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Introduction
Hello Wintreath, it's an honor to be before you today and once again asking for your trust in electing me to a Thaneship. These past few months of me in the region have allowed me to learn a lot about myself, and my passions, as well as about our amazing community as well. One of the reasons I am running for the Thane of Embassies and Foreign Releases is to signal-boost our great community to the rest of the world, and let others know about what we're up to, as well as hopefully getting new allies and friends through developing new, meaningful connections. Without my further ado, onto my platform!

On the Thane of Integration
I have had the pleasure of serving you as the Thane of Integration last term, and it was a very humbling experience to have the opportunity to work alongside and seek feedback from my peers. I would like to thank all of the cabinet members for being great peers to serve alongside. However, I will not be seeking re-election in this area. I began to find that I just didn't seem to have the passion to fully accomplish the tasks to its maximum potential. I believe that moving to foreign affairs will allow me to explore my other passions -- interacting with other regions, forming new relationships, nurturing current relationships, and getting our region out into the larger gameplay world.

That being said, I would be remiss if I didn't touch on my goals that I laid out in my opening speech here: https://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=6672.0

1. Newcomer's Handbook:
I have since found out that Wintreath already has an abundance of guides, both posted on the RMB and here on the forums. The main issue with our dispatch and forum guides are accessibility, I think that not enough newer members know that they exist. As Thane of Integration, I have gone through and updated a few of our dispatch guides, and I am nearing the completion of updates. My intention is to have final revised guides ready by the end of the term. They have been modified to require less upkeep, and they will be posted by the founder nation, so that in the unfortunate event that I fall inactive, they will still be able to be edited and revised without having to create a new set of dispatches. I will also work on making these more accessible and placed in an easier-to-see spot.

2. Recruitment Contest
I have been recruiting on a semi-regular basis, with me sending telegrams a couple of times a month. That still isn't great, and I will be working on sending telegrams on a more frequent basis, but I think that building consistency in our habits is key, even more so important than just raw numbers. I have also launched a recruitment contest: https://wintreath.com/forums/index.php?topic=6773.msg151369#msg151369, however, I believe that it may be overshadowed because of the Summersend festival, something that I anticipated. I will revisit the contest in the future if it sees low participation this time, and would be more than happy to relaunch it down the road.

3. Mentorship and Integration
I admitted on my platform that this would be the most difficult part to accomplish, and it's also the part that I have interacted with the least (as I expected). I think that this area however, is incredibly important, especially with our recent talks and proposals on getting newcomers involved in the government. I will continue to be an advocate for newcomer participation in our region, and I will most definitely be interested in mentoring newer members if they wish to pursue a Thaneship or getting more involved.

Now, onto my platform for what I am running for

On Embassies:

I think our embassies are a valuable tool of foreign policy. If elected, on day 1, I will personally get in touch with all of our current embassied regions to figure out the state of our relationship. There is nothing more that I would like to do than form deeper, closer relationships to our current allies and strengthen those bonds, for example, moving from forum embassies to treated allies. However, we also need to realize that things change, and sometimes regions are not what we once thought they were. If this is the case, I would look to scaling back our involvement with inactive or dying regions. Beyond revisiting our current partners, I would also actively look for other regions to form connections with.

On Ambassadors:

In order to have develop our embassies and foreign relations department, we need a team of active and excited ambassadors. I think there's great value in being an ambassador and learning about other regions, and I would advocate for more people to sign up for our new ambassador system in the upcoming term. One of my first actions will be to conduct a roll call of our current ambassadors and create a new portfolio for ambassador assignments. I also intend to use our ambassador system to help deliver news from Wintreath to other regions via forum embassies, as well as to use them as a set of eyes and ears to hear if there are any rumblings or major changes within our allies.

On Gameplay:

I have since heard that Wintreath has had a troubled past with gameplay. As someone involved in foreign affairs, I do not expressly call for a large push to get heavily involved in gameplay. I feel that at times, gameplay can be a pool of unnecessary drama that we don't necessarily want to be tangled up in. However, I think it's worthwhile to keep an eye on gameplay and current events in order to better inform our FA decisions. I would look to utilizing our ambassador team to learn more about big events in gameplay, but I would also keep an eye on the nationstates forums myself, and discuss any breaking foreign affairs news with the cabinet as well.

