"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift. That's why we call it the present." That quote, for which attribution is disputed, rings very true in NationStates. Once-great regions enter into a protracted decline. New players, or returning veterans, disrupt the game in unpredictable ways. WA resolutions once thought to be unquestionable bedrocks for the community are repealed with broad support. In truth, there is very little in this game that is actually unquestionable. The best regions – and players, for that matter – are the ones who look at the gift of the present, at the opportunities available and the challenges that can be addressed right now. That doesn't mean we shouldn't learn from the past, or plan for the future; rather, it means that we should look at what we can do in the present, and get to doing it.
This requires leadership. Leaving aside what can be said about the previous four months, I'm running for Delegate because I believe I can offer that in this moment. On the other hand, no one leads alone. Behind every great Delegate is a great cabinet of driven and capable people working for the betterment of the region. Likewise, behind every great Minister is a team of staff who support the Minister and work together to implement the Ministry's objectives. And not to belabour the point, but the thing that makes TNP great more broadly, is all the people who have put a little piece of themselves into the region because they care about the community. I believe that the role of the Delegate is to lift up people who contribute to our community.
Getting more down to brass tacks, I will apply the maxim of lifting people up when managing the cabinet. In the late 1980s, psychologists Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan (yes, I am that much of a nerd) argued that the intrinsic (that is, intrinsic to self, without considering external influences) factors that motivate people are autonomy, competency, and relatedness. I will support all three of these attributes in my approach to governing, by giving Ministers the freedom to achieve what they are passionate about in their positions, placing people in roles that suit their skill sets and ideas, and using the pulpit of the Delegacy to recognize people putting in the work.
And speaking of the pulpit of the Delegacy (yes, I know these segues get more strained by the paragraph), something I would like to improve on is communication from the highest office of the land. In the Ministries, a Minister who is making sure their activities are visible does wonders for drumming up activity, and I believe the same thing applies to the Delegacy. Right now, the Delegate's office forum is tragically underutilized. If I am Delegate, I will release periodic updates on the goings-on of the executive – depending on how I need to organize my time, I have not yet decided whether these updates will be weekly or biweekly. These updates will come in the form of a less formal, more blunt discussion of the Delegacy, which I think will make the position seem more approachable, and be more personable (and hopefully, more interesting) than the typical update. I will use these updates to shout out the exceptional people who have been making the region run over the past week or two.
If I haven't put you to sleep, and you want to know more, please click on any one of the spoilers below.
I made the decision to run because I am committed to The North Pacific and I want to work to make it better. In this platform, I hope I have laid out in sufficient detail my plans for where I want the region to go over the next four months. This election is a chance for TNP to weigh the pros and cons of differing visions for the future, but we also have to remember that what matters most when it comes to execution, is what we can do in the present to make the future brighter. I have served in the Cabinet for more than one year in four different roles, and I hope that I have shown you that I am capable of getting things done in the here and now. I welcome any and all questions.
~ Comfed
This requires leadership. Leaving aside what can be said about the previous four months, I'm running for Delegate because I believe I can offer that in this moment. On the other hand, no one leads alone. Behind every great Delegate is a great cabinet of driven and capable people working for the betterment of the region. Likewise, behind every great Minister is a team of staff who support the Minister and work together to implement the Ministry's objectives. And not to belabour the point, but the thing that makes TNP great more broadly, is all the people who have put a little piece of themselves into the region because they care about the community. I believe that the role of the Delegate is to lift up people who contribute to our community.
Getting more down to brass tacks, I will apply the maxim of lifting people up when managing the cabinet. In the late 1980s, psychologists Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan (yes, I am that much of a nerd) argued that the intrinsic (that is, intrinsic to self, without considering external influences) factors that motivate people are autonomy, competency, and relatedness. I will support all three of these attributes in my approach to governing, by giving Ministers the freedom to achieve what they are passionate about in their positions, placing people in roles that suit their skill sets and ideas, and using the pulpit of the Delegacy to recognize people putting in the work.
