Chipoli for Vice Delegate 2.0

[Chipoli]

---

Chipoli for Vice Delegate​

Hello, TNP! I am Chipoli, and I am running for a return to the role of Vice Delegate.

When I first stepped up in May, I was a complete newcomer to the role. I had to do a lot of learning on the job, and during my time as Chair, I gained invaluable information on how our regional security works and how the Security Council operates. I’ve enjoyed working with them very much, and I have since joined their ranks, largely as the Security Council is playing a significant role in our war effort in identifying and preventing external threats and attacks. We’ve faced quite a few and will continue to face many more. This is a time of war, and we need an experienced and capable individual as Vice Delegate. I believe my skill set and experience working with the Security Council is what the region needs, and I am here to make The North Pacific safer and more secure than it already is.

Background​

I have been a citizen of TNP continuously for nearly two years now. I was the Minister of World Assembly Affairs in two separate terms, and am a former Vice Delegate as I previously mentioned. I have also had the chance to serve as your Acting Delegate leading up to Kaschovia’s first term. I currently serve as a Deputy Speaker, Deputy Minister in World Assembly Affairs and Foreign Affairs, and an Election Commissioner. I currently hold a position on the Security Council.

My first term as Vice Delegate was focused on learning the role and executing its functions. Although I also had to balance my responsibilities with the ones I held as Minister of World Assembly Affairs, I’d say my term was quite productive. I successfully declassified around 12 forum threads from the Security Council and got through four months' worth of Security Council Discord logs. I swiftly and efficiently processed the Vice Delegate citizenship checks, and my rejection of Khalid’s citizenship application was upheld by our Regional Assembly. Not only did I focus on performing the core responsibilities of the Vice Delegate, but I attempted to connect with the gameside community via the Ask The Security Council Program on the Regional Message Board as well. That was done in essentially three-quarters of a term. I had more planned for that term, which I will get into later. However, I was called away to serve as Acting Delegate, and my time and resources had to be focused on other areas. This meant that I could not complete all of the work during that term. I was left feeling afterward that I had unfinished business. I want to build on what I started and introduce a couple of new propositions.

Core Responsibilities​

The Transition

Coming off two quite lengthy transitions, it is especially important that this one is conducted as swiftly as possible. Given my position on the Security Council, my endorsement numbers are already close to the required endorsement count needed to secure second place - currently, I am in sixth place and 47 endorsements away from that spot. This will already significantly decrease the length of the transition and will eliminate the hurdle of getting to the SC level of endorsements. I would also like to use the rewards system used by Kaschovia in his weekly WA report as part of his delegate transition, such as card rewards whenever I meet a certain milestone. I also will bring back the transition tracker I used back in May to document this transition as well.

Vice Delegate Reports

During my next term, I will plan to expand the Vice Delegate Reports from what they have been. I will continue the tradition of keeping the region updated on Security Council matters with a weekly update, where I will discuss my plans for the future, security checks for the week, and possible threats that we look out for, similarly to what I did last time, but with additional content, such as a long-range endorsements chart and a greater breakdown of where we sit with security threats and our endorsement count. However, I know a lot of you all are concerned about the endorsements of the Security Council, and are wary of another delegate tip. That is why I will introduce a Midweek Endorsement Report, which will largely consist of an endorsement chart with provided commentary coming from myself on what has changed in the last few days with our endorsements, why they did, and a report on any potential security threats.

The WADP and Technological Infrastructure

A couple of months ago, most, if not all of our technological infrastructure failed, and due to the absence of its creator, r3naissancer, it was unable to be properly restored. The WADP was hit hard by this since its dispatches and telegrams heavily relied on r3n’s technology. This led us unable to continue to completely run the WADP Program and many aspects of it, such as our daily card lottery and the monthly endorsement awards. Now over time, as a region, we have adapted to replacing and updating the old dispatches by simply recreating them ourselves and manually updating them, and I will do the same for all WADP and SC-related dispatches. Many of them contain outdated information that needs to be updated, and I will make sure they will stay up to date throughout the term while Sil Dorsett works on creating a script to continue running the dispatches via The Northern Light.

Security Checks

Having been a former Vice Delegate, I am quite familiar with how the Vice Delegate’s check works, and even have successfully argued my case before The Regional Assembly on rejecting a particular application. I also processed citizenship applications as a Deputy Speaker this past term, which gave me even more insight into how the whole process works. On the whole, I am pretty confident with my ability in this regard.