On Foreign Releases:

This term, I released a quick news dispatch: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=1417188 that detailed our Underhusen elections. I think it was a great start, and I will be looking to expand these further. Recently, I think that events such as the Summersend or the current Thane elections would also be great events to release short news updates on. I would also be in favor of utilizing our Ambassador team to push these articles out onto the forums of other regions as well. Beyond the short news dispatches, I would also advocate for continuing work on our Orendi, as it's a longer publication that can boost our internal events to others as well.

On the two positions:

I am running for both positions because I see the synergy between both of them. I think that maintaining our embassies (connecting with our foreign partners and finding new partners) as well as foreign releases (letting our allies know what's going on in our region) is a place where one person has the potential to take advantage of the jobs to produce a big effect. For example, in order to release foreign dispatches, you have to know which ambassadors to reach out to, and which audience members will be receiving the news. Similarly, when looking to establish deeper connections with other regions, it may be helpful to know how other regions have responded to our foreign dispatches, and whether their culture meshes with ours. I think in this case, both jobs help inform the other, and I believe I have the time and passion to commit to serving in both. That being said, if I am not elected to both, I am more than happy to work with my partner in advancing foreign affairs for Wintreath.

Conclusion:

Thank you for taking the time to read my platform! I am excited to be running, and please ask any questions you may have, I am looking forward to them!

I just want to quickly add -- if my platform title gives the impression that I feel our current foreign affairs department is doing a lackluster job, that is not my intention at all. I am thankful to @Michi for stepping up and serving after the departure of some of our traditional foreign-focused players, and I think Michi has been a great Jarl thus far. I believe that sometimes we need to return to the basics, such as checking in on our ambassador team and allied regions and their status, in order to build to road to success!

Hi there Monkey! First off, kudos on wanting to run for both positions, I think it's great.

As the Thane of Foreign Releases, there are sometimes struggles when it comes to the publication such as lack of interest, lack of access to the software to put the articles together as Taulover has previously done excellently in the past, or even just the idea that getting a publication as big as the Orendi (which is usually 7 articles  minimum, give or take) even released, as has been a struggle since November of last year for multiple reasons.

I've considered attempting to have a forum or even Discord channel for article publications, a sort of Orendi Recruitment drive (aka advertising open spots and article seeking in the RMB and Discord), and attempted to get better software (such as Adobe's inDesign) to continue the trend of a good looking publication, but usually factors like time, finances, or motivation kept me from it (usually because I'm already juggling a bit).

So some questions I have about you taking on the role are:

*What are ways you would get more people interested in writing up articles?
*Are there ways you think we could streamline the article submission process outside of posting a topic?
*Would you continue the trend of inDesign-created publications, or would you create them via a new, cheaper, and possibly better method?
*What are ways you'd overcome the continued lull in publication releases?
*In the past including in my term, there's been some considerations for a Mini-Orendi publication, which would have fewer articles so that they could be released quicker.  Would you ever consider this?

As you're also running for Embassies, I'd like to ask:

*You've mentioned wanting to have excited ambassadors, but how would you get them excited?
*One of the many problems with ambassadorship, not just with Wintreath, is that ambassadors usually don't get involved with their region.  They post their dispatches, and then disappear until it's time to post another one.  As Jarl, I've always wanted to see our ambassadors get much more closely involved with other regions, building a bond with them and thus making the bond between our regions stronger.  As the Thane of Embassies, how would you encourage this?
*As the Jarl of Foreign Affairs, I'm always looking out for new regions for us to establish regions with.  What are some potential regions that you see us doing well with if we chose to pursue relations?
*When looking at these new regions, what do you think it is that we should be looking for in establishing relations?

And also, while you've arguably answered the first 3 of Wintermoot's required questions in your campaign, don't forget to address these two as well as they are definitely important in considering your application:

4) How do you plan to have the time to fulfill the duties of the position until the next election in December?
5) Are you currently a part of any other NationStates regional or organizational government? If so, please include those regions and positions.

Hi Michi, firstly I want to thank you for taking the time to read my platform and consider my candidacy, I really appreciate it. You've been a great leader in stepping into this role this last term, and your interest means a lot to me.

*What are ways you would get more people interested in writing up articles?
I think the Orendi is really a testament to our strong culture in Wintreath. Part of the difficult in writing an article may be the fact that it seems so daunting or difficult to put together a lengthy, detailed article. I want to push for the inclusion of more articles that simply detail what's going on, whether it's just a couple of paragraphs about recent elections, or if it's a paragraph or two on a new UH law, or cabinet initiative, or whatever. I think that promoting these shorter articles and especially leading by example by submitting a couple about this election and Summersend could help us get more articles for the Orendi.

