Community Office

[Khem]

As was being discussed in the thread Office of the Citizen Delegate should we create an office of community? Should such be under the wing of our currently limited role of the Citizen-Delegate? What sort of duties and powers would you see given to such a group?

I am in favor of this being a Citizen-Delegate run group who would develop our introductory image and help new players transition into the community. Additionally they would be charged with supporting any involvement with inter-regional events such as the NS world's fair and developing community enriching events and services.

There's my  Now add yours so we can make some legislative stew.

[Delfos]

We're always thinking about of groups of people, does it make sense in an universe of less than 20 active people there will be half or more in office? I would rather see more involvement with the assembly than with offices.

Is this a propaganda office? Things like the NS World Fair never made it to Ecclesia, I'd rather it would, do you prefer it doesn't?

[Myroria]

I don't know what you mean by "propaganda office"; this is a proposal that would have a set of people dedicated to welcoming new people. This is no meaningless job; a game like NationStates is dense and many people might be turned off to it without someone to show them the ropes around Taijitu.

To speak more generally; a few months ago when Taijitu had 80 nations it made sense for things to be loose and to play things by ear; now that we're one of the largest UCRs, and two or three people join the forum every day, we need offices like these to function efficiently.

[Delfos]

So to complement the function of the Citizen-Initiator?

[Khem]

I think more to compliment the Citizen-Delegate. Delfos, I would like to see more offices and don't see it as stripping anything from the ecclesia other than responsibilities which would be only defined by their own existence.

[Bustos]

Correct me if I am wrong but the Delegate is more the face of Tai and works with guiding Taijitu via Eccleisa's will as a whole.

Where as the Citizen-Initiator's focus is on with new nations and welcoming them?

I like the idea.  Providing more attention to new or less experience nations, especially with the Game vs RP aspects, how NS works, and how the Taijitu fits into all of that.  Just makes more sense to have the Citizen-Initiator take the lead in this aspect.

[Khem]

I worry it would be adding too much work to the Citizen-Initiators plate. I feel that position is more focused on Legislative issues and should stay as such. I wouldn't even mind the creation of a new executive functionary position compared to adding this to the lead legislator.

[Bustos]

I worry it would be adding too much work to the Citizen-Initiators plate. I feel that position is more focused on Legislative issues and should stay as such. I wouldn't even mind the creation of a new executive functionary position compared to adding this to the lead legislator.

It is?  Hmm...maybe these titles are a bit misleading for me.  Can some1 link me the offices and their duties/description?  Thanks in advance.  I tried looking in the Laws wiki, didn't see anything there.

Regardless, as I said, I am for the concept, just think there might be a better office to associate it with or perhaps, create an office that focuses solely on this.

[Khem]

Currently they are only legally responsible for processing Citizenship requests, yet we have seen the role expand to encompass things such as moving discussions to a vote. It might be nice to define these as responsibilities within the law, however that is a fish for another grill. If we were to create a new position for this I would go with a title like "Citizen-Luminary".

[Allama]

I'd be very much in favor of appointing formal community-building officers. We had a Ministry of Community years ago and I recall it working quite well to ensure that new members are greeted and made welcome both on NS and here on the forum. On top of that they can help keep people engaged and informed, come up with regional events, provide assistance to the new and confused... yeah, this all sounds really good.

As far as combining this with the Citizen-Initiator role, I'd prefer not to. A particular sort of personality is required for a community office which is not also needed for processing citizenship requests and moving legislation to a vote (though the latter is not officially part of the job... yet).

[Cormac]

I agree with keeping the community role separate from the Citizen-Initiator. The latter already has enough to do anyway, I think. The job of approving citizenship applications, maintaining records, etc., is actually more time consuming than it looks, and adding moving legislation to vote will give that office more than enough work.

I saw someone suggest calling a separate office the Citizen-Liaison and I liked that as a name for it.

[Myroria]

Citizen-Liaison is indeed a nice name.

I think an office like this would be an excellent idea. Many larger regions have "theme weeks" to help drum up activity on the region page in NS and the forum; something like this would be right up the alley of an Office of Community. For instance, we could have a "SHAKMA Week" where the nations listed in the WFE change their flags to a picture of SHAKMA, a "TIAX week" where all active Taijituans add "TIAX RULES ALL" to their signature, or a "North Pacific" week where we allow ourselves to be ruled by esoteric and Byzantine decade-old laws.

I made a draft of the law, and would welcome input. I drafted it as an amendment to our recently passed Delegacy Act.

4. Citizen-Liaison
1. The Citizen-Delegate may appoint any number of Citizen-Liaisons to assist them in maintaining Taijitu's community and community activity.
2. The Citizen-Delegate may dismiss Citizen-Liaisons at any time.
3. The Ecclesia may remove any Citizen-Liaison by a majority vote.

[Eluvatar]

Are we certain we want the Liasons to be under the CD?

[Dyr Nasad]

Certainly feels like we are getting more centralized - but that is not necessarily bad. If the C-D is the "leader," the C-Ls/activity would be an important part of the job. Would there be benefits to a separately-elected office?

[McMasterdonia]

I prefer the idea of Community Officer to Citizen-Liason. Overall though I am supportive of this idea, regardless of the name.