[FEDS] End of term - Mission (mostly) Accomplished!

Day 3,249, 18:35 Published in USA USA by fingerguns


It’s the end of the term and we are currently awaiting the results of the Fed PP Primary. I am not running again. I’ve always had a policy that when it’s clear someone is working harder for the party than I am as PP, then I have an obligation to step aside. The last 2 months kicked my butt, what with a member of my party running against my Pfeiffer. We weren’t just a house divided but I was a person divided, trying to balance my obligations to the party with my personal opinions on where we think we need to go as a country. Exhausting!

The dust has settled and things are chill again on all fronts, which is nice. We missed the mark on some objectives as a party. I don’t think it’s directly related to the CP drama, but with such a small active population, the people we DO have are being stretched thin between party work and national work. We went most of the month with a number of positions completely unstaffed. We got by just fine, but that can’t happen for more than a few weeks before the whole party suffers.

I’m excited that we have 2 PP candidates who are hungry and excited to lead the party and we have a few power players getting active again who have been reliable workhorses in the past. I think we’ll be good. So let’s take a look at the last month:

Fruitful conversations in Daily Briefings between members and leaders

We crushed this. I decided to make the Daily Briefings public and that has gone pretty well. It’s served the dual purpose of exposing newer party members to what I described as ‘the sausage-making process’, but also helped our older players to be less insulated. The more we all mingle together, the stronger we will be as a party. I hope future PP’s keep these public.

A noticeable increase in media output from Fed members (unofficial media)

Whomp-whomp

We definitely failed here. We actually saw a decrease in output from even official channels! Oy vey. We absolutely put out a crap ton of media this month, but compared to the month before it was a little less. And there were only a handful of non-official articles from Fed members. This is a big disappointment to me and I take the blame for it. I had a couple of projects that I had to keep pushing back that were directly related to encouraging more media. I should’ve made them a bigger priority.

Both PP candidates have talked about the need for more media. This is also part of the national conversation. Media contests and things will help, but nothing can replace legitimately having things to talk about. I think on the national level, war is inevitable. This will hopefully inspire more conversations in the media, but we also need more social interest. There are too many people opting for catty little backstabby conversations rather than putting people on blast in the media. That kills activity. Please stop that. Throw down in public. Or if fighting/debating isn’t your thing, then promote something you like. There is plenty to like/love in this game, whether it’s a person, a group, a feature, a conversation, a social space… hype it up. Or try interviews. Everyone likes being interviewed (Except Orik lol).

At least one successful launch of a member-originated idea/project

I would give us a B on this one. Wasp15 has his writing contest in the works right now. This was 100% his idea. All we did was offer up prize money. Hale Kane also came up with a good idea that he discussed on the forum, which Tyler Bubblar jumped in on. So I wouldn’t be surprised to see something come of that in the near future, but we did miss the mark on getting that done THIS term. As long as it gets done, right?

An increase in sign-ups for Congress (this should be competitive)

We hit this one. We had a decent number of sign ups, but unfortunately didn’t have an overwhelming number of people who actually qualified. We relaxed the rules here and there and got some new people in Congress that we haven’t run before with very mixed results. There is so little happening in Congress this month, waking up the Congressmen to tell them they are needed is harder than it should be. We also lost one of our best people due to a stupid, outdated game mechanic.

An increase in Feds seeking positions in the party and nationally

Even though we had some staffing issues in the party, I’ll still count this one as a win. There have been many inquiries about what people need to know to start working nationally. We had more people interested in Congress, even if they didn’t qualify this round. We’ve had more people asking how they can help, very generally, and starting to get involved without being told exactly what to do.

That last bit is possibly the most important. It’s one thing to just follow directions and get plugged into a system, but it’s another when you show initiative and take it upon yourself to be active and help out. You don’t need permission to be active in the game, it’s just something you do. We have put together a party infrastructure that hopefully equips players with the resources and tools they need to get up and moving somewhat independently, with a group to support you at your back. That is the quality that makes new leaders and I think we have quite a few of those.

It wasn’t flawless, but we made some positive changes that I think will really help us to be more agile and effective as a party in a smaller game. My two terms were all about transitions and ripping off band-aids and making some difficult adjustments to position us for what comes next. But I think we did it. Based on the 2 candidates we have for PP, I think the Feds are in a really good spot.

We are going to have a lot of fun this next month. I’m really excited to see what we do and I’m excited to be a part of it!




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