MERLOGATE 3.0
Not to imply the previous two terms haven’t been anything short of charming, but they do say third times the charm. I am today running for a third term as your delegate, and I’m excited to lay out my hopes and plans for the four months ahead and justify to you why I believe my work here isn’t finished.
To address the elephant in the room, I’m aware three term delegate’s are a rarity in The East Pacific, the last one being Fedele. Put simply, I don’t intend to put myself side by side with any previous long-serving delegate; I will simply serve until I feel my work is done or until the work-life balance is unsustainable. As it stands, I have the time to spare and an even stronger passion to continue serving. I feel there is still a lot of work to be done to improve our region. I intend to see through the projects I’ve begun, and I intend to work hard on areas that are still in need of attention.
NEWS
News has performed well during the second term, despite a change in ministership. Rosa has performed capably, and EPNS is gradually getting better with monthly publishing dates. We intend to publish EPNS at the start of each month, and bar any unforseen delays, we’re generally getting them out at a reasonable time as opposed to halfway through the following month.
I don’t have any intended changes to the news ministry as of right now. I want to do a better job of promoting EPNS, which includes a region-wide telegram for every update (we’ve been slacking in this area), and I hope to continue the solid promotion of our roleplay universes via the Worlds to Build section and sidebar pieces.
While we’re at it, we can likely better use EPNS for promoting government initiatives, such as boosting endorsement rates, enlisting in the EPSA, or any other things we want highlighted. This can be done through opinion pieces, sidebar advertisements, and posters.
CULTURE
Culture has seen an improvement in performance compared to my first term. I noted in my last campaign that the ministry was underperforming, and those concerns have been handled adequately. While it got off to a slow start, we began to see more regular events and festivals through the second half of my term. I was especially pleased with TEP21, which was promoted well and ran fine even despite a lacklustre turnout for a couple of nights. We also participated in Rogue Rendezvous in March, which was immensely fun and managed quite a significant turnout.
Moving forward, I hope to see this trend of activity continue. I want to see game nights continue to be held on a semi-regular basis, and I’d like to see events held between TEP and partner regions to further build and develop relationships. Our monthly Hunger Games is a great example of this in action. One area I’d like to see improved is participation, as we’ve had poor turnout at cultural events for some time. While some of this simply comes down to the size of the community being smaller post-2020, this is still a glaring issue I’d like to see changed. It would be wise to take a look at how other regions handle their cultural events and see what we can replicate here. So long as turnout remains poor, enthusiasm for further events will be diminished, and the cycle will continue back into inactivity.
WORLD ASSEMBLY AFFAIRS
The MoWAA has continued on its upward trajectory in the last four months. We’ve got an enthusiastic minister in Aurora who’s done a fantastic job keeping us up to date on voting and discussion.
There are a couple things we can do to better this ministry, and my fellow candidates have already noted them. The WARP project continues to have my full support and backing, as it has from the very beginning. TEP will follow WARP all the way and give it all the resources, support, and promotion it requires. Currently, we’re not part of any major WA development or resource-sharing initiatives since we were removed from HoV. While that loss hasn’t really impacted us at all and was more amusing than anything, it’d still be wise for us to pony up and ensure we have a space for this sort of thing. I’d happily involve our region, and I’d be hopeful we can forge productive relationships with other regions in the endeavour.
The other thing I’ve seen suggested is delegate recommendations. I don’t feel particularly strongly one way or another about this, but if it’s recommended by the incumbent minister and is popular with the cabinet, then I’m happy to endorse it.
A big tick for WAA this term, and here’s hoping for even better results through October!
OUTREACH
Outreach has had a funny role since its inception; it doesn’t really have a singular job, role, or task. It sort of floats in between different capacities. I like this for a number of reasons, and I would like to encourage more autonomy and creativity within the ministry.
Firstly, I’ll ask the minister to appoint a deputy minister - someone who can help with small things like QOTD and polls, as we often have periods of a few days where we aren’t running a poll or where a QOTD sits around for a week. With a second pair of hands, they can fill these gaps and retain focus on the larger-scale projects the ministry is working on. I hope to give the minister greater autonomy to run their own projects, merely needing delegate approval to get started. Minister Westmore has already brought up a project they’d like to run, which I approve of and would love to see them have a crack at.