Declassification

Declassification was a main priority of mine back in the May term, and it will continue to be this time around. During my 3-ish months as Vice Delegate, I successfully declassified the remaining logs from Kastonvia’s tenure as Vice Delegate and re-released several older threads that had to be brought up to date due to the implementation of FOIA law changes. I also declassified a full term of Security Council Discord logs from Gladio’s time as Delegate. Recently, a couple of threads, namely from Hulldom’s term as Vice Delegate, have reached the required declassification age of one year, but still have not been declassified. My goal for this term is to declassify at least one term of Discord logs and the remaining forum threads from Hulldom’s Vice Delegacy. Alongside that, I will continue to update the older forum threads to the current FOIA laws.

Cabinet Involvement

At the beginning of each term, the Delegate has the option to grant the Vice Delegate access to the Executive Council, which has been chosen to be done most of the time in recent memory. I’ve previously stated that I believe it is in the best interest of our regional security to have our Vice Delegate maintain a close working relationship with the executive. My position on that matter has not changed. If the Vice Delegate works with the cabinet on resolving matters of regional security, they will be dealt with much quicker and effectively. For instance, the Vice Delegate may be needed to coordinate with the Minister of Foreign Affairs or Defense for extra pilers or the Minister of Culture for a SC-themed event or promotion. I will also take an active role in cabinet discussions to ensure the interests of regional security are accounted for and give general advice if needed. In turn, I will continue granting the Delegate access to the Security Council areas.

To War

Given our state of war between the Brotherhood of Malice and The Communist Bloc and their attacks on our region, the external threat is at an all-time high. We’ve had BoM consistently attempt to disrupt our transition, and we ended up overcoming their attempts and successfully got Kaschovia into the in-game delegate seat. To spot these threats, we need to keep a constant eye on who is coming in and out of our region and monitor any suspicious endorsement activity. The Security Council was able to quickly spot that our enemies were attempting to thwart the transition simply by monitoring the endorsement activities of Kaschovia and Pallaith. Along with that, we were able to quickly identify the identities of the foreign agents that infiltrated us and successfully cleared them from the region. To continue to respond to these threats, the position of Vice Delegate needs someone with alertness and activity at an all-time high, and I give just that, along with the necessary experience and familiarity that I have managing our regional security in this time of war.

New Initiatives​

SC Survey

This has been a project of mine that I was working on last term that never got released. Recently, we conducted the 2023 TNP Census, and I have always wanted to do something similar with the Security Council. However, I now envision the survey with two segments. One will ask its respondents for their opinions on the Security Council, and the other will quiz them on their knowledge of the Security Council and our regional security - with the individual getting the most questions correct receiving a reward. The first segment will give the SC an idea of its performance and allow it to know where to make improvements if needed. I see the quiz as a great opportunity to check how familiar our residents are with the Security Council and a fun way to connect with the community with the trivia contest.

Reworking the SC Handbook

Earlier, I talked about updating and fixing our dispatches, but now I will touch on improving them. A few years ago, the Security Council handbook was created. While it gives a very detailed and thoughtful rundown on what the Security Council is and does, it lacks a personal touch from the members of the Security Council. I would like to add a section that allows the members of the Security Council to tell the reader a little more about themselves. The section will include a short biography about each member of the Security Council and how their NS career turned out leading up to their time on the SC. The biographies will be written by the Councilors themselves to get the most accurate information out there since it is coming from the Councilors themselves. Along with that, I will also add more information to prevent the deception of our residents by our enemies, given the past events of foreign agents infiltrating our region.

Weekly Endorsement Events

While Kaschovia completed his delegacy transition, it leaves us with a new problem: we need to replace the foreign pilers with native endorsements. While Kaschovia’s Weekly WA updates are getting results, I feel like we can do even more as a region. Therefore, as Vice Delegate I will be introducing the Weekly Endorsement Events. Instead of a short-term Endorsement Frenzy event, these weekly events would last the entire term, would help gradually build up both Kasch’s endorsements and my own, and would add even more native WA endorsements at a time when we are struggling to consistently increase our WA population. Every week, I will post a weekly endorsement goal, such as an increase of 10 endorsements, or getting to 850 endorsements, in places including but not limited to, the WFE and the weekly report for the Delegate and Vice Delegate. There will be a reward for meeting each of the endorsement goals, such as a free legendary card or being able to change the regional flag for a few days. The reward will be given out if the endorsement goal is met. A reward will make the idea of joining the WA more enticing and will encourage more individuals to get out and there and give endorsements.

