executive staff data, number of citizens, etc.
• Create statistics on each ministry, i.e, number of applications the ministry has received in a certain time frame, and use that data to utilize our recruitment lists.

Cards​

My vision for the Cards Ministry is to continue our tradition of excellence in the world of cards. I would like us to refocus our efforts on being the leader not just through our technical dominance and expertise, but by being approachable and creating the strongest possible foundation for our own to be able to build their dream deck(s).

How my government would do that:

• Update our information to be compliant with Season Three, as well as double check older dispatches, automated telegrams, and other cards information, all for a new year and a fresh start.
• Initiate programs and weekly events that foster general activity and keep the cards spirit alive.
• Create a tight schedule to keep the ship going; most notably becoming consistent with the Great Giveaway.
• Revive executive cards rewards in a reasonable manner.
• Last but not least, planning the 2023 Cards Symposium!

Legal Affairs​

This term I will be introducing a special position into the Cabinet. This member will focus explicitly on pressing forward the Government’s legislative agenda in the Regional Assembly. At the same time, I want this Cabinet member to engage in a variety of activities devoted to legislative and legal action in the region and be a steward of the law both for the Government and the region.

How my government would do that:

• Having the Minister of Legal Affairs work closely with the Delegate to craft legislation on a variety of matters, such as military affairs, frontiers and strongholds, and other matters as necessary to fulfill the Government’s agenda.

I know we have a long, but exceptionally critical, next 4 months ahead, and I want us to hit the ground running immediately. I know for many of you this is a vision that may be bold and radical, but to put our region in the best possible place for the F/S update and the new lay of the wider world, I think we have to think big and bold.

In conclusion though, thank you for your time. I look forward to any questions you may have on any topic, which I am happy to answer either in this thread, by TG or PM, or on Discord @AsquithsAngels#1924.

We are live!

I think this is a pretty good platform overall and I'm happy to see you run, Hulldom

You briefly served as Acting Delegate during Pallaith's absence. Do you think you learned anything about being Delegate from that experience?

What is your take on regional security in an era where actors who are explicitly hostile to us have risen in prominence? How has your time as Vice Delegate affected this view? Do you think there needs to be any legislative reform to allow our security apparatus to adapt to new threats?

It's been hinted by site staff that the Frontier/Stronghold update could be coming as soon as Q1 of next year which would fall right into the next Delegate term. How would you ensure that we are prepared for what could be a highly damaging crisis is it catches us off guard or unprepared?

Hulldom:

Prepare for the Frontiers/Stronghold updates by engaging in rigorous consultations with our allies and preparing our treaties and other agreements for this eventuality.

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Some other independent regions have signed a number of treaties with defender regions partially in preparation for this update. Do you view this as a viable strategy for TNP?

Hulldom:

Introduce rank parity with our MGC allied militaries.

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Why is rank parity important in an NS context? Does rank parity between our other MGC allies currently exist?

Hulldom:

Merge the Culture department with our Gameside Advocates.

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Why is the plan to continue to merge domestically focused departments in the hopes that this will help revive activity when the recent attempts at doing this completely failed at accomplishing their stated goals?

Hulldom:

Establish a system of promotion of concepts of our region, and events it participates in with our allies.

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What kind of concepts?

Hulldom:

Redesign Home Affairs Telegram Templates to better fit our target audience.

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Why do you feel that our templates do not currently fit our target audience? How do you imagine our "target audience"?

Hulldom:

Connect with people through personalized interactions rather than templated interactions, especially with newcomers to the forum.

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Why is this a better strategy than the resources that have worked for us for years? Would this sacrifice work that would otherwise be put into what we are currently doing?

Hulldom:

Having the Minister of Legal Affairs work closely with the Delegate to craft legislation on a variety of matters, such as military affairs, frontiers and strongholds, and other matters as necessary to fulfill the Government’s agenda.

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I think this is a great idea. What kind of legislative projects would you specifically be interested in pursuing?

Comfed:

I think this is a pretty good platform overall and I'm happy to see you run, Hulldom

You briefly served as Acting Delegate during Pallaith's absence. Do you think you learned anything about being Delegate from that experience?

What is your take on regional security in an era where actors who are explicitly hostile to us have risen in prominence? How has your time as Vice Delegate affected this view? Do you think there needs to be any legislative reform to allow our security apparatus to adapt to new threats?

It's been hinted by site staff that the Frontier/Stronghold update could be coming as soon as Q1 of next year which would fall right into the next Delegate term. How would you ensure that we are prepared for what could be a highly damaging crisis is it catches us off guard or unprepared?


Some other independent regions have signed a number of treaties with defender regions partially in preparation for this update. Do you view this as a viable strategy for TNP?

Why is rank parity important in an NS context? Does rank parity between our other MGC allies currently exist?

Why is the plan to continue to merge domestically focused departments in the hopes that this will help revive activity when the recent attempts at doing this completely failed at accomplishing their stated goals?

What kind of concepts?

Why do you feel that our templates do not currently fit our target audience? How do you imagine our "target audience"?

