Willania Imperium

The two ministries that are currently running won't have elected heads, they'll continue to serve at the will of the Delegate, so the first elections won't replace anyone, it will just add people. Granted those Ministers could decide to step down or Badger could decide to replace someone, but that elections won't have any bearing on that.

Fixed!
 
NO!

Here is the latest draft.  I have taken into account most of what has been previously discussed.  I think we are in a good spot with The Manners and are ready to plan for the roll out and get people registered as citizens.
 
 
 
The Manners of Governance of The West Pacific
 
Preamble
 
We, the nations of The West Pacific, heartily believe in the supremacy of the Delegacy and in-game mechanics of the region. We believe that the residents of the region determine the Delegate through daily endorsements. The Delegate will exercise in-game power as they see fit.
 
Delegate and Guardians
 
1. The Delegate of The West Pacific has all sovereign authority over the in-game region and the off-site government of The West Pacific and shall have final say on all relevant decisions. The Delegate shall select their successor at a time of their choosing.
 
2. The Delegate shall appoint nations from The West Pacific to serve as Guardians. Guardians shall maintain a high level of endorsements and influence in the region and will serve as protectors of The West Pacific against risks to the sovereignty and security of the region and maintain civility on the RMB and off-site properties. Guardians may resign at any time or the Delegate may eliminate, replace, or add to the number of Guardians as they see fit.
 
3. All interregional treaties will be negotiated and ratified by the Delegate and Guardians.
 
4. Guardians may be assigned other duties to serve the region as determined by the Delegate.
 
5. In the event of the Delegate ceasing to exist, resigning the position or giving away his nation to a third-party without previously having selected a successor, he will cease being recognized as the Delegate and a new Delegate will be chosen by the remaining Guardians.
 
Citizenry
 
1. All residents of The West Pacific will have the right to citizenship providing that they declare citizenship on the off-site forum and maintain a nation in The West Pacific. A citizen will be in good standing if they maintain citizenship and post at least once per month in the off-site forum.
 
2. Citizens, in good standing, will automatically be allowed entry into the Hall of Nations the governing body of The West Pacific.
 
Hall of Nations
 
1. All citizens will be allowed one vote in all governmental referenda and elections that are brought before the Hall of Nations.
 
2. The Hall will elect a Speaker who will represent the Hall of Nations in discussions with the Guardians or Delegate.
 
3. The Speaker will serve a three-month term.
 
4. All votes unless otherwise noted will be decided by a simple majority of voting nations. There will be a three-day public discussion thread on all voting. It will be followed by a three-day voting period. All elections for officials will have a three day standing period, followed by a three day voting period.   The Speaker will moderate all votes unless they concern the Speaker, in which case a member from the Hall of Nations will be appointed to moderate the vote.
 
5. The Delegate may ask the Hall for opinions and votes on various NS related topics and events as they occur in the region. Any citizen may also bring legislation to vote in the Hall which may not infringe the rights and responsibilities of the Delegate or the Guardians as realized by the in-game mechanics and/or listed in this document.  Once a legislation has been called to be voted on, there will be a three day discussion period followed by a three day voting period.
 
6.  The Hall may propose changes to The Manners as they see fit via a vote.  However, only the Delegate may make any changes.
 
Ministries
 
1. The Delegate will distribute governmental business as needed and it will be handled through various ministries.  The Delegate will create or take away new ministries as needed.  A brief description will be added or struck from The Manners correspondingly.
 
2. The Delegate will appoint the leaders of the Ministry of  Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Military Affairs. These Delegate-appointed ministries will have a deputy minister that will be elected by the Hall of Nations.
 
3. All other ministries will be elected by the Hall of Nations. They will serve a four-month term. They may resign or be terminated by the Delegate before the end of their term. Ministers may serve unlimited terms. The Delegate may replace a Minister at any time for any reason.  
 
4. Any minister may appoint assistants as needed to fulfill the duties of the position.
 
5. Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be appointed by the Delegate. They will have an elected deputy minister that will assist in day-to-day operations of the Ambassadorial corp and report back to the Hall any news necessary. The Foreign Affairs Minister will manage the Ambassadorial corp and prepare monthly Foreign Affairs updates that will go out to embassies.
 
6. Military Affairs Minister will be appointed by the Delegate and will serve as the Commander of The West Pacific Armed Forces (TWPAF). They will engage in maintaining a force of soldiers along with recruiting and training new soldiers. The Commander is tasked with day-to-day field operations, and shall work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Delegate to meet the needs of the region. The Commander will appoint soldiers into ranks appropriate for experience, service, and availability. A Sergeant-At-Arms will be an elected Deputy Minister by the Hall and will aid the Commander and inform the Hall of goings on in the military. Furthermore, the Sergeant-At-Arms will also work internally in The West Pacific to check for endorsement cap violators.
 
