November - December 2013

[Lapeirousia]

November - December 2013

Delegate of The East Pacific: Bachtendekuppen
Provost of the Magisterium: A Slanted Black Stripe
Viceroy of the Conclave: Todd McCloud

In This Issue:
*A Word From The Delegate!
*TEP Assimilated!
*Adorable Bird Elected!
*Reformation!
*Mass Objections!
*Sectarian Violence!


A WORD FROM THE DELEGATE!

I am very proud to present you all with this update, the first one in a long time, reporting the bits and pieces happening over here in the glorious East Pacific. It's been almost a month now since the Citizens saw fit to elect their Puffin to the highest office and I'm pleased to say that things have been going well.

I've been member of the East Pacific for a bit over a year now. I started out as a completely new player and I found a home in TEP. Dedicating myself to this home I served as Magister (Legislator), EPSA soldier, Ambassador, Deputy-Provost (Deputy-Speaker), Provost (Speaker), and Chancellor of the University. Last October, I decided to go for the next step and give my complete focus to the job of Delegate. Being elected was a huge honor and I'm immensely thankful for the trust placed in me by the people of the East Pacific.

I have always valued The East Pacific for its own character, independence and maturity. My purpose and vision is to bolster this region and it's community and I hope my Delegacy will prove to be a positive element in this. I am lucky to have a good executive team, whose efforts are invaluable to TEP and I thank them for accepting their mandates.

In terms of Foreign Affairs, I want The East Pacific to be more open and visible again, as well as focused on maintaining and nurturing relations with it's fellow Feeders and Sinkers. This openness, however, can never be at the cost of our independence and sovereignty, which is the freedom to develop our own policies and values. The East Pacific will follow its own course, as well as cooperate with and respect its allies. Yet I believe we have a lot of interests in common with our fellow GCRs, which should be used as building blocks for rapprochement while respecting their individuality and independence.


Signed,
Bachtendekuppen[/b]


TEP ASSIMILATED!



For the last ten years, TEP has been under siege by an entity known as The Pax. Its strength in our RP is unmatched--all resistance has been proven futile. The forum banner declares, "TEP Assimilated. All governments surrender. No news at 11."

No need to fear for the safety of your friends in the East. The Hive is our forum and the forum is The Hive. Packilvania has spent ten years administrating TheEastPacific.com and even declined to sell the URL for thousands of dollars. His tireless efforts was finally rewarded with a resolution by the Magisterium.

In this "Resolution to Honor 10 years of Packilvania," Provost ASBS cited a few of Packilvania's many contributions to TEP. Remember when the activity of the GCR forums was debated? Well, The Pax has 8,388,607 forum posts, more than all of NS' offsite forums combined. Remember TEP's darkest hour? The Pax was elected to serve as the Delegate-In-Exile when The Empire seized control of the region. So when you consider TEP, its amazing forum or its historic roleplay, remember The Pax and surrender.


ADORABLE BIRD ELECTED!

For the first time in over two years, a new face is at the helm of TEP. He has two beady eyes and wears a green tie. He has two wings but prefers to swim. He is going to do what he was born to do:



Bachtendekuppen was elected in a narrow victory over Hobbesistan on November 8th. Bach had a straight forward campaign to restart foreign affairs, support the Magisterium's organization of the executive, and make himself available to TEP residents through the forum, mass telegrams, skype and IRC. His no-nonsense approach to the election secured the trust of the voters and has continued into Bach's delegacy as he brings cohesion to the region.


Bach's Flag

His Puffiness' first act was an Executive Order to fill the executive. With vacancies in all departments, Bach nominated Babiana (Niadh) for Overseeing Officer of the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army, Heronlord for Commissioner of the Eastern Pacific Police Service, Prussia for Editor of the Eastern Pacific News Service. He also consolidated foreign affairs into one ministry with the creation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs position, to which he appointed Old Federalia (People United Together). Additionally, these positions were organized into the Executive Directorate in order to entice the ministers to attend staff meetings.

More interestingly, you can read about the delegate's hugely successful convention on the Conclave further down the page, but first, let me elaborate on changes to the executive:

FOREIGN AFFAIRS:
Just as Bach promised in the election, the embassies of TEP are seeing some love. If your region hasn't been assigned a new ambassador, it will be shortly. Expect an update bimonthly, so the next update will be in January. Expect two ambassadors to ensure premier relations. Expect arbitrary smiles and gratuitous amounts of caek (ca ke).

