Simone for Delegate - For All of Us - Your Delegate, Empowering You

I am Simone, and I am running to be your Delegate. I believe I can empower you to do better in TNP. Let's get things done together.

I promise more awards, more engagement and more fun. Culture will be stronger with daily Discord games, events with other regions, and a revamped Radio service. Communications will be widely distributed, and the inner workings of the region will involve everyone who is a citizen. We want more people in our forums and our discord, and hope that they join as citizens and staff. This will bring more folks into the TNP community - they can be in the venerable NPA, they can vote in the World Assembly (where we dominate), they can help out on IT, they can grow and pursue a career in government. The possibilities are endless. And we are ready. Simone - For All of Us.


I am Simone, and I am running to be your Delegate.

I am here to support your success and to make your dream and career in TNP a fruitful one. TNP is powerful because we can do it together.



My background is in business, and I have had some 15 years of experience as a division head and manager of hundreds of colleagues in real life. I believe my real-life experience can also apply to TNP.

TNP is my home. My main nation spawned in TNP in July 2019. My NS regional career has always been and will always be at TNP. I have been a staff member of MoWAA since February 2022 and eventually rose to Minister - I want more folks to replicate my path.

For me, I believe the Delegate supports the team. I believe in empowering Ministers and their teams, so they can learn and grow, let them perform to their very best, and ultimately strengthen the talent bench in TNP.



We need stronger recruitment. This is my no.1 priority. We need to bring in both new players (and retain them well), as well as existing players that will find themselves right at home at TNP.

1. We need a sharper message. We consistently under-sell ourselves as the biggest region in-game combined with a robust democracy. Our core message should be that we are a democracy, and joining TNP means advancing your GP/WA or other careers because we are the biggest and the best.

2. We need to attract players with different interests. By projecting our soft power through Culture, we can attract not only players interested in GA/SC, but also in a casual community, in RP, in music, games, TNP university, sports, and other areas.

My key performance indicator (KPI) by September is to raise TNP’s share of WA voters compared to May. You can judge my performance on this KPI: if I do not make this number, I will not seek re-election.

We deserve a richer experience in TNP. We have the resources and the capabilities as the largest region in NS. This includes games and joint events with other regions, a bigger voice for us across NS as well as better activities both NS-side and forumside. We will also work more closely with The Wellspring and other partners. We will also add new games, put polls and forum games formally under Culture, and expand on technology spending.

In addition, as we head into 20 years of TNP, a new role of TNP Archivist will be established to document the adventures of TNP over the last 20 years.

These will be delivered by September.



I believe my job as delegate is to help you succeed in TNP.

You may be starting out as a staffer, trying to write a SC resolution, or looking to be a writer in Comms.

I trust that with some training, you will do your job and do it well. After all I rose myself from staff to DM to Minister.

For our experienced hands, I believe in empowering our colleagues to do their job, and do their job well.

This suits my RL style better, and I intend to bring that style to TNP.

We should also reward loyalty and contributions to TNP over the last 20 years. Ministry-level awards will be defined with equivalent grades.

We will strengthen badges, awards and the hall of fame and honors to recognise the heroes of TNP in NPA and elsewhere. These will be integrated into both Discord and Xenforo.

These will be delivered by September.


War. We will back our NPA heroes 110% and continue to prosecute the war. My committed cabinet members have nearly 700 missions between them - I believe one of the most experienced teams ever assembled. Stronger recruitment will mean more support for NPA. If our allies agree, and only if our allies agree, we will approach TCB and BoM and see if they want to cease hostilities - on our terms, not theirs. Any cessation will be subject to an RA vote both before negotiations start and after.

Allies. We will also reach out to see if we can add new allies. It takes two to tango but I believe we need more friends than enemies, especially as regions splinter post the F/S update.

Please keep in mind that it takes two to tango.

TNP is ultimately stronger because we are a democracy.

These will be delivered by September.



A Stronger Cabinet

Nine people currently attend cabinet: the six existing Ministers, the advisor, Delegate and Vice Delegate. Two additional members will join: an extra advisor, and a reintroduced role of chief of staff, who will attend cabinet. So the cabinet will have eleven people.

Cabinet-Level Officials

• There will be a new category of "cabinet-level officials". They are free to attend cabinet (or not, up to them), but they are not generally expected to be involved in GP matters day-to-day.
• They include:
  • Archivist,
  • Guildmaster for Cards,
  • Guildmaster for Tech,
  • Radio Host,
  • TNP University Chancellor.

Returning to the Cabinet if I am elected

• As of the last update, @Nutmeg The Squirrel, @9003, @Bobberino, @Koopa103 and @Chipoli have kindly agreed to return to the cabinet. I am delighted that @Comfed has agreed to remain FA minister. @Kenmoria will also be promoted to cabinet.
• @Prydania has agreed to return as an advisor.

This following is in alphabetical order.

Chief of Staff

• This is a reintroduction of an old position.
• The main need for a chief of staff is for timezone reasons - as I am in East Asia/Australasia, I need a chief of staff to take care of breaking matters during American hours (or very late European hours) when I am asleep or when I am on a plane and don't have Wi-fi. (As some of you know, I travel a lot).
• The chief of staff will also participate in lower-level FA negotiations.

Communications

• What's the situation now?
  
  • TNP already produces excellent communications, through The North Star, The Northern Lights, and The Northern Notes.
• How can we do better?
  
  • We want at least one publication out weekly, to give quick updates on matters such as election results, staff changes, and war reports.
  • We want to distribute our Communications more widely - other platforms, discords, forums, etc., and to increase readership. We already have great content and it's incumbent on us to get it as widely read as possible.

Culture

• What's the situation now?
  
  • Culture already organizes fantastic events.
  • Culture (what I call "soft power") is the key to increasing our influence across NS and hopefully drive recruitment.
• How can we do better?
  
  • We want more events, especially events involving other regions to foster exchanges.
  • More mixers with other regions, both allies and distant acquaintances, give us the opportunity to project our soft power and build a stronger brand for TNP.
  • Culture will also gain oversight of the Port Thel - Out of Character Games section. We look forward to seeing more fun games being launched, whether they are fun or plain silly, and not just Word games or Spam games.
  • Polls will also come under Culture. Most polls will be humorous but some will be used to gauge opinions among folks on RMB on important matters.
  • Daily events will also make a return, mainly as Discord Bot games, so there's less work for staff.

Defense

• What's the situation now?
  
  • I will back our NPA heroes 110% from day 1. They deserve our unyielding support.
  • Improved recruitment should help us grow our ranks of NPA colleagues.
  • If I am elected, my cabinet will have a combined experience of nearly 700 R/D missions as of 1 March 2024 and will be in a strong position to continue to prosecute the war.
• What's the plan ahead?
  
  • We will boost the honors offered to our heroes, on top of the ribbons built out more recently. We will consult widely before implementing a new system. Awards will be integrated into Discord and Xenforo (our gameside forum).
  • If our allies agree, we will approach TCB and BoM and see if they want to cease hostilities - on our terms, not theirs. Any cessation will be subject to RA approval.

Foreign Affairs (led by Comfed)

• What is the review?
  
  • The review primarily covers our relations with feeders. Like them or hate them, NS dictates that they'd be around.
  • We will also reach out to see if we can add new allies. It takes two to tango but I believe we need more friends than enemies, especially as regions splinter post the F/S update.
• What other plans are there?
  