Why is this a better strategy than the resources that have worked for us for years? Would this sacrifice work that would otherwise be put into what we are currently doing?
I think this is a great idea. What kind of legislative projects would you specifically be interested in pursuing?

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Alright. Numbering these instead of trying to fool with the Quote bit. Doing all of this on my phone to answer you promptly so sacrifices must be made!

1. I would say it opened up my eyes to how wide of a catchment the Delegate has. Of course, not having been a generalist before (either in what I focus on or what I actually do), it’s something that I would say is only natural I would be surprised by. But generally, I would say the experience just made me more aware of everything the Delegate has on their plate from day-to-day.
2. Going to answer the Security question as one. I think my time as VD has sort of made me realize that while there’s a lot a person can do to hurt us from the inside, it would take a truly dedicated actor exceptionally long time to get into a position to do catastrophic damage. Even with the Venico rejection, I knew going into it that we, as a Government and a region, have institutional checks that we can use to stop malicious actors. To answer your question though, I’m not sure if there ought to be a legislative fix to protect us from security threats. If you have an idea, I’d be happy to hear it, but I’m not sure what form it could take beyond what we have currently without violating the Constitution, especially given the Court’s recent ruling.
3. I want to remain deliberately mum about frontiers/strongholds. Not because I do not have ideas for what I want to do, but rather because I want to talk it over with my MoFA with our allies before we take action. Rest be assured though, any action we do take will be on a variety of fronts—administrative, legislative, and of course executive.
4. Rank parity does not exist. It would be a very first thing, so far as I’m aware. It is important because in ending the one org policy (I know people will have Opinions on this), I want to go beyond opening the NPA up, I want to attract them to join us. I think having the ability to join at the same relative rank as one is used to (and granted, this would be something we’d have to discuss still!) will help attract talent to serve with the NPA.
5. Because, quite bluntly, the Gameside Advocates aren’t fit for purpose as currently constituted. They’ve turned into the arm of rule enforcement first and gameside interaction second. They can, and should, still have a reporting function, but ought not be involved in enforcement. Merging the GAs with Culture will recentre their focus on what we actually want from them: a bridge to the Gameside community and integrating gameside with the rest of TNP.
6. I believe that was a typo to say “events”, but “concepts” is still a good term for it, I think.
7. Well “our target audience” is the people the various lists collate—whether that be new people, WAs, issue answerers, etc,—and I do not feel our templates currently work simply because (and to answer your next question), I feel a personal approach will work better than something that is one size fits all. There’s a time and place for one size fits all, but a personal touch will draw people in much more easily and much more readily in my mind than the templates. As for whether moving to the personal touch would necessarily negate the hard work of those templates, I doubt it. I’ve talked this over with my Home Affairs pick and we’ve agreed that it should be something like the inclusion of some pointers (that would often have come from the current templates anyways) in the current template areas while preserving the templates for future use.
8. Lastly, this is something that I’ve been thinking about. I imagine the legislative solution to F/S will happen, military reform of it doesn’t pass in the next ten days, and I would like to also address citizenship reform if a consensus emerges. Beyond that, again, open to ideas.

Thanks for your answers Hulldom! I do have some follow up questions.

Hulldom:

I want to remain deliberately mum about frontiers/strongholds. Not because I do not have ideas for what I want to do, but rather because I want to talk it over with my MoFA with our allies before we take action. Rest be assured though, any action we do take will be on a variety of fronts—administrative, legislative, and of course executive.

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This isn't really an answer? This is a very significant change that will greatly affect TNP and this could very well be the election where we pick the Delegate who has to deal with it. I think it's very reasonable to at least expect an answer of some substance from a candidate.

Hulldom:

Rank parity does not exist. It would be a very first thing, so far as I’m aware. It is important because in ending the one org policy (I know people will have Opinions on this), I want to go beyond opening the NPA up, I want to attract them to join us. I think having the ability to join at the same relative rank as one is used to (and granted, this would be something we’d have to discuss still!) will help attract talent to serve with the NPA.

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Ending the one org policy? That wasn't in your platform. What's your justification for ending this policy? I hope that your plan to grow the NPA isn't to tell people from foreign militaries that they don't need to do any work in the NPA to rise up the ranks because we have a streamlined system.

Comfed:

Thanks for your answers Hulldom! I do have some follow up questions.

This isn't really an answer? This is a very significant change that will greatly affect TNP and this could very well be the election where we pick the Delegate who has to deal with it. I think it's very reasonable to at least expect an answer of some substance from a candidate.

Ending the one org policy? That wasn't in your platform. What's your justification for ending this policy? I hope that your plan to grow the NPA isn't to tell people from foreign militaries that they don't need to do any work in the NPA to rise up the ranks because we have a streamlined system.

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I’m not sold on either fully pursuing a frontier or not at the moment, partially because I don’t know what the prevailing opinion of the populace is and I am aware of just how many moving parts there would be in creating a frontier. Which is to say: I am not remaining deliberately ambiguous because while I do have an answer or a plan for how to tackle making a frontier if we wish to or just safeguarding our position regardless, I’m just not sure stating one position outright without a degree of consultation either in this election with the populace or with our allies is a good idea.

