Walrus challenges for delegate

[Minskiev]

Hello TRR, I'm Minsk or walrus, and I'm challenging Nakari for the delegacy following her request to be challenged.

I was TRR's outreach Officer from August to September 2021, helping develop the Unicorn Awards alongside Aga, and WA Officer since then, holding votes on resolutions and putting out recommendations reliably. So reliably I'm being voted as 2021's Outstanding Officer. I also served as Speaker from April 2021 to July 2021, I have been an officer of the RRA since January, you get the picture.

I decided to run because I've grown incredibly fond of TRR in my time here, and with the past multiple delegates resigning early, TRR needs a reliable, energetic Delegate to stay on track.

Some people like a head of government involved in its offices, some prefer to stay out of their way. So, I'll more cover the offices and my ideas for them, but not exactly a comprehensive agenda for each office; that's for the Officers.

Outreach
Outreach has a few goals in mind: reaching out (shocking) to the gameside, raising endorsement levels, and generally managing gameside affairs.

One thing I've realized over the past few months is that we don't do nearly enough region-wide telegrams. Bow experimented with a weekly Newsletter, and I think that would be good content for a weekly update telegram.

Regular endotarting is crucial for endorsements, but we should also try alternating telegrams and NNE dispatches to reach nations that might have one disabled but not the other.

The executive should also generally be more active on the RMB, but this is more wishful thinking than something I have much control over we should have Outreach and Culture combine their powers and do RMB events, though. Stuff like word games, trivia, card collecting, and puzzles.

And finally, people like awards. So every month (subject to change) or so, we could hold the RMB and Unicorn Awards to reward our wonderful gamesiders for their wonderfulness. I'm pretty sure this is already script-able, so it shouldn't be substantial additional weight.

World Assembly
The World Assembly Office is a very consistent and stable office that has relatively few goals: hold votes so our regional position is represented and well-debated on, increase TRR's WA "presence" (Reject authors, recommendations when possible), and get the gameside involved in the WA.

Votes are simple and easy. One thing that could benefit the office is debating proposals at quorum on the RMB as well as on the forums, however, because it engages the on-site and it fosters debate of the proposal and any flaws it may have. Another upside is that these RMB discussions are prime recommendation material!

Our internal drafting rooms are open, and I hope they not only stay open but also receive more attention from WA staff! Peer review is an amazing thing. It'll also help get Rejects behind resolutions! Or a guide to writing WA resolutions, which I have...been meaning to get around to. But that might inspire some of our own to write something, and I think that's great.

Culture
Culture is all about making NS fun, really.

I'm sort of conflicted about culture calendars. On the one hand, they make things consistent. On the other, they make things repetitive. I personally think that, while some things should be regular (Theme Tuesdays come to mind), more spontaneous events (or perhaps planned in #events prior to them) are more enjoyable, like quizzes, City Guesser, Werewolf, Forum Contests, or potentially Gartic Phone/Skribbl.io. Just like how Popmaster is coordinated though less schedule-y, I think it would help if that applied to other cultural events.

We should also, of course, lean into interregional events with regions we don't have poor relations with.

Foreign Affairs
I'll keep things simple: we should be a reliable, benign regional actor. Not so involved with drama, being there for our allies, and being open to new like-minded regions (starting things off with games, and seeing where it goes from there).

Frontiers and Strongholds will...presumably be coming up soon? In which case we might want to discuss it in the Assembly/Citizens' Private Forums, although I lean towards heavily supporting Frontier sovereignty (if it does not conflict with allies' interests, such as rebellion).

While new allies might be a big step, we should be closer with like-minded regions that we aren't allied with such as those in the PfS, other defender regions, or regions we've previously had gaming events with.

Conflicts of Interest
Currently, I'm the WA Councilor of Refugia (there goes Bow's vote). I don't think this should considerably detract from my ability to serve as Delegate.

Thanks for reading this and thanks to people who have helped me! If you have questions, please ask.

[Guy]

Second, a good platform. Questions hopefully to come.

[Vis]

TRR is going through a period of inactivity, with many officers not finishing their terms, and thus landing the region in a cycle of nonstop elections. What do you think is the cause of this, and what do you plan to do about it?

[Minskiev]

TRR is going through a period of inactivity, with many officers not finishing their terms, and thus landing the region in a cycle of nonstop elections. What do you think is the cause of this, and what do you plan to do about it?

Well, let's see. Bow resigned because of a lack of communication with his office's closest counterpart, Culture. Manson resigned subsequently for this also. You resigned because of IRL, I think? Nakari resigned because of the whole Reliant shitshow and resulting stress, Aga resigned because of lack of motivation, citing officers coming in and out too quickly.

The thing to address here is communication, because of course I can't control the rest.

While as of the past few weeks I feel that cabinet communication has been pretty good, earlier in the term it's rather sparse. I feel that more discussions in #cabinet, #citizens, and whatnot might be able to help, because then if burnout's the problem, the weight could be distributed to ease the burnout before a flat-out resignation. Tensions can be soothed, worries can be addressed, and generally the government will feel more connected.