  • Existing plans in the MoFA including CFR and other senior-level initiatives will continue.
  • We want to see better PR, communications, and clear channels of diplomacy with our allies, acquaintances, and even enemies will be important. Keeping communications channels open is important.
  • Ambassadors will need to promote our publications, radios, lectures, and other activities abroad if they are open to non-TNP folks. All ambassadors will now have alternates to make sure that if an ambassador is not available, another can quickly step up.

Guildmaster for Cards

• What's the situation now?
  
  • The situation on Cards is fluid, so we are not able to at this stage commit to a specific cards policy, pending the return of the cards function and seeing how much damage has been done.
• How can we do better?
  
  • Cards will definitely play a greater role in rewards, such as for contributions to NPA activities.
  • Guildmaster for Cards will be cabinet-level.

Guildmaster for Technology

• What's the situation now?
  
  • Our tech guild is a hardworking group. They may be unsung heroes, but as the recent "hamster rebellion" showed, we need to give more appreciation to the guild.
• How can we do better?
  
  • We want more help. We have good programmers who can chip in to make our lives easier.
  • For example, WAA uses an automated system for dispatches and RMB posts. The same technology will be rolled out elsewhere.
  • Guildmaster for Technology will be a cabinet-level official.
  • TNP has significant funds for IT hardware. (I know this). That will be used to expand our technology efforts.

Home Affairs / Gameside Advocate

• What's the situation now?
  
  • The absolute no.1 priority for us is recruitment.
  • The Ministry will receive additional resources to help recruitment, be it stamps, technology resources, or cards. For example, there’s 100,000 39,243 TG stamps outstanding that I donated last year to TNP, and I will tap those.
• How can we do better?
  
  • Our ramping up of Culture should help drive more traffic to TNP. We get the traffic first and then try to increase our voting population.
  • We need to recruit across the board - new players, existing players attracted to our deeper gameplay, or established players dissatisfied with their existing regions.
  • Mentoring new staff and new citizens will also be crucial to retaining staff, and eventually lead them to greater heights in their career in NS and in TNP.
  • My own trail of staff to DM to executive DM and the minister needs to be replicated more often.
  • Our gameside advocates will play a key part in ensuring that new spawns are fired up and ready to go.
  • New resources will be available - stamps, cards, anything we can think of that's within site rules is on the table.

Port Thel / TNP University

• What's the situation now?
  
  • Docks includes citizenship and residency applications, staff applications, mentoring and other areas.
  • Each thread in Docks will require clear ownership, so each Ministry needs to have someone in charge of picking up messages in Docks.
  • Community Center (TNP University) will be revived, having been dormant for quite some time.
• How can we do better?
  
  • The revived TNP University will be more informal.
  • It will initially focus on Academic Exchange - TNPers teaching serious (or not so serious) subjects.
  • Wizardofoz Lecture Hall - guest lectures will also come back.
  • Guest lectures give us the opportunity to learn from other regions, on a variety of subjects.
  • Content will be staggered to encourage more people to register, or to become residents or citizens.
  • The additional content on TNPU will hopefully project soft power and help recruitment.
  • The Chancellor of TNPU will be cabinet-level.

Radio Host

• This is a new role.
  
  • We will re-create a new cabinet-level Radio Host position to take charge of NBS ratio.
  • In addition to podcasts, there will be a radio feed of music, more DJs, as well as interviews not just with TNP stars, but also ordinary folks as well as guests from other regions. We want to project "soft power" to other regions.
  • Town halls with ministers will also come under Radio Host. Each minister (and selected deputy ministers) will face questions at least once per term.
  • Radio Host will also host programs that are more "shooting the breeze", which will hopefully attract more crowds looking for casual chat to TNP Discord, and then later hopefully TNP in full.

TNP Archivist

• This is a new role.
  • The appointee will be the official historian of TNP and will be in charge of compiling historical data, information and tidbits/trivia etc., on Delegates, Vice Delegates, and Ministers.
  • As TNP has its own server, it will also organize exhibitions via Xenforo, and to document our travails over the last 20 years.
  • The TNP Archivist will be cabinet-ranked.

World Assembly Affairs

• What's the situation now?
  
  • This is my current ministry and I've been here for 2 years and a bit. TNP and WALL is completely dominant in the GA, with 17 out of the 18 resolutions in 2024 (so far) coming from us.
• How can we do better?
  
  • I am delighted that @Bormiar has returned to MoWAA as a Deputy Minister. As a seven-time SC author, Bormiar brings strong experience on SC that TNP has lost in drips in recent years, and should accelerate our efforts to get more commendations through the SC.
  • We intend to shift the hosting of historical WA Symposium data to TNP and to host a fourth WA Symposium this year, subject to WALL consent. Both are initiatives from my time as WA minister.

There will be some updates towards this platform because I have asked many of my cabinet colleagues to stay on, and depending on their consent, their names will be added to this list and some minor wording changes to the platform have come and gone.

1. Endorsements. I am at 550 580 endorsements now. I was previously capped (until last month) from further endo-tarting. I can quickly close the gap. Yes, if my endos are the size of TNP decline relatively over my term, I really don't deserve re-election.​
2. KPI. The KPIs obviously depends on changes to game mechanics. If for example NS creates another ten feeders or reduce the votes going to feeders, we'd drop share no matter what.​
3. RA: One line that was cut out during the cut and paste: the original draft also mentioned that I will put some Ministerial level policies under a statutory footing, subject to RA approval.​
4. Clarification: "If our allies agree, and only if our allies agree, we will approach TCB and BoM and see if they want to cease hostilities - on our terms, not theirs. Any cessation will be subject to RA approval." I have clarified and placed greater emphasis on the words "if our allies agree", and to emphasize that any potential peace negotiations will be on our terms, not theirs. The RA vote will take place both before any negotiations start and after (if BoM and TCB essentially agree to our terms.)​

And if you want to show your support, this emoji will work in text:

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Or this in the TNP Forum:



The official banner is here:

Good platform with strong commitments.

1) "All ambassadors will now have alternates to make sure that no one drops the ball on communications." Can you clarify what you mean by this?
2) Do you plan on expanding TNP's diplomatic network by opening new embassies or forming new alliances? Or do you intend to defer to the RA on this before taking any action?
3) What is your strategy for pursuing the war against our enemies?

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Picairn:

Good platform with strong commitments.

1) "All ambassadors will now have alternates to make sure that no one drops the ball on communications." Can you clarify what you mean by this?
2) Do you plan on expanding TNP's diplomatic network by opening new embassies or forming new alliances? Or do you intend to defer to the RA on this before taking any action?
3) What is your strategy for pursuing the war against our enemies?

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1. This is for backup reasons. I want to ensure that every region has at least one ambassador and one alternate, so that if the ambassador resigns for any reason, the alternate can step in immediately.

2. Forming alliances will be subject to a RA vote in any case. I would be more relaxed in opening embassies, especially with neutral regions or those focusing RP or other aspects of NS.

3. We will continue to prosecute the war unless and until the RA decides that we may want to reach out and settle some differences, and concentrate our fire on other enemies. That's up to the RA. I have my personal views but I will advocate that "in a personal capacity" and not "in the capacity of the delegate" if I have the privilege to be your delegate.

