I am running for Prime Minister. I have been Prime Minister before in addition to Minister of Regional Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Defense. I was recently caretaker Prime Minister and my time in that role motivated me to run for a full term this time around. First, it gave me a strong sense of how my strengths in communication and project management align with the role and my vision for our next steps. Second, I had fun as caretaker Prime Minister, and selfishly would like to continue in the role.
I think we are generally on the right track as a region but lacking in crucial elements of execution. We have a wealth of talent right now–new players coming into their prime and old players returning for the summer. We have lots of irons in the fire both domestically and abroad. I am running because I am the right person to put the pieces together and start having us execute polished regional projects to move us forward.
I have Ministry-specific ideas, portfolios, and an agenda. But first–and most important:
Communication, Communication, Communication
Right now, our region is severely lacking in messaging and communication. We’ve had initiatives announced without pings or formal write ups, announced half-baked by staffers without instruction from the PM or Minister, on-site initiatives without telegrams and off-site initiatives without forum threads, FA events with only a brief Discord announcement and no follow-ups, neglected staffer applications, and more. In NationStates, it’s not just important to do things. It’s important that everyone knows about the things that you are doing. If an event runs in the wilderness and no-one is around to participate, it actually did not happen.
As Prime Minister, I will improve communications by:
- Putting out a government update once every two weeks documenting ongoing projects, forthcoming ones, and announced projects for each Ministry. This will provide a consolidated place for members of the public to look and hold the Cabinet accountable for actually delivering on our promises. It can also help people be aware of any projects they are interested in that they might have missed. This will also serve as a powerful internal management tool for the Cabinet: creating a natural habit for Ministers to check-in with the PM about their plans and motivation to have something proactive to report to the public.
- Establishing a standard for communicating government announcements across all relevant platforms. Everything needs a forum thread, RMB post, on-site Dispatch, and Discord announcement. Particularly large announcements or foreign affairs relevant announcements will be put on the Gameplay forum. Part of bringing users together from multiple platforms is actually ensuring announcements appear on multiple platforms consistently.
- Doing a publicity push around our ping roles. Back in the day, our Upvote Squad role would move 15 upvotes within a few hours. Now, it moves 4. That’s pathetic for a region of our size and we need to fix it. We’ll do a series of announcements on Discord (and on site and on the forum!) stressing the importance of signing up for the correct reaction roles, as well as taking input on how to improve our current offerings.
- I will be present on the RMB and posting on the RMB will be an expectation of all members of my Cabinet. This includes both posting socially and posting about government initiatives.
- Announcements will also include the greatest intangible: hype. We’re hosting a small event? I’m slipping it into conversation on Discord and the RMB. We sign a new treaty? Going to mention it a few times extra and also ping their members to make them feel welcome in our spaces and try to build cultural interaction. Big military op happening right now? We’re talking on the RMB about what snackies we’re eating while we stay up. Now our day to day happenings are exciting, fun, and people actually want to do them.
- I will improve communication within the Cabinet. I’ll regularly reach out to all Cabinet members about ongoing projects to ask for their plans and to ensure things stay on track, intervening where necessary to ensure plans don’t fall by the wayside. We can avoid problems like the recent lack luster and late editions of TSSG by having effective and consistent Prime Minister oversight.
The Agenda
Cabinet-wide
We need to put the finishing touches on the Get Involved portal and application. I don’t want to wait infinitely for a tech fix, I’ll personally manage the receipt and processing of applications, as well as documenting a process for doing so. When new applications are submitted, I’ll ping Cabinet members urging them to accept the applications (or, if a Cabinet member is on LOA, just do it myself). Each Cabinet member will be expected to have a welcome message and list of projects ready for new applicants. We can’t just add people to Discord channels and give them no direction on how to actually get involved–we need to give them the tools they need to actually do it.
Staff applications are a good idea but they aren’t working right now. I mean, when I applied to be on Culture staff, it took five days for me to get accepted, and that was only after I followed up on it. Even then, I still was never on-boarded or told what ongoing projects there are to get involved with. If I wasn’t an established member, I certainly would have lost interest by that point. My priority is building an application system that actually gets new members involved in ongoing work, not just masked into disorganized or decrepit Discord channels.
Culture
We’re dreaming too small with this department right now. Our events are lack luster and underpromoted, our newspaper is cobbled together last minute and therefore lacks quality, and the lack of consistent communication both within and outside of the Ministry of Culture limits the effectiveness of any of our ideas.
As Prime Minister, I will have one Minister. The multiple Ministers experiment hasn’t produced better results because responsibilities are unclear and there is no oversight/guidance given. Culture is a huge department and there is need for additional staff, but the solution is for the Minister to select Deputies and entrust them with specific tasks and portfolios rather than having two Ministers with the exact same agenda.
In my administration, we will:
- Go back to actually hosting events. Not everything needs to be a multi-part festival, but we need to actually put things together that people want to do. The return of SPHL is a good step, I’d like to see us build on this with other sports or long-term games. We can bring back writing contests that have a prompt and expectations so they produce quality results! It seems like we even stopped doing .io games on the Discord server (or maybe we are doing them and I literally can’t find them!) - those get a lot of scorn when they’re the be all end all of your Cultural activity, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important.