7. The Ministry of Recruitment and Citizenry will reach out to residents of The West Pacific to encourage them to become citizens, participate in the military, newspaper, ambassadorial corps, and other governmental activities. The office will keep statistics of citizenship and recruitment activities.
 
8. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will work to promote cultural and other West Pacifican activities to citizens and residents, and encourage participation in such activities. When an activity will be open to members of other regions, the Internal Affairs Minister will work with the Foreign Affairs Minister to promote those activities to other regions.  They will moderate the Role Play section of the off-site forum, appoint an editor for “The West Pacifican” newspaper, and gauge the interest of the citizenry of various events and run new events based on citizen interest.
 
9. The Ministry of World Assembly Affairs will maintain a presence in the on-site World Assembly forum and off-site TWP forum presenting relevant information to the citizens of The West Pacific. The WA Affairs Minister will be required to present their opinions on all GA and SA resolutions and poll residents to get suggestions as to how the Delegate should vote on resolutions.  This should be completed in the off-site forum before the proposal reaches the floor for voting in the WA.
 
Judicial
 
1. The Delegate and the Guardians may banject nations from The West Pacific for breaking on-site rules, for uncivilized behaviour in the region, for attempting to forcibly change or undermine the Delegacy, or for any other violation to The West Pacific way of life. The Code of Conduct of The West Pacific shall serve as a useful guide to the accepted behavior of members of The West Pacific; however, the Delegate and the Guardians discretion is not limited by this document.
 
2. If a citizen is banjected they will appeal to the Delegate, The Speaker of the Hall of Nations and the Guardian who ejected them.  The three shall make a collective decision on the appeal. If a non-citizen is banjected from the region, appeal will be decided collectively by the Delegate and the Guardian who ejected the nation.
 
3. All criminal and civil disputes which occur on the off-site forum of the region shall be arbitrated by a Tribunal comprised of the Delegate, a Guardian selected by their peers, and the Speaker of the Hall of Nations.
 
4. A Criminal and Civil Code and other legislation shall be established by the Hall of Nations and approved by the Delegate to provide for laws for all properties owned, operated and recognized by the legal Delegate of The West Pacific. The Delegate shall work with the owners of the various off-site properties to assist with the day-to-day operations over the respective property.
 

How, good ladies and gentlemen, shall we ensure this government does not go the same way as many before it have?
 
 

I'm pretty certain that is what the Hall of Nations are for.

That stuff may or may not exist, but surely wouldn't be a part of any official document if it did exist.

Good riddance! Don't let the door hit you on the back in your way out.

Name calling is not nice!

We are not a democracy. Stop that.
The Hall is a plurality institution. Which is a good thing. But approving deputies seems like a waste of time and political investment. Just let them be straight forward elected. And then have them be mature and learn to work together

I personally believe it would sounds better if we called it "The Ministry of xyz", versus "The xyz Ministry".
i.e. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Minister of Foreign Affairs; The Ministry of Military Affairs, The Minister of Military Affiars

Hello my fellow West Pacificans,
I'm Drall, and though I've been around for a few months I've only recently started using the Offsite Forum. My Nation is the Imperial Grand Drall. Some of you may know me from the RMB; I tend to be active there, or from the Discord, or the Diplomatic Corps. Since I've only recently remembered about this Forum, I thought I'd introduce myself.

Also glad to be here! I've played nation-states off and on for years and never realized how big and in-depth a following it had. 

HELLO! I am Emperor Augustus Willanius, Emperor of Willania Imperium! 

Of all feeder regions, The Weird Pacific is the least formal. I suggest we aim for a more nonsensical/fun title for the document, but none are coming to me at the moment.

Also, I'm worried that the Delegate-appointed Ministers and their relevant Deputy Ministers may not always get along, preventing them from doing their jobs effectively. Perhaps Delegate-appointed Ministers could nominate their Deputy Minister and the Hall would vote to approve?

I think I've got the title. This was given to me by Aelitia, the Delegate of The East Pacific.
The Manners of Governance of The West Pacific or The Manners for short. It has an official ring to it. And describes the document as it is more of a statement of government rather than a codified set of laws that you would find in a charter or constitution.

And I was going more for charter precisely because it was less formal. 

I think charter might be a technically better word, and if I remember right that's what we called the last one too, but constitution gets the job done just as well, so it probably doesn't make much difference.

The bolding is mine. As this section is obviously of some interest to me, I'm curious as to what the bolded bit actually entails.
Also, there's nothing in this document specifying that no marsupial shall be a citizen of TWP, so it's a thumbs-down.  

Once we get it where we like it; I will say, "Here is our new constitution!  Now register as a citizens, after a period I will oversee an election for the Speaker of the Hall."  Then the Speaker will set up elections for the other ministries.  How does that sound for a roll out?
Now we need a name for it.  Do we like constitution?  Or is there something more appropriate?

