Chipoli for Delegate
My fellow North Pacificans,
I am Chipoli, and I am running to be your next Delegate.
Introduction
Hello! If you all didn’t know already, my name is Chipoli. I have been playing NationStates since 2020, and I returned to The North Pacific in March of 2022 after a two-year absence. I developed an interest in the region’s executive staff, where I came across my first love, the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs. I immediately began my work as a staffer, and soon enough my reputation as a hard worker led the minister at the time, Deropia, to appoint me as one of his deputies. It wasn’t long before I made an impression in that role as well. When Deropia was swamped by his real-life duties and needed more from the deputies, I stepped up and assisted with every vote I could. This caught the eye of Delegate Pallaith, who gave me my first ministerial position following Dero’s resignation. I served for the remainder of the term and was kept on the one following it, where I focused on the IFV guides and boosting staff engagement. Unfortunately, real-life issues of my own also limited what I could have achieved in that role, and my activity declined by the end of the year. When I was needed most, I couldn’t keep my flame alive. When the incoming Delegate Hulldom went over the cabinet he was inheriting, he knew I had to be replaced.
Finding myself as part of the staff again and seeing how I disappointed the people who believed in me reignited the fire inside me. I once again had something to prove and this was what I needed to get myself together. I was reappointed as a deputy, and I began working harder than ever to show what I could do and to make up for my poor showing the previous term. For the next four months, I focused on improving my game and teaching myself good habits so I would not repeat my prior mistakes. This ended up paying off, as I was appointed Minister of World Assembly Affairs again, this time by Gorundu. In May I was also elected as Vice Delegate and was given an opportunity to chair the Security Council. I was additionally Acting Delegate twice - once for about four days after Gorundu declared an absence, and I have also been in the seat for the past three weeks following his resignation. This period gave me an idea of the Delegate’s daily responsibilities and what it was like to be in his shoes. I learned how to manage the cabinet, and that experience gave me an idea of what I should expect from them and the way I preferred to lead. I very much enjoyed being able to work with everyone in a new way.
Being Delegate, I learned, allows you to figure out the best way to use everyone’s individual talents to accomplish the government’s goals, and talking to each minister and being involved with each area was an eye-opening experience. The first time I was acting delegate, I realized that it was something I had a few ideas about how to do better, and that I found the challenge exciting. Even though I still felt new and that I might be getting ahead of myself, I knew I wanted to get the chance to see my vision through, and I wanted to have a go again someday. When the Delegate resigned and these duties fell to me again, and I started to finish many of the things Gorundu started, I knew that I was ready to step up and run for Delegate. That led me to run in this general election.
I can’t lie though, this term isn’t going to be easy. The past four months have been challenging and hard on us, despite the great work the ministers accomplished. We’re in the midst of one of the toughest periods in recent memory for our region and we’ve faced a number of issues, both domestic and foreign. It was only recently that we repealed our treaty with one of our most long-standing allies in The South Pacific. We’ve had members of our government embroiled in legal complications, and chiefly among our difficulties has been the delegate’s inability to communicate with his citizens and his cabinet, leading to a mass resignation, which included myself, two of my fellow cabinet members, and the advisor to the delegate., and ultimately, that saga led to his own resignation. Respect for our region has diminished and our relationships with some of our greatest allies have suffered, and new partnerships were delayed because our region has barely had a presence in NS in general since the beginning of April. Tensions between our enemies are at an all-time high, and we are on the brink of war. I know people are tired and worried about our future, and some have given up. These days it feels like the fire inside most TNPers has faded like mine did almost a year ago.
I won’t let that happen. I will provide the spark that is needed to reignite TNP. I believe my hands-on leadership style and energy within the cabinet will get the most out of my ministers, in stark contrast to the lack of communication and harmony in the cabinet last term. I want to create a good working environment with plenty of communication and support from the delegate so the executive can produce as much as possible, but also so that the region can know what its government is doing and be able to rely on them from the staff to the Delegate’s office itself.
My Administration
Executive Management
If there’s one thing I learned from my experience as chair of the Security Council and Acting Delegate, it’s that I can’t help but be involved in every project and idea that is bounced around. Over the past three weeks, I have begun to develop an idea of the way I conduct things and how I plan to get the best out of my government. My leadership style in the cabinet will be hands-on. I will frequently check in with my cabinet, and I will make sure I will get the most out of them. I will be responsible for making sure the ministers keep their respective ministries in check. I will be a very frequent communicator in the cabinet, and I will be bringing back the tradition of holding cabinet voice chats in order to build cabinet cohesion and atmosphere. When I’m busy or unavailable, as we all sometimes are, I expect my cabinet to keep each other in check. Those closely working with me can expect a high-energy, intensive working environment.