Do you have a campaign slogan?

Star Winter:

Do you have a campaign slogan?

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For All of Us.

I am here to support you, so that your career in TNP will go further. I prefer not to talk about things like leadership and what not.

I am intrigued by your plans for The Community Centre [formerly TNPU]

I was the last elected Chancellor of long standing there and I still run the place as a moderator and Chancellor Emeritus - would you care to run your plans past me?

I'm very interested on how you see TNPU being revived.

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Marcus Antonius:

I am intrigued by your plans for The Community Centre [formerly TNPU]

I was the last elected Chancellor of long standing there and I still run the place as a moderator and Chancellor Emeritus - would you care to run your plans past me?

I'm very interested on how you see TNPU being revived.

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I've revised my platform to make this clearer.

• Community Center (TNP University) will be revived. This will initially focus on Academic Exchange - TNPers teaching serious (or not so serious) subjects, as well as Wizardofoz Lecture Hall - guest lectures. Guest lectures give us the opportunity to learn from other regions, on a variety of subjects.
• Content will be staggered to encourage more people to register, or to become residents or citizens.
• A revived TNPU shows that we are committed to be the adult in the room in NSGP - we are after all one of the oldest regions, and one of the strongest democracies.
• The Chancellor of TNPU (or whatever new title is used) will be cabinet-ranked.

I will incentivize recruitment with volunteer recruiters receiving 1,000 stamps each for use in recruitment.

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Are you sure that this complies with site rules? From the rules against commercializing the site:

While NS Store purchases can be gifted to other players, players aren't permitted to offer or request them in exchange for anything, including for joining or remaining resident in a region. For example, it's prohibited to offer Telegram Stamps to nations who are the most active in your region.

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It seems to me that offering stamps to recruiters is tantamount to offering people stamps for joining the Ministry of Home Affairs as a staff recruiter.

Simone:

Daily events will also make a return, as well as various Discord Bot games.

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I pity the culture minister who has to run daily games. Given the reduced activity we tend to face in the summer, how are you going to ensure that our events have meaningful engagement and don't burn out your minister?

Comfed:

Are you sure that this complies with site rules? From the rules against commercializing the site:

It seems to me that offering stamps to recruiters is tantamount to offering people stamps for joining the Ministry of Home Affairs as a staff recruiter.

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Let me rephrase that. The stamps can only be used for recruitment purposes. What I meant was that home affairs staffers will get their own stamps for recruitment. So it's not an inducement under site rules, it just makes their life easier. The stamps are also existing (there's already 100,000 stamps in The Northern Lights).

If the GHR for the transfer is filed, we obviously need to mention the purpose since the Mods can reject it anyway.

I don't agree that there's a functional difference between what you and I have said.

That said, it brings me to my follow-up question: what is the benefit of giving stamps to staffers rather than just using them ourselves? There is no restriction on how one nation can use them. Manual recruiters do not need stamps; the bot is calibrated so that recruiters can send the maximum number of telegrams at once without needing stamps (8.) There's no benefit in having multiple nations send stamp recruitment telegrams instead of just one; it's actually an active detriment, because the telegrams are likely to overlap with each other, diminishing each recruiter's effectiveness because each successive recruitment telegram after the first from one region is automatically blocked.

From a security perspective, we have no way of making anyone do what we want with their stamps once they have them. It's the honour system only for a position that literally anyone can sign up for. If I wanted to disrupt, I would make a burner account, join the Ministry of Home Affairs, take my stamps, and run. Maybe I would send some propaganda to all our residents of the region with my free 1000 telegrams.

Comfed:

I don't agree that there's a functional difference between what you and I have said.

That said, it brings me to my follow-up question: what is the benefit of giving stamps to staffers rather than just using them ourselves? There is no restriction on how one nation can use them. Manual recruiters do not need stamps; the bot is calibrated so that recruiters can send the maximum number of telegrams at once without needing stamps (8.) There's no benefit in having multiple nations send stamp recruitment telegrams instead of just one; it's actually an active detriment, because the telegrams are likely to overlap with each other, diminishing each recruiter's effectiveness because each successive recruitment telegram after the first from one region is automatically blocked.

From a security perspective, we have no way of making anyone do what we want with their stamps once they have them. It's the honour system only for a position that literally anyone can sign up for. If I wanted to disrupt, I would make a burner account, join the Ministry of Home Affairs, take my stamps, and run. Maybe I would send some propaganda to all our residents of the region with my free 1000 telegrams.

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That's up to the Mods on the difference between the two. If the Mods say no, we'd go to plan B which is to have the Minister of Home Affairs and trusted DMs run recruitment.

I think it's incumbent on the security folks that we are not giving out citizenships without checks. I obviously wouldn't trust mere residents with stamps. These are after all stamps that belong to TNP that I donated. I don't own them anymore.

Comfed:

I pity the culture minister who has to run daily games. Given the reduced activity we tend to face in the summer, how are you going to ensure that our events have meaningful engagement and don't burn out your minister?

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Polls would be fairly likely to be humorous, like the Riemann Hypothesis one you did. The Daily Events I have in mind are slightly different - more likely to be on Discord rather than forumside, and more like bots driven, so less manual input on the part of Culture. I'd clarify that in my platform.

Lord Nwahs:

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Petronellania:

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Star Winter:

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Bobberino:

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Thank you

Will you ban Pallaith?

Tim Kasto:

Will you ban Pallaith?

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I don't have the power to ban anyone. That's up to Admin.

How will Fiji's term as speaker be recorded by our librarian archivist? Nice campaign though

Comfed:

the bot is calibrated so that recruiters can send the maximum number of telegrams at once without needing stamps (8.) There's no benefit in having multiple nations send stamp recruitment telegrams instead of just one; it's actually an active detriment, because the telegrams are likely to overlap with each other, diminishing each recruiter's effectiveness because each successive recruitment telegram after the first from one region is automatically blocked.

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Just want to point out... after the manual recruitment bot was brought online, error reports of "Previous Recruitment Too Recent" with my API recruitment script spiked hard because the automatic recruiter I programmed and the manual recruiters were clashing, with both sending messages to the same recruits because both telegrams could be queued up. The flag for tgcanrecruit doesn't trip until one of those is delivered. Even though I was checking for that flag, it wasn't tripped soon enough for the script to not send an unnecessary telegram. Comfed's description is accurate.

Sil Dorsett:

Just want to point out... after the manual recruitment bot was brought online, error reports of "Previous Recruitment Too Recent" with my API recruitment script spiked hard because the automatic recruiter I programmed and the manual recruiters were clashing, with both sending messages to the same recruits because both telegrams could be queued up. The flag for tgcanrecruit doesn't trip until one of those is delivered. Even though I was checking for that flag, it wasn't tripped soon enough for the script to not send an unnecessary telegram. Comfed's description is accurate.

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Just wanted to point out that the TG stamps in TNL is now 39,243 according to Sil.

Rom:

How will Fiji's term as speaker be recorded by our librarian archivist? Nice campaign though

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That's up the Archivist. I believe in empowering the Ministers, I am not a micro-manager. (If that was a joke, sorry it flew over my head).

Thanknyou for your kind words on the campaign. The campaign forum-side took about an hour to format correctly.... never been a fan of Xenforo, but other bulletin boards are worse.

