Hello Ministers-Elect,

Congratulations on your elections! I'm excited to work with you all this term, and to the first-time Ministers, welcome to the Cabinet Office. Most official communications and planning will take place here - the #cabinet-office on Discord should be used for shorter-form updates and pings etc. 

With this thread I'd like each of you to post some sort of agenda item you will be working on in your first month or so in office. This will make up a large part of my inaugural address on the 21st, when the term officially begins. 

For my part, the first thing I need to tackle is a Sunshine Act release. We are very behind on those. After that, I would like to properly set up some agenda-setting tools for all of us to use and collaborate on. One of the big goals of my term was consistency, and for those of you who haven't used the Kanban plugin, that is our version of Trello boarding. I did a frankly awful job of learning how to use it last term, but now that there are multiple ministry projects I'll be contacting individual ministers on. Gameside outreach is another big goal - I expect to send many region-wide telegrams advertising the various ministry projects and I think we as a whole need to work on better gameside inclusion and recruitment.

My standing question throughout this term, and one you can expect to hear me say in some form or other many times over, is "what do you need from me?" I am an on-the-ground worker ready to jump in wherever I'm needed. You all have a lot of great ideas and I'm excited to work on putting them all together for a great term. Let's get started!

WS

 
Witchcraft and Sorcery

---

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

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Thanks for getting the ball rolling W&S. I'm excited to start out the term and work with everyone here. 

This is a rough outline of my early-term priorities for the Ministry of Defense, as detailed in my campaign and reformatted to highlight points of cooperation with other Ministers.

Internal MoD matters: 

• Reaching out privately to current SPSF members to discuss their goals and level of engagement and creating a public roster based on this outreach. 
  
• Bringing the public update reports record thread up to date. 
  
• Begin work on a member-based SPSF record-keeping spreadsheet.
  

Priorities I'd like to work with other Cabinet members on are:

• With Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@Jay Coop):
  • Probably a non-terrible idea for W&S and us to have a "big picture strategy" type conversation as the three Cabinet members with external portfolios. 
    
  • Discuss strategy for [CLASSIFIED] in the future---this was [CLASSIFIED], so we may decide such efforts are altogether unnecessary or need to change substantially.
    
  • Begin discussing potential targeted bilateral military activities outside of standard Libcord operations.
    
• With Ministry of Engagement (@Luca):
  • Begin work renovating SPSF promotional Dispatches on site and moving them to the centralized MoE Dispatch system and off of SPSF specific nations.
    
• With Ministry of Media (@moonfungus):
  • Work on publishing propaganda and promotional materials for the SPSF in MoM publications.
    
• With Ministry of Culture (@Tin the Free):
  • If the MoC is running larger events where it's easy to include a component that would promote the SPSF or its activities, I'd like to try to fit us in there. SPSF can carry the weight on planning some of those things as well.
    
  • In the middle of my term, I'd like to do 2-3 SPSF Open House events which I can coordinate with you about as we get closer. 
    

I'm also open to helping 

W&S, if you want that in more public facing write-up form, let me know and I can do that for you. 

And then, from you as Prime Minister, I'll mostly want from you as outgoing MoD to help getting adjusted to the role. We've worked together a lot in the past and I feel very good about relying on you where I have gaps in knowledge, expertise, standing, etc. to help lead defender operations. Later on in the term after it's become more clear how much MoD Soldiers/Officers may independently help on projects and where we are on progress for these goals, I may attempt to delegate specific things to you. 

Cheers to everyone!

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

(This post was last modified: 07-30-2022, 12:34 AM by Cabinet Office.)

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Before diving into the MoFA agenda, lemme start off by announcing that I'm gonna bring Qaz on as deputy minister. I believe that he will make up for what I admittedly lack in an administrative agenda. Now, my agenda has two parts, priorities abroad and priorities at home.

Abroad, I hope to work with [CLASSIFIED], but I also hope to discuss [CLASSIFIED]. There is more on that that I would like to discuss with the PM and MoD. Furthermore, I would like to [CLASSIFIED], the [CLASSIFIED], and keep an eye on [CLASSIFIED].

