Join the new world

My fellow citizens, and allies of the most nobel kingdom of Denmark. Today i present to you the framework from which Aurora will move forward as a party. This will be broken up in to sections for ease of navigation reflecting the different areas of game play. To reflect the changing environment this plan will be subject to change as the community evolves.

1.1 Politics

It is believed that politics in this country is not fully representative of the community as a whole but has become largely stagnant representing the needs to protect the country from political take over. This has to change in order to make a major part of the game play more interesting and above all inclusive. To do this, a committee, with representatives from intelligence, Defense, party leaders and media will meet and assess the present impact of the PTO threat. How many are still active and indeed are there some we have missed. This way we can start creating a real dynamic political atmosphere and have fully competitive elections once again. Also, a clear definition between the differing views of the present political parties needs to be bought to the fore, as there seems to be some confusion.

1.2 Media

It is believed that media is the most important way to communicate with the masses and indeed fully engage with the players in game. Therefore, the efforts of the present Pho3nix administration in this regard must be continued and expanded, with the addition of some conflict like we had with the welfare bill. This is exciting to see in general and does give people room to speak up. I touched on this in my last article, this is however not just about causing conflict for conflicts sake but to give confidence to some people that they can speak up and to provide a thorough assessment of views. To this end, the ministry of media shall be expanded and given a budget to help new newspapers and reward good journalism. This could include journalistic prizes that have until now been the reserve of private individuals.

1.3 Military

This is something I have been involved with for a long period of time. Our Germark alliance means that we should indeed work together with the German military to create a unified command. This is something that we help pay for and also something we have a say in so it should be wholeheartedly pursued. However, the organisation and realisms of this have to be fully understood and tackled. To have a unified military policy, we need a unified foreign policy, as if the Danish Military is also the German military, then any deployments under that unified command invariably represents Danish foreign policy as well. We can not send our soldiers in to battle while at the same time denying our wholehearted support for the deployment in the first place. I am pleased that this integration is also happening as we speak under the guidance of competent and bright individuals.

From an organisation point of view, it is clear that most military activity is going on within the Military unit, and not individuals. Therefore, our policy is to introduce the ministry of supply which will have responsibility for supplying the Military Unit with the factors of warfare. Whereas overall strategy will be dictated by the defence ministry.

The ministry of supply will fall under the Ministry of Finance as they are the ones who ultimately pay the bills and this will mean a key civilian and government oversight of the armed forces. Also, it will aid in budgeting. The command of the Military Units will still be dictated by the ministry of defense, however, it is requested that the head of the military units be assisted by staff sergeants for supplies and an auditor to keep track of spending. In this way also the true needs of soldiers can be satisfied and the German side can also be integrated so we have a large ministry of supply run by the respective MoFs and the strategy run by the unified defence establishment.

1.4 Economy And finance

The Danish economy has always worked best when it has been export based due to our low population meaning that our domestic market is small. Therefore, it is thought that this should be supported wholeheartedly by the government. This will be done in the form of loans to businesses to buy export licences to different countries and advice on where best to seek markets and what goods to produce as well as human resources help in terms of hiring practices. This will be done through the department of trade, a part of the ministry of finance.

The court of auditors will be added to make sure that all outgoing and incomings within this ministry are spent how they are supposed to and to allow for trends in spending to be monitored and economic policy set accordingly. This will be overseen by a chief auditor who reports to the minister of finance. It is suggested that the minister of finance and the chief auditor not be the same person due to the work involved and to allow for delegation. Also, will coordinate with the militia auditors of the military mentioned above. This court shall be appointed by congress and will be part of the MoF. Congressman and the country president are who is ultimately responsible for the budget and so those should have a greater role in its formation and execution.

Department budgets shall be submitted to the ministry of finance at the beginning of each ministerial term, at which point the ministry shall present the unified budget to a full congress. This shall be done to enable full congressional oversight of spending and to allow for the entire budget to be presented as a unified whole as opposed to it being piecemeal so as to give congress the full story. A ministerial term is from one CP election to the next as it is the CP who decides on who they want in cabinet.

Controller of the currency is a new position that will be in charge of the monetary market activities of the Danske Bank. This will be the investment arm of the Danske bank and will never have the full amount of the Danish treasury in play. While a part of the MoF, it will be treated as a department for budgetary purposes and will have to submit a budget for the purposes of playing the markets and investing in private enterprise. The investment strategy shall be dictated by the MoF and the advisors attached to it with input from the controller, who would be responsible for implementation. Feedback will be given at the request of the MoF staff or if the inflows and outflows from operating activities reach certain thresholds, ie losses are sustained etc to allow for a review of strategy and to minimise operating risk. This person will oversee multiple people to make the most out of world currency markets and of course to delegate work so that the whole system does not stop because of some real life stuff.