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Events

My text-chat townhall will be held on 4 May 2024 at 1am British summer time (0000 Zulu) on TNP Discord (NBS) and will be hosted by @Nutmeg The Squirrel .

(Or 8pm Eastern summer time (New York) on 3 May 2024).

Further events will be announced in this thread.

We need stronger recruitment. This is my no.1 priority. We need to bring in both new players (and retain them well), as well as existing players that will find themselves right at home at TNP. Stamps will be provided for recruitment purposes.

We consistently under-sell ourselves as the biggest region in-game combined with a robust democracy. Robust recruitment efforts will also help us in many other ways, from a bigger team for NPA to having more staffers that will grow to bigger roles in years to come.

Important: My key performance indicator (KPI) by September is to raise TNP’s share of WA voters compared to May. You can judge my performance on this KPI: if I do not make this number, I will not seek re-election

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Okay, let's talk about recruitment. In the last two terms, we saw API and manual recruitment introduced to try and address what you're talking about above. Stamps are used less so because of the reasons others have already mentioned - essentially, they tend to get in the way of much faster and more efficient methods already in use and they cost money. If a nation has already been sent a telegram marked as recruitment, then any other attempt by ourselves to recruit that nation again just gets blocked. Now, they can certainly be useful and having over 39k+ stamps at our disposal is great, but how do you plan to ensure that they are not wasted? Given that there are existing issues using stamps in conjunction with both API and manual recruitment, are there any other elements you're going to add to the recruitment mix or perhaps any other improvements to the API or manual methods beyond just stamps?

Moving on, I'm not sure I fully resonate with the idea of not seeking re-election based on the failure of a single key performance indicator, especially if such a metric is subject to sitewide mechanical changes and trends. If you're going for a long term period as leader of our region, then I want to feel that you believe in a vision that extends and endures beyond singular failures and instead focuses on the bigger picture. We're operating in uncertain times when it comes to endorsements, so is that really a promise that you're committed to?

We deserve a richer experience in TNP. We have the resources and the capabilities as the largest region in NS. This includes games and joint events with other regions, a bigger voice for us across NS as well as better activities both NS-side and forumside. We will also work more closely with The Wellspring and other partners. We will also add new games, put polls and forum games formally under Culture, and expand on technology spending.

In addition, as we head into 20 years of TNP, a new role of TNP Archivist will be established to document the adventures of TNP over the last 20 years.

My KPI by September is to set up at least two major joint events and to step up other joint efforts.

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I'm going to list the following questions.

1. What does 'expanding technology spending' mean, exactly?
2. Can you perhaps provide some examples of what would constitute better activities both NS-side and forumside?
3. When you say that forum games would be put formally under Culture, how do you envision such a concept being practically realized? I understand that games and polls do tend to fall under the umbrella of Culture, although other ministries can sometimes set up polls as well, such as Home Affairs and the Gameside Advocates. Would Culture need to approve every poll that is posted or planned?
4. What makes an official regional historian a necessary cabinet-level office? We already have multiple individuals, including myself, who independently research and compile historical records and data. How would an official historian fit into the current dynamic in a beneficial way?
5. Your key performance indicator, which I feel should be a fairly specific and measurable metric, mentions stepping up 'other joint efforts'. Can you clarify what these would be?

Together, we will build a bigger team with new additions to the ranks of deputy ministers and staffers, while retaining (and coaxing out of retirement) experienced hands. I believe in delegation and trusting our colleagues to do their job, and do their job well.

I believe TNP will be better off with empowered Ministers and Deputy Ministers who can be more proactive in their portfolios. My style as a manager has been to empower my associates and co-workers, and I intend to bring that style to TNP.

We should also reward loyalty and contributions to TNP over the last 20 years. Ministry-level awards (except NPA) will be defined with equivalent grades. We will strengthen badges, awards and the hall of fame and honors to recognise the heroes of TNP.

My KPI by September is to deliver on this program.

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A lot of the sentiments here are rather abstract. Enlarging the executive pool is one thing, and a separate task altogether, but how do you actually intend to empower ministers and deputies? What does empowerment mean to you in our current circumstances? Do you have some examples of the graded ministry-level awards you've mentioned?

The Regional Assembly should play a bigger role in any decisions we make as a region regarding GP, especially regarding the ongoing war. I will make no changes to foreign affairs and defense unless and until the RA has done a comprehensive review.

TNP is ultimately stronger because we are a democracy, and the RA should review the decisions we have made in GP, and to carefully consider all future decisions.

My KPI by September will be to complete proposals to review and to affirm (or amend) past decisions

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Undermining your ability as Delegate to make timely changes to foreign affairs and defense pending a comprehensive RA review seems kind of absurd. There are already many actions taken by the Delegate which are bound to Regional Assembly review for good reason and unless the law is changed to accommodate even further powers of review, which is another question altogether, I don't see how this would be practical. What kind of changes do you believe would need to be reviewed beyond those that already do?

As of the last update, @Nutmeg The Squirrel and @Chipoli have kindly agreed to return to the cabinet if I am elected.

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Have you received confirmations for any more than these two cabinet members?

Communications

Your plans for Communications seem rather limited to just producing one more weekly publication, which I assume would be the extant TNN publication. Or would it be a different thing altogether? Regardless, how do you intend to motivate and incentivize writers to meet that goal?

Culture

My questions for Culture are mostly asked above. Although I am curious, when you say daily events do you mean literally every day of the week? I am still also quite unsure how you plan to have Culture oversee the entire out-of-character games section too, or what kind of innovation could happen there.

Defense

How do you actually plan to improve recruitment for the NPA? Also, can you speak a little further on reviewing past decisions? How will such an endeavour benefit us going forward?

Foreign Affairs

Based on the ideas you put forward here, you're essentially saying that you're not being elected to decide our foreign policy, but instead you're being elected to then ask the Regional Assembly what our foreign policy should be, but... isn't that what an election is for anyway? Where people put forward their ideas and the citizenry cast their votes based on the merit of the ideas put forward? It all seems too circular to me, if you have confidence in your foreign policy ideas then just state them specifically here and the votes will let you know if they resonate with the region.

We want to see better PR, communications, and clear channels of diplomacy with our allies, acquaintances, and even enemies will be important. Improvements can take place in these areas regardless of our actual policy.

Click to expand...

Again, you're saying we need 'x', without actually saying how you plan to make 'x' a reality. How do you intend to improve PR, communications, and channels of diplomacy? What's been going wrong up until now that you think needs correcting? What makes our enemies important in this context?

Guildmaster for Cards

Okay, cards playing a greater role in rewards is definitely something I can agree with, though I would like to ask for clarification regarding the Guildmaster attending cabinet. Do you believe the Cards Guild could eventually see the return of the Cards Ministry? Is that something you plan on pursuing? What are your ideas, if so?

Guildmaster for Technology

How do you intend to get more citizens and residents interested in contributing to the guild? Do you have any specific ideas for technological innovation, or anything you'd like to see implemented by the guild over the next four months?

Home Affairs and Gameside Advocates

I don't think I have any specific questions for this area just yet, but I might return to the thread with some later.

Port Thel

What does it mean for each thread in the docks to require clear ownership, in a practical sense? I appreciate the commitment to this area of the forum, but I'm not so sure on the details.