I’ve also noticed that we’ve had challenges in processing executive staff applications. I’ve seen backlogs build, and potential staffers have to wait significantly longer than usual to get their applications processed. In the past, we’ve aimed for all applications to be reviewed within 48 hours, with a limit of 72. This past term, I have seen this standard drop and I will ensure responses to applications will be as quick as they were in the past.
In addition to consistently keeping my cabinet on task and making sure I am on top of things, my communication will go beyond just those working in the executive. The rest of the region will always know the great things we’re doing. I don’t ever want people to have to wonder what we’re up to or what projects we are working on - they should know what’s going on and be able to tell anyone who asks, in TNP or other regions.
Gameside Advocates
I intend to keep the Gameside Advocates under the guidance of Home Affairs. The GAs will continue to be used to welcome new regions on the regional message board as well as moderate it, but I’d also like to see them get our government as much exposure as possible. To combat our declining executive staff numbers, I’d like to see them encourage gamesiders to become citizens and join a ministry. They will also promote the activities of my administration to generate more excitement about the executive. Additionally, I would like to bring the Gameside Advocates closer to the gameside community by hosting events and games, with one example being the TNP Vision song contest. While gameside advocates have consistently addressed moderation issues and have recently worked hard to advertise various activities and recent updates, I’d like for them to expand their focus and do what they were originally meant to do - connect with the gameside community.
The Ministries
World Assembly Affairs
WA Affairs has been one of the most reliable and consistent ministries over the last term, and it is also very important to me. I have no issue with the way it is currently operated, and I will ensure we consistently meet our targets and goals and stay as frequent with our IFVs and threads as always. Our World Assembly ministry has produced some of the most talented authors NationStates has ever seen, but I believe we can always use some more. As your minister for the majority of the last four months, I oversaw the new staff guides which Magecastle continued to develop, and we worked out new ways to improve the experience for our incoming staff, such as giving our staff the option to request a mentor to learn more about the ministry, and a massive rehaul of the WA 101 guides which serve as a newcomer’s guide to the World Assembly, as they were outdated for a quite a bit. I would like to continue building on this effort, and I will also look for new ways to improve the mentor program I installed, which has plenty of room to grow. This will ensure we continue to have skilled staff to do the daily work while also helping to develop the authors of tomorrow. I will look to expand the promotion for them to the forums, as well as through other means such as Gameside Advocates and Home Affairs lists.
Additionally, our new Gameside engagement program has shown some signs of promise, but there’s not enough discussion happening over there. If we bring some of our forum voters over to gameside and open it to other authors, we could have some real debate which I believe would boost attention and participation. There have been concerns about how much weight gameside votes have compared to our forum votes. The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs is currently working on another update to our WA Voting policy, and in the proposed version, gameside votes will count half as much as forum votes, and only votes from WA Residents of TNP will be counted. WA staff will be encouraged to use our designated embassy region for discussion and voting in the future, which I hope will encourage gamesiders to join them and therefore, create more activity. I want to give this program a chance, and I think it can do wonders for our continued goal of connecting with the Gameside Engagement Program. I will also explore finally hosting another World Assembly symposium with our allies in WALL to spread awareness, increase engagement, and gauge interest in the World Assembly. This should also help us get some new arrivals in the ministry, and hopefully get more WA members so that our endorsements can remain solid and recover from the recent decline they have suffered.
One area where there is significant room for improvement is the usage of our vote in the World Assembly. In the past four months, our vote in The World Assembly has sometimes been inconsistent and not as reliable as it can or should be. We have not always stacked or stomped on the proposals that come to vote when we could have, and other regions have noticed. Since I have been Acting Delegate, I have worked to change that by making sure our vote was cast soon after the votes started. I have consistently voted within a few minutes or hours, and I constantly monitor the upcoming proposals along with the overall state of The World Assembly. This term, I will look to keep that going. I am available for most of the day, and I will make sure our 800+ votes are put to use. You can always expect me to vote early, and vote often.
Overall, I will look to attract more talented authors, improve the experience for our new staffers, and enhance gameside engagement.
Communications
So far, the Ministry of Communications has enjoyed a very successful revival over the past four months, and I will ensure it will continue to thrive. While we’ve released a few Northern Stars and Northern Notes, I believe we can be a bit more diverse with our publications. Some of our publications such as The Northern Star have been very successful and very well received. However, I don’t want us to rely on a single publication to get the job done. We’ve recently published the first edition of Northern Notes, and we’ll certainly be working on more of those, which will be released at about the same rate as the Northern Star, so we can have plenty of information to give our citizens.
