President Election 2/28/18

Speech by Dormill and Stiura

Hello and Good Day, TWIslander. I am Dormill and Stiura, now a member of TWI for (between accounts and interactions with other members) nearly a year now. Though I might have officially been in TWI for a matter of 6 or so months, I have seen plenty in my time here.

Since I joined, I saw the rapid expansion of our membership to numbers rivaled by few regions I have spent time in. I have seen Ainslie, valued member to many, serve and open up the Office of Roleplay in a stroke of genius and progress not even I could rival as Promagistrate (Roleplay Moderator) of Auralia. Though I once held my reservations regarding Miklania, I trust he’ll be able to fill the void left by his predecessor. I also see great potential for this region, and consider myself capable of the honor and responsibility to lead TWI as I once led Sunalaya as its two-time World Assembly Delegate.

However, this isn’t the reason why I am writing this. As you are all aware by now, Polar Svalbard has faced a region-shaking scandal that has ended in his resignation. The Office of the President will be left vacant and a new election is to be called shortly, as such, I am here to announce that I will be standing for Office in this election.

To make long things short, I will condense what my plans are here, and leave a spoiler for you, dear reader, if you want to have an in-depth look at my plans. As for the short story of my plans, they are as follows:

1. Maintain faith in the Regional Officers by continuing to hold regular meetings, analysis, and guiding their Offices to new short and long-term goals for the growth and development of TWI.

2. Maintain all rules of the region, and draft all unspoken rules into official rules as necessary.

3. Instill a sense of trust and camaraderie between all members of TWI, we are a family in one way or another.

All that being said, my mission is to aim high for the region and work on building on top of the work of those that came before me. Thank you for reading, especially if you read all of it, and enjoy your day.
-Dormill and Stiura
Edit: After close examination, the Foreign Office will not be an immediate goal of my administration. However, it will remain as a long term goal as time progresses.

Speech by Great-Imperialonia

My fellow islanders,

Three years ago I received a telegram. A recruitment telegram, asking me to join the newly formed region of the Western Isles. I had nothing to lose, the region in which I resided at that time was rather inactive and I chose to take the gamble and see what it would become. From the moment of me, pushing the ‘join’ button until today I have never ever regretted that decision that day. I have never ever wished I held of that day. I have never ever wished I had acted in a different way that day.

Did I see potential in the Western Isles? Possibly. But what I saw quite clear was the enthusiasm, the enthusiasm that erupted every single time a new nation decided to join. That enthusiasm that erupted every single time a new role-play started. That enthusiasm every single time a discussion started on the RMB. That enthusiasm has never faltered. For the last three years, our region has been growing, we have been growing a lot, both in absolute figures and quality. But in spite of this growth, our core values have never changed. We love the game, we have the enthusiasm and above all, we share something: our friendship.

As president, I will use my experience to further ensure that the core values, purposes and principles of this region will be preserved and if necessary re-formulated. A very big advantage I have is my long residency in this region. I know many of your characters well, since many of you have been around for a long time as well, and I can respond to them in different scenarios. I believe the most important job for a president of this region is that he knows whom he is dealing with; that he does not tar everyone with the same brush and does not solely work for them, but also with them. In the Western Isles we have the ability to fiercely question one another, debate on another’s motives and criticise one another severely. I reckon that, though I also see, underneath all of this, the ability to cooperate and create, if done under the right circumstances, under the right supervision, and with the right purposes.

Concretely, in my presidency I would really pay attention to the duties outlined in the constitution. Naturally, I would work closely with the other members of the executive branch both behind the scenes and in public as any elected president ought to do, to ensure continuity, though creativity and inspiration for the region. But additionally, despite only one nation having the official title of president, my presidency would be a cooperative project for all nations in the region. I will ask for a lot of input from all different nations, both publicly and unsolicited, as well as privately and on request. My presidency would be a framework for a region that is working as one large forcing leading itself, with the president as simply having to steer the ship.

Then policy, since I have in mind a passive role for the president, I don’t have direct plans for major changes nor huge breaks in the status quo which have to be done right away. I would however try to put more nations, that contribute greatly to this region, in the spotlight more often by honouring them. I would also like to introduce a large investigation on how to improve the region, within limit of the president’s constitutional power, by EO’s for example. I recognise we have done this a lot already, but I firmly believe you can never stop improving, and how better to improve than with input from all of us?