Radio Host

So you're adding the archivist, the radio host, two guildmasters, and a chancellor to the cabinet, essentially. You've only indicated two minister confirmations (I assume) so far and yet your total cabinet will seat eleven. How can we be sure that this new cabinet dynamic is going to work cohesively and have enough members all term round? For what it is worth, I like the ideas you have for growing the radio portfolio, but I'm not sure it needs a whole new cabinet position. And having the radio host moderate Discord chit-chats? How could that possibly be ensured with any reliability and consistency?

World Assembly Affairs

I have no questions for this area but may return to the thread with some later.

I know this is a lot, but I think these are important questions for everyone to consider. Thanks for your time, Simone.

Hi @Kaschovia

OK, this is a long list of questions, and for timezone reasons I may not be able to answer all of them right now. I will also answer in reverse order as the Culture related parts are relatively easy, and will clarify the platform OP based on the answers below.

I will edit in my answers gradually over the next 24 hours on the more complex parts.

Have you received confirmations for any more than these two cabinet members?

Click to expand...

I have, but I am waiting for their consent to release their names. This list will be updated from time to time. Kenmoria is a promotion, although he is actually far more qualified than me, since he has been commended since Nov 2020 by WA Security Council (SCR #332) for his work on IFVs while in Europe and is a member of GA GenSec. And a great guy to boot.

So you're adding the archivist, the radio host, two guildmasters, and a chancellor to the cabinet, essentially. You've only indicated two minister confirmations (I assume) so far and yet your total cabinet will seat eleven. How can we be sure that this new cabinet dynamic is going to work cohesively and have enough members all term round?

Click to expand...

Team of Rivals
At the moment your cabinet (and, of course, once again, thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve you) consist of yourself, and I'd broadly count anyone in attendance including the six ministers, the advisor, and the VD. That makes nine.

- I will add an extra advisor and reintroduce the chief of staff role, so that makes 11. The "officials attending cabinet" are more specialists so I don't expect to contribute significantly to GP related discussions (and they may choose not to attend cabinet if they wish).

- Frankly, to cite D. K. Goodwin's book, Team of Rivals, I believe in having different voices representing different stakeholders. The fact that we present a united front to others (say to TCB or BoM) do not mean that we don't debate inside the Cabinet.

- I am comfortable with a larger team, having run organisations with hundreds of employees, and multitudes of different reporting lines. I am happy to consult wisely and to make myself available for consultation.

Summer lull
- Summer lull is an issue (as you and many others have mentioned). My plan will necessarily mean that some appointees will be working age (or older) or not affected by the summer holidays. (I am, as some people like to constantly remind me, old enough to be a lot of the cabinet's dad).

Radio Host

For what it is worth, I like the ideas you have for growing the radio portfolio, but I'm not sure it needs a whole new cabinet position. And having the radio host moderate Discord chit-chats? How could that possibly be ensured with any reliability and consistency?

Click to expand...

I have clarified my platform above. I meant that the Radio Host will also host programs that are more chit-chat in nature. So it's more "a few friends having some rum and shooting the breeze" type of programming.

Guildmaster for Cards

Okay, cards playing a greater role in rewards is definitely something I can agree with, though I would like to ask for clarification regarding the Guildmaster attending cabinet. Do you believe the Cards Guild could eventually see the return of the Cards Ministry? Is that something you plan on pursuing? What are your ideas, if so?

Click to expand...

Obviously the situation regarding cards is fluid, because of the site crash. As far as I understand, only Wonders has been restored so far. The Guildmaster attending the cabinet is largely for building out card farms and pooling resources for card related inducements for recruitment.

The Cards Ministry is not likely to make a return - my agenda is already quite long.

Guildmaster for Technology

How do you intend to get more citizens and residents interested in contributing to the guild? Do you have any specific ideas for technological innovation, or anything you'd like to see implemented by the guild over the next four months?

Click to expand...

The first task is to roll out the MoWAA TG platform to other ministries that may need it (you have the keys so you understand what I am talking about). The second task is expanding Discord bots to add more features especially games, to try to get TNPers to spend more time on Discord and attract other casual players on Discord to TNP. The rest we'd see depending on how long it takes, and, ultimately, how much incentives we can use for this.

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

Will you promise to persecute Ukrainians in the region. I am pro-Ukrainian persecution

Luconovos:

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

Click to expand...

Thank you. Also thank you to Koopa.

Tim Kasto:

Will you promise to persecute Ukrainians in the region. I am pro-Ukrainian persecution

Click to expand...

Very funny thank you.

The second part of my reply to Kaschovia.

Kaschovia:

Okay, let's talk about recruitment. In the last two terms, we saw API and manual recruitment introduced to try and address what you're talking about above. Stamps are used less so because of the reasons others have already mentioned - essentially, they tend to get in the way of much faster and more efficient methods already in use and they cost money. If a nation has already been sent a telegram marked as recruitment, then any other attempt by ourselves to recruit that nation again just gets blocked. Now, they can certainly be useful and having over 39k+ stamps at our disposal is great, but how do you plan to ensure that they are not wasted? Given that there are existing issues using stamps in conjunction with both API and manual recruitment, are there any other elements you're going to add to the recruitment mix or perhaps any other improvements to the API or manual methods beyond just stamps?

Click to expand...

Stamps are one part of the strategy. I am aware of response rates for stamps, since I do GA campaigns all the time.

My key pillar is still to strengthen Culture (what I call "soft power") and attract more people to our Discord, our off-site forums, even our RMB. If they are here often enough for events, games, and other activities, they may consider joining us down the road.

Kaschovia:

Moving on, I'm not sure I fully resonate with the idea of not seeking re-election based on the failure of a single key performance indicator, especially if such a metric is subject to sitewide mechanical changes and trends. If you're going for a long term period as leader of our region, then I want to feel that you believe in a vision that extends and endures beyond singular failures and instead focuses on the bigger picture. We're operating in uncertain times when it comes to endorsements, so is that really a promise that you're committed to?

Click to expand...

The metric depends on Sedgistan more than me. If he changes the game mechanics, then obviously the metric is out of the door.

I do believe in making a promise and keeping it. I am talking about share of votes (not total) so the summer lull does not affect it.

If my endo count precipitously drops and activity falls, I don't think I deserve re-election anyway. But if the community decides in September that hey I'm still doing a good job, we'll see what happens.

Kaschovia:

1. What does 'expanding technology spending' mean, exactly?

Click to expand...

We have a much stronger budget than other regions in terms of IT (I am aware of that for obvious reasons), so for example we were able to fund the higher spending from the Discord to Forum integration in terms of hardware costs. I see no reason why this can't continue.

I am aware that this gets more into Admin territory than GP delegate territory, but I believe advocating for that as delegate is important.

I am in a unique position to do that.

Kaschovia:

1. Can you perhaps provide some examples of what would constitute better activities both NS-side and forumside?

Click to expand...

Much of that will be automated. For example, top.gg has many games like Chess. There's like 20 different Chess bots, for example.

If we can attract more traffic to our Discord, we can get hopefully get more citizens.

Kaschovia:

1. When you say that forum games would be put formally under Culture, how do you envision such a concept being practically realized? I understand that games and polls do tend to fall under the umbrella of Culture, although other ministries can sometimes set up polls as well, such as Home Affairs and the Gameside Advocates. Would Culture need to approve every poll that is posted or planned?

Click to expand...