[Vis]

TRR is going through a period of inactivity, with many officers not finishing their terms, and thus landing the region in a cycle of nonstop elections. What do you think is the cause of this, and what do you plan to do about it?

Well, let's see. Bow resigned because of a lack of communication with his office's closest counterpart, Culture. Manson resigned subsequently for this also. You resigned because of IRL, I think? Nakari resigned because of the whole Reliant shitshow and resulting stress, Aga resigned because of lack of motivation, citing officers coming in and out too quickly.

The thing to address here is communication, because of course I can't control the rest.

While as of the past few weeks I feel that cabinet communication has been pretty good, earlier in the term it's rather sparse. I feel that more discussions in #cabinet, #citizens, and whatnot might be able to help, because then if burnout's the problem, the weight could be distributed to ease the burnout before a flat-out resignation. Tensions can be soothed, worries can be addressed, and generally the government will feel more connected.

This doesn't address the inherent issue of inactivity, though. Used to be that trr had multiple stuff going on, like diplomacy, regular (and more importantly, spontaneous) games of werewolves, as well as semi regular popmasters and other games. How do you plan to restore that activity, and make it last?

[Minskiev]

TRR is going through a period of inactivity, with many officers not finishing their terms, and thus landing the region in a cycle of nonstop elections. What do you think is the cause of this, and what do you plan to do about it?

Well, let's see. Bow resigned because of a lack of communication with his office's closest counterpart, Culture. Manson resigned subsequently for this also. You resigned because of IRL, I think? Nakari resigned because of the whole Reliant shitshow and resulting stress, Aga resigned because of lack of motivation, citing officers coming in and out too quickly.

The thing to address here is communication, because of course I can't control the rest.

While as of the past few weeks I feel that cabinet communication has been pretty good, earlier in the term it's rather sparse. I feel that more discussions in #cabinet, #citizens, and whatnot might be able to help, because then if burnout's the problem, the weight could be distributed to ease the burnout before a flat-out resignation. Tensions can be soothed, worries can be addressed, and generally the government will feel more connected.

This doesn't address the inherent issue of inactivity, though. Used to be that trr had multiple stuff going on, like diplomacy, regular (and more importantly, spontaneous) games of werewolves, as well as semi regular popmasters and other games. How do you plan to restore that activity, and make it last?

We could recruit, but the events you describe are cultural events, and we haven't had a wonderful, active Culture officer in the past few months (although Aga is helping out). I think it's a mix of citizen-initiated efforts (Popmaster or Diplomacy), and Culture office efforts (Events and Gaming pings for Werewolf or City Guesser). What we can do for the Culture Office is have the government commit more to coordinate times for games, and for citizen-initiated events, we need to get people interested in it again. I could run a Diplomacy game or host a Popmaster, and slowly we'll try to bring it back.

Again though, a good, efficient WA and moving into GCRs-targeting API script could help in recruiting.

[Manson]

Seconded.

[thechurchofsatan]

What would you do to better maintain the cultural obligations of our treaties? The traditional way appears to be ineffective these days.

[Manson]

How will you promote the spread of Zyonnism and as a result, political refugees’ conversion in your capacity as Delegate, if elected?

[Minskiev]

What would you do to better maintain the cultural obligations of our treaties? The traditional way appears to be ineffective these days.

We don't always have to do major events. Simply agreeing on a time to play a game in eachother's Discord/forum would expose each region to the other's culture.

How will you promote the spread of Zyonnism and as a result, political refugees’ conversion in your capacity as Delegate, if elected?

Building a place of worship right next to Kandy's BBQ & Grill.

[Manson]

What’s your honest opinion on the situation regarding key individuals of The League and our ally, Osiris?

[Minskiev]

What’s your honest opinion on the situation regarding key individuals of The League and our ally, Osiris?

As much as it's fun to go "OFO delenda est" etc. etc., TRR has not had poor relations with Osiris, not to mention a treaty. We do, though, have an embassy with the League, and we are in the PfS with the League.

The conclusion here is that there is no need to firmly stand one way or the other. It'd be rash to go against a fellow defender, PfS region by tagging along with Osiris, as there is no obligation in our treaty for that, and rightfully so; Osiris is a raider region, and we are a defender region.

But let this not be misconstrued to say that we should stand with the League; again, we have a treaty with Osiris, and things aren't so bad between us.

Regarding "key individuals", I don't exactly see why TRR as a whole needs to consider them.

[Manson]

What would you say is our most important treaty or NAP (in your opinion)?

Would you rather strengthen our existing partnerships or focus most of your energy on finding additional ones?

[Minskiev]

What would you say is our most important treaty or NAP (in your opinion)?

Would you rather strengthen our existing partnerships or focus most of your energy on finding additional ones?

Most of my message got deleted but essentially: we have many strong partnerships, and it’s silly to put one over the other.

I’m not sure if it’s really a decision that needs to be made, whether to focus more on our existing partnerships and neglect other regions vs. focus on befriending other regions and neglecting current partners. One thing we can do is have more large-scale cultural events with existing partners, and more small-scale cultural events with new regions, though, because it’s been successful in the past.