Citizens of The East Pacific,
Welcome to the fourth month of my delegacy – the final month of this term. Very shortly, come February, once again we will begin voting for the next Delegate. In the meantime, I wanted to give you a holistic report as to the state of our region in a midterm, well, actually ¾-term address.
TEP has excelled in the following areas over the last three months:
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Revisioning WA voting procedures as to give the most representative regional voice
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Empowering newcomer and rising talent into positions of significance in TEP’s government
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Engaging TEP in the Interregional Community
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Strengthening ties with TEP’s allies in Cultural and Gameplay Partnership
Early in my Delegacy, I entertained the opinions from my cabinet regarding the establishment of on-site polls restricted to sufficiently Influential WA citizens and expansion of Discord voting to Hussars of the East. Since implementing these opportunities for citizens to vote, on average the number of votes and opinions submitted towards proposals at vote has quadrupled. Before this change, voting was restricted to members of the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs. Now with more opinions, TEP is better equipped to demonstrate the best regional opinion possible to the WA. I especially wish to thank A Mean Old Man for suggesting hosting the WA voting on the main server.
Observe a few offices in the Executive and elsewhere in the region – you have Raiu East as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, American Cascadia as the Minister of Culture, YSG Hermitcraft as Provost, and Professor Casillo y Real of UTEP. Across all of TEP, we are empowering rising talent into very prestigious positions of government. In each of these positions, those who chose them didn’t see a Residency statistic, national population, or even care if they have been around off-site for a long time or not – each applied for their positions with their best set of ideas and promise to excel. I am proud to be working alongside each of them in serving this region.
Immediately upon assuming the Delegacy, I was asked by many members of the interregional community and Senior Diplomat Libertanny – “when can TEP join this cool thing we’re doing”? Since October, TEP has assisted the NS Christmas Charity Fundraiser in raising $4,305 for Doctors Without Borders, organized events and contests for Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends, and hosts and co-manages a Minecraft server alongside The South Pacific, 10000 Islands, the Alstroemerian Commonwealths, Thaecia, and The Free Nations Region. Even today, TEP is still organizing events for the upcoming month – including celebrating the anniversary of the Free Nations Region’s creation on January 15. There are, of course, some others on deck that I can’t share at the moment. 
When TEP isn’t partying with its regional allies, it’s working with them in R/D, the WA, and other aspects of gameplay. The greatest testament to our friendship came with the recent A Liberal Haven occupation. At the start of the month, Lone Wolves United and The Black Hawks seized A Liberal Haven in what TEP declares griefing – subverting the native government with a sleeper nation to grab the Delegacy, ban natives, and restrict entry to the region with a hidden password. TEP assisted TSP and our other Defender allies in pledging voting support to Liberate A Liberal Haven and finally manpower from the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army in the last week. All while this is underway, we still hold a trusting cultural relationship with The Black Hawks, mutually respecting that each of us has our own rules for our regional militaries.
While the above successes are noted, there is still greatly some room to grow. Firstly, between school, work, other cool games, and other sources of distraction and fatigue, there are only so many people at any time in TEP’s government. It is clear we are no longer in a population boom situation like we were in April 2020 with the Drew Boom, where for every two government workers there was one task, so things just got done because there were so many hands. This causes things to slip through that otherwise wouldn’t, admittedly true with the Eastern Pacific News Service – now under direct management from the Chief Minister of Regional Affairs and myself now lacking a Minister with Eastern Alksearia’s recent resignation.
With respect to my campaign promises, I am proud to see that the average citizen is more empowered and aware of opportunities in TEP to have a say and participate. We are still hard at work and have a plan to make EPNS most consistent in 2022 and the Chief Ministries are still assisting with the development of training materials for newcomers, and assigning deputies wherever staffing is available within the ministries. I certainly did not anticipate being in the Delegate seat with the lowest staffing numbers since I joined TEP, but it is the situation we are in and an obstacle to overcome.
Please continue to give your feedback as to the state of our region, do consider participating in the Magisterium – where you can vote on regional law – or the Executive where you can assist in planning events and write for TEP, and do continue to endorse myself and the Viziers to secure the safety of our democracy and boost our regional say in the World Assembly. This is no single nation’s region – it is a community that each of us helps create and define every day. Greatly consider being the voice that makes the change happen – I do my best to listen out for each of them.