Conclusion​

Thank you all for taking the time to read my platform for Vice Delegate once again. Using my new initiatives and ideas, along with my experience as a Security Councilor and former Vice Delegate, I will help defend our regions from any attacks from our enemies, bolster our regional security, and increase the bond between the Security Council and our community. I hope that I have gained your trust and support, and it would be an honor to receive the opportunity to serve you all as Vice Delegate once more. I welcome all questions that any of you may have about my campaign. If you would like to contact me privately, my DMs are always open.

If you would like to support my campaign, feel free to add my campaign logo to your signature:

 

[Picairn]

First, I would like to congratulate you for setting up a campaign platform the fastest. A candidate with experience, energy and initiative, I like it.

So, I have two questions:
1. Your idea of Midweek Endorsement Reports sounds good on paper, but do you believe you have the necessary activity to consistently keep it up, every 3-4 days for an entire term, when Fregerson struggled to consistently deliver weekly reports due to RL matters?

2. Replacing and updating outdated dispatches are a necessity, but there are a lot of them. How do you plan to replace/update all of those?

 

[Chipoli]

Thank you for your questions, Picairn. I'll go ahead and answer them now.

1. Your idea of Midweek Endorsement Reports sounds good on paper, but do you believe you have the necessary activity to consistently keep it up, every 3-4 days for an entire term, when Fregerson struggled to consistently deliver weekly reports due to RL matters?

Given the fact that I promised two updates in the same week when at times we sometimes didn't see any in the same period this past term, I understand why some may think inactivity could prevent them from going ahead as usual. When I planned my campaign, I took into consideration the amount of time I would have throughout the next four months, and whether my goals were suited to that. I included the Midweek Endorsement Reports because I knew I could pull them off, the reports wouldn't be as comprehensive or as time-consuming as a regular weekly report, since they simply touch on the endorsement counts, and the weekly reports discuss the rest. The short answer is - I can maintain the necessary activity. I wouldn't have included the midweek reports in my platform if I knew I couldn't have.

2. Replacing and updating outdated dispatches are a necessity, but there are a lot of them. How do you plan to replace/update all of those?

Updating those dispatches would be quite simple. I would copy the code for the original dispatch and paste it into a new one. I would search for outdated information and replace it with the current information that we have. Let's use this dispatch. If Pallaith had left the Security Council, I would remove his name from the list of members. If Player X joined the Security Council, I would add their name to the list. Going through every dispatch will take time and is not something I can do in one day, but it can absolutely be done in a term. Hopefully, by the end of it, a new script will be ready for use.

 

[Halsoni]

I would also like to use the rewards system used by Kaschovia in his weekly WA report as part of his delegate transition, such as card rewards whenever I meet a certain milestone.

Will you be donating cards or will someone else do it for you?

For instance, the Vice Delegate may be needed to coordinate with the Minister of Foreign Affairs or Defense for extra pilers or the Minister of Culture for a SC-themed event or promotion.

Can’t you just do that in DMs?

I would like to add a section that allows the members of the Security Council to tell the reader a little more about themselves.

Why do you think people are interested in that and why does it need to be in a dispatch that’s supposed to be informative on what the SC does?

Along with that, I will also add more information to prevent the deception of our residents by our enemies, given the past events of foreign agents infiltrating our region.

What information will you add?

 

[Chipoli]

Will you be donating cards or will someone else do it for you?

I do recognize that my legendary card collection is a fair bit smaller than Kaschovia's, but I would still like to contribute to the reward, so I will donate all the cards I do have. However, since my collection likely will not last for the whole term, I think it will be necessary for others to pitch in if anyone is willing. So, the cards will come from both myself and other individuals.

Can’t you just do that in DMs?

Sure, if I wanted to simply communicate directly with said Minister, that could work as well. However, in a more public environment, more people have the opportunity to pitch in, share their ideas, and make those things happen. This is why maintaining a presence in the Executive is important - I can not only work with each Minister one-on-one, but with the cabinet as a whole, and the ministry staff as well if needed.

