Could you elaborate on what exactly was updated, and are there any plans to continue work on the wiki and/or open it up to greater collaboration in maintaining it?
Hopefully I can ask this however when would the “search” for a new OWL Director conclude?
Weekly Cabinet Update (11/6-11/12)
Cultural Activity
This week saw two events: a Sunday night stream of Millennium Actress and a Tetris Thursday! Both activities brought TSPers together and we look forward to continuing to run events. Also, we have been making use of the forum’s upcoming events feature to schedule our events.
The Ministry of Culture has also been planning a few interregional events, so be on the lookout for some of that in the near future!
SPSF Activity
@Pronoun was promoted to Commander this week! Huge congratulations to Pronoun for this achievement and thanks for his hard work in building up the SPSF and its infrastructure.
The following SPSF members have participated in Libcord activities this week during update:
Purple Hyacinth: 7 updates
Pronoun: 3 updates
Hephaestus: 2 updates
Chickenswillwin: 1 update
Lirozonia: 1 update
In total, SPSF members have participated in the following this week:
Detags: 93
Defenses: 18
Liberations: 1
Supports: 1
Additionally, off update, we have been supporting the Delegate transition in The East Pacific.
Other Activity
There has been discussion in the Ministry of Engagement regarding the exact breakdown of a potential points reward system, where card program members will get a certain amount of points for donating high-value cards to the program, which can then be redeemed for cards that the program has.
@Sulen was appointed to the position of OWL Director and has begun to put up OWL votes.
@EmC was nominated by the Cabinet to the Legislator Committee. The nomination is currently up for discussion in the Assembly, where it needs to be approved.
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As it’s been a week now — going to bump these questions.
Aside from the activity with the cards project, are there any updates with other things the Ministry of Engagement is responsible for?
Given the fact that we are 1 month into the term, can we expect more engagement-related updates that are more than just discussions being had? What is the Minister of Engagement doing in concrete and noticeable terms to implement their term agenda? What exactly is that agenda?
Well, the only other thing that we could realistically work on is the wiki project, since I’d love to get someone new on the outreach project but I can’t find anyone since DMing everyone is too much of a hassle and I can’t ping MoE: Staff because even though I asked several times, the discord mods decided not to press the button that lets me ping the role.
So… the wiki project. Last I checked you were in charge of that program, and it seems to me as if you don’t care. When I pinged you to ask about the wiki at the beginning of the term, you never responded. It was GI-Land and BlockBuster who responded, not you, the person who is running at least the gameside part of the wiki. This seems more like a you problem than a me problem- after all, I can’t make informed decisions about the wiki without knowing what is going on.
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I don’t have an agenda. My job was to enter the MoE, get things I wanted to get done, well, done, and to leave feeling like I did something. Not everything has to be politically charged.
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The Ministry of Engagement is not front-facing. Look to Culture for that. Most things Engagement does, no matter how big, will not be noticeable from a glance. I’m not sure where you got the notion that they will be. Engagement, by definition, is to introduce new players. Changes to doing that will pretty obviously not be noticed by you, someone who has been here for a while.
Respectfully, I don't understand how you can stand as Minister of Engagement and openly admit that you have no agenda.
The buck stops with you, and no matter how much or little people respond to your pings, you still have the responsibility of (i) ensuring that this region has a coherent strategy for how to engage its members, and (ii) presenting both that strategy and its results over time to the region, so that we can evaluate whether you are delivering on your campaign promises.
There are several issues that need attention, from streamlining our dispatches to make them more accessible to newcomers, to unblocking wiki articles, to working with the various institutions in our government to ensure that newcomers get the best match for their interests. Obviously not all of this will be readily apparent, but that is precisely why we rely on updates so that we can see that progress is being made. We can’t have that if all we see from MoE in the updates is nebulous discussions rather than an actual agenda being enacted.
However…your campaign seemed very focus on enhancing the card project. Is that “part of your agenda?”
Thanks for your input. Perhaps, if you are so discontent with the state of the ministry, you could join the ministry and help achieve those goals that you are so adamant about?
I may have misinterpreted his meaning of agenda. Yes, I would say so.
You don't get to pull that card. You are the one who ran for this office, presumably because you had a vision that you wished to implement, and you can't deflect legitimate criticism that every citizen and legislator is entitled to give, particularly when you only hold your office due to the votes that we all cast.
Yeah I’m with Kringle on this one. If you applied for the position, you should be the one working for change and improvement. You can absolutely use others for inspiration or to take projects/responsibilities off your hands, but in the end, it’s the minister’s job to do the work that they campaigned to do
I mean, just to start off, I think it’s telling that the response to questions from the public has been to deflect and blame those asking them instead. So yeah, let’s start with that.