The Northern Notes is an internal-focused publication, though. It’s time to start providing foreign affairs education for the overall population. Now, I don’t want too many publications - that way people start to lose track of them. I’ll look to publish an FA Digest, the first of its kind. This was something I had suggested during my first Acting Delegacy, but it never materialized. This is something I look to pursue now that I have the chance. It's something that can be published for ordinary TNPers so they know what major foreign events are and learn about recent major events that have come up. It will be included as part of a larger publication as its own segment, that way TNPers would get exposed to it. I will work with Foreign Affairs leadership to filter the info so that we publish the important but public information, and avoid publishing anything sensitive or restricted. This won’t exactly be a joint-ministry project - while I will get input from both ministries, and it will be worked on by communications, hence its place here.
Additionally, I would like to see more collaboration on articles. While it is fine to let a sole author develop the article, I would like to see more than a singular editor assisting with it. I believe all communications staffers should provide advice and work with the author on improving any of their work. It would especially help if someone picked up an article on something they are not very knowledgeable about, in which situation they would need additional assistance. After all, every article will have to go out to the public, and everyone in communications should take part in the process of editing, or writing it. The ministry has been great when it comes to producing content and has hosted multiple radio shows, recording six so far. However, only half of them have been released, and not all of the unreleased shows are being actively worked on. I will work with the ministry this term to release these unreleased shows, and I will ensure that future shows will be published quickly and efficiently in the future. We are also looking to upload some of our past broadcasts onto Spotify, starting from the revival last term. We decided it would be best to upload shows that discuss relevant, fresh topics that will have an audience.
Overall, I plan to diversify publications, introduce a new foreign affairs segment, encourage collaboration among staff members to improve article quality and improve the speed at which our radio shows will be released.
Home Affairs
In this day and age, the role of Home Affairs is different than anything we’ve seen in the past. Following the Frontier/Stronghold update, we have lost a significant amount of our spawns, and therefore we don’t have much of an influx of new nations coming in as we did before. It has always been important for HA to send telegrams and develop ways to keep individuals who spawned or moved to TNP aware of what is going on in the region, but now it is even more crucial, as we not only have to retain a smaller group of nations, but we now have the task of getting people to join TNP from other places in a way we never had to be concerned about before. It is very important that we focus heavily on recruitment. I will work with the Ministry of Home Affairs to create personalized recruitment telegrams that not only interest individuals in our region but connect with them as well.
Since it is so important to also retain the nations that start here or decide to give us a try, we have to have a better reason for why they should stay. More than ever we have to be able to give people reasons to stay especially when they can already see so many other options. HA staff will need new and better ways to excite and keep new TNPers interested in the region. We can do that by returning one of HA’s older initiatives - The Welcome Wagon. In a perfect world, we would see a successful return of it and make sure all of our new recruits feel right at home. However, I do understand the difficulties that come with this, primarily that we might not get enough of our staff to participate in revitalizing the program. That’s why I will continue with HA’s new incentive - a game to encourage staff to send telegrams from lists. But while that was originally intended to be used for lists, it can be integrated into the Welcome Wagon as well. Staff can earn points for successfully getting a new member of our Discord to join the executive staff, for example. Other than that, I don’t intend to change much in regards to Home Affairs. It is a very consistent machine, and I will keep it that way.
Overall, due to the Frontier/Stronghold update and the decrease in spawns, the role of Home Affairs' has evolved to focus on recruitment through personalized telegrams, and retaining new members through initiatives like the Welcome Wagon and incentive-based games while maintaining its overall consistency.
Defense
The North Pacific Army will play a very crucial role in our future. With war potentially looming, we need to get back to our very best as we prepare to challenge our enemies on the battlefield. Over the past few terms, we’ve experienced a lack of activity in the North Pacific Army. However, over the past month, it has experienced a rejuvenation, and I’d like to make sure it continues. While we have begun getting back on track and conducting operations more frequently, and with tensions with The Brotherhood of Malice and The Communist Bloc at an all-time high, we need all the practice and experience we can get. I’d like to see us participate in operations more often with our military allies, which in turn will help us continue to build positive relations with them and garner their support for the tough times that lay ahead. The more involved the NPA is in these ops with other regions, the more they will see what we value and what matters to us, what we can do and what we’re willing to do, and as a result, we can avoid the kind of misunderstanding and trust issues that plagued us at the start of this year. The more we are part of planning and participating in more significant ops with other major militaries, the more we can change the military landscape and advance our interests in R/D too. Being part of these operations and constantly having ops to offer our players will naturally grow our numbers as we will give soldiers a reason to participate. I believe the NPA can go very far, and it has the potential to become a powerhouse once again if we can make a difference in these areas. I plan to focus a lot on these goals this term.
