When I first came to XKI, I loved the commitment to the community everyone had, which in the long run, is why I stayed.

I believe that the community is one of XKI's strongest points and that the House system promotes just that. It also promotes the value of camaraderie, especially when we host friendly competitions for House members to participate in.

One of the most important challenges we're facing is the division between on-site and off-site nations. Most of our events are hosted here on the forums, which essentially serves as an additional outlet to have fun with fellow Islanders and serve in our regional activities. This makes being a part of the forum an important part in being in the XKI community.

This issue has been discussed multiple times, and I think that we are making good progress in addressing it. But for the sake of completely answering your question, I'll discuss the steps I believe are necessary. The first step is to regularly update the WFE to entice new Islanders and frequent visitors of the RMB to join our forums. The next step is to add a dispatch that I believe is missing from our WFE. What I propose is a guide, or two, for new Islanders to read. I'm surprised we don't have one yet, considering that we have so much info present on our forums. The dispatch I'm proposing will (1) feature a beginner's guide to NationStates, (2) learn how to register/join the forums and discord, and (3) advertise regional activities, publications, and policies. Other info that we will soon find necessary could be added here, or in another dispatch. Now that that's out of the way, I'll go ahead with the next step, which is to efficiently advertise our off-site activities (just like what was done last month for the Summer Olympics). Overall, I think this is a do-able job, but I do have something to add to it. I think that a reasonable amount of volunteers can be the ones to relay info to the game-side community we have. If not as a volunteer job, this can also be integrated into the Cultural Office Staff. Yet another step that I propose for us to take is to understand/accept the game-side community for what it is. While I love the forum, I also understand that to many on-site nations, NationStates already offers what they want in a community. Thus, I think that we must also try to integrate ourselves into the on-site side of things. A lot of our newer members have shown interest in the WA, RP, and cards, which really goes to show the potential our newer members have to be a bigger part of our community. This leads me to discuss the last step. This is to revamp our on-site communities. We already seem to be pretty successful in on-site RP also crediting Dorab for their proposal of having our very own RP region. The two things that I think have potential in becoming something more participated in is our new cards program and our WA Secretariat Engagement Awards.

If elected, I will choose to adhere with the pledge. The duty of a senator is to serve the community who chose them. Thus, if elected, I will choose to inform my voters of the choices I have made. This is not only because I believe they should know the state of the discussion, but also because the non-council member who proposed an idea for the betterment of our community should be able to have a larger say in the discussion and an understanding of the council members' opinions.

It's taking longer than I thought to answer your questions, so I'm very sorry if I end up repeating any answers. Here it goes...

The official XKI discord serves as a place for our community to relax or discuss topics of varying importance, whether it's NS-related or RL-related. Although we also address some official/important matters on discord, it's generally a place where we can interact more freely in comparison with the RMB. On the other hand, the forum serves as our hub for almost all things XKI-related. It's where Islanders can find our regional currency, get involved with a different part of the community, process information, etc.

To ensure both outlets fulfills their purpose, we should continue to keep everyone in check by allowing everyone to provide suggestions/ideas for improvement and also inform anyone and everyone about updates and rules we have. I also want to add that by mentioning this, I'm not saying that we don't already do that or aren't doing a good job of making sure the forums and discord fulfills its purposes.

As I see it, five of the members of the Council of Nine are elected to ensure that the public has influence in the legislative processes in XKI. The WA Delegate and the four senators are elected to ensure that the Council makes decisions, while considering the best interest of the public. On the other hand, we have the non-elected positions. The ministers are free to make decisions based on their own opinions since they serve by choice of the CE and not of the public - this statement was not intended to demean the opinion of the CE or any of the three ministers.

Being a Minister would mean that I would be able to work more independently in comparison to being a Senator. I imagine that if I were to be a Minister, I'd be able to work freely in debates and other decision-making processes.

I think that us opening an embassy with another region shows respect for them as well as our willingness to work with them. By agreeing to opening an embassy with us, the region is accepting that we will be involved diplomatically and/or militarily. An important reason why we open embassies with another region is for security/defense. As a notable defender region, we are expected to be committed to our allies, and we expect them accept that by forming diplomatic relations with us, they are accepting our interests and that consequences may come if they abuse our relations. I'd say an embassy is "not worth it" when a region has shown their reluctance to cooperate with us or have aligned themselves away from us.

