Hello! I stand before you today with the wish to continue leading the region for the next four months.
I’m sorry for this late post–I’ve had to help plan and operate TEP’s 20th anniversary celebration as well as studying for my second exam session coming later this month, both which saw slow progress on this post.
Past Term
Since February 15, I have been faithfully serving as TEP’s Delegate. Over the past four months, we have accomplished the following:
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Made the Executive more accessible by moving Regional Affairs [RA] and UTEP back to the main server. Effectively getting rid of forum applications or having to join another server. Now you only need to be a citizen to have access to RA-related channels and take part in any ongoing project or discussions on the main discord server, while UTEP is now related to the more “serious” discussion channels on our main discord instead of doing so in the dark. This change showed an uptick in the participation in RA projects.
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Created/modified existing routines meant at recruiting and welcoming new arrivals by diluting the latter into our main Discord’s community (we brought new arrivals directly to the main discussion channel, effectively allowing for any server member to welcome them) while at the same time expanding the group (@Welcome Helper on discord) dedicated with such a task. Meanwhile, the latter saw me (and recently a citizen who volunteered to assist) post welcome messages on the RMB for new nations at least daily.
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Brought up to date the STEP welcome dispatches and the the TEP Index, as well as a ran a ‘discount’ version of REWARD until it was finally repaired. Related to the latter, I’ve been endotarting daily and sending telegrams to WA nations not endorsing me with the aim to raise our endorsement rate as high as possible. As it stands I’m sitting at 65% endorsements on Delegate, up from the previous term but not as high as I aimed for it to be (70%).
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Started the slow and steady progress of, to quote Serge in my last campaign thread, “making TEP a team again” by trying to be an active figure in both the RMB and Urth communities, as well as tendering to their needs (for example giving increased visibility to RMB RP by pinning its main dispatch on the WFE or making an onsite poll for a RMB survey). And while we have a long way to go, especially with what the latest survey conducted in the Urth discord server showed me, I can confidently say that if my endeavour is carried to its end, the goal is achievable.
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Re-ignited interest in World Assembly proposals thanks to consistent, and varyingly successful, attempts at launching debates regarding each and all proposals. Debates which help steer the vote the region casts. As it stands we average a fair number of hussars (citizens endorsing the Delegate & all Viziers / EPSA soldiers) voting for each proposal.
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Signed the Treaty of Lausanne with our four closest allies and friends Thaecia, the Alstroemerian Commonwealths and the Free Nations Region; as well as opened formal relations with the Augustin Alliance–including an embassy with Conch Kingdom.
Now for the next four months, I would like to continue on the path set by the above actions and the underlying tone behind it, diluting government duties into the community, as the basis of my platform.
With that in mind I have some directing lines I’d like to first establish:
Directing Lines
Accessibility and Visibility of the Executive
With now nearly four months of experience with a moved RA & UTEP, I believe we can still do better on how increasing the visibility and accessibility of the Government. Starting by getting rid of any type of executive application, only really used for people we already know interested in government (so that we can simply talk to), and instead focusing on increasing the visibility of ongoing projects (by promoting them more) in an attempt to garner more manpower.
Beyond RA & UTEP, I believe the final goal is for all Executive functions (barring the army of course) to be brought back to the main server. In this case Foreign Affairs is the last one to make such a move. The ministry is, like all others, in need of more staffers to ensure departures in the Foreign Affairs Council (body which presides over TEP FA) can be covered with new blood. Bringing its operations back to the main server, thus giving more visibility to what is happening abroad and our own FA gives us more chances of finding that new blood.
Austerity, Consistency, and Recruitment
Austerity both worked and had its issues this term. Saying “if I can’t do it and no one else here can, to the gutter it goes” is something that worked may my own activity and presence be enough to sustain (or in some cases start from scratch) basic yet needed government endeavours. At the same time this meant entire government functions went dead or were not consistently active throughout these last four months.
Thus while I’m fine with continuing this trend because our resources are limited, I’m also aware we at the same time need to ensure there is a resource pool we can dip into in a few years time. With F/S cutting our spawn rates in half and the site only really seeing new players during social media booms this task also looks much more complicated than before.
Continued rapprochement
Related to both accessibility and Recruitment, one imperative way of fixing manpower shortages is dipping in the pool of roleplayers the TEP brand (and not the region) has. The sole way to do this is giving these players a reason to do so–and the only path for such sentiment to arise is for the Delegate and their Government to give them a reason to. With Valsora (RMB RP) visibility and recruitment are obvious areas the Executive has power over which can directly affect them. They’re also naturally better candidates for carrying such tasks since they’re more knowledgeable about it.