And speaking of the pulpit of the Delegacy (yes, I know these segues get more strained by the paragraph), something I would like to improve on is communication from the highest office of the land. In the Ministries, a Minister who is making sure their activities are visible does wonders for drumming up activity, and I believe the same thing applies to the Delegacy. Right now, the Delegate's office forum is tragically underutilized. If I am Delegate, I will release periodic updates on the goings-on of the executive – depending on how I need to organize my time, I have not yet decided whether these updates will be weekly or biweekly. These updates will come in the form of a less formal, more blunt discussion of the Delegacy, which I think will make the position seem more approachable, and be more personable (and hopefully, more interesting) than the typical update. I will use these updates to shout out the exceptional people who have been making the region run over the past week or two.
If I haven't put you to sleep, and you want to know more, please click on any one of the spoilers below.
The Ministry of Communications is an opportunity for us to showcase the excellence of our region through excellent articles and radio shows. We can make our print media far more than a foreign update; TNP's media should be something that is widely read for its interesting and high-quality articles. We need passionate writers and radio hosts writing or talking about things that they care about.
That begins with a retooling of our publication schedule. If there's one thing that delays the publication of new editions of The North Star, it's articles not getting drafted in time. If procrastination was a TNP citizen, we would charge him with Gross Misconduct for his widespread theft of intellectual property. Next term, the Ministry of Communications will shift its culture from assigning articles with deadlines, to encouraging authors to contribute where they feel they have the time and ability. If someone crams on a deadline, it will be treated like a great article for the next edition of TNS, rather than something that has to get done right now and fast.
Further, we will invite people from outside The North Pacific to contribute to TNS and NBS Radio – not to supplant the existing content, but to complement it with new perspectives. Just to give a few potential examples: NBS can host panel discussions of foreign affairs matters that includes guests from our allies. TNS can feature articles from NS Sports roleplayers about the most recent NationStates World Cup. Ultimately, it ties back to bringing on passionate contributors to our media, and enticing them to produce quality content about things they are interested in, which will naturally serve to make our content more interesting.
That begins with a retooling of our publication schedule. If there's one thing that delays the publication of new editions of The North Star, it's articles not getting drafted in time. If procrastination was a TNP citizen, we would charge him with Gross Misconduct for his widespread theft of intellectual property. Next term, the Ministry of Communications will shift its culture from assigning articles with deadlines, to encouraging authors to contribute where they feel they have the time and ability. If someone crams on a deadline, it will be treated like a great article for the next edition of TNS, rather than something that has to get done right now and fast.
Further, we will invite people from outside The North Pacific to contribute to TNS and NBS Radio – not to supplant the existing content, but to complement it with new perspectives. Just to give a few potential examples: NBS can host panel discussions of foreign affairs matters that includes guests from our allies. TNS can feature articles from NS Sports roleplayers about the most recent NationStates World Cup. Ultimately, it ties back to bringing on passionate contributors to our media, and enticing them to produce quality content about things they are interested in, which will naturally serve to make our content more interesting.
The best culture events are the ones that spring up organically from the interests of the community. The job of the Ministry of Culture is to meet people where their interests are, and drive activity and engagement that way.
We have lots of unexploited potential in our Discord server. Those who have listened to major NBS Radio broadcasts may be familiar with the voice chats that often take place afterwards. During the next term, the Ministry of Culture will host VCs and voice chat activities in the main TNP Discord server; to assist in this, I will work with the Admins to create a joinable Discord role for anyone who would like to be pinged for VCs and activities. Another event that has seen very good engagement in the past is chess tournaments. We already have a joinable role on Discord for chess players; the Ministry of Culture will organize chess games and tournaments in the main TNP Discord server.
