December 2020 Officer Election Campaign (FA) - Glacikaldr

While I do not come promising such grandiose reform for the Rejected Realms as Tinhampton’s quote above, I do intend to deliver region-relevant experience and love heart emojis if elected.

I have served as your Media and Culture Officer prior, however, I now wish to build on my experience as former DOOFA (Deputy Officer of Foreign Affairs) to become appointed as the incoming Officer of Foreign Affairs if successful in the December 2020 Officer Election.

My campaign is built around three projects I wish to see to completion if allowed a full term:

1. Overseeing the implementation of a meaningful and yet pro-republic Security Council defenderism bloc in coordination with the WA Officer

2. Bringing my flair for media and culture to the Outreach Initiative in planning involving closer relationships with founderless regions and defender-leaning regions

3. Working with the Culture Officer to reframe and refine our holidays to include other regions and allies

1. Security Council defenderism bloc

Investing our region and Delegate in a WA bloc has long been a matter of discussion in TRR, which I remember not-so-fondly ever since the formal formation of voter blocs by other regions. I have erred on the side of caution on the matter but maintain that such a voter bloc would make far more sense for our region within the Security Council.

If elected, I now feel the need to advocate for an interregional body to be established where urgent Security Council proposals can receive support and advocacy from our Delegate and others in consultation with defender armies, particularly those granted membership in Libcord.

Unfortunately, we must face the reality that many raids threaten our democratic principles and our allies. These attacks are often organised and brutal. I firmly do not believe that we must declare ourselves a defender-only region to start to commit ourselves to genuinely protecting our democratic values abroad. We cannot afford to gloss over how well raiders are organised, threatening and regularly overthrowing like-minded regions and allies, so we must invest our time towards creating a system where urgent liberations and very similar resolutions can be provided certainty and interregional support.

This is our duty as a bastion of democratic principles and has been long in the making. I come with the experience and dependability to see it through.

2. Adding my flair to an ‘Outreach Initiative’

As I have recently heard from Fratt, in the works is a project to build closer relationships and provide advice to founderless and smaller defender-leaning regions for security purposes. I wish to carry on this work to completion in collaboration with the Rejected Realms Army, as I believe its goals are noble and realistic but wish to bring my own flair to the project as well.

If elected, I will be able to influence this project to also strengthen our cultural and media ties with the engaged regions. For culture, this relates to the third project I have in mind but essentially can be condensed to involving more people in our regional events and formally extending holiday invitations to our allies and friends, giving our ambassadors some real work to do. As for media, and particularly The Rejected Times, this has the potential to source plentiful talent through TRT’s Outlander Program in collaboration with the Editor-in-Chief but can also serve to inspire new independent media and forms of media to flourish through providing training.

Apologies for nerding out but this has the very real potential to become an opportunity for us to share our collective knowledge with others. This project even has the potential to be treated as a pilot for a ‘Rejected Realms University’, helping us identify what rejects and non-rejects alike may be interested in learning from us and what would be valuable to teach.

By opening up this ‘Outreach Initiative’ to also involve The Rejected Times and the Culture Department as well as the Rejected Realms Army, we can begin to form a clearer idea of what a more permanent framework for upskilling regions and nations may look like.

3. Reframing our Holidays as FA Assets

Complementary to Nakari's campaign, I wish to work with the incoming Culture Officer to reframe and refine our holidays to welcome engagement from rejects and non-rejects alike, utilising spaces afforded to us gameside alongside discord and our forum. I personally feel gameside has the most success at engaging smaller like-minded regions, especially through polls and telegram-run activities. The success enjoyed by The Sands casino is one case study worth learning from in this space.

In collaboration with the incoming Culture Officer, I intend to start a discussion and rewrite of our Regional Holidays Act (seeking more than ordering the holidays in chronological order, though I must admit this was the impetus), introducing a day to commemorate The Rejected Times with the coming of its 10th anniversary next year as well as reimagining Kandarin Day to provide purpose to the holiday, such as having it become a day to introduce a nominee to the Hall of Fame or celebrate recent Hall of Fame inductees on top of educating around their impacts on our region. This way, The Library of Spurned Knowledge too should be regarded as an asset for our Foreign Affairs, with the library providing a historical account to our legacy, traditions and values for interregional visitors.

I miss the interregional success Rejectmas enjoyed when its stalls were run within the showgrounds of the NationStates World Fair, though I feel we have been far more successful in engaging rejects in its festivities as of late. I believe we are now ready to reintroduce Rejectmas to the world and will task ambassadors with this responsibility, expecting our ambassadors to work with the Culture Officer in both formally and informally inviting non-rejects along to our holiday celebrations.