*Are there ways you think we could streamline the article submission process outside of posting a topic?
I'm not sure if I get the gist of the question, but I think that posting a topic is probably the best way to allow other people to give feedback on an article, and to get it displayed all in one place. I would definitely be open to submissions via google doc link and other sources too, but I think posting a topic in general is still a pretty quick and easy way to get submissions.

*Would you continue the trend of inDesign-created publications, or would you create them via a new, cheaper, and possibly better method?
I haven't had the experience of actually working on designing an Orendi publication yet, but I think that using an outside tool to make the Orendi look nicer is definitely a plus when it comes to showing off our culture and news to other regions. I'm always a fan of good graphics, and I think that quality, eye-catching graphics/formats can really make other people interested in reading what we have to say. That being said, I would be happy to either continue inDesign publications, but I am also happy to search for better alternatives as well, if necessary.

*What are ways you'd overcome the continued lull in publication releases?
I think the best way to tackle this is setting deadlines (every 6 months or something like that), with a targeted release date. That way, we have an approaching deadline to work towards, rather than sitting and waiting for articles to come in, until we have enough to release it. I feel like having an imminent date in which we NEED to get this out is the best way to make sure that we release articles on a frequent basis, but I also think that the deadline will provide some impetus or motivation for people to get working on some pieces they'd like included.

*In the past including in my term, there's been some considerations for a Mini-Orendi publication, which would have fewer articles so that they could be released quicker.  Would you ever consider this?
I would look towards keeping the current Orendi size, since I think a lengthier publication really allows us to broadcast our regional going-ons and our strong cultural spirit. Rather than releasing Mini-Orendi publications, I would probably look to better utilizing our dispatch system to release single-article pieces to our allies that details our regional events such as elections or festivals that we may have. However, I'm always open to new ideas, and my stances can definitely change! I don't want to rule out Mini-Orendis completely, but I think that having a longer publication released every so often with smaller articles being released on a more regular basis is a good system.

*You've mentioned wanting to have excited ambassadors, but how would you get them excited?
Well, the first step would be to tie in material awards, possibly incentives with the Game Bag or using a Discord channel for ambassadors to hang out in and discuss events in their respective assigned regions. But other than fixes like those, the best way to ingrain something into our community and get people excited about serving is elevating it within our culture. If we want to have a vibrant and active foreign affairs team, we need to make sure that as a region, we are recognizing the accomplishments and contributions of our ambassadors. This could be done by recognizing ambassadors who are particularly active and show initiative with an award, keeping foreign affairs discussions at the forefront of our government, or even just making sure they are supported and that their service is valuable (because it is!)

*One of the many problems with ambassadorship, not just with Wintreath, is that ambassadors usually don't get involved with their region.  They post their dispatches, and then disappear until it's time to post another one.  As Jarl, I've always wanted to see our ambassadors get much more closely involved with other regions, building a bond with them and thus making the bond between our regions stronger.  As the Thane of Embassies, how would you encourage this?
So, this is a little bit of a tricky question for me to answer, because a lot of my experience with ambassadorships is the same, you show up every once in a while, post the dispatch, and then leave. Being in one active region is already a lot to keep up with a game, and I think it would be unfair for me to demand that all ambassadors should continuously keep up with two regions and totally involve themselves in another region. However, I do think there is immense value in getting to know other regions and explore what they are like, so I would likely have the ambassador team complete quick assignments, such as finding out the setup of the region's government, or providing a list of the current leaders in charge, as well as keeping tabs on any big changes (conflicts within the region, changes in government, etc). A lot of this depends on the region as well, as some regions are tighter about what ambassadors can and can not see, and in other regions, there is just...not a lot going on. So all in all, I think the core responsibilities of ambassadors are to post dispatches and monitor the other regions for any big changes, but I am definitely not opposed to creating modules so that our ambassadors can dig into and learn more about their assigned regions.

*As the Jarl of Foreign Affairs, I'm always looking out for new regions for us to establish regions with.  What are some potential regions that you see us doing well with if we chose to pursue relations?
As the Thane of Embassies, one of the first things that I would look into is evaluating our current forum embassies and the status of our relationships with those. If those regions are active and their culture meshes well with Wintreath, then the natural next step is to enter discussions and talk about expanding our relationship. In terms of specific regions, I believe it's immensely helpful to have relations established with a couple of GCRs due to not only their size and influence, but also their longevity and traditions. I would also look to a few UCRs such as the UK or even Europeia.