We have lots of unexploited potential in our Discord server. Those who have listened to major NBS Radio broadcasts may be familiar with the voice chats that often take place afterwards. During the next term, the Ministry of Culture will host VCs and voice chat activities in the main TNP Discord server; to assist in this, I will work with the Admins to create a joinable Discord role for anyone who would like to be pinged for VCs and activities. Another event that has seen very good engagement in the past is chess tournaments. We already have a joinable role on Discord for chess players; the Ministry of Culture will organize chess games and tournaments in the main TNP Discord server.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs always seems to either work solely on external business, which is to say talking to other regions, and allows the internal operations of the Ministry to wither on the vine – or it hyperfocuses on the internal side, forgetting the reason the Ministry even exists in the first place. I have fallen into this trap as MoFA myself, not doing much with ambassadors. This term, I aim to have a Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by a highly skilled diplomat, who is also able to use the mechanisms of the Ministry to train more skilled diplomats in the important, but often opaque, world of foreign affairs.
Obviously, the war will be the foremost priority for anyone thinking about Foreign Affairs right now. The foreign policy of the Brotherhood of Malice, which is fundamentally based on subjugation to their interests, and military aggression for everyone else, continues to be an existential threat to our independence as a region. Luckily, we have a varied and diverse coalition of allies who are united in their opposition to the threat posed by BoM, even if they do not all agree on the correct approach to dealing with it. The challenge going forward is keeping this coalition together and ensuring our voice remains heard. I believe in pragmatism in this regard, which means meeting regions where we have common interests so we can work together to realize them, talking through our differences to attain compromise, and leaving irrelevant disagreements (especially ideological ones) at the door.
On the internal side, the focus will be on enabling the training of foreign affairs workers. While the best way to learn FA is through mentorship by a more experienced leader in Foreign Affairs, we do not currently have anything resembling a system for prospective mentees to advance through the "pipeline," as it were. This term, we will use more academic resources, like hypothetical and historical case studies on inter-regional relations, to assess which Analysts and Ambassadors are most engaged with the subject matter. With these assessments, we will be able to streamline the path for diplomats to reach the highest levels of FA, and we will offer the most promising Foreign Affairs staffers "apprenticeships" as members of the Committee on Foreign Relations. These (properly vetted, of course) individuals will benefit both from seeing how foreign affairs in TNP works, and from the direct mentorship and support of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Obviously, the war will be the foremost priority for anyone thinking about Foreign Affairs right now. The foreign policy of the Brotherhood of Malice, which is fundamentally based on subjugation to their interests, and military aggression for everyone else, continues to be an existential threat to our independence as a region. Luckily, we have a varied and diverse coalition of allies who are united in their opposition to the threat posed by BoM, even if they do not all agree on the correct approach to dealing with it. The challenge going forward is keeping this coalition together and ensuring our voice remains heard. I believe in pragmatism in this regard, which means meeting regions where we have common interests so we can work together to realize them, talking through our differences to attain compromise, and leaving irrelevant disagreements (especially ideological ones) at the door.
On the internal side, the focus will be on enabling the training of foreign affairs workers. While the best way to learn FA is through mentorship by a more experienced leader in Foreign Affairs, we do not currently have anything resembling a system for prospective mentees to advance through the "pipeline," as it were. This term, we will use more academic resources, like hypothetical and historical case studies on inter-regional relations, to assess which Analysts and Ambassadors are most engaged with the subject matter. With these assessments, we will be able to streamline the path for diplomats to reach the highest levels of FA, and we will offer the most promising Foreign Affairs staffers "apprenticeships" as members of the Committee on Foreign Relations. These (properly vetted, of course) individuals will benefit both from seeing how foreign affairs in TNP works, and from the direct mentorship and support of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The Gameside Advocate program is unique among feeders. More than an RMB police, the Gameside Advocates serve as the gateway that helps RMBers engage with the wider TNP community. Recently, I am concerned that the GA program has lost its way in this regard; the manual promotion of offsite events we used to see has been replaced by automatic ads. While I recognize the great work 9003 has done in coding this script, I don't think anything makes an RMB post seem less genuine than "This is an automated message." which the game appends to every scripted RMB post. I have generated posts like this for IFVs as Minister of World Assembly Affairs and they have gotten zero engagement every time. What gives the Gameside Advocates so much potential isn't sheer volume; it's the human touch from someone who the RMB community already knows as one of their own.
