Fellow South Pacificans,

I’m running for re-election as Prime Minister. When I ran for office in October, I hoped a term as Prime Minister would give me a breath of fresh air and allow me to do some serious work to build community engagement at home and project interregional strength abroad. Today, I look back on the term and think we accomplished that, while still identifying clear areas for improvement. I’m running for re-election to complete that unfinished work and because I have found the past term thoroughly enjoyable and rewarding.

Since I have the experience of having just competed a term as Prime Minister, I’ll organize this into three parts: what I did well, what I want to do differently, and what my agenda is.

Here are some things that went well this past term:

• Public communication — The bi-weekly updates released by the Cabinet provided the Assembly with regular informative updates on the Cabinet’s work. This practice would continue in a second term.
  
• Appointments and Public Information — My Cabinet was punctual in its release of Sunshine reports, using its appointment power to move the region forward, and handling regional issues. Additionally, I was open and honest with the Assembly when there were pressing issues with one of our Ministries, which resulted in long-term better outcomes for that Ministry. This principle of staying on top of important issues, providing decisive leadership, and being transparent with other government institutions would continue.
  
• Stability in every Ministry — At the beginning of this term, both OWL and several of our Ministries had extreme instability and disorganization in fulfilling very basic functions. At this point, every Ministry has sufficient stability to carry out its core functions. Some examples of our accomplishments include:
  • Huge growth in SPSF updater numbers as seen in the sieges of A Liberal Haven and subsequent integration of new SPSF members
    
  • Necessary refining and subsequent expansion of our FA portfolio as demonstrated by our Non-Aggression Pact with Balder and the repeal of our treaty with Conch Kingdom.
    
  • The continued publication of The Southern Journal and of the monthly Culture Calendar, with cultural events regularly having stable attendance.
    
  • OWL regularly publishing votes and recommendations in a timely manner.
    
  • Ministry of Engagement programs beginning to produce meaningful work products – both in the outreach program and the wiki program.
    

The main area where I want to improve my work as Prime Minister in the upcoming term is taking a more authoritative leadership role in the Cabinet. Early in the previous term, I largely used the power of the Prime Minister as a manager, a “keep the trains on time” kind of figure. I was always punctual and on top of a situation but was hesitant to guide the direction of Minister decision-making and goals within each Ministry. As I grew into the role more and became more comfortable with the positions and its powers, as well as with the Ministers in my Cabinet, I became more comfortable weighing in on each Ministry’s agenda and directing new programs and initiatives. While individual Minister discretion is important, and I strive to allow Ministers to execute the platforms they were elected on, my barometer has shifted more in favor of exercising centralized executive control while Prime Minister. Ultimately, Ministries have to be able to work together to fill whole-region goals, and Prime Minister coordination is a key way to achieve this.

To that end, I wanted to present a more comprehensive Ministry-by-Ministry and task-by-task platform this election. Instead of giving only broader managerial tactics, I have both Cabinet-wide goals and specific goals for each Ministry and OWL in the upcoming term.

• Staff Onboarding/Outreach: Right now, each Ministry welcomes new staff members, but few Ministries have thought about how to welcome new staff members to set them up with opportunities to get involved. Instead of just a “hi this is our channel”, each Ministry needs to come up with a brief on-boarding guide and set of tasks new members can jump in on immediately. The Ministry of Engagement focuses on integration and engagement for the entire region, but each Ministry needs a way to integrate and engage its own staff.
  
• Converting to the New Forum Layout: Forum admin just did a forum reorganization which affected the layout of the Cabinet sub-forum. The next Cabinet will need to finish transitioning to the new layout and think about how to take advantage of the new layout in the long-term.
  
• Office of WA Legislation: OWL needs to focus on fostering better discussions about WA resolutions, which means an explicit expectation and system for staff to actually lead discussions rather than simply opening and closing votes.
  
• Ministry of Culture: The Ministry of Culture will need to scale up to focus on larger events. The TSPTris event Doge hosted in January was a test run of this, but we can be more ambitious, more polished and organized about our roll out and implementation and have better promotion to have better events. Additionally, the Ministry of Culture will work in greater concert with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to build events that project South Pacifican soft power and fortify our foreign affairs relationships. Aspirationally, I’d like us to move towards having a more active voice chat culture in the Discord as a way of building and solidifying community.
  
• Ministry of Defense: The Ministry of Defense is doing well in terms of updaters but can do more work in terms of pilers, which means the Tidal Force program should come back in a sustainable manner. Additionally, the SPSF should strive to promote new officers in the upcoming term to create a more sustainable and well-rounded officer corps. Finally, SPSF made strides forward in terms of producing and disseminating promotional materials, however we can work to make this a more consistent habit in the upcoming term, including identifying ways to take the work off the Minister alone.
  