Beyond [CLASSIFIED], I hope to explore [CLASSIFIED]. I believe that there is an opportunity for us to foster relationships there and a little goodwill could go a long way. Additionally, I would like to pursue a closer relationship with [CLASSIFIED], arguably our [CLASSIFIED]. Even though we [CLASSIFIED].

There are a few interregional events that I might pursue this term, whether it is a second Pacific-Con with the other feeders or a smaller RP event with a few regions. I look forward to working with the MoC on these endeavors. Tin made it clear that they have some RL commitments that would get in the way of hosting a Pacific-Con, so I'm just putting it out there that I'm willing to take on a few more responsibilities as necessary since I have some experience hosting the first Pacific-Con from my stint as MoRA last year.

At home, I hope to recruit new ambassadors to the ministry and increase regional awareness in FA. To accomplish this task, I will produce monthly FA reports in the MoFA subforum, similar to the SPSF reports in the MoD subforum, with the hope that legislators will consume those reports and be able to make informed decisions if a critical discussion is ever held in the Assembly. I also hope to give Qaz some leeway in integrating the agenda he brought up in his MoFA campaign because his ideas affect this aspect of the ministry.

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

My History

(This post was last modified: 07-30-2022, 12:34 AM by Cabinet Office.)

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I'm especially looking at the upcoming term within the perspective of the approaching school year. This month to the next, we're likely not going to have quite as many opportunities for picking people up since we're in the height of the slow season, but as we get into August, we've got to be hard focusing on outreach. So the time between now and then is what we can spend getting our materials ready, making sure that our infrastructure is up to snuff and systems are ready to go.

To that end, something I think is especially pressing is the ministry application process. I'd like to work with you all on coming up with a better and more unified system than the one we have now. I had gotten the impression that some of these application methods are a little slower or a little less visible, but there seems to be more issues than just that. After waiting for about a week applying to Ministry of Media, I messaged Islas who said that they had entirely lost access to whatever account that google form went to, so no response would be forthcoming. I reviewed chat logs in the Ministry of Engagement which I had applied to about two weeks ago, and I can see that nothing was ever received or noticed. Logs indicate that this had apparently been the case with other applicants as well, which resulted in considerable delays for them too.

My thought is that if someone is outside this region's government, you know, they're hanging out or looking at us with trepidation. We're trying to get people to overcome that trepidation. If they actually do, and they actually reach out and apply somewhere, we should absolutely not let those applications fall through the cracks, because the odds that they're going to apply twice are immensely low, or they might just take it as rejection. I've seen people who started out as gameside-only players follow a link to get involved and slowly turn into superstars, and we don't want to miss that in our region.

So! I'd like to throw a thread together with a kickass OP, lodged in Welcome and Registration, containing general information about our ministries and their subdivisions, with one unified application. What are you applying for, what's your interest with this department, do you have any experience, what are you interested in doing here, are you able to join discord, what's the best way to contact you, etc. Something where ministries' needs are met and the process is highly accessible. We, in Engagement, can then monitor this thread regularly and ping ministers/deputies as appropriate to make sure we can get these processed in a timely manner.

Let me know you guys' thoughts on that general idea.

The other thing I think we should hard-focus in the next month is getting the cards program up and running. A lot of the heavy-lifting seems to be done, and the bulk of the work that remains appears to be writing, putting together threads, and coming up with record-keeping systems. Pretty much all of that is up my alley, so I see a path to completion before the school year begins. Here's hoping anyway.

I'm obviously available for anyone's ideas or initiatives, or if something needs some help or support. Just shoot a message and we'll try to work out what we can do.

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To that end, something I think is especially pressing is the ministry application process. I'd like to work with you all on coming up with a better and more unified system than the one we have now. I had gotten the impression that some of these application methods are a little slower or a little less visible, but there seems to be more issues than just that.

This is an issue that has dogged the Cabinet since the last time I was MoFA last year. We were working on a forum-based application, but that effort all but died for some reason. We definitely have to work on putting this together.

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

My History

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This is all really great stuff. Thanks everyone. 

Just as a side note, I spoke with anjo and they will stay on as OWL director. I am supposed to make that appointment and anjo was good to go again.

