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The ultimate hubris of humanity is that they and their accomplishments will last forever.  The Romans at the height of their power would have never believed that one day the barbarian hordes of the north would one day march into Rome and a barbarian chieftain would seize and marry the Empress of Rome to legitimize his rule.  The Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Spanish, and British all took stabs at Empires that would last forever.  No mention need be made of Nazi Germany and its 1000 year reign that wasn't.  Similarly nothing in eRepublik lasts forever.  The Federalist Party is the oldest continuous Party in the eUSA (and among the oldest in the world), we can claim oldest continuous because the USWP briefly merged into another Party. We are making a good stab at longevity and in a bit I will go over how and why.






For a long time now it would seem that the eUSA and even beyond have resigned themselves to managing the decay of the game.  When I took over as Party President for the very first time the Federalist Party boasted 600 members.  This was down from the near 800 we had when I joined the Party 4 months before.  Some of that decay was as a result of ATO efforts.  As the largest Party we had the responsibility of moving bodies around to prop up flagging Top 5 Parties and/or save them from outside PTO attacks.  We did not always get our people back after asking them to move.  However even then the decay of the game was beginning to set in.  We have weathered it better than most.





I first ran for PP on a platform of butter.  I had noticed in the month or two prior to my run that we were not trying as hard as we had been.  FedRadio had disappeared, Party meetings had ceased, game night had stopped, IRC activity was flagging, and forum activity was flat-lining.  So it was that I vowed to bring back FedRadio, created the Fun Zone here on our forums and created a Fun Zone Director position.  Somewhat of a "if you build it they will come" type of plan.  I am pleased to say that a year and a half later much of what I have built is still here and has been expanded upon by other Party Presidents.  This is why I am synonymous with Butter in the Federalist Party.  





I decided to run for a 3rd term of Party President after a 4 month break.  I had two goals in mind for my term.  I would use the lessons learned as Secretary of Homeland Security to spark activity.  Messaging relentlessly and promising goodies for activity really really works.  Second I wanted to give up and coming Feds an opportunity to establish themselves as future leaders.  I gave Trekker, Blondeninja, IndexInfinity, and Stephen S integral roles in my Cabinet with the hopes that they would be positioned to take the reins of the Party.  BlondeNinja succeeded me and did a pretty good job.  Trekker was a bit more delayed in his Party President run but it inevitably came.

IndexInfinity and Stephen S were unfortunately swallowed up by the attrition monster of eRepublik.  It is important to note that I do not claim credit for Trekker or BlondeNinja.  They are talented individuals that would have succeeded with or without me. I just wanted to help them accomplish their goals. I view my relationship to this Party in a similar way.  It was great before my time and will be great after my time, but while I am here I want the Party to be better and stronger for my presence here.





Last month when I decided to run for a 4th term as Party President my plan was to focus on the process. Sort of a Back to the Future model.  We had become very top heavy.  Departments that once employed 4-6 relatively busy people were staffed only by 1 very overworked Director.  This setup caused more than a few problems.  Nothing hastens burnout like being overburdened to top it off with the way things were going few viable candidates for promotion were available.  Also since so few were active in the day to day work of the Party activity in general suffered. The game right now is downright awful, but that does not mean that we as a Party need to follow suite.

I am quite pleased that we not only have 4 candidates for PP this next month, (myself included) but that we have so early in the process had more than 20 Feds offer up nominations.  What I am also pleased with is that the process is beginning to work.  The FBI has worked tirelessly in the background to update our accesses and keep our elections clean and sacrosanct.  The Recruiting Department is humming along messaging and befriending new players, unfortunately due to the state of the game we are merely treading water, but others lose ground.  Most importantly to me AnkaLeader reports that the staff of Recruiting are all pitching in. The Fun Zone has 3 people working to bring games, and other activities to you the membership. Full disclosure my CoS Dave Gulya has done a fantastic job of getting interested Feds into work. If you are interested in who is working in the Departments please feel free to check it out. http://fedparty.forumotion.com/t7029-december-2014-cabinet

I am asking for another month to continue the mission: Focus on the Process. Things are beginning to turn around and I believe with another month of work we will effect as lasting a positive change as can be expected in this transient game.  The apparatus we are setting up takes time and effort to build and no small amount of attention to maintain but it is worth it.  What I believe has always set our Party apart is that we thrive on seeing our members grow and succeed.  When I came in and excelled it was a personal victory for many that took an interest in me.  In turn when I have seen and in a small way helped others succeed I have taken that as personal victory.  I know this has been a bit of tl;dr however I thank you for taking the time to read it!