Clearly, the last time you checked must have been quite some while ago. I informed your predecessor of my intention to resign from the ministry at the conclusion of his term well in advance (in #moe-leadership, I think, but I no longer have access so I can’t check), and my Ministry of Engagement roles on Discord were removed at my request on October 16. I can understand if there was some miscommunication during the transition process about my role, but nevertheless, I’m still confused by your response. It’s a month into your term, and you’ve heard absolutely nothing from the person you thought was the leader of the wiki project. In response, you made no attempt to contact me directly, no attempt to replace me, and no attempt to see if I was still in the ministry at all. Why was that?
Or perhaps, like is the right of any legislator, one can ask questions to the minister elected by the Assembly? You’re the one who ran for office. You chose to seek a position elected by and responsible to the Assembly. If you wanted something less ‘politically charged’ then I’m not sure why you would run for a political office.
I am also, like others here, confused about your attitude towards having an ‘agenda.’
Honestly, I think this is an agenda. As Kris pointed out, an ‘agenda’ really can just be a strategy for engaging with new members. I mean, if your agenda for your term is just to get done the things you want to get done and give yourself the feeling of having done something — okay, I guess. If that’s your strategy for engaging with new members, so be it. Just don’t expect legislators to not have opinions on that strategy.
Fair point! Do you have any examples of those changes? If they aren’t obvious to us, this is your chance to tell us what they are, so we do notice them!
Weekly Cabinet Update (11/13-11/19)
SPSF Activity
This week, SPSF members participated in a total of 7 updates. The following members attended at least one of those updates:
@flowerpetal: 6 updates
@Pronoun: 2 updates
Qawe: 2 updates
The SPSF participated in the following activities:
Detags: 165
Defenses: 49
Supports: 1
The SPSF has wrapped up its mission in supporting TEP’s Delegate transition. We have also been internally discussing a revival of the Tidal Force.
Ministry of Culture
We are continuing to plan for several interregional events, and one of our staffers has mostly finished planning a small domestic event as well. There will be some events in the upcoming week, so keep an eye out for that!
Other News
@im_a_waffle1 has resigned as Minister of Engagement, triggering a special election that is going on right now.
OWL has continued to put up votes in a timely manner.
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Could we receive an update of the Cabinet’s work over the past month, and its goals for the remainder of the term?
I’ll let other ministers chime in for each of their ministries.
In the Ministry of Engagement, we’ve been working on a new version of our welcome dispatch(es). We’re in the final stages of working on and discussing that internally and I’m looking forward to sharing it in a request for comments in the coming days.
With the remainder of the term, I hope, depending on the course of public discussion, to publish the new dispatch system and start taking a look at our welcome telegram and WFE.
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Not Cabinet, but on behalf of the General Corps, I’ll note we’ve been:
- Actively participating in liberation and defensive operations, including the significant liberation of New Westphalia in late December
- Commander Pronoun released our year-end report and our most active members were recognized for their efforts
- We’ve brought in several new Trainees, including @Acel and @ConcreteSlab just this week. Training for some trainees who are active in operations to advance to Soldier has also begun
- During Webs’ Ministry, there were some Discord maskings that were not being applied correctly due to a moderator/MoD miscommunication. This has been corrected
- Commander Pronoun and I are working on a restructure of SPSF ranks and integration efforts, with an expected launch of Soon[TM] (but, hopefully/realistically, by the end of the Cabinet term)
The Ministry of Culture organized and executed the Polar Lights festival with the North Pacific, and the Harry Potter and the Festival of Friends 2022 with Ten Thousand Islands, the East Pacific, the Grey Wardens, and the Rejected Realms. In addition, we ran the Chief Animal election on the RMB, along with starting early registrations for the South Pacific Cup on the NS forum.
I intend to run some smaller events for the rest of the term, and perhaps another joint event in the future, pending some questions.
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In regards to the Polar Light festival, you said here that:
“I apologize for not having this organized nearly as well as we should have, as well as running fewer events than planned.”
Do you think with more help from those interested, or the ministry staff, the event could have been better organized or better planned?
Additionally, concerning the South Pacific Cup on the NS forums, I know at least a few others, and myself have noticed that many of the registered participants are unaware with roleplay sports competitions and some how the forum operates. I haven’t been too active in the ministry lately so I’m wondering if there is anything us staffers can do to help.
In my opinion, no. The planning for it had taken so much time that several culture minister transitions occurred on both sides, and it needed to either be cancelled or finally put out. I elected to push for the latter, and my counterpart agreed, but when it finally started RL and other circumstances prevented some of the planners from being able to execute their events.
The South Pacific Cup is currently being run by @Ontarian_goose. I’ll leave it up to them if they would like help from other staffers.
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Thanks for your responses. One more question, I promise! Sorry for bombarding you with these!
I believe we are well into the Cabinet term and you are yet to appoint a Deputy Minister or any members of the Senior Staff since an early “purge” I believe. Taking a non-bureaucratic position is totally fine and may be what is best, however what are your thoughts about leadership positions in the ministry besides the Minister themselves (or the Prime Minister, if you wish to count them too).