Brief closing and opening remarks (Jan 2024)

Dear Team,

Closing remarks for the old term

I'd keep my closing remarks for the completed (to mid Jan 2024) term brief as it was a mid-term appointment.

1. I would like to, once again, sincerely thank the Delegate @Kaschovia for appointing me (and re-appointing me to another term), and for giving me this opportunity to continue to serve The North Pacific, which I have called home since I joined NS in 2019 and will always call home until chucked out to TRR, or until this game ends in another infinite dimension fireball.

I draw your attention to the Delegate's opening remarks if you haven't read it already:

2. I would like to once again thank my predecessor @Magecastle for his wonderful and thoughtful work. @Magecastle certainly has made great advances on the technology side (it's really great once you've used it). I would also once again take the opportunity to congratulate him on his appointment to GA GenSec, as well as Kenmoria's appointment, of course.

Opening remarks for the new term

A. Staff changes

1. I would like to confirm that the following people remain deputy ministers:

@AraFuttio
@Chipoli
@Cookiemonster
@Kenmoria
@Magecastle
@Nutmeg The Squirrel

2. @Fregerson has agreed to be reappointed to the MoWAA following his stint as vice delegate and will return as a deputy minister. I have worked extensively as a deputy under Freg and look forward to continuing the great work.

3. @Magecastle remains a deputy minister until he resigns or CTEs. I am aware of his significant personal RL commitments (which I spoke to him in great detail in DMs) as well as duties as a member of GenSec.

4. @Sauron has been removed as a deputy minister as he had not logged in since mid-December, although I wanted to wait until the general election is over before de-tagging staff. I look forward to working with him again in the future.

5. I am delighted by the response to the roll call so far, and further staff changes will be made once the formal roll call closes on 22 January. I deliberately made our roll call longer than other Ministries' roll calls to try to bring in more talent.

6. As agreed with the Delegate, the Executive Deputy Minister role will be split into two roles: a focus on GA (@Kenmoria will take that one) and a focus on SC (@Cookiemonster will take that one). I feel it's important we have an extra pair of eyes (or two) especially given how dominant TNP is in the WA - virtually everything coming through is now from a TNP author or an ally.

6. Please re-take your oaths and other formalities.

B. New initiatives

Existing initiatives will continue (see Magecastle's previous opening address (#b)). Further initiatives (or changes to initiatives) will be announced once I have consulted with the Delegate, other ministers and everyone in the team. Some initiatives you can look forward to are:

- Potential revival of gameside voting
- Ongoing drafts on SC commendations for important persons in TNP
- WA Symposium 2024 (in conjunction with WALL)
- WA Symposium Archives (this will be a permanent archive rather than simply on IA's Google Drive)
- WA Secretary-General election in April (if the change proposed in 2021 finally gets implemented this time as Sedgistan claims, as SecGen can veto an SC resolution)

Please remember that as Minister, I am not the leader, I support our Team - and we cannot succeed together unless we work together. And I look forward once again to working with all of you.

Have a great week ahead,
Best wishes
Simone

Given that I was appointed despite explicitly declining the position privately, I would like to enter my resignation as Deputy Minister into the public record.