Lollerland

Not a question. Just wanted to state that I have full confidence in you Vara! I have worked with you in multiple capacities and I know how abled and talented you are and the love you bear for TWP. I am sure you will be a fantastic DMoFA, if you get the chance!

Commend Big Bad Badger
Nominee: Big Bad Badger
Passed: 10th October 2020
For: 26 (100.00%)
Against: 0 (0.00%)

This regional commendation was proposed here and motioned by Lollerland and Saint Mark. The text is the following:
Vote shall be open for 72 hours, until 1 AM UTC of October 10th.

With the recent edits, I am satisfied with the quality of this draft and would like to move a motion to put this into vote.

Its always good to see old friends again! Welcome to TWP Daun!

I've applied a few of your suggestions @Lollerland, however I think some are better unchanged to better line up with previous commendations (example: "honouring BBD's multiple terms as Guardian of the West" in the last one).
Your suggestions are very appreciated though, thanks!

Few edits that I want to propose (edits highlighted in bold):
 
 

Badger would be a good choice in my opinion.

I would like to thank Fuentana for their nomination it means a lot, but after some consideration, based on my current RL happenings, I will not be able to properly dedicate time to the DCA role and do it justice and TWP deserves only the best so i will have to respectfully decline at this time.
 
I would also like to nominate @Reçueçn

Complete support for giving regional commendations to Yy4u and BBD.

https://r8.whiteboardfox.com/810372-3549-9959
Use this whiteboard to write or draw anything you want! The sky's the limit, and in the end a wonderful collage of TWP's thoughts will come out!
[May take a few tries to connect to it.]

If I am given the choice, I would prefer to sleep late and wake up late.

Welcome to TWP and NationStates! We are glad to have you here!
Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Welcome to TWP and NationStates! We are glad to have you here!
Feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Our diplomat team is big enough that we've covered most of the major regions we have embassies with, but there are a few active UCRs that have in-game embassies with TWP that don't have diplomats assigned to them. Two of these are Gay (https://www.nationstates.net/region=gay) and Iwaku (https://www.nationstates.net/region=the_glorious_nations_of_iwaku) which are pretty large and active for UCRs, but neither of them have an ambassador from TWP or a forum embassy with us yet. This is why one of my main campaign goals is diplomat recruitment, because it's important that we stay in touch with as many of our major embassy regions as possible.

The discord is highly active in great ways, that's awesome.
The RMB has different levels of activity—lately with the influx of new nations the activity is up but the general quality of the content is down.
The forum has the opposite problem where the things that happen here are great but it sees less use.
For the RMB my general philosophy is that the best way to create good activity is to lead by example. Having good conversations there and steering it in a good direction is always helpful. Posting the same link to the newcomer's guide is great but after a while that gets old too. I think the best thing to do is to engage with people at a deeper level. People notice that and it creates a chain reaction. That's really the historical heart of TWP—that's why I stuck around in 2015 and why I came back when I refounded last year—I thought the people on the RMB were cool. I definitely haven't been very present on the RMB lately but it's sort of a constant thing I need to keep reminding myself.
On the forums I've also been pretty bad lately at engaging with some of the rp narratives people have been creating—whether that's passports, archaeology, trade councils, you name it—which is sad because they're all great things I'd love to be part of but other projects and rl get in the way far too often. So as always I'll be pushing myself to participate in that more, but also with the cartographers and with sports rp I will be creating more opportunities to inspire people and for them to engage with.
Of course the forums aren't only for rp, although that has mostly been where I've been involved. The clubhouse probably falls under the MoCA as well and I'm really proud of the Nomic game I started there and am hoping to keep growing that.