For Jay and HS, the #foreign-affairs-council chat will be of great use to us. I absolutely agree that the three of us should sit down sometime that we are all online at the same time and really talk shop as to how we're approaching FA matters this term.

Internally, Luca is absolutely right. I really appreciate that multiple ministers-elect have brought up the importance of establishing clear paths of entry from the gameside and updating the dispatches is going to be critical to that process. But more important I think is a single unified and very obvious application. I am going to speak with Roavin because I know for a fact he had started on a unified application process, and I think we can work in earnest to get that done this term.

Thanks everyone for the updates so far and I will add them to the address. Really appreciate the thought you all are putting into agendas thus far - makes my job a hell of a lot easier

 
Witchcraft and Sorcery

---

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

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Hello everyone, excited to work with you all and get some good things done.

I've drafted a rough outline for my early-term agendas this term, based on my campaign and feedback from my staffers:

Internal MoM work:

• Finalize the contents for TSJ and get it on track for publication within the first full week of next month, as well as a standardized schedule for most MoM publications.
  
• Create a dedicated editorial team and look into the prospect of overhauling the workspace Discord roles in general into giving it a more compact form.
  
• Create the 'Discord Upvote Squad'.
  
• Finalize the form of recruitment we would be using (and yes, I agree with Luca that an unified application would be much better to get the maximum outreach to gameside players).
  

Things I would like to work with other ministries:

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
  

1. Cooperate with each other about the advertisement of published MoM content in other regions.
   
2. Discuss ways to portray MoFA agendas in a more favorable light through MoM publications.
   

• Ministry of Engagement:
  

1. Start working on renovating some old MoM dispatches and moving them to the centralized MoE Dispatch system to keep them better updated.
   
2. Still an idea for now, but I would like to reconsider some thematic stuffs for MoM and would really appreciate MoE's input here.
   

• Ministry of Defense:
  

1. Discuss ways to portray MoD agendas in a more favorable light through MoM publications.
   
2. Cooperate with each other to create promotional materials for the SPSF.
   
3. Advertise major SPSF achievements and accomplishments through MoM publications.
   

• Ministry of Culture:
  

1. Advertise TSP cultural events in order to draw more attention and engagement to it. I've already talked to Tin about doing some articles on the upcoming TSPride they plan to host.
   
2. An idea for now, but I would like to do a 'RP Highlight' of some sorts in TSJ and would like to discuss with MoC about this.
   

As Prime Minister, I'm going to need you to support me on couple stuffs like creating the 'Discord Upvote Squad', finalizing the form of recruitment we would be using and potentially overhauling the MoM Discord roles. Later on, I might need your input about specific MoD stuffs due to your previous R/D background. I know it might be a lot to ask for and I'm really sorry that I'm placing this much of a burden on your shoulders.

Looking forward to work with you all on a hopefully productive term!

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Looking forward to working with you all this term too!

While my semester already started, I will try my best to do what I promised in the early parts of this term:

Internal Culture work:

• Create a stable monthly culture calendar system to be put on gameside and the MoC forum.
  
• Find a way to integrate staffs into planning and hosting events since there're problems with only people with announcements permission hosting events. (I have an idea of maybe using bots)
  
• Run weekly events such as Theme Thursdays, Phones Phridays and prepare for events like TSPride which would happen around the end of the month.
  
• Add new channels and I may reuse some archived ones.
  

Stuff I would like to work with the other cabinet ministers: (Which most of you already said)

• Minister of Engagement:
  
  1. Moving MoC dispatches to a centralized MoE Dispatch Nation and the application form merger.
     
  2. Graphics! and lots of it!
     
• Minister of Media:
  
  1. Publication of TSP events to promote and spread words to encourage participation in events.
     
  2. Discussing more about RP.
     
• Minister of Foreign Affairs:
  
  1. Hopefully host and plan Pacific-Con.
     
  2. Maybe events with PfS member regions like Prarie suggested?
     
  3. Talks regarding the cooperation with TRR about the Culture Calendar.
     
• Minister of Defense:
  
  1. Discussing and cooperating with the MoD for the Defender Day celebration in July and other events which may be related.
     