However, we can’t do any of that without utilizing our current officers. To grow and expand our military power, we have to develop and improve the skills and ability of our soldiers. The simplest way to do that is in training operations, which often is a very good experience for new NPAers to go out into the battlefield for the first time. They should of course be taught the basics of R/D, and have the opportunity to try both tagging and detagging. It is very important that our soldiers learn both raiding and defending techniques to give us the ability to be more flexible with the kind of operations we choose to run. Having an army that can do both types of ops is one that can compete with any military in the world. This also helps us recruit new soldiers as there can be something for everyone who wants to join the NPA.
To be fully prepared for war, we need to have as many soldiers and possible updates as possible. There’s one way we can increase our numbers: Recruitment. We also have to step up our recruitment which we can do by increasing our visibility through posts on the regional message board, frequent reports on our operations both on our forum and on NS, and by being part of more major operations so that we always have some presence, not just on the largest ops that include everybody. When the NPA conducted an operation to seize the very first frontier, which today is known as The Wellspring, there was a certain magic in how it brought so many of us together. I want to recreate that wherever possible. Whenever we have an opportunity for a liberation, similar to what we recently pulled off with South Pacific, we need to promote the NPA as much as we can, with the goal being to maximize the participation of TNPers.
The North Pacific Army will not be quiet this term. Too many people have doubted what we can do and that we can still put up a fight. We will prove them wrong. BoM and TCB will face consequences for what they have done, and whenever possible we will participate in operations that take the fight to them, along with our allies and friends in the defenders. I believe that many in TNP who don’t participate in the NPA now will start to join us in updates and do their part in these changing times, especially if the region officially recognizes a state of war. I believe this will give them the reason they may have been missing to get involved and bolster our ranks, and will rally more players to our cause.
Overall, I will continue to revitalize the North Pacific Army through increased cooperation with our military allies, improved training for soldiers, and intensified recruitment efforts to grow our military.
Culture
Culture has had its ups and downs during our last term. We’ve gone through two ministers, and are on our third. However, the ministry has shown signs of encouragement more recently. I will focus on planning for the future and later in this term instead of looking to make immediate fireworks. I will work with the Ministry of Culture to plan and organize events with our allies that fit the theme of their region, like we did previously with the winter TSP event, something that celebrates the culture of our regions and lets us be ourselves, instead of something specific like one of the symposium events we’ve previously hosted. This also ties in with my goal of bringing us closer to them and strengthening our relationships. Hopefully, we can also all have some fun, just like we did with the recently-hosted Olympics event. I believe the best way for this to work is not to plan for a large festival ahead of time, but to brainstorm with our culture ministries and find smaller, more convenient moments to hang out. If they are smaller and more casual they can also happen more often and probably mean more to the members of our communities. Culture has had so much pressure to make these large festivals work they can stop being fun which is supposed to be the point.
I won’t only be looking to get external events done, though. I will also be looking to bring the people of TNP closer together. We will host regional events that take advantage of some of our most common interests, such as Chess. Additionally, I will look to make sure our regularly scheduled events such as Theme Thursday or Music Monday are able to run without skipping a beat, once we get the Music Monday bot up and running. We often missed or neglected these sorts of events over the past few months, and I’ll make sure we will be consistent when we run them. But it’s also important that when our community finds new passions and wants to explore new activities, we make a place for it in our schedule because simply repeating the same things that worked before won’t be enough to keep everyone entertained. The old schedule of events will always have a place, but more variety will keep things fresh and help the old reliable activities continue to be fun and a welcome part of the cultural experience.
I also hope that Culture can showcase these things our players are passionate about, and perhaps have festivals just to show the rest of NS or publications that do the same. Culture has done this with RP in the past but we can expand to whatever creative things TNPers are working on. This shows NationStates what TNP’s culture has that makes it special and it also invites others who share those interests to join in. This also can give people a reason to be more involved in TNP whether they’re a resident or a new recruit.
Overall, I am focused on planning for the future, looking to strengthen relationships with allies through themed events while also fostering unity among the people of TNP by organizing regional and staff game day events and ensuring consistent execution of our regular events.