In Conclusion: My Values (enough about us, let’s talk more about me!)

I am yet to serve as your Foreign Affairs Officer but have long aspired to the opportunity. I have given much thought to our place in NationStates as well as seen our region’s attitude towards certain regions change during this time. I both embrace and rejoice in our newfound willingness to engage with more regions, believing this to be a powerful gesture of good faith in line with our values. Of course, here I must speak of Sinkerism, as I have been a long-time proponent of the concept through TRT and internally.

To this end, I believe our positivity and mutual respect will prove infectious over time but appreciate that I must be reasonable in my expectations for this if I am to be trusted with oversight over our Department of Foreign Affairs. Hence, I believe the three projects I aim to pursue will serve my long-term strategy of making more regions learn to love each and every one of us. One day I’ll achieve my dream of a united Sinkerist front, and I believe the best way to pursue such a lofty goal will be through peace and not war.

I now invite any and all questions. Ideally, they should be about my campaign and election mandate. Please feel free to telegram your questions to me, and please let me know if you wish for me to feature them on the forum and on this post as well.

Q&A:

Q. Over the past, let's say few months, you haven't been around all that much. What is your availability gonna be like the next 4 months. I know you're very busy in RL (Deadeye jack)

A. I admit I was essentially GONE after I last served as our Culture Officer over Rejectmas (only working on TRT admin-y stuff behind the scenes, and only when prod by Aga most of the time ... unless it was to add another subscriber for my collection) but I attribute that to pouring my heart and soul out into my Honours thesis. Running primary research and trying to access resources during lockdown proved to be a living hell but the end result was very fulfilling (also, yay, I got a great grade and it just came to me today, including the nicest feedback I've ever gotten!).

I am now prepared and have the time to take on a role in the Rejected Realms' government (unemployment ... yay?) for another full term. I believe I have much still to offer this great region and intend to do so with your support.

I also got banned on Facebook without any given reason, but probably because Zuckerberg thinks I'm a commie :( so that means I can't run all the Facebook pages I used to run, freeing up even more of my time!

Q. Given the number of candidates competing for the FA spot, what would be your preferred office if you are elected but not given FA, and what would be your plans for that office? (Vuy)

A. If elected but not appointed to FA, I would like to discuss with the Delegate the suitability of adapting and operating some of the projects I have discussed above as the Outreach Officer, particularly around launching and sustaining a Rejected Realms University, while simultaneously improving our Library (maybe by also maintaining our library gameside as well, with an alphabetical & chronological index). I also believe our region can engage our rejects by providing ongoing (gambling, ew) services similar to The Sands casino, ideally through mechanical-dog fighting similar to Varren fighting in Mass Effect 2 (though this may be more suitable to pursue as Culture Officer).

Q. Given that you mentioned culture quite frequently in your platform, why do you think your ideas would be more suited to an Outreach portfolio rather than a culture one? What do you see as the core function of Outreach and how will your ideas contribute to them? (Vuy)

A. In my opinion, the Culture Department needs someone who's willing to maintain our cultural event treaty clauses and put on a show for our holidays, like I've done recently with Rejectmas 2019 and the Forwintrr Pokemon League interregional event, and I'm just not looking to organise all that this time around. I'm coming with three projects that I want to add my flair to and am seeking election on their merit.

I said Outreach would be my second choice as these projects, particularly the second project, can become the basis for a term focussed on welcoming gameside nations into our discord and forum environments and upskilling these rejects for future involvement by passing down our collective knowledge and experiences. Traditionally, Outreach has been about the internal health of the region, and I see this transition from gameside-only reject to discord/forum/gameside community member as the defining function of Outreach.

Hence, the ideas mentioned in my campaign's second project can be reorganised into a way to help transition rejects into a deeper relationship with our community by passing down our knowledge and experiences.

Q. What would be the goals of a WA bloc? What regions would you reach out to? Which do you think would be interested? Why, after a long time of this idea being floated and nothing happening, should we believe you are the FA officer to negotiate a WA bloc? What regions would you like to increase diplomatic communication with (regardless of WA stuff)? (Fauxia)

A. My goal for a WA bloc would be to limit it to Security Council liberations and anything extremely similar in consultation with the RRA and Libcord, with a quick turnaround time for committing to supporting and promoting proposals (ideally immediately discussed following a successful raid). I believe this to be necessary due to the organised nature of raiders and how gameplay has and continues to undermine our allied and like-minded regions. As a strong region, I believe we have a responsibility to look after other smaller regions, particularly unfairly vulnerable regions, such as founderless regions without internal strife, and those who share our democratic values.