As for ending the one org policy, that‘s an oversight (coulda swore I had included it, but yes, it is my intention to end it). And I don’t intend for that to be the way it works in practice. It is an idea and an idea I will pursue, but the specifics of how it would work in practice, I do my know just yet, but I do understand your concern.

Great campaign! Full support, Hulldom!

Really should have type edited that last post before I clicked send but here we are. >_>

Ello, I would like to firstly say at first and foremost that I am happy to see you running for delegate @Hulldom. It is nice to see a familiar face taking the reins to lead a region like this and especially a big one like TNP (The North Pacific). Goodluck come election day, mate!!!

Strong support and good luck.

Strongly support this

After you win, will you continue to pursue sanctions of dubious legality against our own citizens or citizens of our allies or will you rethink such damaging actions?

St George:

After you win, will you continue to pursue sanctions of dubious legality against our own citizens or citizens of our allies or will you rethink such damaging actions?

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I intend to rethink the cultural parts of the sanctions as part of broader consultations with our allies on day 1. (I don’t think the military sanctions did anything untoward as they didn’t end up affecting us—we were never going to work with BoM or TBH anyways and the very few times that would be remotely on the table, I imagine we could work something out.) As Ghost and I have regularly talked about, it’s clear there are two schools when it comes to culture on NS and, frankly, the school we apparently belong to was largely made up out of thin air.

That is a satisfactory answer.

tldr
support, hull a gangster

Do you have a plan to revive government media (including radio)?

The NPA has been quite stagnant for several terms now. What will you do to increase recruitment of new members and engagement within the NPA itself?

Why is it necessary to create a new rank and promotion structure within the NPA? What are the faults with our current system?

Almost every Delegate platform in the last few years has included redrafting telegram templates in some form or another, and none of them have come to fruition. What will you do differently to ensure it gets done this time?

An Executive Staff spreadsheet has existed in the past but saw sporadic utilisation by Ministry leadership, which saw it eventually abandoned as impractical. Why do you seek to re-introduce it and how would you ensure it is properly utilised?

As Minister of Foreign Affairs, you routinely rejected Executive Staff applications on account of having no vacancies in your ministry. On this issue, I have two questions:
1. Do you believe there are no other duties that Foreign Affairs staff could undertake other than ambassador roles?
2. If elected as Delegate, will you continue the policy of shutting out eager new players from participation in our executive government because of arbitrary limitations placed on staff numbers?

Do you believe the current state of Executive Staff application processing, where several ministries have seen applications unprocessed for weeks or months, is acceptable? If not, how do you plan to fix it?

Can you explain what you mean by "Establish a system of promotion of concepts of our region" in your Culture plans?

Will you retain the Ministry of Home Affairs' current mentor program? If so, do you plan on introducing changes? If not, will you replace it with a different program?

Will you reintroduce ministerial reports, which have gradually disappeared over the last few terms, to improve transparency and accountability in the government?

Additionally, I echo Comfed's concern that you might seek to allow members of foreign militaries to join the NPA and attain a rank without having done the requisite work within the NPA. I am open-minded about relaxing the one-org policy, but this is a far too dangerous precedent to set.

Gorundu:

Do you have a plan to revive government media (including radio)?

The NPA has been quite stagnant for several terms now. What will you do to increase recruitment of new members and engagement within the NPA itself?

Why is it necessary to create a new rank and promotion structure within the NPA? What are the faults with our current system?

Almost every Delegate platform in the last few years has included redrafting telegram templates in some form or another, and none of them have come to fruition. What will you do differently to ensure it gets done this time?

An Executive Staff spreadsheet has existed in the past but saw sporadic utilisation by Ministry leadership, which saw it eventually abandoned as impractical. Why do you seek to re-introduce it and how would you ensure it is properly utilised?

As Minister of Foreign Affairs, you routinely rejected Executive Staff applications on account of having no vacancies in your ministry. On this issue, I have two questions:
1. Do you believe there are no other duties that Foreign Affairs staff could undertake other than ambassador roles?
2. If elected as Delegate, will you continue the policy of shutting out eager new players from participation in our executive government because of arbitrary limitations placed on staff numbers?

Do you believe the current state of Executive Staff application processing, where several ministries have seen applications unprocessed for weeks or months, is acceptable? If not, how do you plan to fix it?

Can you explain what you mean by "Establish a system of promotion of concepts of our region" in your Culture plans?

Will you retain the Ministry of Home Affairs' current mentor program? If so, do you plan on introducing changes? If not, will you replace it with a different program?

Will you reintroduce ministerial reports, which have gradually disappeared over the last few terms, to improve transparency and accountability in the government?

Additionally, I echo Comfed's concern that you might seek to allow members of foreign militaries to join the NPA and attain a rank without having done the requisite work within the NPA. I am open-minded about relaxing the one-org policy, but this is a far too dangerous precedent to set.

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Doing the same thing I did with Comfed because mobile+quote=a bad combination.