Foreign Affairs
In regards to Foreign Affairs, this past term has been quite hectic and will continue to be. There’s a lot of work to be done in improving our image after many public setbacks and dealing with the new developments that caused tensions between our enemies to significantly rise in the last few days. Under this administration, The North Pacific will be confident, but not reckless. We won’t back down, but we will be reasonable. We will make sure the best interests of The North Pacific and our allies are met, but we won’t bow down to the demands of foreign powers, and I will ensure I will not allow anyone to get away with disrespecting or humiliating The North Pacific without consequences. We will not be intimidated or scared of our enemies. We will be ready to take them on. The days of a weak, spineless TNP are over.
In this day and age, we need to stand up more than ever to the bullies and rogues who plague this game. Whether or not the Regional Assembly decides the best way to do that is to formally recognize a state of war, we will not sit and wait for more attacks. We will fight back, not only on the battlefield but in the diplomatic arena too. I will continue our sanctions and call on our allies to join us in confronting the Brotherhood of Malice and its friends in every corner of this game. We will continue to be the face of resistance against their treacherous and malicious behavior. Not only will we rise to the occasion, our partners will as well. Every friend and ally we met along the way, treaty or not, will be welcome to fight alongside us. Defenders especially will play an important part in the days ahead, and I welcome their assistance in handling the crisis. The freeze in our working together is over, we are brothers in arms, and that includes The South Pacific.
When we repealed the Aurora Alliance, the long-term goal set by my predecessor was that we would rebuild our relationship with The South Pacific. That remains our goal, but it will depend on TSP taking the opportunity for reconciliation seriously, and we will see if that is the case attitudes between our regions improve, we feel heard and respected, and most importantly, we are treated as friends and not with suspicion, I am willing to defrost things between our regions. If not, then that’s a sign we need to wait a little longer. I do hope that our mutual commitment to confronting the forces of Malice and The Communist Bloc will be a good opportunity to strengthen our old bond and be a starting point for more collaborations in the future.
We will not only look to rebuild and expand old relationships but build new ones as well. I have recently presented treaties with Carcassonne and The Wellspring to the Regional Assembly after many weeks of talks. These will hopefully be the first of many new opportunities to work with other regions in a deeper way. I look forward to ratifying these treaties, hopefully early in the term if not earlier, and starting a new chapter between ourselves and our allies. These allies will allow us to have partners on the ground in the developing world of frontiers, and help shape the direction they take, which we hope will be one that looks after the communities trying hard to build something new in uncertain times and encourages their freedom to shape their own destiny rather than simply be a playground for raiders.
On the internal front, I will continue the effort of providing our citizens with Foreign Affairs education using a foreign affairs section in The Northern Star as I mentioned earlier. Additionally, I want to make use of our large FA staff by engaging them with more than just frequent ambassador reports, by having frequent discussions about the state of Foreign Affairs in NS, and more frequently distributing our publications and statements to our allies, which help our staff grow more familiar and help dip their feet into the waters of Foreign Affairs, which may appear intimidating at first.
Overall, I will pursue a resolute and balanced foreign policy by addressing public image issues, confronting our adversaries diplomatically and militarily, rebuilding relations with The South Pacific, forming new alliances, and actively engaging citizens and Foreign Affairs staff to enhance the region's global influence and standing.
Conclusion
For most of this year, TNP has been led as if we’ve been afraid to get hurt again, embarrassed, or make people upset. We can be brave again. We can say what’s on our minds and be true to what’s in our hearts. The North Pacific is independent, it believes in democracy and communities deciding things for themselves, and it protects these things for other regions and works best with other regions that do too. And we stand up and speak for those things because we believe in them. We are also creative and imaginative problem solvers, we can reinvent our technology and we can show other players how to do anything from master card trading to getting better at speed chess, and we don’t have to keep that to ourselves. We are at our best when we aren’t shy, about our beliefs or about spreading our passions to others. That’s the fire that burns in every TNPer, and the torch I will carry to the regions outside TNP. I will be a Delegate who embraces that tradition and isn’t afraid to be an example of it to everyone in this game. TNP will light the way for other regions to do the same, just like it did before.
I sincerely thank you all for taking the time to read my campaign. I'm hopeful that I've garnered your trust and secured your support, and it would be an honor to secure your vote. Together, we can build a North Pacific that will be resilient, tough, and flexible. I once again express my sincere gratitude for your thoughtful consideration, and I am genuinely enthusiastic about the opportunity to serve you all.
If you have any questions, contact me via Discord NationStates telegram, forum PM, or you could simply reply to this thread. My username is Chipoli, virtually everywhere.
For those wishing to support my campaign, we have now created my own logo! If you want to support my campaign, feel free to add it to your signature!
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