The idea is that by bringing this autonomy and freedom into existence, the minister and ministry will feel free to brainstorm and create their own ideas on a blank canvas. Have an idea you think is cool? Try it and see how it goes. Got a passion project you’d love to see? Go for it.
I think with a passionate minister and a potentially broader staff, this ministry could do really, really well.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Foreign Affairs was, of course, one of the largest areas of movement during the last four months, with internal changes made to the structure as well as external changes made in relations.
We’ll start with the internals. It took a little while for us to get off the ground with the FA Rework, as the Foreign Affairs Council wasn’t unified on the proposed changes thrown together. While we didn’t come to a conclusive agreement, those discussions were very useful in gauging opinions, and I took suggestions to heart when forming the ambassador system I’ve now implemented.
I’m very hopeful for this system, and so far we’ve experienced no problems. By assigning FA Ministry staffers to ambassadorial roles, we’ve cut down on the workload for FA Council members and given an opportunity for FA staffers to demonstrate their capabilities and get their hands dirty in the executive. This system allows us to stay better connected to all regions on our relations sheet as they’ll be attended to quicker, and we can check in more often and in more depth as the ambassador won’t have six other regions to keep tabs on. It’s a more efficient way of doing things, and not only do we stay better connected, but we ensure they’re better informed of our news and ongoing events, and there’s always an easterner around to keep us front-of-mind.
Externally, we had a couple changes through this term. Of course, the NEST repeal sort of dominates the conversation here; that one had been coming for quite a while, and I think I was just the one to finally pull the plug. I look forward to seeing things mended with TNP sometime in the future, but realistically, that will be long after I’ve served out my time as delegate.
In more positive matters, we saw our FA relations steadily grow with careful nurturing. We’ve only this week established an on-site embassy with our friends in TRTHNBB; we earlier did the same with Atlanticana. We’ve opened relations with new regions such as EoGB and TRF, and of course, until this week, we saw great improvement in relations with Astoria. Regrettably, we’ve closed relations with them this week for entirely obvious reasons; however, their problems don’t constitute any issues with our FA outlook, and I’m really pleased with the growth we’ve seen these last four months.
We’re making steady inroads with plenty of up-and-coming regions, and I intend to keep that train rolling. With that said, the loss of an ally in TNP is obviously a hole in the relations sheet that currently affects us more than it affects them. While I’m entirely confident in our regional security, I’ll be reaching out to key allies and partners to ensure we have continued support and to ensure the friendships we have there remain steady.
It goes without saying that we’ll continue to be unwavering in our neutrality, both ideologically and culturally. These values are core pillars of our foreign affairs outlook, and I have no intentions to change that.
EAST PACIFIC SOVEREIGN ARMADA [EPSA]
New name, same acronym. The EPSA has been one of my big projects over the last term, and without patting my own back, I’d say it’s gone alright. We’ve still got work to do, but the foundations are laid exactly as I’d hoped when I put my campaign out in February.
We’ve done the hard work, from a region-wide questionnaire to brainstorming new names, themes, command structures, and revamping the Discord. I’m really looking forward to seeing this rework fully completed, and I sincerely hope I can see it out as delegate.
Over the next term, I’ll be kicking off a big recruitment campaign across the region to enlist those willing to join up. There’s a lot I’d like to do with this, and I’ll quickly run you through some things I had in mind. We’ll go all out, change the regional flag and banner to an EPSA-adjacent theme, put a feature on the WFE, run a few polls, and pin a promotional dispatch to the region page. I’ll be working with the Ministry of Outreach and the EPSA Admiralty to come up with some posters and slogans to encourage enlistment; we’ll feature those on the promotional dispatch and elsewhere. We’ll have Outreach and EPSA commanders reach out to the RMB community specifically, as they’re the best place for us to receive prospective enlistment. I have a large chunk of data for nations that responded to the questionnaire and indicated if they’d be interested in serving active, part-time, or reserve, and we’ll be sure to reach out to every nation on that list to follow up and invite them to join. We’ll have a region-wide telegram sent out in conjunction to pick up newbies and those who may not see promotional material elsewhere.
Alongside this recruitment drive, I’ll be expecting and pushing for the admiralty to run training operations as well as some simple tag runs. We want to ensure these new arrivals are immediately met with action and something to do; otherwise, they’ll simply join and go quiet. We need to give them activity right off the bat to maximise participation and interest. I’ll also ensure we reach out to some militarily active regions to suggest cooperation. I’ll be discussing with the FA Council the possibility of getting other regions military leadership in to help us. We’re currently woefully undermanned in leadership, and I think it’d be wise to bring in those with expertise from elsewhere. This not only gives us the guidance and help we’ll need, but it also allows us to form bonds with other regions and encourages future cooperation. No brainer in my books.