1. Yes, the plan as it currently stands (even if it is not articulated very deeply here) is to revive government media. In what form yet, I honestly don’t know, but most likely it will emphasize radio because of the increasing possibilities (read: ease) of sharing that compared to print media.
2. We’ll be looking at a variety of ways to do that within TNP, whether that be gameside engagement (I’ll be working through this with the new MoD) or trying to engage more of our forum and offsite communities with rewards.
3. So this was not articulated very well. The actual reformulation will be with the enlisted ranks. I would like to see it move toward a skills-based system as utilized by Europeia. Why? So we know that our soldiers have the skills to compete on the modern battlefield while also progressing, hopefully pretty rapidly.
4. Well, I’ll be looking over the templates themselves on my own on day one, but I’ll also be trying to determine exactly what points we need to hit, and will work with my HA Minister to make that happen.
5. There aren’t really any other roles that make sense for most people to get involved with. The FA Ministry is primarily about engaging with other regions. Perhaps the only other role I can see off the top of my head would’ve been looking for people to create content for us for distribution to other regions, but Comms was under the purview of Culture. As for the second question, no. FA is a different beast than the other Ministries. It requires more engagement from its staffers than others and when the majority of ambassadors fail to answer a call for reports multiple times in a row and fail to answer roll calls, they are liable to be removed. If someone is truly eager, we did discuss changing the OP in the Applications thread to stating that anyone interested in FA should contact the FA Minister. I don’t recall why it wasn’t done this term, but it will be done next term. My stance on this is someone who is proactive about joining (say, Jedinsto) is likely to do a better job than someone who simply applies.
6. As I explained to Comfed, I think “concepts” was meant to be “events” and so meant along the lines of “Find a way to better promote engagement in the events that Culture does come up with”.
7. The plan is to retain the Mentors program, but it is to eliminate the use of templates but to engage in more organic conversation.
8. They are supposed to happen anyways. Yes, I would make it a goal for all my Ministers (save perhaps for FA due to the nature of the job, people don’t realize this but you can go long stretches with nothing “really happening”) to report at least once a month.
9. I can see why you might be concerned about that, however I would answer that the NPA’s malaise has proven that our current way of doing things is simply not working and thus, changes need to be made. It may be bold and radical, but I think it’s worth a shot.
   
   Edit: Thumb slipped and clicked “Post”.

Hulldom:

Because, quite bluntly, the Gameside Advocates aren’t fit for purpose as currently constituted. They’ve turned into the arm of rule enforcement first and gameside interaction second. They can, and should, still have a reporting function, but ought not be involved in enforcement. Merging the GAs with Culture will recentre their focus on what we actually want from them: a bridge to the Gameside community and integrating gameside with the rest of TNP.

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Doesn't this make them more appropriate for Home Affairs, the ministry traditionally responsible for integration?

I will admit that when I posed you that question I was more focused on the issue of the merger of the ministries of communications and radio into media, and the subsequent folding of that ministry into culture. I think it is fairly obvious that the plan to revive media by bringing it under the umbrella of a larger and larger bureaucracy has been a failure. Would you agree with my characterization of the mergers as a failure and would you consider reversing them?

Comfed:

Doesn't this make them more appropriate for Home Affairs, the ministry traditionally responsible for integration?

I will admit that when I posed you that question I was more focused on the issue of the merger of the ministries of communications and radio into media, and the subsequent folding of that ministry into culture. I think it is fairly obvious that the plan to revive media by bringing it under the umbrella of a larger and larger bureaucracy has been a failure. Would you agree with my characterization of the mergers as a failure and would you consider reversing them?

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I don’t think so. They can be involved in integration and traditionally they have been. That’s not how I’m conceiving their role or what their role should be, in my opinion. I think they ought to be more than just an extension of our community but one whose identity we recognize and foster.

I think the mergers have not worked out quite as hoped, but I would argue that’s not been due to the way we’ve tried to do it but rather because there has simply been an absence of bodies to do things. For instance, I can think of maybe two current people who know much about using recording software (Viv and Arc) and next to no one who does much writing (I would, genuinely been too busy with other NS endeavors plus RL). So I’d argue it’s been a problem of staffing. However, I think the revival of it, if it happens, has to center the function of creating media in any form to its primary audience and recognizing that’s the first step.

Hulldom:

Yes, the plan as it currently stands (even if it is not articulated very deeply here) is to revive government media. In what form yet, I honestly don’t know, but most likely it will emphasize radio because of the increasing possibilities (read: ease) of sharing that compared to print media.

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This feels like a non-answer. "I have a plan but I don't know what form it'll take" sounds awfully similar to "I don't have a plan".

Hulldom:

There aren’t really any other roles that make sense for most people to get involved with. The FA Ministry is primarily about engaging with other regions. Perhaps the only other role I can see off the top of my head would’ve been looking for people to create content for us for distribution to other regions, but Comms was under the purview of Culture. As for the second question, no. FA is a different beast than the other Ministries. It requires more engagement from its staffers than others and when the majority of ambassadors fail to answer a call for reports multiple times in a row and fail to answer roll calls, they are liable to be removed. If someone is truly eager, we did discuss changing the OP in the Applications thread to stating that anyone interested in FA should contact the FA Minister. I don’t recall why it wasn’t done this term, but it will be done next term. My stance on this is someone who is proactive about joining (say, Jedinsto) is likely to do a better job than someone who simply applies.

