I don’t have boat loads of time, but I’d like to keep this short anyways. This is simply an ideas campaign regarding what is pretty key to a good Delegacy - and also things I think tend to be forgotten.
#1 - Homebrewing Talent
Dilber coined this term?
Anyways, one of the biggest key points of Delegate is to grow the Executive government so that everything keeps existing and all our services keep running. For that, we need manpower.
Recruiting on its own is NOT enough. It’s great. It’s important. But if we really want to bolster integration to turn recruits into manpower, then a pretty key part of this is “homebrewing talent”.
What does that mean? Simply put: keep an eye out all throughout TEP for people, and get people involved in places they naturally show interest. Is someone interested in discussing WA proposals? Ask them if they’d like to join our WAA Ministry and punt them to our WA Minister. Is someone really interested in writing roleplay news articles? Ask them if they’d like to cross-post said articles in EPNS. Is someone running yet another sports tournament on the RMB? Ask them if they’d like to do it as a part of the Ministry of Culture to take advantage of regional telegrams and government advice.
Don’t just stop there. If there’s someone who hasn’t done anything in particular but you think they’ve been active enough, reach out to them anyways and ask if they wanna join the gov. Obviously just ask once - don’t push them - but it doesn’t hurt to ask! You can always send them to the Magisterium, if nothing else ;3
Another thing: be flexible with Minister positions. If someone comes and says they do a unique thing like revamp our dispatches or design flags, feel free to give them a Minister role to make them feel special. This is not IRL - we can afford to have special Ministers as necessary/needed.
Key point = homebrewing talent important. Really the only effective way to get newbies. It’s why Yuno’s Delegacy was great at grabbing RMBers, it’s why Libertanny’s Delegacy was great at taking advantage of COVID lockdowns, it’s why our activity did pretty great under Altys/Merlo.
By the way, this requires you to keep a loose eye on the various areas of TEP. If you can’t do that, hire some people you think would do a good job for the areas you don’t wish to check constantly.
#2 - It’s About The Community
As Delegate, it’s easy to focus on government activity. And yes, it is important to focus on government activity. But don’t pigeon hole yourself in it - you need to concern yourself with the general community’s activity too.
Why? Because a lot of our future government superstars are currently “sleepers” - they’re just regular TEPers who are in TEP simply to hang out and/or roleplay. If we don’t have an active community to hang out in or active roleplayers to roleplay in, they won’t be here. So in the long-term, you’ll see a reduction in government activity because our manpower diminishes with less replacements.
Thus, it’s important as Delegate to keep a pulse on forum and RMB RP activity, and offer any government assistance you can to those communities.
It’s also important to build community in the general Discord. As Delegate, this means posting daily and replying to as many people as seems reasonable. This also means holding regular cultural events.
Your job is to serve the community, which means you’ll have to help build it. Sorry - not sorry. If you don’t do this, you’re going to cause activity issues downstream. Please don’t make your successors’ lives hard.
#3 - Be Accountable/Realistic
Region building is hard and most regions are less active than they seem to be publicly. So don’t beat yourself up over things - be realistic with yourself. You are never going to have a 40-person Executive or something - no region has that. Also, regionbuilding takes a while. If you’re starting with an inactive Executive, you MAY be able to turn it around in four months. But probably not - probably need at least 8 months. So, don’t be super harsh on yourself.
That being said, be accountable to yourself. What areas of the government are not doing well? Should you invest time/effort to improve them, or are other things a priority? It’s okay to leave things aside, but the worst thing you could do is say you will work on fixing something then never fix it or keep trying something that clearly does not work.
Part of being accountable also means being strict with your staff. Give your staff leniency, but also don’t re-hire a long-term Minister if said Minister is burnt out and barely doing anything - thank them for their service, let them go, and keep an open spot for someone who may potentially be interested. Understand that this is a volunteer-work game at the end of the day, but also do enforce expectations. If someone can’t do the job, they can’t do the job - fire them.
This does mean you’ll probably have to prioritize what areas of the government to focus on and decide what tasks you will do yourself. Part of the job.
#4 - Be A Good Leader
A leader sets the direction. You’re the leader, so either set the direction for your Ministries or at least make sure your Ministers have goals/deadlines they are striving for. Check in often with your colleagues and make sure they’re doing alright and/or they need any help.
Don’t go AWOL or assume they’ll handle everything. For sure, trust your team, but also keep a loose eye and keep constant communication with them. Ultimately, no matter how hands-off you are, you need to direct the Executive or it WILL go inactive. It’s the Delegate’s job to lead and it is HELLA rare for someone to step up and do it for you.
Either set the goals or have your Ministers set them. And keep yourself and your Ministers accountable to your/their goals.
That’s all I gotta say. Thanks~!