Basically, we will hunt for more ideas for forum games, rather than just spam games and word games. We'd solicit opinion on what others consider to be "fun". My idea of "fun" is writing about obscure technical topics on the GA, but I assume that's not everyone's idea of fun.

As you know, all of the ROs have poll powers anyway. It just means that if no one else has a poll, Culture will create one. The last poll was from Comfed on the Riemann Hypothesis, although I haven't studied number theory for 20 years now but I know what it means. I can probably make up all the polls for the next four months off the top of my head.

There will be a new thread on Discord on polls.

Kaschovia:

1. What makes an official regional historian a necessary cabinet-level office? We already have multiple individuals, including myself, who independently research and compile historical records and data. How would an official historian fit into the current dynamic in a beneficial way?

Click to expand...

The archivist is to coordinate efforts. Of course I love your work in compiling historical records and data, as well as those from other folks like Hulldom for example. It's just to organise a central hub.

Whether the Archivist attends cabinet is up to them. Ditto with all the other cabinet-level officials. The attendance is so I can get more advice and they have an idea what's going on by sitting in. Obviously they will all be trusted sources.

As an example, if you are archivist, I am dragging you into cabinet because I want your advice as well. I prefer to consult very widely before I make a decision.

Kaschovia:

1. Your key performance indicator, which I feel should be a fairly specific and measurable metric, mentions stepping up 'other joint efforts'. Can you clarify what these would be?

Click to expand...

They are mostly Discord related. I re-worded that a bit in my platform. I've had some preliminary discussions with the tech team. Awards will be integrated into Xenforo - I know it can be done and will be done.

Kaschovia:

A lot of the sentiments here are rather abstract. Enlarging the executive pool is one thing, and a separate task altogether, but how do you actually intend to empower ministers and deputies? What does empowerment mean to you in our current circumstances? Do you have some examples of the graded ministry-level awards you've mentioned?

Click to expand...

Empowerment, to me, means that each Minister and that I won't second guess them. I would also encourage them to recruit more deputy ministers and staff.

For example, I would expect most foreign negotiations not to like, um, a former delegate's style of getting so intimately involved and ending up getting wobbly.

I am aware that some of the examples are really privilege to RA or cabinet-level knowledge only so I won't discuss further here, but I think you know what I mean.

Kaschovia:

Undermining your ability as Delegate to make timely changes to foreign affairs and defense pending a comprehensive RA review seems kind of absurd. There are already many actions taken by the Delegate which are bound to Regional Assembly review for good reason and unless the law is changed to accommodate even further powers of review, which is another question altogether, I don't see how this would be practical. What kind of changes do you believe would need to be reviewed beyond those that already do?

Click to expand...

I've clarified the review in my platform. The main portion is to do with our relations with feeders. We are stuck with them no matter what, because of game mechanics. If they want to be friends again (and that's up to them), we are ready to reach out - on our terms, of course, not theirs.

Kaschovia:

Have you received confirmations for any more than these two cabinet members?

Click to expand...

More coming. I am reaching out to them separately to get their confirmation that I can publicly mention their names before I do so.

Kaschovia:

Communications

Your plans for Communications seem rather limited to just producing one more weekly publication, which I assume would be the extant TNN publication. Or would it be a different thing altogether? Regardless, how do you intend to motivate and incentivize writers to meet that goal?

Click to expand...

Communications is in great shape, in no small part thanks to the infrastructure you put in place.

I am looking to do wider distribution of our Comms content.

There will be more specific recruitment on the part of writers on my part. There may also be guest writers.

If Cards come back on-line, then we default to Cards. I have a fairly large card farm that's been dormant for a couple of years now and I think there's still a grab-bag of legendaries, epics and what not in there.

If Cards don't come back online or come back in a diminished form, we'd have to figure that out. Offsite awards will be one of them.

Kaschovia:

Culture

My questions for Culture are mostly asked above. Although I am curious, when you say daily events do you mean literally every day of the week? I am still also quite unsure how you plan to have Culture oversee the entire out-of-character games section too, or what kind of innovation could happen there.

Click to expand...

Again, mostly automated so I don't expect much input from Culture. The discord will be important. The Agora / OOC Games forum will be important. I picked Chess on Discord as an example, but I will consult widely on what kind of games they want.

Kaschovia:

Defense

How do you actually plan to improve recruitment for the NPA? Also, can you speak a little further on reviewing past decisions? How will such an endeavour benefit us going forward?

Click to expand...

I've clarified the position in my platform. The main defense review is that, if our allies agree, and we agree (both ifs) we may reach out to BoM and TCB and see if they want to cease hostilities on our terms. Game mechanics dictate that we don't have clear "win or lose" conditions - NS isn't Call of Duty or GTA or whatever.

If these folks don't want to (and I understand I am personally sanctioned by TCB anyway), we will prosecute the war 110%.

Kaschovia:

Foreign Affairs

Based on the ideas you put forward here, you're essentially saying that you're not being elected to decide our foreign policy, but instead you're being elected to then ask the Regional Assembly what our foreign policy should be, but... isn't that what an election is for anyway? Where people put forward their ideas and the citizenry cast their votes based on the merit of the ideas put forward? It all seems too circular to me, if you have confidence in your foreign policy ideas then just state them specifically here and the votes will let you know if they resonate with the region.

Click to expand...

I believe the RA should be more widely consulted on foreign policy. The mandate of a delegate is one thing, but my view is more towards direct democracy more than representative democracy aka English style.

Our citizens may vote for me (or not) because they may like my platform on Culture, or my track record in WAA. They may not agree with our FA policy. This gives them a chance to have their voices heard separately.

I want to emphasize again that I will continue with the existing policy as is, unless the RA really decides that we need a change of direction. Comfed will be around for that if I am elected.

Kaschovia:

Again, you're saying we need 'x', without actually saying how you plan to make 'x' a reality. How do you intend to improve PR, communications, and channels of diplomacy? What's been going wrong up until now that you think needs correcting? What makes our enemies important in this context?

Click to expand...

Again, some of those are simply wider distribution of our Comms content, some are just making sure that there's ongoing dialogue on Discord.

Our enemies still need to be communicated in case they want to surrender or negotiate for peace. I want to leave that channel.

Kaschovia:

Guildmaster for Cards

Okay, cards playing a greater role in rewards is definitely something I can agree with, though I would like to ask for clarification regarding the Guildmaster attending cabinet. Do you believe the Cards Guild could eventually see the return of the Cards Ministry? Is that something you plan on pursuing? What are your ideas, if so?

Click to expand...

That depends very much on the situation on Cards gameside. I don't think anyone of us can commit to it until we know what the situation is.

Kaschovia:

Guildmaster for Technology

How do you intend to get more citizens and residents interested in contributing to the guild? Do you have any specific ideas for technological innovation, or anything you'd like to see implemented by the guild over the next four months?

Click to expand...

Again, the number 1 priority is more activities on Discord, and support in Xenforo for awards, etc. The rest we will need to get done one at a time depending on the technology resources. I am keenly aware that I am running into the summer lull, so it's harder for me to gauge exactly how much time the tech team will have at this stage.

Kaschovia:

World Assembly Affairs

I have no questions for this area but may return to the thread with some later.

Click to expand...

With Kenmoria there, we'd be in good hands. I'm quite sure of that.

