Thanks everyone for the questions, I’ll endeavor to answer them to the best of my ability.
On the Tidal Force
Good question! I was going to add a section about Tidal Force but frankly speaking I realize I’d mostly be talking about things I have not a clue in the world about at that point. The plan is to stick to the status quo as at first, and follow up on any plans on growing the Tidal Force with my MoD and the broader officer corps in the SPSF when things settle down.
On Ambassadorship
I’m well-aware that it previously existed, and that similar schemes tend not to work very well from my observations even in other large regions. My intent is for MoFA or a trusted deputy to check in semi-frequently with the new ambassador corps (basically once or twice a week). One way (implementation to be discussed with whoever ends up as MoFA) is that we maintain a list of events across the regions that we intend on trialing this ambassadorship system and basically assign these ambassadors to work on updating the list and providing details on events as they come along in their assigned regions, instead of just giving them a portfolio to manage with total autonomy (which is probably too daunting for newer members).
To be honest, it doesn’t translate well, if your view of FA is basically the “smoke-filled room”, or more accurately “Discord PMs to thrash out a treaty” theory of FA. The reason I would stick to this at the start is that there is very little to no way for totally new members to even get their foot through the door with no formal opportunities to basically represent TSP in other regions. As I said, it’s a trial.
On the “Local Council”
Thanks for your questions and the responses on the Discord thus far. I’ll be the first to admit that functionally, my intention with this “LC” reboot is not really to reinvent the wheel on a separate institution that was abolished for a reason, but rather to be an advisory body for the Minister of Integration (so to address Pronoun’s second item, it’s the latter, and it’s practically not too different from appointing advisors/deputies). I am not married to keeping the name LC and perhaps I won’t call it an LC. I’ll leave the details on execution to after I am elected.
I would want to push back a bit on Maluhia’s assertion — I do think that there is some use and value in consultative bodies (formal or informal), even if at the end of the day the buck stops with the cabinet and myself on actually engaging with the RMB. All of us have blind spots regardless of our position, and I would rather have, in some capacity, a body more reflective of the gameside community present than absent in my government.
On the Discord, Drystar has commented that the RMB mod team has to remain apolitical to do its job effectively. I understand this and I will not involve the RMB moderation team in any form of this body, and this extends to the Delegate as well.
On maintaining dispatches
To me, maintenance and expansion of dispatches is a necessary aspect of TSP government — if we don’t do it, who will? And the dispatches themselves are a vital piece of how we integrate newer players into the game, so we would have to do it regardless. I understand that it doesn’t really fit into the same framework of action that I have outlined in my platform, but I do see it as the one long-term project that my minister and their deputies would need to be involved in on top of the other integration projects that I have proposed.
On the technical aspects of dispatch maintenance (e.g. the automations that yourself and Viet have been in involved in previously), I am willing to discuss this further over Discord instead of on here.
On Mentorship
My aim with the mentorship system is honestly far simpler than that, and is probably not mutually exclusive with the idea that Griff executed previously. What I intend is that new forum/discord members/recent RMBers (that are not silent bots) get personalized welcome PMs/DMs/telegrams from integration staff (the “mentors”) to just engage them on questions that they might have. There will have to be a flowchart for how this is executed, but the idea is that we quickly identify members who might be waiting for citizenship to process or who are just lurking so that we don’t “lose” them when citizenship is processed 3 weeks later.
For what it’s worth, I really like your idea, and I think it is something that can be integrated in a more simple way into the mentorship system that I have in mind — when we reach out to new members, we need to emphasize several opportunities that they can get involved in immediately (e.g. if a ministry requires staff or volunteers for a particular project, or Tidal Force recruitment, etc.) and ask them if they wish to know more about a certain project. The exact details is of course context-dependent, but I do foresee that some thought will need to go into a flowchart to guide newer members towards involvement in the region, so that mentors don’t feel overwhelmed in guiding their assigned/volunteered “mentee”.
On Engagement
From what I’ve seen on the old forums, the old Ministry of Media was apparently a bureaucratic mess, and more of a relic of the old system of elected ministers and bloated staff systems. For as long as ministers remain appointed, I do not intend on going down that route so spare me Belschaft.
For starters, as I mentioned in my first project, Engagement will be primarily tasked with rapid outreach on all platforms (gameside, forums, discord) during events and policy announcements. This is its primary remit and objective in the upcoming term. The cabinet will maintain a calendar of events in order to track what the region needs to be updated on, and the Engagement minister will be in-charge of formulating how these events are communicated to the public and to our allies and diplomatic partners.
I mentioned that I will be quite personally invested into Engagement myself, and my long-term view is that there is a newsletter that will contain items such as interviews, recipes, and maybe op-eds. Before the anti-Ministry of Media alarm bells sound off, I want to state unequivocally that I don’t intend for there to be massive employment of staff (there are frankly more important projects that I want to accomplish in this term) but my Engagement minister and I will work on identifying and recruiting volunteers who are willing and able to contribute more “communications-based” work on their own volition, on top of what I intend to contribute.
On making the projects work
sheer grit I will aim in my term to be as realistic as possible about what we can accomplish with what resources we can muster, and I will be upfront about challenges that my cabinet faces. Henn mentioned on the Discord that there are basically two things to make projects work: people, and more energy in people, and I totally agree with that. If I cannot muster a sufficiently large team, then this will necessarily limit the scope of my projects. Even if things “fail”, I want to still make qualified successes that future governments can work on.
With that in mind, what I endeavor to do in this term to make things “different” is to address recruitment and manpower, which is exactly why I emphasize advancement in my agenda. This is not recruitment for recruitment’s sake — we don’t need a permanent executive staff — but rather ensuring that ministers feel empowered to employ new staff, deputies or volunteers whenever necessary, like Silva and I have done in the past term. This also means having cabinet help each other where possible — there is no reason why the Engagement minister cannot be involved in the staff for a Culture event, or why the Integration minister cannot be involved in the ambassadorial pilot project.
I look forward to follow-up questions and more questions on different parts of my platform.