*When looking at these new regions, what do you think it is that we should be looking for in establishing relations?
There are a few things that we need to look at. Firstly, and most importantly, is culture. We want to make sure that our culture aligns with the other region, so for example, it wouldn't necessarily make sense for us to pursue relations with a region that is 100% only focused on regional government, because that's not what we do, and we would have little in common. We want regions that have an equal emphasis on both government as well as culture and fun. Secondly, we want to determine whether the region would be beneficial to us. It doesn't make a total lot of sense for us to establish close relations with a region with 5 members, which is why I think having staggered steps of forum embassies - treatied allies makes sense, as we can evaluate what kind of relations we want to establish with specific partners. Along the lines, we also want to make sure that the region has somewhat of a similar ideology and outlook as us, we need to make sure that we get along with our allies to prevent any conflicts down the road, and we obviously don't want to be friends with any Nazi/fascist regions. There are other obvious important factors to look into as well, such as activity in the region and their view on foreign policy/their allies as well.

And it looks like I completely missed these standing questions, so let me get to them now!

4) How do you plan to have the time to fulfill the duties of the position until the next election in December?
I will be starting school online in October, so I actually have a little bit of time until then anyway! But with school being online, I expect to have the time to log on frequently and accomplish any tasks I may need to. But in a bigger sense, I hope my platform reflects my desire to pursue initiatives that are manageable and doable -- whether it's pushing for more short, dispatch articles, or if it's small tasks for ambassadors to learn about their regions that aren't time consuming. I think a lot of my goals are doable even if you don't have hours to dedicate to nationstates every week, and I hope this kind of sustainability will encourage more people to get involved, and will help keep our current members involved as well.

5) Are you currently a part of any other NationStates regional or organizational government? If so, please include those regions and positions.
Yes, I am the current Vice President of Europeia. I am about midway through my term.

It was a pleasure working with you this term, you were very helpful, and I'll be disappointed that we won't be in the same department this term but I look forward to you rebuilding our embassies and foreign relations, which is why I endorse you for Thane of Embassies. Good luck!

It was a pleasure working with you this term, you were very helpful, and I'll be disappointed that we won't be in the same department this term but I look forward to you rebuilding our embassies and foreign relations, which is why I endorse you for Thane of Embassies. Good luck!

Thank you Ogun, I have enjoyed serving with you this term, and your endorsement is much appreciated and means a lot!

Excellent answers, and I approve your application.  I have no more questions at this time.  Good luck in elections!

As the Thane of Foreign Releases, there are sometimes struggles when it comes to the publication such as lack of interest, lack of access to the software to put the articles together as Taulover has previously done excellently in the past, or even just the idea that getting a publication as big as the Orendi (which is usually 7 articles  minimum, give or take) even released, as has been a struggle since November of last year for multiple reasons.

I think the challenge of scrounging up enough articles isn't as difficult as it may initially seem. With the long gaps between publication times that we currently have, the number of articles written for the Orendi can be and is gradually chipped at, and just as importantly, content created by Wintreans that can be used for the Orendi naturally builds up over time. I think I pointed this out at the time, but in June for instance we had more than enough articles for a full Orendi release.

At least in the case of Dispatches, it appears that you will be running against Barnes for the position. My question is what makes you a better choice for the position than him?

In general, you mention that you would keep an eye on events in NSGP in order to inform and advise the Cabinet. Could you tell us about a recent NSGP happening and your thoughts about it as if you were already carrying on this role?

I think the Orendi is really a testament to our strong culture in Wintreath. Part of the difficult in writing an article may be the fact that it seems so daunting or difficult to put together a lengthy, detailed article. I want to push for the inclusion of more articles that simply detail what's going on, whether it's just a couple of paragraphs about recent elections, or if it's a paragraph or two on a new UH law, or cabinet initiative, or whatever. I think that promoting these shorter articles and especially leading by example by submitting a couple about this election and Summersend could help us get more articles for the Orendi.

At one time, I had the idea to split release into a magazine-like Orendi that detailed Wintrean life, news, and culture; and more regular news releases that were straightforward and to the point (a lot like Aukumnia's old releases). I suppose that's similar to the Mini-Orendi idea that Michi touched upon as well.

There are a few things that we need to look at. Firstly, and most importantly, is culture. We want to make sure that our culture aligns with the other region, so for example, it wouldn't necessarily make sense for us to pursue relations with a region that is 100% only focused on regional government, because that's not what we do, and we would have little in common. We want regions that have an equal emphasis on both government as well as culture and fun.

