Jay for PM!

Elections Archive
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Hello friends! I am Jay/xshotss/shots/PGAC, your current Minister of Integration. I am delighted to be running this special election for the position of Prime Minister. I hope to come in with a much better, much more informative, and much shorter (:sweat_smile:) campaign. I ran for the first time last election, but had to drop out due to RL.

Why so early?

Our previous Prime Minister, Heliseum, unfortunately resigned due to real-life issues. When the PM position is left empty, special elections to fill the PM position commence.

I do not have that many sweeping changes to Cabinet, but my additions are:

Integration

My plans for Integration are essentially the plans I had as the Minister of Integration, but those that I didnā€™t implement yet. So these plans would not interfere with anyoneā€™s agenda, as this are just my own plans.

  • Expanding Recruitment: One of my biggest projects is to expand recruitment for the region significantly. My plan is to create a set of guides for new recruiters to assist them in how to start their recruiting career. I also want to set up recruitment competitions, where recruiters are encouraged to recruit and compete for the highest statistics and telegram template success rates. This will get our region a new source of newly founded nations, diversifying our portfolio from exclusively relying on our 10% spawn as a Feeder region.

  • Improving Introductions: A new influx of nations from recruitment means we need to present the region in the best way as possible to get newcomers hooked. One of my ideas to implement this is to introduce welcome messages on the Discord for new nations, which will help in introducing new users swiftly and automatically. Also, I want to make it a Cabinet-wide and MoI Team-wide (informal) policy to consistently introduce new members on the RMB to the region (a template for welcoming new nations is already in my MoI drafts).

  • Improve the Wizard: Our Getting Involved wizard has seen a good bit of improvement over the past terms. However, one problem is that any application to any of the Ministriesā€™ teams does not notify the Minister and may get missed. I did reach out to some people about implementing this, including Pronoun, our Director of Technology. For example, when X person applies to be a Recruiter, I should get notified in some way.

What did I actually implement as MoI?
As MoI, I started an integration initiative called WARTN (Where Are They Now?). It is a statistics program meant to track the progress of the regionā€™s engagement, and is meant to show the effect that certain projects and campaigns (whether by Integration or other ministries like Culture) have on the region.

I also started work on many of the ideas I mentioned above, and collaborated extensively with @HumanSanity on how to implement them (especially the recruitment side of Integration).

Culture

Culture, in my opinion, is one of our strongest ministries. In the relatively short time-frame of the term, Culture has already started many projects. I only have a couple fixes and additions Iā€™d like to add so we can keep the Ministryā€™s momentum.

Iā€™m keeping the near-entirety of the ministry of culture essentially the same, as the current system is doing pretty well. I generally want to continue the current trend of smaller events, but would of course want to continue the bigger events such as SWANvision and the like. However, Iā€™d like to add:

  • RP Events: While I consider and very strongly advocate for the Ministry of Culture and the TSPRP community being two separate entities, Iā€™d like to see more collaboration between the two through events and competitions. Some of the ideas include: a nationbuilding contest independent of the canons, a flag-making contest, or even a cityplanning contest. As a TSPRPer myself, Iā€™d like to see more of this done and act as a mediator for the MoC and TSPRP to keep both parties happy and engaged!

  • Fix TSSG Delays: The releases for TSSG, our regional newspaper, has been quite delayed. Even though there exists a culture group specifically for the newspaper, the Minister(s) of Culture end up doing the majority of the work. My plan is to look for an active writer/writers for TSSG that will release some of the stress off of the MoC. Iā€™m also open to sometimes writing for TSSG myself if I have the time.

Foreign Affairs

  • Relationship With Other Regions: A cornerstone of Foreign Affairs work is maintaining relationships with our current allies, and expanding on the relations with other regions of interest. I will work with my Minister of Foreign Affairs to discuss certain crises, the development of region relationships i.e through treaties, and so on.

  • Visibility: My plan is to maintain our voice in the regional stage by participating in all sorts of interregional events and discussions.

World Assembly/Gameside

I consider myself a quite active player when it comes to gameside activity. I feel like something we are lacking on is the gameside/WA of our community.

