Closing address

[Wymondham]

Although I have not served in the role of Minister of Culture for as long as one might ideally like, I firmly believe that I have left the ministry in a better place than I found it.

The fat has been trimmed off the ministry; leaving a leaner and more efficient cultural machine for my successor. We have hosted two festivals, the NS 20th Anniversary event and an event with our friends in the South Pacific. I have also left in place the groundwork for another event with another friendly region should my successor wish to continue with it.

Did I achieve everything I might have wished when I set out? No. To pretend otherwise would be to perpetuate a falsehood. I did not achieve my goal of seeing at least one media publication occur during my tenure. Radio has not been revitalised to the extent I might like, although some progress has been made in that area. I almost certainly underestimated the scale of the challenge I was taking on, and if I had known in advance just how big the difficulties the ministry faced were, I would almost certainly taken a different approach.

I urge whomever succeeds me to make the following reforms an urgent priority for their tenure; such reforms would build upon the work I have done to make a culture ministry that is leaner, more agile and more responsive to the needs of the ministry:

1. Integrate the gameside advocates into the Culture ministry, moving their role from rules enforcement to gameside activity and moving people onto the off-site community.
2. More closely integrate cultural events with the region’s Foreign Affairs goals; although I have made great strides in this area there is still more work to be done.
3. Re-examine the radio section of the ministry - potentially with a view towards moving from Youtube to a more modern podcasting solution like Anchor as used by TWP and Europeia.
4. Ensure that the gameside and off-site Roleplay communities are included in all interregional events which TNP participates in.

It is my sincere hope that my successor builds upon the work that I have done to establish the Culture ministry on a more secure footing. I wish to pay special tribute to Vivanco, Dreadton, Nvxl and Filli, who have all made exceptional contributions to the ministry over my short time as its leader.