Join the new world

Good day everyone,

It’s been quite a while since I last published anything of note, let alone an article such as this. It has also been quite a while since I was president of the United Kingdom Reform Party. Only one thing can come from that. I know it. Dish knows it. You know it. I intent to become party president in the coming elections.

I had to give this much thought. While the UKRP has enjoyed a recent revival, and the coming of new and interesting members, it has also been confronted with the many issues growing parties face, such as a lack of leadership and direction. The party has been around for ages, and I have been in the party for ages, and I feel responsible. And that is why I am going to fix things properly.

It would be silly if I claimed here that we could become the #1 party again any time soon. That does not mean it’s not possible at all, however. But for that to happen we need to have a clear structure, a clear goal, and a clear plan to reach that goal.

I won’t promise insane membership growths, recent terms have shown us that those promises never end up being fulfilled. No, I won’t make a promise I can’t keep. Instead, I will promise you community building, structural change and reform which allow us to work more efficiently, with more people, so that a next generation can promise that growth, and is able keep that promise.

Responsibility is an interesting term that has been raised many times in the past few weeks when things in the UKRP didn’t go so well, and people felt they could blame the PP for what they themselves failed to do. I won’t name anybody and I certainly don’t intent to attack them, but I feel obliged to point out one thing. We are a party based on a coherent community. If you, our members, feel insulted when others offend our party, then you should also feel responsible for the party. And that responsibility doesn’t stop when you’ve completed the task your leader gave you. The party president doesn’t own a party. He leads it. Of course he bears responsibility, but not all of it.

Alright, that was the lecturing.
Now, I know this has been said many times before, but we need a real recruitment team, a coordinated effort to win more souls. People know how to approach new players, how to guide them and ultimately recruit them. What we need is to organize this. A member on his own can only do so much. Whoever is in charge of this will be in charge of this until he is either sacked or quits. We can’t have the party work on a per month basis; we need to function continuously.

Every new player we can attract and retain is a massive boon. We shouldn’t be interested in numbers alone. Of course it is a very nice feeling to see your membership stats grow, but if that doesn’t result in an increase in activity then it has been a wasted effort.

I should probably say something about elections and party policy now, but they’re not very interesting in a manifesto. If we don’t gain a congress member(perhaps even lose one) then so be it. Our number one priority should be to make sure our members are happy. That they have friends they can play the game with, or play other games with. Talk about real life, talk about anything else on their minds. In short: that they are part of a community.

That community is what we as UKRP are so proud of. But, sadly, it is deteriorating. I will strive to build upon the foundations which are already there to reinvigorate our community. I will seek to revive our discussions of subjects not related to eRepublik. Minecraft has been a good way to bond people, and there are more games which have this potential(PATH OF EXILE PLZ ANYBODY PLZ).

Whether or not this community exists on the forums(Which I will actively encourage), IRC or Skype, one thing should be clear: communities don’t exclude each other. We have had people who felt excluded because they don’t (actively) use Skype, or IRC. Of course everybody has their preferred platforms(Mine are the forums, everybody knows that) but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be open to others.

Finally, before I start to bore you, there needs to be more communication. More announcements, messages and articles, especially from the PP(Would be me). This is a simple point that everybody raises, it just needs to be done.

I understand this article isn’t filled to the brim with plans. Even so, I believe it clarifies what my ideals are, what I believe the party should focus on, and why your vote should go to me.

Vote Frerk for a Frerking good term!