Kaschovia:

I know this is a lot, but I think these are important questions for everyone to consider. Thanks for your time, Simone.

Click to expand...

The pleasure is mine.

Simone:

Simone - For All of Us
Final platform

TL; DR ​

I am Simone, and I am running to be your Delegate. I believe I can empower you to do better in TNP. Let's get things done together.

I promise more awards, more engagement and more fun. Culture will be stronger with daily Discord games, events with other regions, and a revamped Radio service. Communications will be widely distributed, and the inner workings of the region will involve everyone who is a citizen. We want more people in our forums and our discord, and hope that they join as citizens and staff. This will bring more folks into the TNP community - they can be in the venerable NPA, they can vote in the World Assembly (where we dominate), they can help out on IT, they can grow and pursue a career in government. The possibilities are endless. And we are ready. Simone - For All of Us.

Why am I running? ​

I am Simone, and I am running to be your Delegate.

I am here to support your success and to make your dream and career in TNP a fruitful one. TNP is powerful because we can do it together.

A loyal servant for TNP​

My background is in business, and I have had some 15 years of experience as a division head and manager of hundreds of colleagues in real life. I believe my real-life experience can also apply to TNP.

TNP is my home. My main nation spawned in TNP in July 2019. My NS regional career has always been and will always be at TNP. I have been a staff member of MoWAA since February 2022 and eventually rose to Minister - I want more folks to replicate my path.

For me, I believe the Delegate supports the team. I believe in empowering Ministers and their teams, so they can learn and grow, let them perform to their very best, and ultimately strengthen the talent bench in TNP.

My Four Priorities for Change


(1) - A Bigger Community For All of Us.​

We need stronger recruitment. This is my no.1 priority. We need to bring in both new players (and retain them well), as well as existing players that will find themselves right at home at TNP.

1. We need a sharper message. We consistently under-sell ourselves as the biggest region in-game combined with a robust democracy. Our core message should be that we are a democracy, and joining TNP means advancing your GP/WA or other careers because we are the biggest and the best.

2. We need to attract players with different interests. By projecting our soft power through Culture, we can attract not only players interested in GA/SC, but also in a casual community, in RP, in music, games, TNP university, sports, and other areas.

My key performance indicator (KPI) by September is to raise TNP’s share of WA voters compared to May. You can judge my performance on this KPI: if I do not make this number, I will not seek re-election.

(2) - A Richer Community For All of Us. ​

We deserve a richer experience in TNP. We have the resources and the capabilities as the largest region in NS. This includes games and joint events with other regions, a bigger voice for us across NS as well as better activities both NS-side and forumside. We will also work more closely with The Wellspring and other partners. We will also add new games, put polls and forum games formally under Culture, and expand on technology spending.

In addition, as we head into 20 years of TNP, a new role of TNP Archivist will be established to document the adventures of TNP over the last 20 years.

These will be delivered by September.

(3) - An Empowered Team For All of Us.​

I believe my job as delegate is to help you succeed in TNP.

You may be starting out as a staffer, trying to write a SC resolution, or looking to be a writer in Comms.

I trust that with some training, you will do your job and do it well. After all I rose myself from staff to DM to Minister.

For our experienced hands, I believe in empowering our colleagues to do their job, and do their job well.

This suits my RL style better, and I intend to bring that style to TNP.

We should also reward loyalty and contributions to TNP over the last 20 years. Ministry-level awards will be defined with equivalent grades.

We will strengthen badges, awards and the hall of fame and honors to recognise the heroes of TNP in NPA and elsewhere. These will be integrated into both Discord and Xenforo.

These will be delivered by September.

(4) - A More Inclusive Democracy For All of Us.​

War. We will back our NPA heroes 110% and continue to prosecute the war. Stronger recruitment will mean more support for NPA. If our allies agree, we will approach TCB and BoM and see if they want to cease hostilities - on our terms, not theirs. Any cessation will be subject to RA approval.

Feeders. We will reach out and re-examine relations with other feeders. Love them or hate them, under NS game mechanics, we are stuck with them and can't ignore them. This is up to their governments as well, so the balls are in their courts. But we will reach out and see if they want to work together.

Please keep in mind that it takes two to tango.

TNP is ultimately stronger because we are a democracy.

These will be delivered by September.

My Plans for Change for the Cabinet​

A Stronger Cabinet

Nine people currently attend cabinet: the six existing Ministers, the advisor, Delegate and Vice Delegate. Two additional members will join: an extra advisor, and a reintroduced role of chief of staff, who will attend cabinet. So the cabinet will have eleven people.

Cabinet-Level Officials

• There will be a new category of "cabinet-level officials". They are free to attend cabinet (or not, up to them), but they are not generally expected to be involved in GP matters day-to-day.
• They include:
  • Archivist,
  • Guildmaster for Cards,
  • Guildmaster for Tech,
  • Radio Host,
  • TNP University Chancellor.

Returning to the Cabinet if I am elected

• As of the last update, @Nutmeg The Squirrel, @9003, @Bobberino and @Chipoli have kindly agreed to return to the cabinet. I am delighted that @Comfed has agreed to remain FA minister.
• @Kenmoria will assume my previous post as MoWAA.

This following is in alphabetical order.

Chief of Staff

• This is a reintroduction of an old position.
• The main need for a chief of staff is for timezone reasons - as I am in East Asia/Australasia, I need a chief of staff to take care of breaking matters during American hours (or very late European hours) when I am asleep or when I am on a plane and don't have Wi-fi. (As some of you know, I travel a lot).
• The chief of staff will also participate in lower-level FA negotiations.

Communications

• What's the situation now?
  
  • TNP already produces excellent communications, through The North Star, The Northern Lights, and The Northern Notes.
• How can we do better?
  
  • We want at least one publication out weekly, to give quick updates on matters such as election results, staff changes, and war reports.
  • We want to distribute our Communications more widely - other platforms, discords, forums, etc., and to increase readership. We already have great content and it's incumbent on us to get it as widely read as possible.

Culture

• What's the situation now?
  
  • Culture already organizes fantastic events.
  • Culture (what I call "soft power") is the key to increasing our influence across NS and hopefully drive recruitment.
• How can we do better?
  
  • We want more events, especially events involving other regions to foster exchanges.
  • More mixers with other regions, both allies and distant acquaintances, give us the opportunity to project our soft power and build a stronger brand for TNP.
  • Culture will also gain oversight of the Port Thel - Out of Character Games section. We look forward to seeing more fun games being launched, whether they are fun or plain silly, and not just Word games or Spam games.
  • Polls will also come under Culture. Most polls will be humorous but some will be used to gauge opinions among folks on RMB on important matters.
  • Daily events will also make a return, mainly as Discord Bot games, so there's less work for staff.

Defense

• What's the situation now?
  
  • I will back our NPA heroes 110% from day 1. They deserve our undying support.
  • Improved recruitment should help us grow our ranks of NPA colleagues.
• What's the plan ahead?
  
  • We will boost the honors offered to our heroes, on top of the ribbons built out more recently. We will consult widely before implementing a new system. Awards will be integrated into Discord and Xenforo (our gameside forum).
  • If our allies agree, we will approach TCB and BoM and see if they want to cease hostilities - on our terms, not theirs. Any cessation will be subject to RA approval.

Foreign Affairs (led by Comfed)

• What is the review?
  