I don't believe we have a problem with the Gameside Advocates themselves, who are all driven and motivated people, but rather with leadership on an executive level. This is not to cast blame on the current Lead Gameside Advocate or anyone else, only to say that we need a shift in priorities, as I outlined in the previous paragraph. The Lead Gameside Advocate will be drawn from the currently existing corps of GAs, meaning that they will be led by someone who already knows the gameside community well. That person will be responsible for ensuring that the Gameside Advocates are, themselves, doing the work of promoting various aspects of TNP to our RMB, and not just serving as moderation assistants.
I don't believe we have a problem with the Gameside Advocates themselves, who are all driven and motivated people, but rather with leadership on an executive level. This is not to cast blame on the current Lead Gameside Advocate or anyone else, only to say that we need a shift in priorities, as I outlined in the previous paragraph. The Lead Gameside Advocate will be drawn from the currently existing corps of GAs, meaning that they will be led by someone who already knows the gameside community well. That person will be responsible for ensuring that the Gameside Advocates are, themselves, doing the work of promoting various aspects of TNP to our RMB, and not just serving as moderation assistants.
Home Affairs has struggled recently with consistently performing tasks such as manual outreach to residents, forum mentorship, and manual recruitment. Often, stagnation in the Ministry is caused by a lack of action at the top; going forward, I will ensure that the leadership of the Ministry of Home Affairs is active and engaged in stirring our recruiters and forum mentors to action. In addition, our recruiters and forum mentors will be recognized by regular public posts in the Ministry of Home Affairs subforum..
Something that isn't directly in the Ministry of Home Affairs's portfolio, but that I'm including here because it's relevant, is tech. We've had many efforts at technical development to replace the capabilities we lost when r3n retired. The people who have worked on these have paid the region an incredibly important service, and I am very grateful. I am not a technical person, and I will by no means claim to be especially knowledgeable in this area, but one thing that has always struck me as an issue is a lack of coordination in terms of our technical development – our efforts have seemed a little scattershot at times. If elected Delegate, I will work with the Administrative Team to centralize our development efforts, so that all our coders are on the same page in terms of priorities and what still needs to get done.
Something that isn't directly in the Ministry of Home Affairs's portfolio, but that I'm including here because it's relevant, is tech. We've had many efforts at technical development to replace the capabilities we lost when r3n retired. The people who have worked on these have paid the region an incredibly important service, and I am very grateful. I am not a technical person, and I will by no means claim to be especially knowledgeable in this area, but one thing that has always struck me as an issue is a lack of coordination in terms of our technical development – our efforts have seemed a little scattershot at times. If elected Delegate, I will work with the Administrative Team to centralize our development efforts, so that all our coders are on the same page in terms of priorities and what still needs to get done.
Obviously, the North Pacific Army is near and dear to my heart. I led it during the Solidarity operation, and as we approach the one-year anniversary of that victory, I want to see us replicate the success we saw in that operation – and in the less-famous but also significant victory against raider forces in the liberation of Far East Oriental Federation which occurred shortly thereafter. This requires collaboration with a variety of militaries. Recently, we participated in joint wargames with the Europeian Republican Navy, but we can dream much bigger than that. In addition to our training operations, and other operations in significant targets such as CCD, large joint operations with our allies are how we achieve major victories, promote the NPA both at home and (from a reputational standpoint) abroad, and are simply lots of fun for everyone involved.
A key piece of this is capacity; we need to be able to bring a large number of updaters to large update operations, and a large number of pilers to major occupations. Luckily, building our capacity and scoring major victories with allies are self-reinforcing things. Widespread promotion of our victories is the most effective recruitment tool we have, and every new person we recruit into the NPA translates into a military that is more able to score big wins. Our major victories will be promoted internally, in dispatches, and on the NS forums; smaller operations don't merit as much fanfare, but will regardless be promoted.