Why do you think people are interested in that and why does it need to be in a dispatch that’s supposed to be informative on what the SC does?

Our residents not only need to know what The Security Council is and how it works, but they need to know who they are. That's what that section is for, it informs the reader who the Security Council is, so it does fall in the informative category. If they open the Security Council dispatch, they only see the names of those serving on the Security Council - they don't know who they truly are. If our residents know more about the SCers, they will interact with them and become more interested in them since they have a better idea of who they are, even if they have just a brief glimpse into them. I think in general it is important that people know who is protecting their Regional Security.

What information will you add?

I think the main idea is to make sure that no one believes any telegram coming from someone who is impersonating a Regional Officer. The information I will add is simple - it will advise caution when responding to a TG from someone claiming to be a Government Official but does not appear to be one - for example, if they haven't spent a very long in the region (a couple of days to 2 or 3 weeks), are not a regional officer in-game. I will also provide a list of the legitimate positions of our government (this goes down to Deputy Ministers) along with their officeholders, and the ones that foreign agents have used in the past. I would advise contacting the Vice Delegate, or any other Regional Officer if there is a suspicion that someone is impersonating a TNP government official.

 

[NS Weekly]

First of all, I’d like to start by saying that I am a newcomer to the region, albeit one very inept on participating in the region. So if there’s anything I’m not getting right, feel completely free to correct me! I think your platform is very measured and thorough but I have some questions in regards to some of its specifics:

1. Threats: Can you provide more details on how you will prevent the same type of foreign infiltration that occurred from the BoM in attempting to disrupt our transition in the future? Monitoring the entry and admission of nations is a good starting point but how do you see security efforts diversifying under your second term? Lastly, if our region manages to repulse all foreign attacks do you plan to eventually launch a preliminary or counter attack?

2. SC Collabs: Similar to the above — how do you plan to actively collaborate with our Security Council to ensure a seamless response to matters in regards to our security, and what specific actions would you take in coordination with other council members?

3. WADP: While you mention adapting to the technological failures and manually updating dispatches, can you elaborate on your strategy to ensure the functioning of the WADP program and technological infrastructure throughout your term?

4. Declassification Process: Could you outline a step-by-step approach for the declassification process, especially in dealing with threads that may contain sensitive information or require careful handling?

5. Security Checks, Citizenship Applications, etc.: Given the importance of security checks, how do you plan to ensure the efficiency and accuracy of processing citizenship applications, considering your experience as Vice Delegate and Deputy Speaker?

6. Weekly Endorsement Events: How will you measure their success of these eventsgiven the potential for more nuanced foreign operations in the future?

 

[Chipoli]

Welcome to TNP! It's great to see more new players join our community, and you asked a few great questions, which I will now answer as best I can.

1. Threats: Can you provide more details on how you will prevent the same type of foreign infiltration that occurred from the BoM in attempting to disrupt our transition in the future? Monitoring the entry and admission of nations is a good starting point but how do you see security efforts diversifying under your second term? Lastly, if our region manages to repulse all foreign attacks do you plan to eventually launch a preliminary or counter attack?

I mentioned this in one of my previous responses, but the first step to prevent these types of infiltrations is making our residents aware of which telegrams they should listen to - that is, only the ones that come from one of our government officials, who you can see on this page. This is why I'm adding that information to the Security Council Handbook.

We've had agents from BoM attempt to mess with the transition of Kaschovia to the in-game WA Delegacy by using a nation named TNP Delegate, which in turn sent telegrams to our residents asking to unendorse Kasch in favor of Pallaith, who was holding the WA Delegacy due to his position on the Security Council and LoS. If we inform our residents of who to and who not to trust, they will know to ignore these sorts of telegrams next term. While we already completed the Delegate transition, they may try and do the same with the Vice Delegate transition, so our residents still need to be aware.

As for the diversity of our security efforts, I already brought up a response to a disruption of the transition. While I cannot mention all of the new measures we have implemented since the war began, we are taking a closer look at the endorsement counts of the Security Councilors, Vice Delegate, and Delegate, and who comes in and out.

As for the last part of this question, that is not for me to answer. The North Pacific Army is responsible for launching an attack on our enemies if needed.