  • The review primarily covers our relations with feeders. Like them or hate them, NS dictates that they'd be around.
  • We will also reach out to see if we can add new allies. It takes two to tango but I believe we need more friends than enemies, especially as regions splinter post the F/S update.
• What other plans are there?
  
  • Existing plans in the MoFA including CFR and other senior-level initiatives will continue.
  • We want to see better PR, communications, and clear channels of diplomacy with our allies, acquaintances, and even enemies will be important. Keeping communications channels open is important.
  • Ambassadors will need to promote our publications, radios, lectures, and other activities abroad if they are open to non-TNP folks. All ambassadors will now have alternates to make sure that if an ambassador is not available, another can quickly step up.

Guildmaster for Cards

• What's the situation now?
  
  • The situation on Cards is fluid, so we are not able to at this stage commit to a specific cards policy, pending the return of the cards function and seeing how much damage has been done.
• How can we do better?
  
  • Cards will definitely play a greater role in rewards, such as for contributions to NPA activities.
  • Guildmaster for Cards will be cabinet-level.

Guildmaster for Technology

• What's the situation now?
  
  • Our tech guild is a hardworking group. They may be unsung heroes, but as the recent "hamster rebellion" showed, we need to give more appreciation to the guild.
• How can we do better?
  
  • We want more help. We have good programmers who can chip in to make our lives easier.
  • For example, WAA uses an automated system for dispatches and RMB posts. The same technology will be rolled out elsewhere.
  • Guildmaster for Technology will be a cabinet-level official.
  • TNP has significant funds for IT hardware. (I know this). That will be used to expand our technology efforts.

Home Affairs / Gameside Advocate

• What's the situation now?
  
  • The absolute no.1 priority for us is recruitment.
  • The Ministry will receive additional resources to help recruitment, be it stamps, technology resources, or cards. For example, there’s 100,000 39,243 TG stamps outstanding that I donated last year to TNP, and I will tap those.
• How can we do better?
  
  • Our ramping up of Culture should help drive more traffic to TNP. We get the traffic first and then try to increase our voting population.
  • We need to recruit across the board - new players, existing players attracted to our deeper gameplay, or established players dissatisfied with their existing regions.
  • Mentoring new staff and new citizens will also be crucial to retaining staff, and eventually lead them to greater heights in their career in NS and in TNP.
  • My own trail of staff to DM to executive DM and the minister needs to be replicated more often.
  • Our gameside advocates will play a key part in ensuring that new spawns are fired up and ready to go.
  • New resources will be available - stamps, cards, anything we can think of that's within site rules is on the table.

Port Thel / TNP University

• What's the situation now?
  
  • Docks includes citizenship and residency applications, staff applications, mentoring and other areas.
  • Each thread in Docks will require clear ownership, so each Ministry needs to have someone in charge of picking up messages in Docks.
  • Community Center (TNP University) will be revived, having been dormant for quite some time.
• How can we do better?
  
  • The revived TNP University will be more informal.
  • It will initially focus on Academic Exchange - TNPers teaching serious (or not so serious) subjects.
  • Wizardofoz Lecture Hall - guest lectures will also come back.
  • Guest lectures give us the opportunity to learn from other regions, on a variety of subjects.
  • Content will be staggered to encourage more people to register, or to become residents or citizens.
  • The additional content on TNPU will hopefully project soft power and help recruitment.
  • The Chancellor of TNPU will be cabinet-level.

Radio Host

• This is a new role.
  
  • We will re-create a new cabinet-level Radio Host position to take charge of NBS ratio.
  • In addition to podcasts, there will be a radio feed of music, more DJs, as well as interviews not just with TNP stars, but also ordinary folks as well as guests from other regions. We want to project "soft power" to other regions.
  • Town halls with ministers will also come under Radio Host. Each minister (and selected deputy ministers) will face questions at least once per term.
  • Radio Host will also host programs that are more "shooting the breeze", which will hopefully attract more crowds looking for casual chat to TNP Discord, and then later hopefully TNP in full.

TNP Archivist

• This is a new role.
  • The appointee will be the official historian of TNP and will be in charge of compiling historical data, information and tidbits/trivia etc., on Delegates, Vice Delegates, and Ministers.
  • As TNP has its own server, it will also organize exhibitions via Xenforo, and to document our travails over the last 20 years.
  • The TNP Archivist will be cabinet-ranked.

World Assembly Affairs (led by Kenmoria)

• What's the situation now?
  
  • This is my current ministry and I've been here for 2 years and a bit. TNP and WALL is completely dominant in the GA, with 17 out of the 18 resolutions in 2024 (so far) coming from us.
• How can we do better?
  
  • I am delighted that @Bormiar has returned to MoWAA as a Deputy Minister. As a seven-time SC author, Bormiar brings strong experience on SC that TNP has lost in drips in recent years, and should accelerate our efforts to get more commendations through the SC.
  • We intend to shift the hosting of historical WA Symposium data to TNP and to host a fourth WA Symposium this year, subject to WALL consent. Both are initiatives from my time as WA minister.
  • @Kenmoria will be MoWAA if I am elected. Kenmoria is a World Assembly Commended author and IFV specialist, and the Ministry will be in good hands.

There will be some updates towards this platform because I have asked many of my cabinet colleagues to stay on, and depending on their consent, their names will be added to this list and some minor wording changes to the platform have come and gone.

Frequently Asked Questions will appear below
​

1. Endorsements. I am at 550 580 endorsements now. I was previously capped (until last month) from further endo-tarting. I can quickly close the gap. Yes, if my endos are the size of TNP decline relatively over my term, I really don't deserve re-election.​
2. KPI. The KPIs obviously depends on changes to game mechanics. If for example NS creates another ten feeders or reduce the votes going to feeders, we'd drop share no matter what.​

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ʕ⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴥ⁠ꈍ⁠ʔʕ⁠·⁠ᴥ⁠·⁠ʔʕ⁠ ⁠º⁠ ⁠ᴥ⁠ ⁠º⁠ʔʕ⁠´⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠`⁠ʔ(⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ⁠)

@Griddyland Please spoiler the OP or don't quote it at all, would save mobile users from a lot of scrolling.

Koopa103:

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

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Thank you ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

Simone:

Events

My text-chat townhall will be held on 4 May 2024 at 1am British summer time (0000 Zulu) on TNP Discord (NBS) and will be hosted by @Nutmeg The Squirrel .

(Or 8pm Eastern summer time (New York) on 3 May 2024).

Further events will be announced in this thread.

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For those using Discord, my townhall was here:

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

Cloud:

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

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Thank you ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

Tringapore:

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

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Thank you ＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

One addition to the platform: @Koopa103 has also agreed to rejoin the cabinet if I am elected. Combined, our committed ministers have experience in more than 700 missions. We will have one of the (if not definitely the) most experienced cabinet in TNP history to prosecute the ongoing war.

＼ʕ •ᴥ•ʔ／

In case anyone was misled by Simone's edits to the opening post, just because I agreed to serve in his cabinet if he wins doesn't mean that I endorse this campaign. I just wanted to make that clear.

Comfed:

In case anyone was misled by Simone's edits to the opening post, just because I agreed to serve in his cabinet if he wins doesn't mean that I endorse this campaign. I just wanted to make that clear.

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I am glad to see a minister endorse this campaign