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I just finished up being party president of IFP for the last two months and I decided to write articles describing the job and my experience. I have seen articles by country presidents and congressman but never PP before. The funny thing about PP is you have to pay 2 gold to get your name on the ballot, you get no medial’s if you win, and no 5 gold payment. The job required me to send out about 1,000 pm a month and cost me personally about 20 gold a month to do. You get called every name in the book from people in your party and people outside you party. It can be a thankless job not done in the open but it can also be very interesting at the same time. I got to meet a lot of interesting people, I got some really funny and strange PM’s, and I could see measurable changes for my hard work in improved congress election results and party growth.

To start off with I ran for party president after playing the game for 4 weeks, I just had enough experience to put my name on the ballot. I thought I had no chance of winning and was not even registered on the party forum. I think my opponents were even more surprised then me when I won, Patton even called me a “junior no name” that night when arguing with snake. The way I won was by spamming out a PM telling party members a little about my self and what I wanted to do, this is the first article I have ever wrote. I found that pm’s are a more difficult way to communicate but much more effective. After I sent out that first pm some one wrote back and told me that they would vote for me if I gave them three Q1 guns. This was one of the first of many funny pm that I got. Guns for votes was immoral on about three different levels.

When I won the election I said “oh Shit” now I got to do what I said in that pm. The first couple of days it felt more like work then a game. I got lucky and appointed Daniel Kaffe as party VP with out knowing him that good at that point. Daniel was a big help over the last two months and has become a trusted friend, I got very lucky on that one. One night I think I talked to him more then I did my wife.

I organized the congress elections the last two moths with some help from others, especially mic. We had some success raising our congressman elected from 4 to 11 in the two months. I did not run personally because I wanted to concentrate on one job at a time, allow others the opportunity, and because I thought it was a conflict of interest if I was asking people to move around to vote and those choices could affect me. A lot of people have a misconception that the party president can add or subtract canadites on the last day before election. It does not work like that, I tried, if there is more then 6 canadites the PP can choose who is running but there is never more then 6 canadites in one area. The first month I set a policy that anyone who wanted to run had the right. I modified it the second month to anyone over level 14 and who voted in more then half the votes the month before could run. I saw other parties over manage who could run in the past and this led to alienation of there own junior members. Last month I think we had 24 candites running for congress, letting most people run can lead to other problems. Both months we had people who lost take it personally, they usually vent there anger at the PP. Some one who lost in another party and I gave advice to even through a fit at me last month. I tried to manage expectations and give people what the odds of them winning would be, some listen some do not. Moving votes to different areas is a big part of any party’s strategy. 98% of IFP members live in three areas of the country. Any one elected in the other three areas has to have people move to that area to vote for them. I tried to coordinate who was moving, which is tricky because it affects the canadites that are in the area that people are moving from. I tried to let every one know the plan as soon as possible, I hoped communication would stop any ill feelings. Last election I asked 50 people to move and sent them all moving tickets. I figure about 60-50% of people asked to move do move. We had a strange story of a Croatian school boy who ran for congress in our party but that is a long story for another day.

How much a PP manages votes will effect how many people from your party get elected, it is a fact. What I tried to do was ask people to move to an area and vote but vote who they wanted to in that area. I also gave a list of who was asked to move to that area to all the canadites. To me this was ethical, ask people to move but not who to vote for, what I did that was questionable was to ask a few senior members to vote for particular canadites at the end of the day that need help. This is what I felt most uncomfortable with of the whole job, but it got results. I also worked out a deal with a smaller party for there support. Even though I have the upmost respect for Biffo and got a long great with him, I would advise against this to any PP in the future. It will end with hard feelings from some one on one side of the deal or the other who is not satisfied with the results.

Our party was never good with holding votes off to the very end of the night like other parties. As a result of this we lost 6 seats in the last two elections by one vote. Most of the people that lost were good canadites and this was one of the worst parts of the job. You feel like you let people down that you like by poor management. I would get bombarded with requests at the end of the night, so and so only needs one vote, do you know any one who could vote for him. More requests then people who had not voted.

I have to thank Dash for providing me with his spreadsheet of who is voting and who is not over the month. Of the 8 people elected the first month, four voted regularly and four did not, for various reasons. 50% seems to be the norm. Some of the people who did not vote were good members but rl issues superseded being a congressman. 3 of the 4 who voted regularly got elected the second month and none of the people who did not vote got re-elected. Not many people ever seem to notice this and fault party presidents when people get in that do not vote. I think a fairer KPI is re-election of poor performers, all party presidents should be measured on this.

Recruitment is a big part of the party job. In our party I had about 6 people help on this but no one found it interesting and quickly dropped it. So I did a lot of it myself, and even wrote a how to guide on it. I liked doing this aspect of the job. We increased our membership from 77 to 130 during the two months. After each election I tried to recruit some of the people who lost. Did not have success after president and party president election, but did have some people think about it for a couple of days. I did get some one to switch after loosing congress in another party and they won a congress seat this month for our party. I also tried a little to get some experienced players to switch party to no avail. Once some one signs up for a party it is hard to get them to change. Almost all our growth came from new player’s joing. Four things contributed to new players join. First the adverts on the right have a big effect, especially if linked to a recruitment article. The first two weeks I did not run an article and party membership was dropping, as soon as I started membership went up. Second party membership took an upturn after snake ran for president each month. It is great publicity for a parry. Third and most effective is by personal recruitment. Players join parties to be part of a social network or part of a team. It takes a lot of work and a lot of gifts helping new players out, but I found it rewarding. I gave out 100's of gifts and would answer 3-6 pm a day from new players. 60% of players I contacted would join our party. I even asked players who did not why they choose other parties. Fourth reason why people join a party is by parties distinguishing them selves from other parties, The IFP gets members because people characterise there political beliefs as centre right. We tended to draw a lot of business owners and foreign nationals.

I could write about setting the moral compass for a party, manifestos or lack of them, President Elections, or how to get members active but this article is already getting to long and some of these areas I did not succeed in. I tried to concentrate on one job at a time and do that well, god knows how others can be congressman, ministers and PP at the same time, they must have a lot more time then me. If you read this far I hope you found this interesting.
Moo
Ex IFP party presidnet and still worlds worst speller