• Ministry of Engagement: The Ministry of Engagement will work to maintain and build on our existing welcoming/outreach program and wiki program. Aspirationally, the Ministry of Engagement will begin discussing recruiting under the Frontier/Stronghold update and reworking our welcome guides to be less dense and more accessible for new nations.
  
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Affairs needs to utilize culture as a tool for solidifying our alliances and agreements. Additionally, in the upcoming term Foreign Affairs will need to “bring home” ongoing projects.
  
• Ministry of Media: Our Ministry of Media has done a good job generating content. My three goals for this term are: 1) higher quality content (articles with more rounds of revision, better research and detail), 2) more editorial content, and 3) more timely release of content (release content soon after events happen rather than waiting for TSJ to come out). Media needs to drive our regional activity and debate rather than simply existing as a side piece.
  

With that, I’m open for questions from the Assembly. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being your Prime Minister for the past four months, I think we’ve accomplished a lot and grown significantly as a region, but I think there’s still more to be done and room to grow, and that’s why I’m running for re-election.

Conflict of Interest
I am currently Prime Minister of the South Pacific. I have served one previous term as Minister of Defense. I am a Commander of the South Pacific Special Forces, Ambassador to the Realm of Balder, and a member of the staff of the Ministries of Culture and Engagement as well as OWL.
Abroad, I am a citizen of Spiritus (2021) and a “member of Congress” (i.e. citizen) of Democratic Socialist Assembly (2021).
In the past, I have served as WA Delegate, Minister, Senator, and several other positions within 10000 Islands (2010-2013, 2015-7, 2019-21). I also served as Chief Executive/Founder, WA Delegate, and Minister of Renegade Islands Alliance (2013-5).

Minister of Foreign Affairs
General of the South Pacific Special Forces
Ambassador to Balder
Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense

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Additionally, the Ministry of Culture will work in greater concert with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to build events that project South Pacifican soft power and fortify our foreign affairs relationships.

Foreign Affairs needs to utilize culture as a tool for solidifying our alliances and agreements.

What does TSP culture mean to you? What do you believe it means to TSPers? And based on that — what kind of events or public image do you believe would promote and enhance that culture?

Esfalsa | NationStates | Wiki | Roleplay | Discord

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I'm the region's longest serving Prime Minister (at 5 full terms), so I know what the job is like, and what it entails. I also worked under you as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the past term. With that perspective, I have to say: You are an absolutely fantastic Prime Minister and it has been an immense pleasure working together in Cabinet with you. I sincerely hope we get another term together.

That being said...

[*]Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Foreign Affairs needs to utilize culture as a tool for solidifying our alliances and agreements. Additionally, in the upcoming term Foreign Affairs will need to “bring home” ongoing projects.

Way to tell everyone I suck at domestic stuff smh

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Additionally, in the upcoming term Foreign Affairs will need to “bring home” ongoing projects.

4× Cabinet minister /// 1× OWL director /// CRS member /// SPSF

My History

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What does TSP culture mean to you? What do you believe it means to TSPers? And based on that — what kind of events or public image do you believe would promote and enhance that culture?

Thank you for the question.

The biggest thing that I associate with TSP is the way its fiercely passionate internal political environment blends into its supportive and fun-loving community. In some moments, we are determined, we are rivals, we have heated and at times confrontational disagreements. But those disagreements come from a good place, a place of genuine caring about our community and its future. And because we're all ultimately still in that very community, after the argument is done we can come back together and use that vigorous debate to build a friendly, party-loving, fun environment.

To TSPers more broadly, I can't really say what they think is TSP culture, but I hope it's something similar. More amorphously, TSP community is all of the people in it and how we interact together.

As it relates to events, I think we need to go beyond the "here's a game" kind of cultural events we've been running. Writing contests, role play arcs, forum games (werewolf, codenames, spam contests, etc.), drawing or art contests, puzzles and scavenger hunts, etc. Our current events are good for establishing ways for people to hang out. They're not great for building narrative, purpose, and interest in our community. That's what we need to work on, both for our inwardly oriented events and our larger events.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
General of the South Pacific Special Forces
Ambassador to Balder
Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense

Reply

Congratulations, my friend, on a great race and a well-earned win. Looking forward to another term of your excellent leadership and I’m excited to see what it has in store.

 
Witchcraft and Sorcery

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Former Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Formerly many things in other regions. Defender. Ideologue. he/they.

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