2. SC Collabs: Similar to the above — how do you plan to actively collaborate with our Security Council to ensure a seamless response to matters in regards to our security, and what specific actions would you take in coordination with other council members?

Well, that's an easy answer, since I already am on the Security Council. I would simply be doing what I have doing for the past three months or so - the only difference is that as Vice Delegate, I would be the chair of the Security Council, but I still will maintain the same role in discussing or coordinating a response to a security threat or attack. Again, I can't share exactly what we do in there since this is a public forum after all.

3. WADP: While you mention adapting to the technological failures and manually updating dispatches, can you elaborate on your strategy to ensure the functioning of the WADP program and technological infrastructure throughout your term?

I'm not the individual in charge of rebuilding the technology that would make the WADP Program fully function again, but I can update the dispatches related to it, and provide information on it while manually updating it while a script is being worked on by members of our tech guild that would allow us to automatically create and update those same dispatches.

4. Declassification Process: Could you outline a step-by-step approach for the declassification process, especially in dealing with threads that may contain sensitive information or require careful handling?

So there are two types of declassification: forum-based and discord-based.

The process of forum-based declassification goes something like this: The Vice Delegate reviews the threads in a SC-designated forum that are over a year old. They then redact the necessary information according to our FOIA Laws and release those threads in the War Room Redacted Archive.

For discord-based declassification, once you obtain the logs from the private Security Council channel, the Vice Delegate evaluates a certain time period and redacts any sensitive information. Afterward, they are posted in the Archive as well.

5. Security Checks, Citizenship Applications, etc.: Given the importance of security checks, how do you plan to ensure the efficiency and accuracy of processing citizenship applications, considering your experience as Vice Delegate and Deputy Speaker?

The VD check is simple and processing each one does not take a lot of time, since most individuals who fail the check are known security threats. Given my level of activity and familiarity with the Vice Delegate's check, I should be able to get to them relatively quickly.

6. Weekly Endorsement Events: How will you measure their success of these eventsgiven the potential for more nuanced foreign operations in the future?

I will see those events as successful if the goals I set are consistently met. I don't believe our enemies will be completely focused on disrupting these goals or preventing them but I'm aware that they may mess with the endorsement count and potentially ruin the goal. However, even if we see a successful week with our WA numbers, for example, if we have an influx of Keepers of The North, then I would classify that as a successful week.

 

[Chipoli]

...currently, I am in sixth place and 47 endorsements away from that spot.

I'm posting here to clarify that these numbers have changed - I am now in fifth place with 731 endorsements and 32 endorsements from the incumbent Vice Delegate PotatoFarmers. These counts are subject to change.

 

[Simone]

I am obviously asking in my capacity as a RA voter, not as supervisor of this election nor as minister. All my questions are the same as to both those running for D and those running for VD, on the off-chance (never say never) of the VD having to step up.

1. What is the definition of TNP having "won" the war? Or "lost" the war? Or is this just going to be ongoing? Do we have clear goals on drawing a line on when to call it "won/lost/stalemate"?

2. How do we protect our smaller friendly partners? Not just The Wellspring, but also IDU, Taijitu and all the other friends of ours.

3. Do we have a KPI on recruitment? Say (as Ruben says) aim for D endo to go back up to 1,000?

4. "Forgive" might be too strong a word, but do we plan to mend relations with TSP any time soon?

5. (For VDs only, Hulldom already answered): is this a stepping board for running for Delegate?

 

[Chipoli]

Thank you, Simone. Those are some very thoughtful questions.

1. What is the definition of TNP having "won" the war? Or "lost" the war? Or is this just going to be ongoing? Do we have clear goals on drawing a line on when to call it "won/lost/stalemate"?

I don't believe in my capacity as Vice Delegate I'm the perfect candidate to judge whether or not we are "winning" the war. However, I'd say that if we want to achieve victory, we must gain as many victories on the battlefield as possible, such as defending innocent regions and communities from BoM and TCB, while at the same time striking back at their recruitment and integration hubs, or any other key areas of control just like we did with Solidarity. We would have to outdo our adversaries in terms of the propaganda machine and enthusiasm for the war among our residents and eliminate, or at the very least incapacitate the influence our enemies hold over the gameplay sphere. As I mentioned earlier, though, our Delegate and the NPA are in charge of taking care of that.

2. How do we protect our smaller friendly partners? Not just The Wellspring, but also IDU, Taijitu and all the other friends of ours.