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You have been a Europeian citizen longer that I have, so I'm sure you've at least heard of their MoFA's program called The Watch, which for those reading this who are unfamiliar with Europeia is a program for staffers to discover, discuss and analyse happenings in foreign regions and NSGP. In fact, for a while they completely abolished ambassadors and kept only The Watch. Why can't we have something similar?

As to your point about creating content, I remember Madjack making an attempt at exactly that while Delegate, so it seems natural to give it another go, especially giving the struggling state of government media. And you have plans to shuffle around ministerial responsibilities anyway, so it's not like this is something unthinkable for you.

Lastly, you said that FA is a different beast that requires more engagement from its staffers (by which I presume you mean ambassadors specifically). However, TNP maintains embassies with a slew of regions that are, frankly, not very active, at least politically. Do you believe it is still the case for these regions that ambassadors need a high level of engagement, rather than the other way around - that is, ambassadors want to be engaged but there simply isn't a lot for them to engage in? You also said that when the majority of ambassadors fail to answer a call for reports multiple times in a row and fail to answer roll calls, they are liable to be removed. In that case, why aren't there vacancies for new people to come in and replace inactive ambassadors who are liable to be removed?

Hulldom:

As I explained to Comfed, I think “concepts” was meant to be “events” and so meant along the lines of “Find a way to better promote engagement in the events that Culture does come up with”.

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In that case, what better ways do you have in mind?

Hulldom:

The plan is to retain the Mentors program, but it is to eliminate the use of templates but to engage in more organic conversation.

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But conversations have to start somewhere right? How do you start a conversation without templates when you don't know anything about them?

Hulldom:

I can see why you might be concerned about that, however I would answer that the NPA’s malaise has proven that our current way of doing things is simply not working and thus, changes need to be made. It may be bold and radical, but I think it’s worth a shot.

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The NPA's current way of doing things has been in place for a long time and includes periods of great success for the NPA. Why can't things be turned around within our current framework? I'm not against making changes, and as I said I am open-minded about relaxing the one-org policy. But the policy you are proposing with allowing members of foreign militaries to attain ranks within the NPA because of their service to a foreign region is simply unthinkable to me, and I dare say, anyone who has ever been in the NPA. Rewarding people for their service to a foreign military and allowing them extra access without doing the work achieves what exactly? It gives them no incentive to actively serve the NPA, and that's not to mention the potential security issues with handing out officer positions directly.

Finally, I believe you left two of my questions unanswered:

Gorundu:

An Executive Staff spreadsheet has existed in the past but saw sporadic utilisation by Ministry leadership, which saw it eventually abandoned as impractical. Why do you seek to re-introduce it and how would you ensure it is properly utilised?

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Gorundu:

Do you believe the current state of Executive Staff application processing, where several ministries have seen applications unprocessed for weeks or months, is acceptable? If not, how do you plan to fix it?

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Gorundu:

This feels like a non-answer. "I have a plan but I don't know what form it'll take" sounds awfully similar to "I don't have a plan".

You have been a Europeian citizen longer that I have, so I'm sure you've at least heard of their MoFA's program called The Watch, which for those reading this who are unfamiliar with Europeia is a program for staffers to discover, discuss and analyse happenings in foreign regions and NSGP. In fact, for a while they completely abolished ambassadors and kept only The Watch. Why can't we have something similar?

As to your point about creating content, I remember Madjack making an attempt at exactly that while Delegate, so it seems natural to give it another go, especially giving the struggling state of government media. And you have plans to shuffle around ministerial responsibilities anyway, so it's not like this is something unthinkable for you.

Lastly, you said that FA is a different beast that requires more engagement from its staffers (by which I presume you mean ambassadors specifically). However, TNP maintains embassies with a slew of regions that are, frankly, not very active, at least politically. Do you believe it is still the case for these regions that ambassadors need a high level of engagement, rather than the other way around - that is, ambassadors want to be engaged but there simply isn't a lot for them to engage in? You also said that when the majority of ambassadors fail to answer a call for reports multiple times in a row and fail to answer roll calls, they are liable to be removed. In that case, why aren't there vacancies for new people to come in and replace inactive ambassadors who are liable to be removed?

In that case, what better ways do you have in mind?

But conversations have to start somewhere right? How do you start a conversation without templates when you don't know anything about them?

The NPA's current way of doing things has been in place for a long time and includes periods of great success for the NPA. Why can't things be turned around within our current framework? I'm not against making changes, and as I said I am open-minded about relaxing the one-org policy. But the policy you are proposing with allowing members of foreign militaries to attain ranks within the NPA because of their service to a foreign region is simply unthinkable to me, and I dare say, anyone who has ever been in the NPA. Rewarding people for their service to a foreign military and allowing them extra access without doing the work achieves what exactly? It gives them no incentive to actively serve the NPA, and that's not to mention the potential security issues with handing out officer positions directly.