A side note, but do you think the Ministers/Speaker would have communications or poll authority?

Once this goes into effect, I will include citizenship instructions in the welcome telegram. The Recruitment Minister will also want to be hitting up new nations as well.

I think I'll stick to non-animated flags for now, and just point people in the right directions, being the obvious traditionalist that I am.

Hello gang. I have returned. My main nation of QuietDad has returned to TWP, bringing a truckload of Chocolate to keep Darkesia distracted. It's good to be home

This is amazing news

A basic guide to NationStates 2012
First of all.......Welcome to NationStates!
In addition to this quick guide, we recommend you also read the full NationStates FAQ . The in-game FAQ will provide you with more detail than this quick guide.
We also recommend every player read the One Stop Rules Shop for more game rule details. It can save you from The Wrath of the Moderators TM .
General introduction
NationStates was created ten years ago by Max Barry to promote his novel, Jennifer Government. Since then, the game has grown into a community of with thousands of individual players from around the world.
When your nation is created, your nation will start out in a Game Created Region (GCR) known as a “Feeder region”, one of five Regions where new nations are born.
The Feeder regions are:

The West Pacific < you are here
The Pacific
The East Pacific
The North Pacific
The South Pacific. Other types of Game Created regions include the regions: The Rejected Realms, Lazarus, Osiris, Balder and the 'Warzone' regions.
All other regions are User Created Regions (UCR). Any player can create thier own region.
So now what?
After your nation is created, it's all up to you, the player.
What are some of your options ?
- You can stay in the Feeder region in which your nation is created, or you can move your nation to a different region.
You will recieve a number of telegrams from regions that would like to recruit you. We'd be happy to have you stay here.
(note: Some User Created Regions are password protected)
- You can make decisions on 'Issues' your nation recieves. Making decisions on issues is what alters your nation's economy, civil rights, and politics.
Fair warning: NationStates issues tend to be humorous, and sometimes just plain bizzare.
(These are updated up to twice daily, depending upon your nation's settings)
- You can alter your nation's flag and it's motto, as well as it's currency and national animal.
(More options will become available to your nation over time)
- You can participate in the discussion on the Regional Message Board (RMB).
- You can telegram other nations.
- You can apply to join the World Assembly.
Within 12 hours of applying to join the World Assembly, you will receive a game generated email that will provide you with a link that joins your nation to the World Assembly.
Once you've joined the World Assembly, you can vote on General Assembly and Security Council Resolutions, as well as give and recieve Endorsements.
Once you have recieved two endorsements, you can submit your own World Assembly Resolutions.
We recommend you bring Resolution proposals up for discussion on the in-game forum before submitting it.
(Important note: only one nation per player can join the World Assembly. Trying to violate this game rule can get your nation deleted. Or worse, some Moderators have bad breath.)
Anything Else to do?
Oh yes, it all depends upon what interests you.
- For example, you've found The West Pacific off-site forum. We'd love to have you participate with us here.
Many other regions, both GCR's and UCR's maintain their own off-site forums, separate from the NationSates forum.
- Speaking of the NationStates forum, you'll find technical assistance for the game there, Roleplay's, World Assembly Debates and more there.
- Join a Government. Many, if not most regoin, have some form of Regional Government. Most regions would be happy to have more people particiapte in these.
- Join a Roleplay. In addition to the RP hosted on the NationStates forum, many regions have their own RP communities.
How do I go to war?
- NationStates does not provide a warfare system, however players do engage in 'military' gameplay operations that generally employ the use of World Assembly endorsements to control a region's Delegacy.
This is often known as Raiding and Defending. Speak with a region's military leader for more info, most would be happy to train you.
- Oh wait, you meant Roleplay war? See the NationStates forum, or the offsite forum of a region that hosts Roleplay.
How do I win the game?
Sorry, there are no 'win conditions' line or 'end game' to NationStates, the game is not played on that basis. Although you can compete with other nations to see where your nation ranks in the lastest NationStates Census. Your answers to issues will alter where your nation stands in the rankings. Some regional player communities also hold their own contests and issue graphic awards for winning them.
Anything else I should know?
Well, probably more that I think to write here. But you might keep in mind:
- Don’t join the World Assembly with more than one nation. (we don't want your nation to get deleted)
- Do not flame, troll, post racist statements. But really, using common courtesy will keep you safe and respected. Give respect and it will be given to you.
- Your nation will automatically 'Cease to Exist' (CTE) if you haven’t logged in for 28 days. Although you can set your nation to “Vacation Mode” to extend that to 60 days.
- In the event that your nation has CTE'd, you can restore it by simply logging in. You’ll find your nation restored in one of the Game Created 'Sinker' regions :Lazarus, Osiris, or Balder.
Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the game!