One challenge the NPA faces is in the officer corps. A strong core of trained officers is essential both for allowing us to conduct a wider variety of operations, and also for ensuring that we have viable successors for the office of Minister of Defence. I'm pleased with the progress made on that front this term; we have more Warrant Officers (officers-in-training) than I can recall in recent memory. Over the next term, we will work to advance these people to full officer status, and train up more of our senior enlisted personnel as Warrant Officers. Conducting joint operations also applies here, because working alongside officers from foreign armed forces is a great way for our officers to learn new tactics, styles, and ways of thinking about military gameplay.
A key piece of this is capacity; we need to be able to bring a large number of updaters to large update operations, and a large number of pilers to major occupations. Luckily, building our capacity and scoring major victories with allies are self-reinforcing things. Widespread promotion of our victories is the most effective recruitment tool we have, and every new person we recruit into the NPA translates into a military that is more able to score big wins. Our major victories will be promoted internally, in dispatches, and on the NS forums; smaller operations don't merit as much fanfare, but will regardless be promoted.
One challenge the NPA faces is in the officer corps. A strong core of trained officers is essential both for allowing us to conduct a wider variety of operations, and also for ensuring that we have viable successors for the office of Minister of Defence. I'm pleased with the progress made on that front this term; we have more Warrant Officers (officers-in-training) than I can recall in recent memory. Over the next term, we will work to advance these people to full officer status, and train up more of our senior enlisted personnel as Warrant Officers. Conducting joint operations also applies here, because working alongside officers from foreign armed forces is a great way for our officers to learn new tactics, styles, and ways of thinking about military gameplay.
The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs is not hard. Many people, over the years, have created tons of resources to greatly streamline the Ministry's basic processes, and we have the formula for success basically pinned down. All the Ministry needs is a Minister who is active and engaged to ensure that IFVs and voting threads are coming out on time. That, and we will not employ any more cannibals. On a similar note to the Home Affairs section, the WA Ministry will publicly recognize its hard workers with forum posts in the World Assembly Affairs subforum.
One thing I do want to speak to is IFV telegrams. Currently, we send a telegram for every WA resolution that comes to vote. This is an extremely excessive use of the mass telegram function; it borders on spam at the best of times, and only applies to a pretty marginal benefit, especially for resolutions we don't have a strong stake in as a region – which is most resolutions. I can see the delivery reports for these telegrams, having sent several myself, and I can tell you that approximately 10% of our WA residents have blocked region-wide telegrams by category (and a few people have blocked me as a sender.) Obviously, I have no way of proving that this is a result of repeated IFV telegrams, but I would be willing to bet that it at least doesn't help. When we use mass telegrams to reach our residents about WA resolutions, we should be making sure that the resolution is sufficiently important to merit it, and that the telegram is specifically tailored to be most effective telegram possible for that specific resolution.
One thing I do want to speak to is IFV telegrams. Currently, we send a telegram for every WA resolution that comes to vote. This is an extremely excessive use of the mass telegram function; it borders on spam at the best of times, and only applies to a pretty marginal benefit, especially for resolutions we don't have a strong stake in as a region – which is most resolutions. I can see the delivery reports for these telegrams, having sent several myself, and I can tell you that approximately 10% of our WA residents have blocked region-wide telegrams by category (and a few people have blocked me as a sender.) Obviously, I have no way of proving that this is a result of repeated IFV telegrams, but I would be willing to bet that it at least doesn't help. When we use mass telegrams to reach our residents about WA resolutions, we should be making sure that the resolution is sufficiently important to merit it, and that the telegram is specifically tailored to be most effective telegram possible for that specific resolution.
I made the decision to run because I am committed to The North Pacific and I want to work to make it better. In this platform, I hope I have laid out in sufficient detail my plans for where I want the region to go over the next four months. This election is a chance for TNP to weigh the pros and cons of differing visions for the future, but we also have to remember that what matters most when it comes to execution, is what we can do in the present to make the future brighter. I have served in the Cabinet for more than one year in four different roles, and I hope that I have shown you that I am capable of getting things done in the here and now. I welcome any and all questions.
~ Comfed