1.5 Foreign Affairs

There will be several new departments created within the present ministry of foreign affairs to reflect the changing landscape of the world. The first one is the department of intelligence, while i was tempted to split the department in two, one for domestic , and one for foreign, it is believed that this will inhibit the bigger picture and also is not needed as the committee mentioned in politics will largely provide a adequate PTO threat assessment. This intelligence agency will have its own resources budgeted that will allow for a staff of intelligence operatives and for information to be bought in from reliable sources.

This will both concern movements of known PTOers to Denmark, planned invasions and RWs and general issues that we might want to make ourselves abreast with. This department shall also collate a cabinet daily briefing (of course does not need to be daily, as stuff does not necessarily happen everyday) from their own intelligence sources, other ministries and Danish people e.g. this guy is trying to buy CS etc. It is believed that this will allow us to be more proactive rather than reactive.

The Other department shall be the department for community outreach. In other words the ambassador program, but more active than just posting the cabinet in a country forum every month. This department will host competitions and give prizes in different countries to increase awareness of Danish community and products. Its job will be to increase good will towards Denmark on a community level, not just a government level.

One of the main goals of the MoFA will be to achieve an observer status on some of the worlds alliances so that we can deepen our understand of international geopolitics and act accordingly. This is more of an afterthought as the realisms of this would most likely not allow observer without intention to join but still see it as a valid goal.

I think MC is doing a great job at the MoFA and our relations with Germany so will not touch on that yet.

1.6 Home Affairs

Home affairs has always been a tricky issue as it involves mentoring and keeping people in the game. First, i propose we change our New Citizen message as this has not been done in a while. And suggest this be changed every new term to reflect policy and give advice on what help noobs can claim.

As for an over all mentoring scheme, this is something that has been started many times and something that I am going to keep in constant assessment as to the best ways forward. One of the main issues is player retention and it is thought that along with economic aid such as money, food and weapons, that are already generously distributed, friendships have to be fostered in the first week of a noob arriving, so as to give them an emotional attachment. This is something that has to go further than contact me if you have any queries and here’s some stuff. This will be discussed in the community chapter.

The present welfare program shall be changed but not gotten rid of as am sure some were expecting. It is important that the a department for welfare be set up that includes aid to noobs, employ benefits such as the wages, information services, food banks etc. This is because right now our welfare program is fractured with some provided by generous individuals and some provided by the state, along with the military benefits and MoF benefits provided within the state framework. This has got to be seen as part of a bigger whole to have a maximum impact and to bring all data in one place, right now we do not really know who gets what, which is not a problem except it means that people have to go to different places to claim different benefits, some of which are not clear and intimidating to even an experienced player, and we are not entirely sure always who is around and who is not relying on the occasion word of mouth info. This way we can bring everything under one roof, help and understand new players and the costs associated and better understand the impact of policy.

1.7 Forums and IRC (Community)

The external game is vital to the sustainability of the community and its interaction. This is mainly shown in the forum and IRC but can also manifest itself in google spreadsheets and skype conferences etc. While things are being done to bring people on to the forum and IRC, such as rewards and program requirements, the problem is retention. People do not seem to feel like they have a valid place in society beyond two clicking and occasional fighting on the battlefield. Indifference has grown within especially the newer ranks of society. Therefore, it is our policy that an apprenticeship scheme shall be introduced within government departments, this is something that has had some success in other countries. This will also mean that there will be more opportunities to play a part in the running of the country and will bring people on to forums as part of these duties.

The forums themselves, i suggest that some players volunteer to make the forums more interesting with random events, news, threads etc to bring people in to the forum and keep them engaged. In recent years the random forum area has always attracted a lot of activity, this is something we should keep encouraging. If the forum is known for being fun and open then it is hoped more people will join it and therefore by default find the operational threads as well.

1.8 Conclusion

These are just some ideas about how the country can be improved and is the goal of Aurora to achieve. It is thought these policies will complement existing ones well and will increase congressional oversight of government activity as well as allow for cross communication between departments and our allies. With our policy of constant evaluation, and with our small population base, it is thought that they will enable us to be more flexible on the world stage and react to threats faster than larger jurisdictions. It is important that we maintain our present closeness as a community as that it what makes it so attractive and is our Unique selling point, however it has to be recognized that the circle must be expanded. As that old business adage has it, for things to stay the same around here something has got to change. So please consider Aurora as a party you might like to join and Denmark as a country going places.

Regards,
The aurora Team