That is why, in my term, I wish to encourage further WA participation and establish a World Assembly agenda. I plan on working with the Office of World Assembly Legislation and the Cabinet to possibly discuss writing proposals for the World Assembly about commendations of our dear members, proposals for the GA, and things of that vein.

For the RMB, Iā€™ve always advocated for the government being active on the RMB. In my term, as usual, I will maintain my personal commitment of regularly participating in RMB discussions and welcoming new people.

Defense

Raiders have become significantly weaker over the days, so R/D activity has been quite low. However, we should always remain prepared and ready for any insurgence.

  • Comprehensive Training: A lot of newly recruited Cadets spend a concerning amount of time waiting for training. I want to set up a system to track this process and make it more formal, to make it easier for higher ranking SPSF members to train our Cadets and prepare them for service.

  • Regular Recruitment: Recruitment for the SPSF has been doing well, but it should have a set schedule. Encouraging new members to join through regular advertising, posters, and other methods will help further in member growth.

Conflict of Interest

I do not currently hold citizenship or hold any offices for any other region except the South Pacific. I maintain a tiny puppet storage region called ā€œShots Puppetsā€. I also have a region called ā€œCedarā€. Other than that, I also currently have 15 SPSF puppets (number will likely increase as Iā€™ve recently rejoined, and will likely make more.)

In the South Pacific, I am the current Minister of Integration, Ensign of the SPSF, Map Manager for Pacifica, legislator, and citizen. Previously, Iā€™ve been a Minister of Culture and a Secretary of Culture.

Thank you! Iā€™m happy to answer any questions.

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Jay, I think youā€™d be an excellent Prime Minister and Iā€™m going to put you in my top two preferences.

I think youā€™ve got the experience and the drive to really shake things up with our integration and recruitment processes across the whole of government.

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Iā€™m asking the same question of every PM candidate.

Will you commit to regularly posting and engaging with everyone on the RMB?

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Thank you for the question. Yes I will commit to that, as I always have and advocated for.

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Iā€™ve posted my campaign gameside as a dispatch, check it out here:
https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2781261
Also a bump for visibility reasons.

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I would like to inquire more about your overall plans for the World Assembly? You have said you are an astute player when it comes to this area. With all of the announcements, discussions held, or just general conversations about OWL, I have not seen you express any interest. Could you elaborate on your plans?

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I will admit that I have not participated in OWL officially (mostly due to me having RL issues around when the OWL Directors were picked, where I was one of the candidates). I never said Iā€™m an astute player when it came to OWL (only that Iā€™m quite active gameside). I try my hardest to participate in OWL votes and make an informed decision on each proposal.

Iā€™m willing to work with our OWL team and the Cabinet to establish a culture of our executive members participating in the World Assembly and writing proposals. For example, I feel that there are very established senior members of our community that have not been commended yet, and Iā€™d like to give them that award. Of course, I cannot actually propose things on my own, due to my WA lock for the South Pacific Special Forces. But it is a case where Iā€™d like to work with other people that can get it done and propose them on their own nations.

Iā€™m not as well-versed as Iā€™d like to be, but it is a situation where I plan to work and collaborate with others to help out, improve the World Assembly, and maintain one of the foundations of being an onsite and offsite-focused government.

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Do you support bringing back the Executive Staff and reestablishing a regional civil service??

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I had no original plans to do so, nor am I knowledgeable much on how they worked. If there is enough interest from both the Cabinet and the general public, then I would reconsider it. But the majority seem to have quite a negative opinion of bringing back executive staff, and Iā€™m not bringing back something that the majority wouldnā€™t like if itā€™s not for the absolute best of the region.
We already have staff for each ministry that help out with executive work, so radically changing this process would only hinder how the Cabinet functions and interacts with our members. My ministers will have the freedoms to appoint their own teams how they wish and pick the roles and responsibilities for them that they think is best.

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What sets you apart from everyone else running?

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Great question! I think I have a few qualities and campaign points that distinguish me from other campaigners.

One of my many goals is to establish a stronger PM (and Cabinet in general) presence on the gameside part of our region. I will maintain my RMB and gameside presence throughout my Prime Ministerial term, as I have done so for a while. Iā€™ve advocated for gameside presence as a government official for a while, and I think this PM term is a good chance to implement that. Iā€™m active on the RMB and will continue to do so as a Prime Minister, something that our government officials have not done as much in the past terms, only promised to.

