Hoi

My name is Luca. If you haven't heard of me before, allow me to introduce myself. Likely, I am better known as Refuge Isle, GA/SC/Issue author, founder of Refugia, and Arch-Admin of its offsite community. I have previously given aid to other regions experiencing staffing trouble, including our allies in the East, serving as TEP's deputy WAA minister, as well as developing training materials for the EPSA while operating within that military. I'm one of the SPSF's best chasers, and I'm also involved with the collection, analysis, and presentation of data across the general NationStates universe. More information on résumé highlights, including my r/d records can be found in the history page linked in my signature. Some data-related publications can also be found in Refuge Isle's dispatches.

At the present moment, however, I've come to witness a concerning situation; the ministry that's charged with integration and engagement, has regrettably been unable to locate a successor to Viet's dynasty of leadership. Where an office would otherwise go unfulfilled, there exists a responsibility that it be staffed by individuals with the South Pacific's best interests at heart. After being kidnapped and brainwashed into submission by my peers, I have sought to fill this vacancy through the launch of this apparently unopposed campaign.


Anticipate, Prepare, Intercede

One of my priorities for Engagement will be the general education and awareness of what each ministry does, delivered to the region, to cast the widest possible net for prospectives.

Recently a publication released by the South Pacific Independent News Network aimed to address the question of how familiar residents and legislators were with various ministries. The information in this article is misleading, however, only sampling 23 players, 20 of whom were legislators (likely because only they were pinged). The graphs presented within this publication may give the appearance that the general public is well informed about each ministry. This is not supported by the sample size, especially in a region with a thousand World Assembly nations. We should be working with the realisation that prospective members do not know what they do not know.

More engagement requires more capable bodies, and capable bodies will follow where their interests take them. It's the belief of this campaign that the most high-quality members of TSP's future need only the awareness of their available options. This is not only necessary for the health of our ministries, but for the health of TSP and NationStates at large by capturing players' interest and giving them a reason to keep coming back. To this end, a dispatch must be developed and embedded within the WFE which invites players to join the South Pacific's administration, with organised snapshot summaries of each ministry and how players could envision themselves within them.

As we progress through the summer (or winter as the case may be for you), TSP needs to catch players when they return from school, and catch them on the platform that they are most predisposed to (Discord). On this subject, I propose highlighting a different area of government every weekend. This area could be an individual ministry, or broader topics like the role of legislators. During these spotlight weekend events, we need to provide friendly, open, and easy-access to information that sheds light on areas of government players may feel otherwise uncertain about committing to. These events should feature demonstrations about what goes on there and generally reduce the trepidation of exploring our government world.


Production and Sustainability

Finally, as I understand it, planning and talks have been going on for some time for a cards component for the South. Cards can be a valuable asset in acquiring and retaining World Assembly nations, boosting endorsement goals, as well as being tangible reward opportunities for players who compete in events or contribute to the work of our government. It is vital that TSP launch a cards program at any degree of complexity after having talked about it for so long. The program can then be augmented and improved upon, but perhaps perfect being the enemy of good is what has held us back from doing anything at all.

It's this campaign's view that the Ministry of Engagement should be responsible for recruiting and integrating new players into the Coalition's government and community, maintaining public infrastructure such as dispatches and other guides, setting unified presentation standards, and providing graphics to the government and citizens of the Coalition. That is this campaign's view, because that is the literal text of the law. However functionally, the ministry is marketed as a catch-all for content generation. This work is not necessarily in the line of outreach/integration, and occasionally conflicts with the legally stated role of Media. Reconciliation appears to be necessary regarding the roles of these two ministries since their split, further evidenced by a prospective minister calling for Media's abolition.

No ministry should feel like purgatory with too high of workloads, and all components of the South should lift together. I am interested in working with the next Minister of Media to determine what forms of content creation would be better suited to that department.

With this, there's much for me to learn, and I look forward to becoming familiar the ins and outs of Engagement. There are likely more qualified candidates for this field, but interest appears to have not compelled any of them to materialise. So we'll all do the best we can, hey?

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Conflict of Interests Declaration

In the South Pacific, I am a legislator and member of the Office of WA Legislation and the Ministry of Media. I am a soldier in the SPSF. My World Assembly membership is presently mobile and used in SPSF defence operations.

Outside of the South Pacific, I am the founder and Arch-Administrator of Refugia, a position whose responsibilities may be largely summarised as OOC community administration, and the facilitation of free and fair elections. I have no other citizenships or commitments.