I actually don't necessarily agree...sometimes its our differences that can provide opportunities. Using your example of a region that's focused on politics, it's possible that a relationship could work out because Wintreath could offer the cultural opportunities that their region doesn't provide, while they could offer the political opportunities that our region doesn't provide. I'm reminded that at one time Wintreath was described as a vacation region for many officials in Pacifica...back when we had relations. Relations between regions are like opportunities that may or may not be realized depending on our similarities, our differences, and often just plain luck and circumstance.

Just some additional thoughts.

Hi Wintermoot, thanks for your questions! I appreciate you taking the time to read through my platform.

At least in the case of Dispatches, it appears that you will be running against Barnes for the position. My question is what makes you a better choice for the position than him?

I wanted to run for the position because I have an interest in promoting Wintreath's events, and broadcasting them to a wider audience, which I did last term as re-capping the Underhusen elections. I think these short style 'news blast' dispatches are a sustainable way for us to get Wintreath content out into the NS world. However, Barnes is an excellent candidate, and I would be more than happy to work with him in the future, if given the opportunity.

In general, you mention that you would keep an eye on events in NSGP in order to inform and advise the Cabinet. Could you tell us about a recent NSGP happening and your thoughts about it as if you were already carrying on this role?

Sure. So I will be the first to admit that I'm not a foreign affairs aficionado expert, but I definitely like to keep track of what's going on and think about how that might impact other regions. I think one of the biggest NSGP events that happened this month was the conflict between TWP and TEP, where TWP withdrew embassies with TEP after TEP put prominent members of their community on trial for an attempted coup. I don't think we've had many interactions with these regions, and it's likely that these regions wouldn't have impacted us to a great deal, but I think such a big event happening is important to pay attention to, and we should keep events like these in mind when pursuing relationships going forward.

I actually don't necessarily agree...sometimes its our differences that can provide opportunities. Using your example of a region that's focused on politics, it's possible that a relationship could work out because Wintreath could offer the cultural opportunities that their region doesn't provide, while they could offer the political opportunities that our region doesn't provide. I'm reminded that at one time Wintreath was described as a vacation region for many officials in Pacifica...back when we had relations. Relations between regions are like opportunities that may or may not be realized depending on our similarities, our differences, and often just plain luck and circumstance.

Sure, I see your point, and it's possible I might've not phrased my words correctly. I don't think we need cultures to mesh completely, but we should try to make sure that there's opportunities for our two regions to connect. If there are regions out there that are 100% politics focused and look down on games or spam or fun events, then it's pretty likely that pursuing a relationship them may not be the most beneficial to both parties. I don't think they need to have a perfect 50/50 culture/politics split, but I think we need to have at least some similarities. In terms of providing 'opportunities', I assume you meant that citizens would be able to move between regions to seek other opportunities (some sort of region exchange - such as joining a region for more politics, or joining another for more culture, etc). I think this could be something interesting, but it's more likely a niche scenario, and I think that having two regions share an increasingly similar group of people could lead to some problems down the road if the two regions aren't on the same page.

Opportunities is a vague catchall...opportunities for regions to have an impact on them, opportunities for people to get to know each other and help each other, opportunities to learn from each other, and probably more. In my experience, the best relationships Wintreath have had with other regions were completely unplanned...they just happened because people took an interest in us. When we attended the Regional Sovereignty Conference in 2014, who knew that over the next year it would result in deeper relations with Ainur and Aura Hyperia, relations which have made a lasting impact on this community? On the face of it, there was little in common with 2014 defender Wintreath and imperialist Ainur and now New Hyperion.

Interestingly enough, most of the most impactful Wintreans either came over from Spiritus when Wintreath was founded, or came over from other regions later on. You might say that our FA program has been a better recruiter than our recruitment and integration programs.

I'm hardly a FA expert, so I could be wrong, but I don't know that you can know what regions you'll have the best relations with until you interact with them. We'll have truly deep ties like we had with those regions with only a handful of regions. We'll have some regions where individuals will take an interest in us and either promote better relations or join our community outright. Most relationships we have will never evolve beyond exchanging news and information with each other, and that's ok too. The point is, it's hard to know which region will end up in which category at the start of relations.

I suppose my point is that we should default to accepting relations with other regions unless doing so would be deeply problematic to the Wintrean community or we're just too stretched to accept new relations. Cause you never know what might come of them.