Of course, I will be in constant contact, as I am now, with the Admiral, whether it be Shadow or otherwise, to ensure they have the support and resources they need. EPSA is arguably priority number one for my next term, and I don’t intend to see it flop.
UNIVERSITY OF THE EAST PACIFIC [UTEP]
UTEP has obviously not progressed as we’d initially hoped and expected. We set ourselves a lofty goal, and in hindsight, it’s not terribly surprising that work has ground to a halt.
So we need to fix that. This is something that will require discussion and input from those invested in the project. While I’d love to give you a rundown of how it’s going to happen, it’d be irresponsible for me to draft that here without first discussing it with the people involved.
If re-elected, I’ll have a sit-down with Chancellor Aivintis and others interested to go over UTEP’s future. We evidently need a mixture of the previous plan and a new one that’s perhaps less man-hour-intensive. I have no doubt we can get this done, and I’ll be more than happy to chip in my time to achieve that.
It’s worth noting that even despite these issues with the rework, UTEP has continued to produce good articles from various sources. I’m hopeful that with a new system, that can ramp up a little; however, UTEP’s pieces in EPNS are always a joy to read, and I’m looking forward to seeing that continue in the coming months.
REWARD AND ENDORSEMENT CULTURE
This is a new area I’d like to explore in depth during my third term. I’ve been working my butt off recently on trying to up my endorsement count, and it’s been paying off. As of writing this, our regional endorsements on delegate percentage has hit 74% - the highest it’s been since Zukchiva was sitting in this office in early 2021. Previously, this figure was as low as 65%. I’m still not content with this. While this data is currently skewed due to TWP and TNP being in the middle of leadership transitions, we are usually several points behind almost every other feeder.
TEP needs more people in the World Assembly. We are the 10th largest region on-site, with 5,100 resident nations. I believe it is somewhat lost on our populace that we are only 200 nations smaller than The South Pacific; even more shockingly, we’re only 1,300 behind The North Pacific, which dominates endorsement counts.
Let’s really narrow that focus to TSP, though. We’re only 200 nations behind them in residency; however, TSP’s current delegate, Ebonhand, sits at 574 endorsements, while we sit at 440. They have a 134 endorsement gap over us, despite having an almost identical population. In this, we’re obviously lagging behind, and this needs to change. We could very easily push ourselves into being much more relevant and secure, should we actually make a strong attempt at building an endorsement culture.
This is a project that can be taken on by just about every part of the government. News can promote WA membership in sidebar ads and opinion pieces. UTEP can have featured articles on the subject. Culture can do events and festivals where prizes and raffles can be won for those who excel in endorsing as many nations as possible. Outreach can do heaps, whether it be promotional flags and banners, advertising campaigns, regional telegrams, or personally reaching out to community members. World Assembly Affairs can encourage WA members to vote in our democratic system, and the Delegate and Vice Delegate can do heaps to help in every one of these areas, plus personal messages from the Delegate and Vice Delegate wouldn’t go awry.
You get the point; there’s tonnes we can do to promote this. We’re not doing enough, and especially in a time where the relevance and power of feeder regions is seemingly becoming smaller and smaller, we need to keep up with our competitors and ensure we’re at the top of the mix.
If re-elected, I’ll pursue every single one of those possibilities mentioned above; I’ll continue to encourage and endorse native tech development by people like Vussul and Altys to further our regional goals; I’ll reach out to other regions to see if we can find out what works so well for them; and see if we can learn from their successes and their mistakes.
Success in our most fundamental gameplay statistics means success everywhere else; bigger numbers means more members, more attention, more relevance, and more authority. We’re already starting to make very positive first steps in the right direction, and now I’m asking for your vote to ensure those steps continue.
CONCLUSION
To put it simply, “jobs not finished.” There’s more to be done; I want to be here to oversee the projects I’ve started to completion, and there are new projects I feel strongly deserve the attention I’ll give them. We’re on a roll currently, and now isn’t the time to stop and start again. If I’m so lucky as to earn your vote this June, we’ll keep this train rolling together. Ex Oriente Lux.
If you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to answer them below. Thanks for reading.
