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During my previous term it was the Foreign Affairs Ministry's unfortunate displeasure to try to salvage diplomatic ties with a couple regions that, like us, had been operating under assumptions based in misinformation propagated by an individual that seemed to take pleasure in manipulating others. We failed in that regard however. Months of negotiation had ultimately achieved nothing despite the hard work of Katie, Moot and myself.

Now however we have the pleasure of looking to the future with hope. Keeping that in mind my biggest project, should I be elected, is to roll out a new program to train our ambassadors. In all my years here on NationStates, ambassadors have been nothing but glorified paperboys. This is a severe disservice both to our ambassadors and to the region. Any sort of training was dependent on there being an actual issue that needed to be solved. Never before have I seen a program that trains ambassadors to be prepared to succeed us in our diplomatic activities and it is my desire to train our ambassadors to be future Thanes and maybe even a Jarl in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Vote for progress. Vote for the future. Vote for Emoticonius!

Almost Forgot The Required Part!

1) Why are you running for this position?
FA work is surprisingly flexible in its methodology. So if I can explore that and make some good contributions to the region at the same time, then that's all the convincing I need.

2) What do you aim to accomplish as thane? As part of this, you must include at least one thing that you promise to do beyond the minimum listed duties of the position during your term. It should be measurable, so that it's black and white whether you fulfilled this mandate at the end of the term if you are elected.
(see my plan for an ambassador training program above)

2a) If you are an incumbent running for re-election, did you fulfill your mandate from the September election? If not, why didn't you?
No, I didn't. However my experiences from my prior term has led me to the development of the aforementioned ambassador training program.

3) What qualifications or experience do you have in the area that you are running in?
Years of work in various regions in various capacities over the years, including my previous two terms in this very position, which allowed for a new, albeit difficult experience. So I'm only learning more and more.

4) How do you plan to have the time to fulfill the duties of the position until the next election in March?
I have nothing to do but this, play games and keep myself fed. So I'm trying to keep from going insane?

5) Are you currently a part of any other NationStates regional or organizational government? If so, please include those regions and positions.
I'm a long time citizen in TRR of good standing. Though I am not involved in any other governments at this time.

I'm highly offended that you think someone would succeed me as Jarl

This, finding something for ambassadors to do outside foreign updates, is what I've been wanting to accomplish since I was Thane of Embassies. I hope you can succeed where I couldn't! I approve this campaign as FA Jarl! ^^

Welcome to the campaign! As with the others, I have questions.

1) As you mention, we had some troubles in the last term related to the Great Schism. What are your takeaways from your experience in helping to deal with those events? Are there lessons that the ministry or you personally have taken away from what happened?

2) As you probably know, many regions have tried to deal with the issue of inactive or irrelevant ambassadors. In fact, the South Pacific has eliminated its ambassador program entirely at different points in its past because they didn't think it was worth keeping at all. How will you transform the ambassador program into something that's interesting, relevant, and exciting for the people in it beyond training?

3) One of the concerns that has been raised is the blurred lines between the government, especially the Cabinet, and the Discord ops team. Currently there are three people on the ops team running for election to the Cabinet: AJ, Pengu, and yourself. How do you plan on ensuring that your role in one body does not unduly influence your role in the other?

Welcome to the campaign! As with the others, I have questions.

1) As you mention, we had some troubles in the last term related to the Great Schism. What are your takeaways from your experience in helping to deal with those events? Are there lessons that the ministry or you personally have taken away from what happened?

In the end the FA ministry was helpless at the time. We had little to no information to go on and that's not even taking into account that the information was based in deception. There was nothing we could do and I don't believe losing the embassies we did was avoidable at the time. The FA ministry did all that it could. So I don't feel as if I learned anything from the FAs handling of it on their end.

2) As you probably know, many regions have tried to deal with the issue of inactive or irrelevant ambassadors. In fact, the South Pacific has eliminated its ambassador program entirely at different points in its past because they didn't think it was worth keeping at all. How will you transform the ambassador program into something that's interesting, relevant, and exciting for the people in it beyond training?

Ultimately I'd like to give the ambassadors more responsibility in the FA ministry after their training is complete, including the authority to speak on Wintreath's behalf to their assigned region as myself or Katie would have. There'd be some oversight of course. Every correspondence would have to be documented and stored for future reference in any situations that might require recalling that information.

This would also have the side-affect of freeing up time for the ministry's Thanes and Jarl to come up with more ideas and find more new regions to establish ties with.

3) One of the concerns that has been raised is the blurred lines between the government, especially the Cabinet, and the Discord ops team. Currently there are three people on the ops team running for election to the Cabinet: AJ, Pengu, and yourself. How do you plan on ensuring that your role in one body does not unduly influence your role in the other?

The separation of responsibilities between the two jobs is clear. Anything that surfaces requiring involvement of the ops will be handled by the ops team. Anything that falls under the purview of my responsibilities in the FA ministry will be kept to the FA ministry. I'm sure that correspondence where the two overlap will probably happen at some point. In the event of that I will recuse myself from any such correspondence on one end and handle it only from an internal perspective, be it in discussion with the ops team or in discussion with the FA ministry.