As for who I would reach out to, I would turn to Libcord and the Delegate before making a case for who we should create a Security Council bloc with in the Assembly, but Fratt let me know that discussions are already underway with TSP and XKI. Essentially, I think all regions who want to uphold democratic principles across NationStates have a vested interest in the success of this project.

I believe I am the FA Officer you should go with to negotiate a WA bloc because I'm coming from a low-involvement background in gameplay and can emphasise TRR's position without others having much ground to project a defender bias onto my argument. My ideal bloc is limited to specific resolutions that can only be proposed in the Security Council, and this narrow focus will help streamline debate around whether we wish to partake in such a bloc as a region.

As for regions I wish to increase diplomatic communication with, my opinion is that our region is in a far better shape diplomatically than prior years. I only intend to grow our diplomacy organically at this stage, or through the second project I discussed in my campaign. This vision would include expanding our relationship with the UDS where and when deemed appropriate.

Q. What are your thoughts on our current relationship with UDS? (A Leaf on the Wind)

A. To my understanding, UDS has approached us with interest in a treaty. I have always been in favour of treaties, though I am conscious that they must avoid truncating the creativity of a Culture Officer as much as possible. So my thoughts on our current relationship are that we are in a great position to work out how to best expand the said relationship if deemed appropriate by the citizenry.

Q. Which region do you think should be our first focus to plan an event with? (A Leaf on the Wind)

A. I would love to see us all dedicate ourselves to running a very hairy Rejectmas that is cross-platform and can also smoothly accommodate and encourage the attendance of non-rejects from other regions, particularly our allies. This should be the priority in my mind.

Following Rejectmas, we should ensure we are keeping to the cultural clauses of our treaties. This may mean we are due for a larger cultural collaboration with XKI as well as another annual cultural collaboration with Forest. There are also other treaties where cultural collaboration has been promised but without an annual obligation, and I believe we should still work towards honouring them.

Q. As you said that you have a low-involvement background in gameplay in relation to a WA bloc, how would you negotiate things related to the bloc without much knowledge of the gameplay politics that are part of Foreign Affairs and the Security Council? (Fihami)

I say low-involvement regarding gameplay because I never got involved in leadership positions but my service in the RRA has been on and off since I first joined TRR, I am in TGW, and I was in AIR when that was still a thing. I have access to Libcord, though I moved to inactive because of my Honours program taking up most of my time since February this year. I've spoken with most of our defender allies during updates and would be able to access these relationships to help create the foundations for a healthy and successful Security Council bloc if our citizenry is in favour of what I will propose in the Assembly if elected. Ultimately, gameplay politics is something I would seek out the RRA's leadership to advise both the incumbent FA Officer and Delegate in both the creation and during the ordinary operation of any Security Council bloc - and I imagine they would be very happy to do so.

What is your view on our ambassador corps in its current state, and do you believe action is needed to make sure our ambassador positions are filled by active people? Do you intend to make any structural changes to it as other candidates for FA have proposed? (Vuy)

I am sceptical that providing reasonable rewards or undertaking a restructure would provide any meaningful long-term change to our ambassador corps. What our ambassadors need, in my opinion, are meaningful expectations. Currently, ambassadors are only expected to share Foreign Updates, which have been irregular at best this year. For comparison's sake, The Rejected Times expects its staff to meaningfully contribute to every third issue at a minimum to remain involved, and these issues are now being released monthly.

Foreign Updates need to be more consistent and ambassadors should also be expected to maintain meaningful interactions with non-rejects in their embassy's region (though having more than one ambassador per region may help in some cases, especially for larger allies). I come with a great track record of getting written publication in on time as demonstrated through my service in TRT and will be exploring options to encourage more rejects to help write for our Foreign Updates as well.

If elected, I will see our Foreign Updates return to their regular every-two-months release and place greater expectations on ambassadors around engaging with their embassy's region, such as weekly RMB and discord interaction. I will explore options in how to police the latter concerning the privacy of both our rejects and non-rejects, but the aim of these interactions would primarily be to merely let non-rejects know about our upcoming events as well as TRT's Outlander Program. This will hopefully help reveal in which regions we will need to recruit more dedicated ambassadors on top of the embassies that are currently vacant.