For Urth the situation is definitely trickier. The community is not interested in a Government that has nearly nothing to do with roleplayers. Only moving away that fact, Government projects benefiting Urth, could change that mentality. It’s not impossible. Urth roleplayers themselves gave ideas (especially when it comes to recruiting outside of NS) which we can put in place.
However keep in mind that when I arrived as Delegate four months ago I felt as if I came to lead a Government and represent a side of the TEP brand (and I insist on this phrasing) seemingly hated by both Valsora and Urth communities. I like to believe this sentiment calmed down for Valsora, while Urth is more of a limbo state, but the point is that while there are ideas on how the ‘Gameplay’ community, us, can assist the two others, it’ll be far from a walk in the park. Nonetheless I’m ready to tackle the issue anyway for I believe all can only benefit from it.
With that said, here are more ministry-specific points
Regional Affairs
Let me preface with this: unless specific cases (someone tailored for a specific portfolio who is capable of delivering / to give credit to an individual working hard in a specific area of RA), I will not appoint new nor continue with existing minister positions under the Chief Ministry of Regional Affairs [CMoRA]. Not only does it go against the point of diluting its functions in the community, it also simply doesn’t work with our current resource pool.
What we need isn’t separation of RA duties, it’s lessening the burden on the Delegate and CMoRA. Removing the need to oversee specific individuals (who themselves might feel overburdened) helps with that. The project-based RA also means ministry duties will more than once overlap, reducing the necessity of those position while increasing the importance of specific people carrying specific tasks (for example the recruitment on the RMB I talked of earlier).
Cultural projects
Consistency is what I want from our cultural events. This area of the Executive completely lacks this, having very high highs (latest example being TEP 20, and for earlier in the term Hanamatsuri 2) and empty times. I want more smaller events scattered throughout a term. Polls, online games, whatever. Those are also ways of helping with the ‘rapprochement’ I talked about if we’re able to find cross-community events.
Also since there’ll also be NDay within the next term, you can be sure I will try my best to get the Anime faction up for the third time. It’s always a good time and our region has been an absolute beast in numbers both last February and September 2022, so no reason for it not to be this time!
Hospitality duties
Here goals are simple: keep what we’ve been doing. RMB Recruitment, talking to newcomers, telegramming new WA nations. While we can always do more, this is what we can do with the resources we have, and we’re better of perfecting those duties before adding more to our plate.
News/Information posting
Like I said in my last campaign having a functioning news system is useful but tricky. I maintain the same statement here, and you can read it in the spoiler below:
Spoiler
What works best for this ministry is answered by what we want from a platform offered by the Government. Monthly updates are great for both regularly showcasing the various sides of the region to our own people and keeping our partners up to date. However they can also be stressful, unable to meet deadlines, see a lack of subjects to write on or just a lack of writers. On the other hand posting news articles as soon as they’re written offers more opportunities for live commentary and encourages taking the initiative; but on the flip side we may simply see less articles written overall due to no time (deadline) incentive.
Thus this ministry is a tossup to me. I see a lot of usefulness stemming from it, especially as a unification mechanism for our various communities to share their happenings. However it requires the Executive to do the first move and foster the motivation to do so. Unless someone is ready to take on the minister seat and do so, this is unlikely to happen at least early on in my term.
Past that I feel like any different type of news/information posting associated with Government should be carried with the goal of increasing visibility on its different projects. Something we need more than posting monthly updates in my opinion.
Foreign Affairs
As said earlier we need newer blood, which we can do by bringing the ministry’s operations back to the main server. I have seen discussions related to GP happen there before, therefore I have hope giving it a proper place (instead of the #nationstates channel where you can talk anything about the site) would work.
Past that there is not much else to change. The path set out by this ending term is one I want to continue on for I believe it is in our best interests. Focusing on domestic issues while having fun with friends and furthering relations with those sharing those same ideals.
East Pacific Sovereign Army
Visibility. While EPSA is definitely doing better than before my term, with more members and more of them showing for operations, I believe we can still make all of this more known to the community. Thus I want army reports to be showcased one way or another outside the army server itself.
Past that I believe the pace at which we’ve been conducting operations is satisfactory and should be continued. In that light I’m looking forward to this month’s “Tagging for Pride” event in which EPSA is taking part.
World Assembly Affairs
Once again, an absolute: Delegate votes in the WA will always follow the results of WAA votes held in the main server.
Past that I want to continue our attempts at debating proposals. It doesn’t need to always succeed, simply to be consistent. Otherwise working with Heroes of Valhalla for authoring SC proposals is definitely something I want to continue encouraging, it’s a great place for any TEP author (or aspiring) to be in.