Finally, I believe you left two of my questions unanswered:

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Again going through this with numbers for sections because as explained earlier.

The plan, which is not fully ironed out yet—not everything is nor has to be, is for radio to more or less sit within FA (it being largely meant for a foreign audience, and disseminated in that way, and not least because NBS should get in the game of promoting our people abroad) and for “print media” to more or less sit within Culture. However, I will again stress that this plan is still tentative and subject to revision.

I will be kind in the way I respond to the Watch question. I’m a busy man, but I often found that I could actually keep up with the happenings I need to be kept abreast of on my own. That’s not saying there’s not a need for representation or that occasionally I was surprised, but it is saying that I do keep up with things rather well. (Being Too Online and in the server of every region we do much as have a forum embassy with will do that!)

As for the Ambassadors questions, 1) I will grant that. Many regions tend to be pretty quiet, however it’s not so much that when ambassadors did engage that they said “oh, nothing’s happening” as that they never responded to any requests period. There’s a mountain of difference there. 2) As for why there weren’t vacancies, because I shuffle them around between the people I already have and failing that, I take the job myself.

To culture, for one, actually treating culture as the cooperative enterprise it is. Stop treating Culture as something that’s solely domestic. Promote our events on-site (within reason) and for our bigger stuff, make a point of talking about it in places like our Gameplay embassy or in distributions. (I grant the latter could have been handled better by me, but I’m spitballing as I write this.) In addition, we can learn better practices from other places, and in fact we should. That’s not saying we don’t have great things going here (Music Mondays, for example, were a lovely idea when they were around, I do wish there had been more variety sometimes in what was listened to, but only so many DJs), but it is saying that we should find things that can work elsewhere and seek to implement them here.

As to the templates question, I would hazard a guess that they work the same way templates anywhere else for much the same purposes we use them for work. There’s a few small areas for customization such as the sender’s name, but the content doesn’t shift from one person to the next. Therein lies the problem. The content ought to change. The approach I’ve discussed was keeping the templates in the threads they’re housed in but providing a number of points to hit for Mentors and for those sending Lists generally. This way they’d know exactly what to do, while also being able to tailor their message.

As for defense, I dare say they can’t be turned around because we’ve dealt with the same thing for the last 12-18 months. A stagnant officer corps not doing a whole heck of a lot (sort of through no fault of their own, I’m not going to ascribe motivation where I have relatively little background) and a relative lack of enlisted able to do much of anything means we’re here. Our current framework for Defense simply hasn’t produced results and giving it one more good old College try is simply not good enough in my opinion when it’s already a demonstrable failure. As for your security concern question, I can sort of see that, but I do not think that any of the allies for whom rank parity would even potentially be introduced (MGC) are significant security risks. Point blank. They would not be in the militaries they are in if they were leaking.

As for your last two questions—apologies, genuinely did skip right over them.

I think the problem with that spreadsheet, and I was responsible for it for WA for awhile so I know how it works, is that there was relatively little push from above to keep it updated. I reason that, with most other things, if there’s leadership from above to keep it updated, Ministers will find ways to make it happen whether they do it or, as WA did it, by derogating it down to a deputy. And as for “proper utilization”, any utilization would serve to be proper. I’m sure you‘ve interacted with it before, so you know it’s a lot of fillable fields and a column with buttons, so there’s relatively little way to flub it.

No, it’s not acceptable. For those Ministries that are fully open, Ministers or their deputies (if those deputies are authorized to do so) ought to be in the thread to accept applications. As for how I would fix that, maintaining my own vigilance over the thread is one potential fix. I don’t believe the Delegate should be in the business of accepting those applications, so I wouldn’t go so far as to accept them myself, but I would certainly keep a watchful eye on the thread and push Ministers to keep current.

Since this is still election season, I want to ask every candidate for every office if they have a view on this matter? Not necessarily if you it's within your purview (or if you want to push this issue to another person), but just a view.

Hulldom:

The plan, which is not fully ironed out yet—not everything is nor has to be, is for radio to more or less sit within FA (it being largely meant for a foreign audience, and disseminated in that way, and not least because NBS should get in the game of promoting our people abroad) and for “print media” to more or less sit within Culture. However, I will again stress that this plan is still tentative and subject to revision.

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What kind of content do you intend for radio and print media to focus on, respectively?

Hulldom:

I will be kind in the way I respond to the Watch question. I’m a busy man, but I often found that I could actually keep up with the happenings I need to be kept abreast of on my own. That’s not saying there’s not a need for representation or that occasionally I was surprised, but it is saying that I do keep up with things rather well. (Being Too Online and in the server of every region we do much as have a forum embassy with will do that!)

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Sure, I believe that, but being a Minister isn't just about what the Minister can do themselves. It's also about running a staff and preparing for people to take over when you're no longer there. Is it too much to ask for to get more staff in and keep them in the loop on FA happenings through discussions?