This is a great example of why I mentioned that the Vice Delegate must have a close working relationship with the executive. I'd say the role of the VD in this case is mainly an advisory one to the Delegate and, to a lesser extent the Minister of Foreign Affairs. It may even be possible that I may directly communicate with some of the regions and build off the past work I've done with them, particularly with The Wellspring and Carcassonne. However, the best way I would probably be of use here is to assist the Delegate and provide advice on actions our partners should take - The Wellspring set up a Security Council of its own recently, for instance. I would likely explore the possibilities of an endorsement cap, and most importantly, ensure that our allies can hold a Governor to prevent outside attacks, along with ideally a non-executive WA Delegate.

3. Do we have a KPI on recruitment? Say (as Ruben says) aim for D endo to go back up to 1,000?

I would love to be able to get our Delegate back up to quadruple-digit endorsements, but that will take a lot of work in regards to even creating any sort of significant increase in our WA Delegate's endorsement count. Our overall WA endorsement count is nowhere near what it used to be, which was around 1,500-1,600 endorsements, which was at a time when the WAD maintained endorsement levels a bit above 1,000 - I think the highest we've reached since 2021 is 1,300, but more often it has been in the 1,000-1,110 endorsements range. Our current WA population is approximately 1,120 nations. It would take just under 90% of our WA nations endorsing the delegate to reach 1,000, which was a rate TNP never was able to have. Therefore, the solution would be to run a quite large campaign not only to encourage our current resident nations to join the World Assembly, but recruit from outside of our region and then begin to integrate those recruits into TNP and eventually the World Assembly, while at the same time recruiting for the North Pacific Army, which would move WAs out of our region. Otherwise, our endorsement numbers and WA population will continue to trend downwards, what that ambition of 1,000 endorsements more and more out of reach.

Can you clarify what "KPI" means? I would love to respond to that part of the question as well.

4. "Forgive" might be too strong a word, but do we plan to mend relations with TSP any time soon?

While I'm not in charge of this aspect, and this is much more suitable for a delegate candidate, I would like to reiterate my earlier thoughts in my Delegate campaign in September:

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.

I do think this is still very realistic, reasonable, and attainable, as long as we don't dive headfirst back into the pool of being treaty allies. Most of the negative energy and bad blood between our two regions has dissipated by this point in time, and we have proven in the past that we have been formidable partners. While it is not up to me to decide, I remain open to the idea.

5. (For VDs only, Hulldom already answered): is this a stepping board for running for Delegate?

I'm sure that this is a question that many voters are interested in seeing me answer. I've made it no secret that I enjoyed being Acting Delegate despite my tenure being something of a rollercoaster, and I do want to be in the seat once again if the opportunity arises. However, I'm not in the race because I want an easy ticket to the delegacy. I will fully concentrate on doing my job as Vice Delegate and serving my region, and my home, as faithfully as possible, in a role that I genuinely enjoy serving as well. I've learned a lot from that run, and it is best if I step into the role for a complete term with as much experience and knowledge as possible. I know I have plenty of time to do that and potentially have years and years left of service. Whether, it will be in 2024, or 2025, I will run at the right time. For now, though, I plan to possibly be a two-term Vice Delegate, and it is unlikely I will run for the Delegacy in the immediate election following this one as well. I also enjoy working in the executive very much, and I want another shot as well in the Cabinet before I get back to the top of the food chain.

 

[Chipoli]

Campaign Announcement

​

Hello, fellow TNPers! Do you want to get a chance to have even more of your questions answered about my campaign? Is there something you feel that I left out of my responses? Do you want to learn even more about myself and my campaign? Then I have some good news - you will have the opportunity to do so not once, but twice on the same day!

To kick things off, Minister of Communications @Robespierre has graciously agreed to host a town hall about my campaign at approximately (time=1704405600). If you want to see my answer to his questions about my campaign or ask any during the show, join the North Pacific Discord server! That is where all the fun will happen! Make sure to join the stage labeled "NBS", ideally a couple of minutes before the beginning of the show. However, if you can't make it to the show's beginning, I invite you to also hop in! It will last anywhere from around 30 to 45 minutes. If you would like to ask me any questions during the show on the #nbs-text channel. That way, your question will be acknowledged and answered later on in the show!

