Regional Update November 2017

Election and government business

September saw the annual election for Forest Keeper, the head of the regional government. Five candidates ran, and a closely fought campaign began between the incumbent Mount Seymour (better known to many as Somyrion and Aumeltopia here in TSP) and newcomer Palos Heights. With a few days left to go, however, Mount Seymour announced their withdrawal due to real life commitments and as a result the election was a landslide victory for Palos Heights, who secured a crushing 85% of the vote - a great achievement for a young nation of just over 1 billion population.Although new applications were invited Palos Heights has chosen to retain the previous government team with the exception of Culture Minister, which Mount Seymour takes on following Frieden-und Freudenland's decision to retire. The government is:

WA Delegate: Ransium
Culture Minsiter: Mount Seymour
Foreign Affairs Minister: Uan aa Boa
Roleplay Minister: Caracasus
Regional Historian and Recruitment Minister: Mozworld

In a new initiative designed to increase openness and accountability, government discussions are now held in The Government Glade, a Discord channel visible to all Forest residents.

Palos Heights says, "For the strongest tree is not measured by the rings around its trunk or the size of its canopy, but the strongest tree is known by all by its roots."

"My premiership in Forest has been one underscored by the community rising to the occasion. Forest had an amazing Z-Day experience and it is thanks to the great people of Forest that we had such a turn-out. Forest is strong not because of any one individual leader, and I am excited to begin cultivating more leaders such as the wonderful individuals Mount Seymour, Mozworld, Errinundera, and Drasnia who lead us through Z-Day.

My time as Forest Keeper will be one of natural growth, strengthening our roots, and spreading the Forest way."

Following the focus on the election and on Z-day, the only major item of business has been a review of embassy policy and consideration of whether to close our embassy with a region that has become inactive. This was robustly debated, after which a regional poll decided against closure by a margin of 30 votes to 16.

The Ambassador Programme has expanded with 9 nations now assisting the Foreign Affairs Minister. Oatland and Antarctica have both agreed to open their embassies to posting by all nations in allied regions.

World Assembly Matters - 2 new commendations

The recent votes to commend Forestians Zwangzug and Candlewhisper Archive continue a period of ascendancy for Forest in the Security Council, with the region's commendation being followed by these two new resolutions and the passage of three resolutions by our delegate Ransium.

Z-Day 6

Forest was delighted to place third in the event for both total number of survivors and total number of survivors with no infection.

Forest's population hit an all time record of over 500 nations and 3 trillion people in the run-up to Z-day. Following a pre-agreed plan all active nations began researching a cure - this was so effectively implemented that there were only one or two isolated incidences of anyone doing anything else. Coordinated cure missile strikes quickly began and, with the borders closed to newcomers for the time being, the region became infection free 14 hours after the beginning of the event.

Forest then began to admit and cure batches of refugees, advertising this offer on the NS forum. Initially this was quite successful and a number of nations either took refuge in Forest for the remainder of the event or returned to battle the zombies refreshed and replenished. As time went on, however, nations that had embraced the zombies and wanted to infect Forest began to outnumber genuine asylum seekers. These were quickly banjected on every occasion, but we hadn't anticipated the new feature allowing zombie hordes to convert other nations to zombie exporters in a single attack. This caused a brief outbreak of Forest nations going rogue, and as one was sadly offline at the time there was no alternative but to temporarily eject them.

After reviewing this, and being aware that we were being targeted by zombie factions from other regions, the decision was taken to leave the borders closed until the threat had passed.

At time of writing our regional population remains up at 340-350 nations with several new active contributors who have joined us because of Z-day (as well as some puppets that haven't yet been moved out!)

Future Events at the Culture Ministry

Forest's annual photography competition is coming soon and submissions from our embassy regions would be extremely welcome. Other new events are also in the pipeline, so watch out for new updates, especially as the holiday season approaches...