Hulldom:

As for the Ambassadors questions, 1) I will grant that. Many regions tend to be pretty quiet, however it’s not so much that when ambassadors did engage that they said “oh, nothing’s happening” as that they never responded to any requests period. There’s a mountain of difference there. 2) As for why there weren’t vacancies, because I shuffle them around between the people I already have and failing that, I take the job myself.

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I think your point about inactive ambassadors only serves to reinforce my position that there surely has to be something else that Foreign Affairs staff can do other than being an ambassador. My opinion is that being an ambassador is a job that, if not given proper instruction and mentoring, can appear to be very boring and unmotivating - delivering reports back and forth, mostly. If the majority of ambassadors are not engaging, then the solution is either to find some ways to motivate them to engage, or find something else for Foreign Affairs staff to do that would be more engaging.

As for your response about lack of vacancies - I don't get it. Your solution to inactive ambassadors is to just keep tightening the circle and not accept any new applicants? And push the burden of multiple ambassadorships on staffers instead of getting new people to fill some of them?

Hulldom:

As to the templates question, I would hazard a guess that they work the same way templates anywhere else for much the same purposes we use them for work. There’s a few small areas for customization such as the sender’s name, but the content doesn’t shift from one person to the next. Therein lies the problem. The content ought to change. The approach I’ve discussed was keeping the templates in the threads they’re housed in but providing a number of points to hit for Mentors and for those sending Lists generally. This way they’d know exactly what to do, while also being able to tailor their message.

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I get what you're trying to say here, but I also feel like there's an important fact you're missing. Most people who join the forum (or even Discord), we have no idea about them whatsoever because they're usually people with brand new nations and no posts on their forum profile. How are you supposed to personalize your message for someone you know nothing about? Of course you should personalize things after the conversation gets rolling or once you know more about them, but we often start with nothing here.

Hulldom:

As for defense, I dare say they can’t be turned around because we’ve dealt with the same thing for the last 12-18 months. A stagnant officer corps not doing a whole heck of a lot (sort of through no fault of their own, I’m not going to ascribe motivation where I have relatively little background) and a relative lack of enlisted able to do much of anything means we’re here. Our current framework for Defense simply hasn’t produced results and giving it one more good old College try is simply not good enough in my opinion when it’s already a demonstrable failure. As for your security concern question, I can sort of see that, but I do not think that any of the allies for whom rank parity would even potentially be introduced (MGC) are significant security risks. Point blank. They would not be in the militaries they are in if they were leaking.

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You've given your reasons for why you believe the current way the NPA operates is unacceptable, and that's reasonable, I understand where you're coming from. But you haven't given an argument for why you believe this rank parity policy would fix the issue - I have given several reasons in my previous post as to why I believe it is a bad idea. And as to the security angle I have to push back on what you said - whether they are leaking from their current military has no relevance to the security implications of them joining the NPA. BoM members don't leak from BoM either - does that mean they should be allowed to join the NPA? Although our MGC allies might share our goals and values in some areas, there still exists many differences between us. It's not only insufficient, but I would say reckless, to cite their loyalty to a foreign region as reason that they can be trusted in the NPA.

Hulldom:

I think the problem with that spreadsheet, and I was responsible for it for WA for awhile so I know how it works, is that there was relatively little push from above to keep it updated. I reason that, with most other things, if there’s leadership from above to keep it updated, Ministers will find ways to make it happen whether they do it or, as WA did it, by derogating it down to a deputy. And as for “proper utilization”, any utilization would serve to be proper. I’m sure you‘ve interacted with it before, so you know it’s a lot of fillable fields and a column with buttons, so there’s relatively little way to flub it.

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I'm largely satisfied with this response, but I gotta say, there's definitely a lot of ways to flub a spreadsheet.

Overall this is a solid campaign, and most of my other questions have already been asked in this thread. However, I ask whether/when you would be able to vote on World Assembly resolutions early, as to maximise the regional vote's influence?

Magecastle:

Overall this is a solid campaign, and most of my other questions have already been asked in this thread. However, I ask whether/when you would be able to vote on World Assembly resolutions early, as to maximise the regional vote's influence?

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I should be able to for the most part. Sunday/Monday majors EST could be a bit dicey due to my RL commitments (I’ll be teaching a discussion section Monday morning early which could present some problems), but yes, I should be able to.

As for Gorundu’s post, which has honestly been a bit of “Hulldom cannot force himself to do the thing even though HE NEEDS TO DO THE THING”.

Gorundu:

What kind of content do you intend for radio and print media to focus on, respectively?

Sure, I believe that, but being a Minister isn't just about what the Minister can do themselves. It's also about running a staff and preparing for people to take over when you're no longer there. Is it too much to ask for to get more staff in and keep them in the loop on FA happenings through discussions?

I think your point about inactive ambassadors only serves to reinforce my position that there surely has to be something else that Foreign Affairs staff can do other than being an ambassador. My opinion is that being an ambassador is a job that, if not given proper instruction and mentoring, can appear to be very boring and unmotivating - delivering reports back and forth, mostly. If the majority of ambassadors are not engaging, then the solution is either to find some ways to motivate them to engage, or find something else for Foreign Affairs staff to do that would be more engaging.

