It’s been two years since I was elected Delegate, and my leadership days seem like they’re coming to a close, after a little while, for a little while. However, you’re still stuck with me for the foreseeable future which means, as always, the little rats that run on a wheel in my empty skull are conspiring to innovate and adapt this Confederation. Today, I will share to you some of the musings of these little rats who, standing in a trench coat, can reasonably be called Aivintis.
WORLD ASSEMBLY AFFAIRS
Introduction of Delegate’s Recommendations
As Delegate, I limited democratic decision-making within WAA in the name of greater perks for Hussars and a more manageable interface. Once more, I propose that we act in a way which might infringe upon our democratic decision making but which, I believe, will serve to further our interests and project our diplomatic influence.
The Delegate’s Recommendation is a line in the World Assembly forum threads for each Resolution which encourages a vote for or against a resolution at vote. This does not define the Delegate’s vote or the region’s recommendation, but rather promotes a position within the internal vote which decides those things. This is a lighter touch for managing Foreign Affairs-related votes, and I generally foresee this only applying to the Security Council, but it’s a way we can assist allies and limit the dangerous effects of ultraregionalist anti-WA voters without disrupting our internal democratic structure.
The intended effect is best achieved when a large number of our Hussar population votes, so I believe monthly promotions of the WA ping role within the Executive announcements channel is a good step towards heightened interaction, more democracy, and a stronger position within the World Assembly. Our vote is not insignificant and we should not allow it to be defined by a few hyperactive souls, nor should we allow it to be ruled by fringe ideas — I should hope my Defender-leaning voice has no more weight than a Raider-leaning one or, of course, a radical centrist.
WARP Promotion
Recently, I founded a discord server called WARP — the World Assembly Roleplayers Platform. This transregional initiative seeks to partner WA authors with C/C targets and resources for writing, refining, and passing a C/C resolution. The infrastructure is established, but the server is dark. It needs activity, which means it needs advertisement which means, as a program unaffiliated with any region, it newds partners
The East Pacific has already agreed to partner with the initiative, but we need more reach. As it is neutral in GP affairs, and heavily RP-focused itself, TEP is a perfect region to reach out and connect WARP leaders with Ministers and Delegates of regions across NS. This would allow WARP to promote RPers and RP maps through interregional recognition. With TEP’s only affiliated SC author unsupported by the government and yet nevertheless burnt out from the opposition of the region’s enemies, this may be the only path for TEP to make its perspective heard in the SC community. It may also allow TEPers to be C/Ced, down the line.
Regional Affairs
Citizenship Outreach
As Grand Vizier I can say the Citizenship Office is understaffed and underworked. For a time it was just me, now it is just me and Vulbania, whose tireless support has gone neither unnoticed nor relieved at all. Hopefully, my recruitment of two new Citizenship Officers will help this, but the Praesidium needs support from the Executive. We need it to take on the role of advertising citizenship, so we can comfortably remain in our position of processing applications.
Executive announcements are one way to do this, but more than that I believe our greatest asset is the Region Wide Telegram. We send few, but they can be very effective in promoting government transparency and engaging in crucial outreach. Monthly, we can lay out all the benefits of applying for citizenship and all the opportunities within the government for getting involved. It can even be structured as a job board, similar to XKI’s monthly reports. By creating jobs which are potentially redundant within our Executive model, we can also allow Ministers to have certain tasks relieved from them without becoming dependent on unreliable manpower.
Foreign Writings
We have a very successful newspaper, with reliable monthly writers and a wonderful editor. Her work is already aiming towards a goal I feel is essential — releasing each monthly edition as close to the end of the month as humanly possible. We also have a good university structure, even though our Chancellor is a deadbeat. However, there’s a piece missing from both these puzzles that can deepen our regional identity and project our voice across the multiverse.
If we bring in foreigners to write essays for UTEP and articles in EPNS, we can expand our perspectives in a way no other region can. If we have essays and articles about foreign regions, we can also expand our content in ways no other region really has. Look at the Foreign Newsstand – once a month I put in a fair bit of effort, and it’s pretty popular. It gets foreigners to look at us. That’s a larger audience and a more diverse content base. Small things like these can add up together to transform EPNS from being mostly government reports to involving op eds and news stories from around NS.
Foreign Affairs
Treaty Re-evaluation
When couples renew their vows, it’s romantic, and when they redefine the terms of their relationship after they’ve changed as human beings, it’s healthy. We’ve had some of our treaties for longer than any of my IRL friends have been in relationships. It’s time to redefine the terms of our relationships with these regions, and to renew our vows with our closest allies. And, admittedly, to move to a lower level of relations with those regions that we’ve seen and heard next to nothing from.
For one, most of our treaties were made five years ago, around the time of the Fedele coup, or four years ago, during the golden age of FA that shortly followed, around the time of Libertanny’s delegacy. F/S has changed the game, but the 2018 Treaty of Klunvorden says Europeia can recruit from us but we can’t recruit from them – now, we both spawn nations. Many of our treaties are built on mutual security, with little focus on the other ways we interact. We need to repeal, amend, or replace most our treaties to redefine our relationship and renew our vows of cooperation. We also have treaties with regions that haven’t sent us news in months. We must adapt.
Diverse Partners
I understand that we’ve not been treated very nicely by many people in many regions that should be our friends or allies – raiding our embassies, shooting down TEPer resolutions in the WA, and publicly talking shit about us is definitely enough for us to be reasonably hesitant about continuing or deepening any relationship. However, if we let bad apples isolate us from entire regions or spheres, we’re only hurting our own FA.
As an unaligned region, we should be trying just as hard with Defender regions, Raider regions, and Indie regions. What matters is how the government treats us when we interact. And we’ve shown we can react to mistreatment, but we need to react to the times when other regions prove to be great friends and allies. When they invite us to cultural events or vote in favor of our people’s WA proposals, they should see us react by increasing our interactions with them and supporting them as strongly.
Furthermore, we need to interact more with regions. Our treaties skew Defender and our cultural events lean away from that, and I think the best way forward is balancing this – within reason. We need strong defender partners and strong raider partners and strong partners that have nothing to do with R/D, such as RP regions. We need to interact with all our partners, and we need to make sure that we’re putting in an effort to make them feel valued, before they start to resent us or move away from us – even if they don’t make put in the same effort yet.