Corralling the Cabinet
Written by United Vietussia
(Europeia - January 24th, 2018) - In the midst of a transition and multiple elections, it can be hard to keep up with all of the Ministers' plans for their terms. Accountability is an important aspect of a functioning democracy, and it's important you know what to expect from your government and hold them accountable to their plans. That's why I've taken it on myself to do just that: round up all the Ministers' plans into a quick, summarized article. Let's dive right in, shall we?
Starting with the Ministry of World Assembly Affairs, Moronist Decisions released a plan centered around integration of new members and re-engagement after a lull in the last term in the Ministry. On the former, he details revising the World Assembly 101 course (written by Mousebumples and Elias Greyjoy), renaming it as World Assembly 100. He cites most citizens are "more interested in evaluating as opposed to authoring resolutions." On the latter, he introduced a three-pronged approach: the introduction of an award recognizing the most active member of the ministry every two weeks (known as the Star of Influence, which has already been introduced.), revising the process for Information for Voters (IFV) reports, and fully opening the world_assembly Discord channel to engage with all citizens rather than just the staff. Overall, Moronist Decisions has set lofty goals in a Ministry that has relatively seen little progress since the revision of the World Assembly Act. If met, however, the Ministry could see huge leaps in progress this term.
Moving on to the Ministry of Interior, Punchwood steps into the Minister role for the first time. His focus for the Ministry is to get it off of the support of a handful of citizens and make the Ministry a collective Europeian effort. He admits this is sure to be a towering goal, and that some of his plans could run into next term. Punchwood looks at three main areas in his address: "recruiting, integration, and crossover". On the first of these, he plans to introduce a themed competition similar to the Race to the White House competition run by his predecessor, Le Libertie. In integration, we get the big goal for Punchwood's term: a complete review of the Newcomer's Handbook. In this, he plans on trying to get all of Europeia involved, stating, "It is because of [the Handbook's] importance that we want to conduct our review of the Handbook in a completely public setting where anyone, regardless of whether they are an Interior AM or not, can get involved." He also plans on running an integration survey to see where efforts in that area lie in Europeia. Finally, Punchwood tells of a few minor projects, including the updating of the recruitment telegram templates, RMB engagement, and researching mass telegram function, especially in regards to the World Assembly. Punchwood is assuredly looking to get out of the gate quickly in his first Ministerial term, a position he's yet to hold up until now. He'll definitely have more than a few eyes on him this term.
In the Ministry of Culture, Writinglegend returns to a role he's held numerous times before. While no official address was released by Writinglegend at this time, he's already done quite a bit in the role, including announcing the return of the EuroChoice Awards after its success last year and officially removing government support from the States program, a program which struggled to ever gain any real standing in Europeia since its inception. While I can't tell you much about the plans for the term, it's evident that WL is already working away in his role.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sees Calvin Coolidge adding another Ministership to his résumé (now only lacking the helm of World Assembly Affairs to preside over all Ministries). While Calvin didn't give much of a detailed speech in his opening address, he mentioned that his Ministry has already negotiated the Treaty of Klunvorden with The East Pacific, which is expected to be approved in both regional legislatures sometime today or tomorrow. Besides that, he plans to make ambassadors more engaging in foreign relations while maintaining the processes in place in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that have worked for quite a while.
Festavo takes over the Ministry of Communications on the heel of one of the most productive terms from the EBC in Europeian heel. In addition to cranking out articles at the high rate seen last term, Festavo stated he wants to bring back regional dispatches for the Upvote Squad, a program that didn't see as much work last term. He also wants to increase Europeia's gameside presence by utilizing Europeia's gameplay thread to relay regional news and happenings to help boost Europeia's foreign image. He caps this all off by saying he plans to improve inter-ministry coordination, like creating joint content with Radio, relaying the accomplishments of the Europeian Republican Navy, and working with Foreign Affairs to determine what content should be relayed through embassies and Europeia's gameplay forum. Festavo has quite a bit to live up to after one of the more productive terms in Communications from his predecessor, Writinglegend.
Sopo steps up in the Ministry of Radio as the Minister for this term. His plans are, put simply, audacious. He doesn't sugarcoat his goals in his opening address, even adding a spoiler listing the goals he has for the term. Notable goals include hosting four shows with foreign guests, creating two collaborative projects with the Ministry of Communications, exploring transcription methods, making four "high return" broadcasts available on a source other than Mixlr, and, in his words, "so much more". Sopo's plans are perhaps the boldest of all the Ministers, and if he's successful, the face of Radio could forever change going into the future.
After a few terms with Rand at the helm of the Ministry of Justice, Darcness takes the position as the Minister of Justice and as Attorney General, something Darcness pointed out in the opening part of his address. Aside from continuing the Law Clerks program for legal recommendations, Darcness has announced that he will be coordinating a full mock trial before the end of the term. This was last done in May of 2016, although it sputtered out and was never finished, so it will be interesting to see if Darcness will learn from the mistakes (some pointed out by Attorney General at that time, Trinnien (also known as Rylian) made in this attempt to create a functioning, educational mock trial.
Wrapping up with the Europeian Republican Navy, Drexlore Greyjoy takes the helm as Grand Admiral for the first time. Drexlore makes no promises in his opening address, something not inherently surprising given military gameplay is based on the availability of people to execute operations. Nonetheless, he's made it a goal to increase the membership of the ERN and the reserves before the end of the term. Drexlore will be looking to take in stride the position of leading one of the most prominent militaries in NationStates.
If you'd like to help any of these Ministries with their plans and you aren't a part of their staffs already, you can apply to the following links for each ministry:
- Ministry of World Assembly Affairs
- Ministry of Interior
- Ministry of Culture
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Ministry of Communications
- Ministry of Radio
- Ministry of Justice (Law Clerks Program)
- Europeian Republican Navy or the ERN Reserves
And if you're just plain unsure where to go, apply to be an intern within the Civil Service Officium.
This term, don't be afraid to get out, get involved, and hold your government officials accountable to their promises and goals. All of us working together makes Europeia what it is.