As for your response about lack of vacancies - I don't get it. Your solution to inactive ambassadors is to just keep tightening the circle and not accept any new applicants? And push the burden of multiple ambassadorships on staffers instead of getting new people to fill some of them?

I get what you're trying to say here, but I also feel like there's an important fact you're missing. Most people who join the forum (or even Discord), we have no idea about them whatsoever because they're usually people with brand new nations and no posts on their forum profile. How are you supposed to personalize your message for someone you know nothing about? Of course you should personalize things after the conversation gets rolling or once you know more about them, but we often start with nothing here.

You've given your reasons for why you believe the current way the NPA operates is unacceptable, and that's reasonable, I understand where you're coming from. But you haven't given an argument for why you believe this rank parity policy would fix the issue - I have given several reasons in my previous post as to why I believe it is a bad idea. And as to the security angle I have to push back on what you said - whether they are leaking from their current military has no relevance to the security implications of them joining the NPA. BoM members don't leak from BoM either - does that mean they should be allowed to join the NPA? Although our MGC allies might share our goals and values in some areas, there still exists many differences between us. It's not only insufficient, but I would say reckless, to cite their loyalty to a foreign region as reason that they can be trusted in the NPA.

I'm largely satisfied with this response, but I gotta say, there's definitely a lot of ways to flub a spreadsheet.

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Honestly, I plan to let the people who want to get involved with it and are designated to work on it to determine the content. Which is to say: this is the one time I actually don’t have an answer for you.

My answer to the Ambassador question is the same as my answer to the “FA Happenings” question. So much of what happened in FA this term ended up having a relatively limited distribution not because I actually dislike looping people in but because FA situations, as I’m sure a former FA Officer in the Rejected Realms can appreciate, are often quite delicate and expanding the circle means more room for misunderstanding and more room for unintended consequences. That’s not saying there’s not room to expand the circle. As I’ve noted in the past and will continue to reiterate, anyone who wanted to get involved need only have contacted me—that demonstrated to me they had the commitment for the job.

As for the personalization thing. Well, it’s actually quite simple. With the templates we have the points we ask people to hit and largely leave them to write a message as they see fit (with the old template as inspiration). As with mentorship, start a discussion and treat mentorship overall as a discussion. See what they want out of NS or out of TNP and work with them from there.

On the NPA question, we’re going to have to agree to disagree. I can understand where you’re coming from but at the end of the day, what we’re doing is not working and if I’m elected, we are changing that and will see what comes with it.

Hulldom:

My answer to the Ambassador question is the same as my answer to the “FA Happenings” question. So much of what happened in FA this term ended up having a relatively limited distribution not because I actually dislike looping people in but because FA situations, as I’m sure a former FA Officer in the Rejected Realms can appreciate, are often quite delicate and expanding the circle means more room for misunderstanding and more room for unintended consequences. That’s not saying there’s not room to expand the circle. As I’ve noted in the past and will continue to reiterate, anyone who wanted to get involved need only have contacted me—that demonstrated to me they had the commitment for the job.

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I was under the impression that at no point in our discussion in this thread were we talking about sensitive FA discussion, but rather encouraging staffers to undertake non-sensitive discussions or bringing in new staffers to serve as ambassadors. At no point was I pushing about expanding the circle for sensitive discussions. As for pulling FA out of the regular executive staff application system, I'm glad to hear that you'll now at least put out public guidance for newcomers to contact the MoFA directly, and I hope your administration won't be rejecting them as you've done consistently this term.

Can't wait to see what you if Ghost hands you the keys to the kingdom

I have to say that I find your (Hulldom's) assertion that there are no open ambassador posts to be baffling because the executive staff master spreadsheet indicates that you yourself hold 6 ambassador posts, Wymondham also holds 6, Attempted Socialism holds 5, Treekidistan also holds 6, Daarwyth holds four, Kaschovia holds two, and the other ambassadors hold one. While I grant that this spreadsheet is probably a little bit out of date, I don't think that there has been a huge influx in ministry staff recently that took up all the positions. In the past, staffers with a lot of posts were asked to step down from some of them to let members without a post claim one. Why was this practice abandoned? Couldn't it start again?

Comfed:

I have to say that I find your (Hulldom's) assertion that there are no open ambassador posts to be baffling because the executive staff master spreadsheet indicates that you yourself hold 6 ambassador posts, Wymondham also holds 6, Attempted Socialism holds 5, Treekidistan also holds 6, Daarwyth holds four, Kaschovia holds two, and the other ambassadors hold one. While I grant that this spreadsheet is probably a little bit out of date, I don't think that there has been a huge influx in ministry staff recently that took up all the positions. In the past, staffers with a lot of posts were asked to step down from some of them to let members without a post claim one. Why was this practice abandoned? Couldn't it start again?

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As I noted in a response to Gorundu: absolutely abysmal response rates to requests for updates (even when pinged!). I want participation as much as the next person but not if it comes at the expense of having functions fulfilled.

Additionally, and I will note this, the policies I hew to on this are not necessarily the policy my successor in office will. I’ve indicated this to my Cabinet picks but they will largely be free to staff as they see fit.