I would say the forum is least used. The RMB is carefully curated and cultivated, and RMB-based culture is quite strong. The Discord is in good shape: there is a wide range of residents, visitors, and ambassadors who chime in at least occasionally. Something humorous or meaningful takes place on a weekly basis, if not more frequently. The regulars have a strong ethos of welcoming new users and continuing a well-run main Discord and RP Discord. 
From my vantage point, forum activity is selectively strong. The games thread is frequented, but recent strong points have been introductions and interaction and the ongoing game of Nomic, which is all about carefully thought out interaction. I think that the RP section is gaining momentum. Overall, it could be stronger though: the forum is a historical gold mine and has lots of potential for additional enriching activities. 
I am thinking of three ways to drive forum activity: The West Pacifican, RP, and cultural enrichment projects. Two play to my strengths, and one is an area where I would have a significant learning curve, I think. 
In The West Pacifican I recently started a "Writers' Corner" that featured the creative writing of two new nations. At Bran's suggestion, I am putting together a Google form to gather submissions for consideration. If there is a sufficient volume (and I think there will be), works can be published early or fine-tuned. Within the West Pacifican staff's Discord, there has also been discussion of siting the major articles on the forum itself so that traffic moves from the dispatch to the website. Related to this, I noticed existing an forum section with writing prompts. I would be happy to revive this in conjunction with The Writers' Corner. As I myself gear up this summer with RP, I see that RP has tremendous promise in cultivating an ethos of activity on the forum. RPers are already developing their national factbooks, news wires, and more. Though I did not participate, I saw how sports RP made a big difference in volume and engagement of this forum. By ramping up my own participation in RP, I think engagement and encouragement of RP as a culturally beneficial activity would happen naturally. To be sure, this is an area where I would have the steepest learning curve.  When I use the term cultural enrichment, I am being deliberately broad because of the significant overlap that can and does exist among Cultural Affairs, World Assembly Recruitment, and the work Gio inaugurated as Speaker (and probably UTWP). We have started regional commendations, and a vital step in pursuing such commendations is to dig into the archives of this forum and learn about the history of the region and of each user. World Assembly Recruitment will build on the momentum of a successful SC commendation, and to that end I discovered a guide thread created by Kawaii that can be integrated into the pursuit of WAR activities. To that end, whether I am elected or not, I intend to create or continue a Historical Society (whether official or unofficial) that is committed to capturing the historical significance of the region and its activity, and developing the expertise on the contents of this forum, additional highlights and important anecdotes on the RMB, and more. I will personally be working on a collection of TWP's best Haiku that will be hosted both on a dispatch and here on the forum.  But as regards writing, organizing writers, and doing research, I think I'm very much up to the challenge thanks to RL experience, and would really enjoy continuing work there—whether I am elected or not

Between our RMB, forum and discord, which one, according to you, is lagging behind when it comes to activity and what would you do to rectify this?

Let me tell you some of the things I find most impressive about TWP , some of these things may not SOUND impressive but they certainly are so when you consider the sheer size of the region and the total number of stationary nations in it.
A well maintained RMB, with enforced & respected rules and structures. A well enforced Endo cap Karaoke Nights on the RMB The West Pacific University is a fantastic idea put in motion All points can essentially be condensed into one idea that is A Tangible Culture. It sounds small, but there are plenty of regions far smaller than TWP who are so full of nations that all semblance of structure or "One-ness" is lost.  As for something that I would like to change about TWP's interaction with the WA
I mean, to be honest, What interaction with the WA?  
Just joking ofcourse, but yeah TWP does maintain a "Ex-Boyfriend from 4 years ago" vibe with the World Assembly. 
I would like to see more nations participating in forums and discussing pending resolutions. One way to achieve this that I would like to explore would be an apprenticeship structure, there are plenty of 5 Billion+ Population nations on TWP that could guide the 100 Million Pop nations on the GA, SC, and WA, etc.  

I don't actually think UCRs need more attention from us, most of our politics are surrounded by feeders and that is where we're focused. The sinkers and the feeder are our prime game area. We have Thalassa and other UCRs covered to our point but at this point, we should be focusing our energy where it is key to the direction of where we're headed with GA and SC. We're well covered for the direction TWP is aiming for politically. 

yes.
The General Assembly infringes on the sovereignty of individual nations to make choices that are best for themselves by creating international legislature. In a more game play sense, each GA resolution comes with its own set of stat changes (just like issues), that means that the General Assembly can remove your shiny world census stat badges!
I am going to take the same stance as Bran, I definitely want to encourage WA authorship, however as said the GA, is our less favorite part, for this reason just as Bran, I would abstain from voting on the resolution of a committed Western author. 

Good question! I think the regional commendations are a good source of activity, since there's probably 15 to 20 people worthy of getting one and we'll spend a lot of time on recognizing all of those. Remember, the main goal of them isn't to increase activity, but recognize TWP members with lots of contributions to the region.
However, the Hall isn't only about that. One thing most members forget is that anyone can submit a proposal, not just the Speaker. From the Manners of Governance: "Members may also propose legislation in the Hall which does not infringe on the rights and responsibilities of the Delegate and/or the Guardians as realized by the in-game mechanics or in Orders." So if you have something in mind which fits our government type and doesn't break that rule, you can propose it.

I assume you meant repeals here, considering TWP's culture of opposing GA resolutions.
 
How will you explain the reasons why TWP oppose GA resolutions to a newcomer?
If you see a newcomer or any other member of the hall who is interested in becoming a GA author by writing a new GA proposal rather than a repeal, would you be willing to extend your help to those players despite TWP's stand against the GA?

Oh I am so sorry for asking that again then, I don't know how I missed that. Thank you for the reply and best of luck with your campaign!

Architect, INTJ-a