If you are looking for a more direct and engaging experience with my campaign, then I have just the thing for you! I will be hosting an AMA (Ask me Anything) on the Regional Message Board an hour after the beginning of the Town Hall! That is, at (time=1704409200) the same day. The AMA will work very similarly to the Town Hall but with an even wider range of questions! I will answer all questions that go my way. You can ask me what my policies will be, anything about the role of Vice Delegate, my work with the Security Council, or even my favorite color! If you want me to notice your question and be able to answer it, make sure to mention my name (Chipoli) in your post! If you would also like to post your questions now, I will be happy to answer them as well, just make sure to mention my nation, and I will save them later for my AMA.

If you have any questions about my campaign, feel free to leave a message via telegram, or private message on either Discord or the forums. All the showtimes in this announcement should match whatever your forum timezone is. If it does not, please let me know.

With that said, I hope to see you all there!

~ Chipoli
Candidate for Vice Delegate of The North Pacific

 

[Hulldom]

Regarding certain comments made in your town hall this evening, what would you say is the role of secrecy in security operations? How will you uphold it as Vice Delegate?

 

[Chipoli]

Regarding certain comments made in your town hall this evening, what would you say is the role of secrecy in security operations? How will you uphold it as Vice Delegate?

Maintaining secrecy in our security operations is vital since we cannot allow bad-faith actors who intend to harm our region to gain intel on how our security operations work. I will handle the operations that demand the most confidentiality with as much sensitivity as possible. As Vice Delegate, I will balance the need for secrecy with the need to be transparent and to communicate with our citizenry regarding the business of the Security Council.

 

[Halsoni]

Maintaining secrecy in our security operations is vital since we cannot allow bad-faith actors who intend to harm our region to gain intel on how our security operations work. I will handle the operations that demand the most confidentiality with as much sensitivity as possible. As Vice Delegate, I will balance the need for secrecy with the need to be transparent and to communicate with our citizenry regarding the business of the Security Council.

Yes, but you did discuss those security operations live on air. How can we trust you won't accidentally mention components of our security apparatus in the future?

 

[Chipoli]

Yes, but you did discuss those security operations live on air. How can we trust you won't accidentally mention components of our security apparatus in the future?

Thank you for your question, Ruben.

I intended to shed light on what the Security Council looks for regarding the Vice Delegate check when evaluating citizenship applications, especially when we are at heightened tensions with regions that have antagonized us in the past such as The Brotherhood of Malice and The Communist Bloc, which is information the Security Council would use when advising the Vice Delegate on security checks. I mentioned earlier that it is crucial to strike a delicate balance between transparency and secrecy to maintain the security of our region. While I may have touched on certain aspects of the Vice Delegate's check, I must clarify that I didn't divulge specific sensitive information that may jeopardize the operations of the Security Council.

 

[Fregerson]

In my last VD statement, I mentioned the following:

While our WA numbers continue to drop with our allied pliers leaving and our NPA soldiers going on their deployments/training, this is probably the true reflection of how the current WA situation is in our region. Gone are the days where the Delegate can go past 1000 endorsements - we have to probably accept that among the 250-300 nations that are not endorsing the Delegate, most of them probably are not involved in WA stuff that much and will never return the endorsement, and that achieving 875-900 native endorsement count is probably what we have to work around with.

In your previous answers, however, you did talk about the issue of lack of endorsements and gave the following as a reply regarding WA recuritment:

I would love to be able to get our Delegate back up to quadruple-digit endorsements, but that will take a lot of work in regards to even creating any sort of significant increase in our WA Delegate's endorsement count. Our overall WA endorsement count is nowhere near what it used to be, which was around 1,500-1,600 endorsements, which was at a time when the WAD maintained endorsement levels a bit above 1,000 - I think the highest we've reached since 2021 is 1,300, but more often it has been in the 1,000-1,110 endorsements range. Our current WA population is approximately 1,120 nations. It would take just under 90% of our WA nations endorsing the delegate to reach 1,000, which was a rate TNP never was able to have. Therefore, the solution would be to run a quite large campaign not only to encourage our current resident nations to join the World Assembly, but recruit from outside of our region and then begin to integrate those recruits into TNP and eventually the World Assembly, while at the same time recruiting for the North Pacific Army, which would move WAs out of our region. Otherwise, our endorsement numbers and WA population will continue to trend downwards, what that ambition of 1,000 endorsements more and more out of reach.