THE SOVEREIGN ARMY:
After being recalled to support the delegate transition, the Eastern Pacific Sovereign Army focused on cooperation. EPSA assisted the Browncoats of Miranda on their first mission to take WZ Sandbox, then the North Pacific Army to take WZ Australia. Cooperation with other regions will be a focus moving forward, and the delegate reaffirms TEP's neutrality.
New recruits: Xoriet, a well established member of the forum who favors the spam room, and dasevenhorse, a new citizen who has jumped right into military gameplay.

NEWS SERVICE:
TEP has a new media outlet, the Eastern Pacific News Service. The Eastern Pacific News Service Act was passed on October 29th. It created a newspaper for TEP to be published on its forum, the NS forum, and TEP's embassies. It's mission is to provide a reliable news source to TEP and its friends. Regular articles will be published in its official NS Gameplay thread(link), and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will make use of its articles in future updates.

OTHER APPOINTMENTS:
Bachtendekuppen made three other appointments. To advise the delegate on proposals in the General Assembly and Security Council, Ramaeus was appointed Ambassador to the World Assembly. A Slanted Black Stripe, who seized the delegacy from The Empire, and A Mean Old Man, twice delegate, were nominated as Viziers. Viziers serve as the Security Council in TEP to protect against coups and rogue delegates. Since the game has changed and GCRs only have 6 months of influence now, the more viziers the merrier!


REFORMATION!


Compromise achieved after many rounds of negotiation.

For the last year, TEP suffered. The Conclave, the judiciary, suffers from inactivity. It's size rotated from 4 to 5 arbiters in the previous 12 months, and the total number of these judges was never active at any one time. Hence, its primary responsibility to interpret the Concordat stalled the region. However, Bach's second act as delegate was to call a Convention on Conclave Reform.

For the first time, there is a general consensus for how to reform the Conclave. The final debate is on what to put into the amendment and what to put into law. The structure of the new Conclave will set the number of arbiters at four arbiters, one of which to be viceroy like before. If all arbiters are present, the viceroy will not vote, but if an arbiter is absent or recused like usual, the viceroy shall vote. More importantly, arbiters will have six month terms, one of which will end every two months.

For the average TEPer, this means the Conclave will finally be held accountable. It has Standing Orders in desperate need of revision, and the inability to administrate justice or interpret the Concordat as a group. Undoubtedly, terms will force additional, internal reformation by the arbiters after the amendment passes the Magisterium and referendum.


MASS OBJECTIONS!


Macedonian flag

In an awesome display of unity, the World Assembly voted down "Repeal SC#1: Condemn Macedon" 10,023 votes to 1,687. The first Security Council resolution was written by former TEP delegate Todd McCloud and passed on June 20th, 2009 with 3,123 votes to 1,206. In addition to being SC#1, this historic resolution is prominent for condemning Macedon's "bold orange text with blue accents on every colony's world factbook entry."

Delegate Frattastan of The Rejected Realms personally campaigned against Repeal SC#1 to prevent it from reaching quorum. When it managed to gain enough approvals, Frat was the first delegate to vote against the proposal. TEP would like to thank everyone who voted against it--especially those who voted early--even if they were going to vote against it anyway. TEP desires to preserve WA resolutions written by its citizens, such as Todd, AMOM, and Ramaeus.


SECTARIAN VIOLENCE!

Before Bach took office, TEP was subjected to an evil fishmonger coup. AMOM fully supported the fish cause with several fish themed region-wide telegrams. Happily, Bach returned the region to its alignment with caek. However, the fishmongers did not relent.

The war on the RMB between fish and caek divulged into a war between fish, caek, and pi (pie). Apparently, a division in the caek faction resulted in the emergence of pi as the new minority. Noted TEP RPer The Alor sided with pi, although his preference for either cherry or apple pi is unknown. The fishmongers used this split to come back. While a three way sounds both enticing and confusing, some RMBers unashamedly have loyaties to two parties, thereby forming Pi-Caek and Fish-Caek splinters.

Just a week ago, a fourth party was announced:
"It's not traitorous. This region, this great region, The East Pacific, it's a democracy. Ain't gonna get any trouble from making the Bread Party. As long as we don't kill any puffins.
Bread for all! Bread for all! Vive le pain! Vive le pain!" --Mundiferrum

If that still isn't enough, some contenders are contemplating yogurt and ham as well. The Alor said it best:
"Time to give you a picture with no context in order to confuse the living caek out of you:"



Contact these leaders to join a cause:
Caek Alliance: Probaptical
Pi Party: Trinada Tribe and The Alor
Fishmongers: A Mean Old Man
Pi-Caek: Dragonia
Bread For All Party: Mundiferrum


Thank you for reading,
--Bachtendekuppen,
Delegate of The East Pacific
--Old Federalia,
Minister of Foreign Affairs
--Babiana,
Foreign Affairs Assistant