- Develop a consistent RMB engagement program, along the lines of a “question of the day”. The core benefit and drawback of the RMB is its unstructured nature. We have players who want to post there more, but complain that it moves too fast, is too spammy, or that they don’t know what to contribute. Daily questions will give structure and a “topic to return to” to the RMB where it otherwise has not existed. The Minister alone would not need to carry this burden, it could be shared with other players on the Culture team, and questions could be featured on the WFE.
Integration
We’re making good progress in this Ministry. The recruiting contest recently spurred activity in a crucial area that we have historically neglected. This is already starting to pay dividends, but it’s not enough if we don’t focus on retaining and involving the new members who we have recruited (as well as those we already get as a feeder) or if we can’t turn our newfound recruiting culture into something sustainable and consistent.
In my administration, we will:
- Develop a consistent recognition system for recruiters. The recruiting contest was a tremendous success with increasing the number of people sending recruiting telegrams. Now, we need to consistently recognize those who send recruiting telegrams. During this term, we will establish a standard format for reporting monthly recruiting telegrams sent and the all-time recruiter leaderboard.
- Identify “activity triggers” where direct 1:1 outreach to a new member is ideal and then build a Welcoming staff to accomplish this. For example, a new member who joins the forum should get a forum DM or Discord message welcoming them to the region and pointing them in the direction of anything they asked about. A member who joins the WA should get a telegram asking them to endorse the Delegate and pointing them in the direction of the forum to get involved. A member who posts on the RMB a few times should get asked how they like it and if they’re interested in learning more.
- Continue to review the Get Involved wizard and clean up broken links to the old Wizard. Utopia’s premiership has made good progress on this, but we need to keep going, that way we can transition to the completed Wizard. As a part of this, we can document all of the welcoming materials we currently have in circulation and take the opportunity to review if they are all necessary and effective.
Foreign Affairs
We met the challenge of the Secretary-General election well and through it strengthened key defender partnerships, in particular with Europeia and Starlight. Full credit for this success is due to Welly and Utopia. After this, we have a swell of good will that we need to leverage effectively to strengthen defender institutions. The dissolution of the Partnership for Sovereignty is a warning sign: our grand initiatives have failed to produce quality and consistent results and all of our talk of an Aegis shield to protect innocent regions has not created a strong institution. Right now, we are in the calm before the inevitable storm, and the institutions we have currently built are inadequate to maintain the status quo or prepare us for an inevitable resurgence of raider activity.
We exist in the defending of 2026, not of 2021 and certainly not of 2011. Raiders are our sworn enemies and we should fight that battle in every venue–this of course includes on the battlefield but also in terms of propaganda, politics, and cultural soft power. We need to have a consensus around this and Aegis needs to be updated to reflect this reality. Aegis’s membership also needs to be expanded to reflect newly established defender powers that deserve a seat at the table.
In addition to our core institutions, we also need to continue developing and expanding bilateral relationships. As Prime Minister, we would endeavor to be friendly towards all and seek opportunities to maintain and strengthen our existing relationships, as well as being open to conversations about new relationships where they suit our interests.
Defense
There are certainly challenges to building a military which has few enemies to fight, but the basics remain the most important part of the SPSF. Identifying talent, training new members, and then empowering them to start work on their own remains the core way for the SPSF to continue sustainable growth. When there are big liberations or operations, we can use them to reach out to and try to involve new SPSFers, but we also can’t neglect the talent pipeline that we get naturally from new applicants.
In the short term, internal cultural events will be a part of building the SPSF. The Pride SPSF puppet competition run by Heliseum is a good example of this, and as Prime Minister I would encourage us to continue working on SPSF internal cultural development.
In the long term, we can use the low period in raider activity to build a more sustainable ribbon and award tracking system for SPSF members. For large operations, the SPSF will often award a ribbon to recognize members’ contributions, but few members track their own ribbons or display them meaningfully and this degrades some of the culture around them. The exact form this takes I would want to discuss with the Admiralty, emphasizing accessibility and sustainability, with the long-term goal being to collate and collect these mission-specific awards along with rank, operation count, and any other recognition that members earn (similar to the honors issued by Kris at the end of his PM term) in a public (or semi-public) service record.
World Assembly
The GA reset has happened and the new Secretariat has been elected. Fortunately, two of our preferred candidates were elected to the Secretariat, which gives us a strong place to build from in terms of engaging with the WA and projecting WA power.
I also support the move by Utopia’s OWL towards using the forum for WA debates and would continue it during my administration. In the short term, there will be growing pains from this, but in the long-term it will create more substantive internal discussions around WA proposals and foster a better WA culture to train future authors. In my administration, foreign affairs and OWL will collaborate to seek to pass proposals by South Pacificans and proposals which recognize South Pacificans, knowing that the combination of strong drafting and effective outreach is how proposals succeed.
Conclusion
I am asking for your vote as Prime Minister because I am the right candidate to meet the moment. The last few months have brought us close to success, but ultimately we’re missing the next level of planning, communication, and execution to truly capitalize on our strengths and achieve our vision. As Prime Minister, I have what it takes to bring us to the next level and leave our community stronger and more influential than it was at the start of my term.
My conflict of interest: I am currently a citizen and legislator of the South Pacific, Captain Emeritus of the SPSF, and I am a Junior Moderator. I am also a NationStates Game Moderator, but to avoid any possible conflict of interest I would resign that role if elected.