As the Prime Minister, one of the peoples who have announcements permission. I'm going to need help for announcing some events (and maybe even hosting) when I or other staff (who have perms) cannot. Until we can find a way to fix this problem. There're also archive channels that could be reuse (and new channels I'd like to add) but I'm not sure if you're the one I should be poking about this. And I probably ask for help when I know what to ask.

Sorry for the short post and the long wait. To a new term, Cheers!

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PUT HERE

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I like everything so far and am just going to respond to the parts that concern me or I have thoughts about:

Beyond [CLASSIFIED], I hope to explore [CLASSIFIED]

I know that Wintercrest joined Libcord and attended a few updates but has seemed to lose their momentum. I don't know if they are NSLeft proper, but they're NSLeft adjacent if I recall correctly (could be wrong).

Additionally, I would like to pursue a closer relationship with [CLASSIFIED], arguably our [CLASSIFIED]. Even though we [CLASSIFIED].

As we discussed in the FAC chat, I'm all about this strategy and am willing to help out with it as I'm capable. 
 

There are a few interregional events that I might pursue this term, whether it is a second Pacific-Con with the other feeders or a smaller RP event with a few regions.

I just want to express generally a sort of reservation about PacificCon, although it's obviously not my area of authority and I'm happy for any activity-generating event. [CLASSIFIED] and in an inevitable world of limited cultural resources to throw at events, I sort of think it'd be wiser to [CLASSIFIED]. Stuff with [CLASSIFIED].

So! I'd like to throw a thread together with a kickass OP, lodged in Welcome and Registration, containing general information about our ministries and their subdivisions, with one unified application. What are you applying for, what's your interest with this department, do you have any experience, what are you interested in doing here, are you able to join discord, what's the best way to contact you, etc. Something where ministries' needs are met and the process is highly accessible. We, in Engagement, can then monitor this thread regularly and ping ministers/deputies as appropriate to make sure we can get these processed in a timely manner.

I like this idea a lot obviously. What you describe is simple and direct and sounds a bit like how the SPSF application thread (which is the only application thread that is independent now) works. I feel like overcomplicating beyond what you outline will just bog things down (sort of like what we have in the status quo).

I absolutely agree that the three of us should sit down sometime that we are all online at the same time and really talk shop as to how we're approaching FA matters this term.

Sounds good, I'm all about it. Jay and I already had a good conversation but some time when we're all online do some pings and we can sit down. I feel good about the fact all 3 of us seem to be pretty regularly available when needed for short conversations on Discord, and that'll help with Jay keeping me posted about FA stuff and me keeping him posted about major defense ops.

• Ministry of Defense:
  
  

1. Discuss ways to portray MoD agendas in a more favorable light through MoM publications.
   
   
2. Cooperate with each other to create promotional materials for the SPSF.
   
   
3. Advertise major SPSF achievements and accomplishments through MoM publications.
   

Yep. If possible, could I get one of our updaters to do an interview in TSJ (or another publication, I'm not as familiar with each of the MoM publications as I should be) in the next month or so? Just as a sort of easy way to get the pipeline rolling. I'll help you pick the person (although you'd be a good pick :p).

Minister of Defense:

1. Discussing and cooperating with the MoD for the Defender Day celebration in July and other events which may be related.
   

Oh, I forgot all about Defender Day, thanks for reminding me.

For the monthly culture calendar, could I have 1-2 days per month to run SPSF promotional events? I'll do organization for it if you give me the time slots.

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

(This post was last modified: 07-30-2022, 12:35 AM by Cabinet Office.)

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To that end, something I think is especially pressing is the ministry application process. I'd like to work with you all on coming up with a better and more unified system than the one we have now. I had gotten the impression that some of these application methods are a little slower or a little less visible, but there seems to be more issues than just that.

This is an issue that has dogged the Cabinet since the last time I was MoFA last year. We were working on a forum-based application, but that effort all but died for some reason. We definitely have to work on putting this together.

No worries, we'll absolutely get it done this time around if everyone's willing to use a system like that.

As Prime Minister, I'm going to need you to support me on couple stuffs like creating the 'Discord Upvote Squad'

I'm definitely interested in seeing an organised dispatch hype squad. Lots of other regions use this technique to push their agenda, so we should absolutely be promoting our own and brand and ideology.

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