| New Ambassador / Foreign Update Program |
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Hey There TSP!
After extensive discussions, the TSP Foreign Affairs Team would like to announce a revamped Ambassador Corps for our Foreign Affairs, as well as a general overview of their duties and how this will relate to updating our embassies and consulates abroad as we move forward. We believe that the new approach will allow for our fantastic Ambassadors to express more creativity of they wish to do so, and the focus on smaller Quick News-esque updates will be welcome by both the people who get stuck writing huge Foreign Updates and the people that pretend to read them. So, without further adieu, let's get into the details of it all! Ambassador Organization
To better organize our Ambassador Corps, we are going to have a centralized thread for sign-ups as well as seeing where one is posted. That can be located in this thread: http://tspforums.xyz/thread-5523.html
While the primary interactions between Ambassadors and the Ministry Officials will be on Discord, specifically within the beautiful TSP Foreign Affairs server, an organizational thread will allow for easy reference on who is where, and will give an initial one-stop-shop for people who want to join the Ambassador Corps. This'll allow for more streamlined stuff as a whole! In addition, Ambassadors will be tracked to ensure they are fulfilling all their various duties, and through this tracking we'll be able to ensure that anybody who isn't fulfilling their duties abroad can either be re-assigned somewhere else or removed from the Corps if they don't have the time or ability to continue serving their duties.
Foreign Update Program
It's not difficult to agree that those long-winded Foreign Updates that are such tradition in Nationstates Gameplay are a. really awful to write, b. not really read by most people, and c. aren't overly exciting in any sort of way that makes people really care about that region's affairs. Having chatted with a decent number of folks, the overwhelming majority confirm that they either just reply to the update without having read it at all, or just don't read them all together. There's no point using such a system, hence why we don't, but it's still important to keep our Embassies and Consulates abroad staffed As such, we're going to be slightly taking a page from Local Councilor PS2's Quick News in how we'll be looking to update our friends abroad! Personally, I'm a huge fan of Quick News because it tells me what I need to know in an aesthetically pleasing manner, and links threads that then allow you to see further what's going on. Using our Foreign Affairs Discord, as well as Forum Threads and PMs if necessary, we will have a specific channel through which we'll communicate official TSP updates for our Ambassadors to post in their respective threads abroad. While we will continue having the Foreign Affairs statements that the FA Ministry puts out related to pertinent FA issues in The South Pacific, we will also be putting out quick briefs that our ambassadors can then relay to our embassies. They can do that however they wish, which is gonna be awesome for the folks that like to spice up their work a bit! Basically, we'll release an update on important affairs such as "We had a really great festival with [blank], here's the results of the hype contests from that festival, and we'd love to have festivals with all our friends!". Ambassadors will then go post that in their thread, and will have creative license to spice it up with whatever other relevant content they wish to add to it! We feel that using such a manner allows for Ambassadors to be more than just glorified copy-pasters, and will allow for a more organic and regular engagement in our threads abroad than the traditional FA Ultra-Long Update would add. Feel free to shoot comments, suggestions, complaints, and such about the new direction to PM Roavin, MoFA Escade, or myself! We're definitely excited to hear input from TSPers about this moving forward, as the program is born out of a desire to have an approach that's most engaging and stress-free for TSP's FA and community. Thanks Folks! Tim Stark Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
It's been a month since elections, and almost two months since this program was created. I would like to request an official update.
For Foreign updates this plan talked about doing many smaller news updates. Are these being done? Are they being properly distributed? All I can see on the forum one is one update posted less than a week after this started. As for ambassadors. Are they doing there jobs? Are they interacting with their assigned region beyond posting updates? Is the proposed tracking being done? Has their been sufficient training and communication between the Ministry?
I am in no way qualified to speak on behalf of the ministry in an official capacity, but from my perspective as ambassador to Europeia, I think the program is going well and is worth continuing. I echo your questions though, because I am curious about how the cabinet feels the program is going.
I have found the MoFA staff to be very hands on and has provided me support, as an ambassador, in the best way I can possibly ask for. They have provided drafts of statements, allowed ambassadors to communicate them as they see fit, and asked for us to link where we posted it. I have changed almost all their drafts to varying degrees, and leadership team has supported my changes. I'd like to think my input at a local level is a net gain (lol), and the more experience an ambassador has with a region, the better that input gets. I also think that having more people 'show up' and having more points of contact and more faces of TSP that our allies is a benefit. If my experience has been the same for other ambassadors, I think this is a great program for getting people involved in FA, and a great way for people to get involved in the region without having to run for office. Now, I feel like I have to challenge myself to take my role to the next level. I want to get to the point where I am being more proactive as an ambassador and asking the MoFA team to support me. At least that is how I see the role growing.
The 16th Delegate of The South Pacific
I completely agree. The MoFA team has been very supportive, and while I've usually changed the drafts they've provided here, they've always like those. Those on the team have always been online, ready and willing to answer any questions. It's definitely given a more personal feel to interactions with our allies, and I think relations between our regions have benefited immensely from it. This is definitely something worth continuing.
From a personal standpoint, the program has also been a great way to get more involved in FA, and also get a better grasp of TSP's position in the FA world - both things which I'd previously felt were far less easy to do. I'd say this is a fantastic program, not only for the work we ambassadors can do now in our respective regions, but also for the future, as the ambassador program really helps to train the next generation. Marius Rahl Fortitudine Vincimus!
I fully agree with both of our dedicated Ambassadors. I think we've seen a significant increase in engagement with our embassies, and it's been received well both by Ambassadors and our embassies abroad.
I do need to get better on distributing updates here as well, and have been working on an effective tracking system to make sure everyone's doing their work. However, I think the program as a whole is still working successfully as of now. |
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