I will also collaborate effectively with my ministers on fields that I have little knowledge of (i.e Foreign Affairs). Even though I donā€™t have knowledge of everything in our region and it is unrealistic for a Prime Minister to have that quality, I will be a flexible Prime Minister that will work with people to get things done effectively. I will maintain a stable and continuous line of communication to get to know what my ministers are doing, and ensure that they can communicate with me effectively at any time.

As you see, my campaign is quite integration-heavy. I will try my hardest to grow our region in active and enthusiastic members (through the same work I have done and planned for in my current term of Minister of Integration). I will also work with out Ministers of Culture to host regional events and develop a regional culture, using my previous experiences in the Culture ministry to aid them as much as possible.

For Defense work, I will also implement some fresh updates to how the system works. As I experienced being a new member of the SPSF all over again, I will coordinate with my Minister of Defense to make this process as comprehensive as possible. Basically, I want to set up systems that will make training more systematic and predictable, rather than Cadets having to wait for the Officers deciding they want to train them.

From a personal and work-ethic view, I try my hardest to offer a fresh perspective in my PM campaigns. Iā€™m an active and hard-working citizen and genuinely want to improve this region to the best of my abilities. I will strive to work effectively with the cabinet and the government in general to create a greater and more successful South Pacific.

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What are your intentions for the cabinet

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Could you clarify what you mean? Iā€™ve mentioned my plans for the ministries above.

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Like who do you intend on appointing and how are you going to direct them to set the policy

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Ah, yes. Similarly (I think) the other campaigners, I will be keeping the Cabinet the exact same. The only Minister I will appoint, of course, is a new Minister of Integration. I donā€™t have a set person that Iā€™d like to appoint, and I donā€™t love the idea of a Prime Minister doing that anyways (since it doesnā€™t give everyone a chance). I will reach out to people that I feel are suitable for the position, ask them whether they are interested in the position, and vet them through a series of questions to ensure theyā€™re suitable to be a cabinet minister.

I will work closely with the new MoI to implement the many integration goals I have. Of course, I will work with all ministers to also implement my goals, but the MoI is special as they will be the only addition and will essentially act as the successor to my current MoI plans.

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do you have any plans for introducing newcomers to the TSP government system, either to get to know it better or to participate?

i know this is a bit of a niche and purposefully vague question, but iā€™m asking the two candidates iā€™m debating between voting for to decide. as a semi newcomer, the difference between just chatting on the RMB and getting into other things scares me a lot! the dispatch about how the government worked left out some things and was kind offffā€¦wordy. i think everyone should be able to easily access campaigns and other things, if we want people to stay in the region they should feel like a crucial part of the region if they want to.

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Thank you for sharing your campaign! I think this campaign is really strong because of its specificityā€”an improvement over your last one and a clear step up over some of the other candidates. I also like that it recognizes what is working well and likely doesnā€™t need major changes (e.g. Culture, Foreign Affairs) and then also identifies areas for growth and how youā€™ll get there. I particularly like your section on Integration which I think outlines a clear set of priorities and ideas about how to move them forward.

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What are your intentions for the cabinet?

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What is a reasonable goal considering youā€™re Minister of Integration of increasing our number of active telegram recruiters by the end of your term as PM if elected?

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Amazing question!

So for newcomers getting into the South Pacificā€™s government, I will appoint deputies for (some) of the ministries, just like I tried to do with MoI. Deputies wonā€™t have any actual executive power, but they will work in a low-risk high-reward environment where they are taught about the government and mentored by their respective minister.

And for some of the ministries, there are ā€œteamsā€(like ambassadors, culture groups, recruiters) and the MoCā€™s Pollmaster role. Those are already meant for new and established people alike to get into the government and experience their ministry.

Unfortunately I cannot really appoint new members as ministers as this is a special election and itā€™s important to keep the cabinet the same. But I will try my hardest to give everyone a chance, new and elder, for the position of Minister of Integration (which is the only minister Iā€™m appointing, since itā€™s my current position and will be left void if I do win).

Thank you so much HS! Itā€™s a blessing to hear you like the campaign. :tsp_heart:

I will respond to the others in a bit, one second. Discourse is freaking out.