An Interview With Maowi
Positions of Responsibility
Written by Xecrio
For the purpose of this article, M refers to Maowi and X refers to Xecrio. Paragraphs in italics are statements added outside of the interview.
Earlier this week I subjected Maowi to an interview. This being the first one I'd ever done, I made sure to plan in advance so as to not go astray from the focused topic. I decided to base it on Maowi's "rise to power" or positions of responsibility. Being someone who only joined in June, she has exerted great prowess and responsibility in taking on various roles in Europeia. The below is a transcript of the interview:
I started off with some of the basic questions, just to get a feel of the interview.
X: Obviously this is about, what has been dubbed as your rise to power, which I think you'd probably suggest is a bit excessive?
M: Indeed. I've never even run for an elected position so I wouldn't say I've exactly risen to any sort of power! More that I've held some positions of responsibility.
X: So, I'll start with the most basic question. When, if you remember did you join NS?
M: I first joined NS around two years ago with a different nation, but all I did was answer issues, which of course lost its appeal quite fast. I came back properly as Maowi in January of this year.
X: Relatively new to the whole regional thing then?
Seeing as Maowi had only returned to NationStates (NS) in January 2019, it was curious to see how she had managed to establish herself so well in such a developed region.
M: Yes, you could say that!
X: Was Europeia your first region? Not counting your previous 2 years
M: No; my first region was South Pacific (the UCR, not the GCR The South Pacific). It has a very small and very friendly community, with some form of executive government, although of course nothing even comparable to what we have here. I got involved there pretty fast and held a few government positions there before coming here towards the end of June.
I suppose the aforementioned statement I said could be answered here. Since Maowi had actually held governmental positions prior to her time in Europeia, it must have made it easier to get her head round the whole concept, thus making her a prime candidate for various ministerial positions.
X: So, in terms of Europeia you're relatively new. How do you feel you integrated into the region, obviously coming in late to a very established region, do you think you were well received here?
M: I was lucky enough to pretty much know how regions this size generally operate, so I found my way to the forum as soon as I moved a nation in. I remember feeling very welcomed and reassured the moment I posted my citizenship application; all the friendly comments and greetings there were definitely helpful in smoothing the entrance! Also, weirdly enough, I found spam games a great way to start interacting with people. Because they're so simple and in a way impersonal, it was easy as a newcomer to leap into them without much effort or self-doubt; and then that made it less intimidating when I had to interact with those people in more meaningful ways. As I remember, the first ministry/council position I applied for was to join the CoWAA, as I had previous experience with that, and Prim (and then UPC) were super helpful in getting me started and teaching me how things worked. So that instantly made me feel at ease.
It was interesting to see how Maowi settled in. As someone reasonably new myself, I can easily recall how I was greeted as a newcomer.
X: I feel somewhat the same way. Correct me if I'm wrong, I believe your first major position was Minister of Communications?
M: Yes, it was. That was just at the start of the FM term that's now ended, Pichto(nia)'s second.
X: During summer time, the region suffered quite a few resignations and people leaving to focus on real life issues. How well do you think the various departments, namely Communications dealt with the whole ordeal?
M: Well, in terms of leadership, Communications was largely unaffected by the ministerial shifts that took place earlier on - if anything, positively, because it gave us yet more fodder with which to produce articles! I believe Siph wrote a piece called "Recruitment and Radio Resignation Rodeo," or something along those lines, with the beautiful alliteration. Of course, when the whole Brí thing happened, Pichto asked me to move to Recruitment and I agreed to the move, however sad I was to leave Communications behind. Luckily, I had the perfect replacement in Istillian; I'd even begun preparing him to be a strong candidate to take up the ministership next term, taking a leaf out of Hez's book - I remembered how helpful it had been to be able to discuss things with him and ask him questions well in advance. So, overall, I think we managed to engineer as smooth a transition as possible. Istillian's obviously been doing a wonderful job of it.
X: Alright. Disregarding executive satisfaction polls, how successful do you think your time was while minister of communications and is there anything you'd have done differently now that you can view the ministry from a more outside perspective?
M: I'll be frank: I was pretty happy with how my term went, but this wasn't down to me at all. As soon as I took up the position, there was an absolutely insane burst where everyone was writing like mad - lasting probably around two weeks, if I remember correctly. We got to the point where I had to try and stagger the release of all the articles we had stored up in the WPG. It was really, really exciting (and at times overwhelming for me trying to keep track of who was doing what and when this and that needed to be posted) and, in my obviously very limited time in the region, I'd never seen anything like it before.
As I expected, this rhythm proved to be unsustainable - in any case I would have gone mad if it had continued throughout the entire term! - and by mid-term there began to be a slight cooling down in the pace of writing. I had been eager to let my staff members take every opportunity to write, so as to personally improve, gain experience, and latch onto a sense of excitement with writing, but as we started producing articles less rapidly, I began to think I should step in and start to take a more active role writing articles myself. I don't know who it was - although I think I can guess - but someone's comment in the mid-term executive satisfaction poll that I needed to be writing more articles myself really spurred me to get a move on with that, so I am very grateful to whoever it was! I think in that respect I managed to deliver. One thing which I am frustrated with myself about is the dispatch side of things. I had been hoping to revive dispatches and the Upvote Squad, but I only produced and posted one dispatch during my time as minister. I allowed myself to be swept up with everything that was happening forumside and pushed dispatches to the back of my mind. This was also one of the things Hez expressed a desire to have done better, so I am doubly annoyed at myself that I didn't learn from what had happened in his term - or rather, that I let slide what I learned and became complacent.