A president having a good ideology is one thing, but also has to be capable of dealing with pressing issues on daily bases. I can be decisive and determined when someone breaks the rules that we, as a region, have established, and I will not back off to use any powers to guarantee this when necessary. The president has to be the chief executive of the region, and always has as primary task to ensure the safety of members. Whatever the higher purpose of his presidency may be, this role ought to be executed regardless, and I will pledge to all of you that I will do more than my best to ensure and guarantee a safe, tolerant and just climate for everybody. These same principles are applicable to my foreign policy. I am always eager to work with everyone, for I’m enthusiastic and not afraid to reach out other regions to forge alliances, ask for help or help them out, but I can ensure you that I will act fiercely to those trying to deceive us for secretive and egocentric purposes that could do harm to us. I believe I have proven my ability to act decisively and defend the region during my time back in the days as Secretary of Defence.

I have doubted for some time whether I would run for the presidency. It has proven to be one of the most difficult offices to be held in the Western Isles, and additionally it has been quite some time for me since I served in the executive branch of this region, or as Senator in the legislative branch, but I’ve chosen to leave the decision completely to you. I want to offer the region a choice, a choice to slightly adjust our course and strive towards a more united region. Also, I am quite confident this election will bring to light some really interesting ideas for the region, and I want to state that by voting for me, you are not excluding the other candidates completely. We are all the driving force of the region, not just one person because he simply has the title of president, and I am looking forward to work out possible other ideas for the region, presented by my components, as well.I want to bring unity, harmony and cooperation for the region, so why not set the example immediately after this election.

I want to build, with all of you, on the base we have established together these past three years, and make sure these years were only the beginning. Maybe I saw potential in this region the moment I received that recruitment telegram, I can’t say for sure, but I can say for sure that if I didn’t see potential then, I see the potential now more clearly than ever. We can forge something of an extraordinary value these coming years, based on one of the most important things in life: based on friendship.

I look forward to participate as president in accomplishing these goals, and I hope you have as much faith in me as I have in all of you. If there are any questions regarding my speech, or anything else, which I can very well understand, you are more than welcome to ask them to me publicly or privately.

With the utmost respect and sincerity,

Great-Imperialonia

Speech by Ostehaar

Hello there,

I consider this community as somewhat of a home. I have logged-in almomst daily since I joined late June 2015, and have seen this region through better times and turbulent times. After two years backstage, assisting various officers by writing and managing dispatches and welcoming new members - I feel it is now the time for me to step forward and run for the position of President of The Western Isles.

As President, I shall:
- Work closely with our Secretary of Role-Play to encourage nation-building and IC regional cooperation (alliances, trade, multi-national projects). This could be done by reinstating Vancouvia's Factbook Spotlight dispatch, continuing Ainslie's nation-building prompts, and promoting a regional RP newsletter or update dispatch.
- Work with the Secretary of Recruitment to make sure that our region remains welcoming and helpful to newcomers, and that we do our best to facilitate integration into regional RP. This would necessitate some readjusting of our many instruction dispatches, perhaps uniting them under a single roof.
- Keep the community well informed of officers' activities, with the help of our Secretary of Information.
- Make sure that the government works as one body and that the officers communicate routinely. This may require finding a better place for government meetings, perhaps a separate Discord server if all officers would agree.
- Have fun, hopefully.

On the matter of the regional Discord:
While being fairly active in it myself, I acknowledge that many in the region do not wish to use the Discord. On the other hand, it is obvious that many members find the Discord useful for raising and discussing ideas and feel more comfortable chit-chatting there as opposed to the RMB. Therefore I wish to set our Discord as a TWI chatroom for all non-NS-related matters, keeping most OOC cooperation and general TWI discussions in the NS site and forums. The "chat" dispatch would have to expand and include some basic rules of conduct (don't worry, not many...), and I shall do my best to ensure that the Discord does not replace regular cooperation through the RMB, TGs, and OOC threads.

On the matter of realism standards:
I plan to publish a new and detailed dispatch of realism guidelines (like Vancouvia's good-old military stats dispatch), based on over two years of TWI debates, comments, explanations, and expert opinions. It would include guidelines on matters such as WMDs, expensive equipment, economic stats, and space programs; and would be used as basis for discussion over possible new EOs by the SoRP. This would hopefully clarify some age-old disputes and make it easier for new players to integrate.

On the matter of inter-regional relations:
I will be completely honest with you - I don't see much benefit in putting a lot of effort into foreign affairs issues, since it is not the focus of our region. However, given that other regions are, in the end, where many new members would come from; and given that a positive view of TWI around NS would lead to more new members - we should not neglect foreign relations entirely. I acknowledge that I probably wouldn't have enough time on my hands to invest in this myself, and so I shall delegate the task of coordinating this effort to another member or to a small group of ambassadors. Expert RPers in the region could also join the effort by being active in the forum's various RP and nation-building help threads.

Thank you for reading,

Oste