So, what is your conclusion regarding a feasible number of WA endorsements our delegate should target, taking into account your plans for recruitment and all? Approximately which part of next term do you think we can reach these numbers?

I also note that in the Legal Code as written, Section 5.2 has a particular clause of interest:

9. The Vice Delegate is responsible for maintaining a minimum endorsement count at least that of the WA Delegate's endorsement count, minus one-fifth of the total number of WA nations in the region. Frontier Vice Delegates are responsible for maintaining a minimum endorsement count at least that of the Frontier WA Delegate’s endorsement count, minus one-fifth of the total number of WA nations in their respective territories of The North Pacific.

This number currently stands at around 550s (as of writing, it seems to be 552 by my personal count). When placed alongside Clause 22 of Section 5.4 on Reckless Endorsement Gathering, it seems that nations that are currently around 500 endorsements are not able to endotart any further to comply with the Endorsement guidelines. As a member of Security Council, you are aware of existing discussions that aimed to look at this issue. With your plans to increase WA endorsement count in mind, do you think this law as written should be kept? Or should it be changed? If so, what kind of changes would you like to make so that ordinary nations can continue to do their endotarting while ensuring that the regional security is not impacted?

 

[Chipoli]

Thank you for your questions, Freg. It's great to have our outgoing Vice Delegate get involved in the campaigning process.

So, what is your conclusion regarding a feasible number of WA endorsements our delegate should target, taking into account your plans for recruitment and all? Approximately which part of next term do you think we can reach these numbers?

I did mention that the goal of getting 1,000 endorsements would take a lot of legwork and recruitment, which is something I know the Home Affairs staff and the Gameside Advocates have been working very hard on. However, our WA numbers can be unpredictable - perhaps they may be inflated by foreign pilers as they are at the current moment, or sometimes the number of individuals CTEing, leaving the region, or resigning WA is greater than the number of recruits we can bring to the World Assembly. We have good weeks and bad weeks. It's just the nature of the game. Not to mention, our enemies may decide to mess with it every once in a while, which would deflate the endorsement counts.

I don't have a specific number of endorsements that our delegate should aim for, given the number of factors that may play a part in it. I think first and foremost, we should strive for any sort of progress - our WA numbers have steadily been decreasing for a while, even before the F/S update. I won't target a return to a thousand endorsements just yet - we have to be realistic with the goals we set, and none of us know for sure if we can ever get back there. This term will be all about taking smaller steps and slowly increasing our endorsement count.

This number currently stands at around 550s (as of writing, it seems to be 552 by my personal count). When placed alongside Clause 22 of Section 5.4 on Reckless Endorsement Gathering, it seems that nations that are currently around 500 endorsements are not able to endotart any further to comply with the Endorsement guidelines. As a member of Security Council, you are aware of existing discussions that aimed to look at this issue. With your plans to increase WA endorsement count in mind, do you think this law as written should be kept? Or should it be changed? If so, what kind of changes would you like to make so that ordinary nations can continue to do their endotarting while ensuring that the regional security is not impacted?

I think that this law is fine as is. I think it already allows our citizens a lot of room to endotart, as one of our pitching points is that we do not have an official endorsement cap. When we warn nations that have gotten close to SCer-levels of endorsement, most of them are compliant and temporarily pause their endotarting. That, along with the fact that the non-SCer with the highest endorsement count who has not been recently on the SC is around 100 endorsements away from the closest SCer, shows that this current law has been proven to be effective in maintaining our regional security.

 

[Halsoni]

I must clarify that I didn't divulge specific sensitive information that may jeopardize the operations of the Security Council.

Then why have I been asked to cut some parts out?

 

[Chipoli]

Then why have I been asked to cut some parts out?

Since I am not involved in the editing of my town hall for obvious reasons, I'm not sure what instructions you have been given on removing certain content. Perhaps the person giving you them may want to be extra cautious.

I was asked a question on whether or not I felt that the recommendations the SC gave to the Vice Delegate on security checks were sufficient. I mentioned how we were now keeping a closer eye on BoM and TCB, naturally since we were at war with them. Nothing I said compromised our security or harmed our operations. I know you don't support me in this election, but I don’t appreciate these smear attempts and trying to make this into something it’s not.