It was rather intriguing to see how Maowi reviewed her time in recruitment. The positives appear to outweigh the negatives here anyway.
X: Unfortunately things came to pass that meant you had to move to recruitment. Was this a role you were happy to take, or were there some drawbacks you held moving into this role?
M: I was very happy to help Pichto out in any way I could, and this wasn't anything I detested, or anything like that. I had been absolutely loving my time in Communications, and the ministry now feels like home to me, so I was really sad to have to take a less active role there. And of course, recruitment is a tough, monotonous thing to have to do in high quantities with unfailing regularity, as is expected of the minister of recruitment. So actually, going into it, I was a little sad, if determined to do the best job of it I could.
Once I was in there, though, the story became very different. A huge part of the credit for that has to go to Bowzin. In our casual chat we came up with an idea for a recruitment tournament - this was actually just before I became minister of recruitment - and we got pretty carried away with it. His sheer enthusiasm and friendly (I think ...) competitiveness made me truly passionate about the idea and drove me to invest myself into it the way I did.
I was very happy to help Pichto out in any way I could, and this wasn't anything I detested, or anything like that. I had been absolutely loving my time in Communications, and the ministry now feels like home to me, so I was really sad to have to take a less active role there. And of course, recruitment is a tough, monotonous thing to have to do in high quantities with unfailing regularity, as is expected of the minister of recruitment. So actually, going into it, I was a little sad, if determined to do the best job of it I could.
X: The quidditch tournament was a huge success, with high recruitment numbers and an increasing population. How do you think people received the tournament and could you see the ministry organising a similar tournament in the future?
M: I'm going to pull on my Lee Jordan Quidditch commentating hat here and say that I think Gryffinclaw lost based on my own misjudgements in drafting. (I know this sounds like I'm answering a different question, but bear with me.) I tried to pick people who had been recruiting solidly leading up to the tournament, while Bowzin chose people who had done relatively little recruitment up until then, in many cases simply because of their newness to the ministry - people like you, cuddles, Istillian. He also made the smart choice of picking Aex, who had been very vocally in favour of mandatory recruitment in the concurrent debate. These thus far fairly unproven people in this ministry took the tournament completely by storm with their freshness, enthusiasm, and willingness to work hard, and I think that's what was so successful about the tournament. I don't know how or why it unleashed this storm of cuddles/Nate recruitment, but it did. And yes, I would certainly hope other big events like this take place in the ministry in the future - although special care definitely has to be taken to make sure future events are contrasting, both in theme and in the nitty gritty of how they work, and timed right. It is essential to avoid burning our recruiters out.
For those who took part in the quidditch tournament and who watched events unfold. SlytherPuff won because
X: Anyway, I think many people would agree you've had a rather successful time in ministerial positions. Do you see yourself sitting in the senate in the near future?
M: Well, the Senate has always seemed rather intimidating to me, partly due to the sheer mass of Europeian law and also due to the huge legal knowledge and expertise many of our region members have, including several current senators. It is definitely something that excites me - in fact, when I was completing Drecq's law clerk training I did start to feel a lot more drawn to the Senate - but I still feel far too new to take the plunge. I know there are a couple of current senators who are not significantly older in Europeia than I am; and I haven't the slightest clue how they do it. For now I think I'm content with trying to follow the Senate discussions to feed my interest; seeing as even that is a struggle sometimes, I don't think I'll be running for Senate too soon!
X: I would ask if you would ever consider running for CoS or FM? Although based on your previous response I assume it's not likely to happen soon?
M: In terms of CoS, I have zero military experience and very little foreign affairs experience so that is not something I'm planning to do in the foreseeable future. The domestic executive is a lot closer to home, seeing as I have served in Cabinet and have a rough idea of what one should expect to see from an FM. For me, personally, the latter seems the most accessible out of the three, and, having just seen this very lively, exciting election period, it is something I'd seriously consider running for in slightly nearer times. However, I'll be having problems with time in real life because of upcoming public exams so unfortunately I won't be able to do anything in that regard for some time.
I thought it reasonable to ask where Maowi perhaps saw herself in the near future. With the current term having just ended I'm sure many people wonder whether or not she would run for the position of first minister. The response indicates that that it is a closer possibility than perhaps many thought. The same cannot be said for the positions of chief of state and a seat in the senate.
X: I think that concludes the interview for now, if I think of anything else to add I'll ask it. It's been a pleasure talking to you!
M: Thanks for conducting the interview! The pleasure was mine
With the much overdue interview at its final conclusion, I feel I have a requirement to thank Maowi for her time as recruitment minister and communications minister. The person who has helped me develop my writing skills over a mere couple of months, and who as provided Europeia with some great comedy. Whatever role you hold next, I can only imagine it will be just as great, if not greater than the last. Thank you!