A treaty serves as a written version of the mutual agreement made by two regions after forming an embassy. Since it was recorded and written, it serves as an official documentation and should definitely not be taken lightly. I believe that they represent the commitment and mutual respect the two regions have for each other. I don't know of any negative impacts treaties have made on XKI, but that doesn't really lead me to say that we should negotiate for more treaties. I think that we should negotiate more treaties simply when it's relevant to do so.

I would have voted in favor of it. There may be the lingering concern over their history of raiding, but I agree with the mention that this provides protection of our other embassy regions. This also makes it so that the TEP will possibly not align themselves with raiding.

I do think that the Co9 should initiate a vote. If they don't, I assume it's simply because of an obvious rule violation or that there is no objection to the CE's decision.

I assume that it would take 1-2 hours per day to go through all of the senate duties and participate in council debates. This would amount to 7-14 hours per week.

Despite the fact that you mentioned that the WA Secretary portfolio can fit a Senate position and will not create conflict with the WA Delegate, I'm still against changing the BCN Senator's duties. I don't think there's too much of an argument as to why the BCN Senator should no longer make the emissary report. However, I'm still interested in seeing whether anything would change in the WA Secretary's duties now that you've highlighted its importance and the possibility of making it a Senator's duties.

If elected, I would have to make sure that all active Houses that have inactive founders would have a relevant House Steward to handle the House's affairs. The chosen House Steward will preferably be the most active among the members with the long residency in it granted that they agree to be the Steward.

Once again, thanks for taking interest in this, and feel free to mention me if my answers lacked on any of your questions or if you simply want to make clarifications.

I believe that a simple reminder from time to time could be put in place to remind everyone of how decisions are made in XKI. How I understand it, the CE's primary functions is to make the major decisions and act as the main communication point of the Co9. On the other hand, the Co9 functions as a legislative body whose function is to make decisions collectively concerning various categories such as Houses, Diplomacy, and like you are concerned about, Honors and Holidays. Continuing on with this, the reminder can be in the form of an RMB post answering questions to any interested Islanders who have questions. I also propose having some sort of Outreach Office nation, which can be operated by the Senators to handle questions from new Islanders who aren't in the forum yet. This can work together with the beginner's guide I've mentioned in other answers. The reasoning behind why I'd prefer for this to be operated by Senators is simply because these are elected positions, and I believe that they should have the public interest at heart.

(CONTEXT:
Flying Eagles: 1. Did Markanite overstep his authority when declaring the holiday?)
Paffnia (the one who raised the issue): I raised the issue of the holiday in the Lobby in order to get what I saw as a procedural irregularity rectified, not as a campaign issue. So I personally won't hold it against any candidate who wishes to skip answering question 1.

Now, the reason why I chose not to answer your first question is simply because I don't see the need to. There would've been no visible change if the Co9 had a vote, and Markanite simply wanted to honor Kanta Hame, who I believe is completely deserving of that honor.

P.S WH [running for the Senator of Himes West position] has mentioned one of the things I stated here. I just wanted to add that I didn't mean for it to be limited to the game-side community, and I'd be fine if it would be used in the forums as well. :)

The simple answer to this question is through good advertising and incentives. I feel that to entice Islanders to join our forums, we must first have an actual presence in the on-site side of things. I believe that we must have beginner Islander guides, which would not only help new Islanders through NationStates, but also display the activities and events hosted on our forums and all other features that XKI loves, such as WA discussions, trading cards, and general chatter.

Concerning the House system, the solution would be to have House guides accessible both on NationStates and on our forums. Considering the fact that I've proposed a bunch of "beginner's guides" here, I think we can make better organization with this by having our very own 10000 Islands Master Dispatch, which would have the links to all guides, publications, and promotions.

My more in-depth answers are found on the forum and is accessible to everyone.

Well, the main reason why I added that detail is really because I believe it's a job for the Senator for Lyonnesse East and that I've accepted that as part of the job. I also think that the fact that to participate in a House competition, you'd need to actually have an updated roster is a reason why the rosters would be updated and that the participating Houses would be ones who are active. But since you asked, I'll try to answer anyway. It's also worth mentioning that I haven't made a clear decision myself, and I would make the final decision if I'm elected.

Option 1- House Summit/Gathering
A simple thread or a temporary discussion channel on discord might do the trick for this one. The purpose for it would simply be to catch up with everything and make sure all of the House leaders are aware of the current state of their Houses and would decide whether they would continue going, merge into another House, etc.

Option 2- Putting the Load on the LE
I would simply be the one to check on every House currently displayed here, and check if the rosters are updated and if they have the right amount of members to be considered active. Considering I have a good amount of time on my hands, I think the job would be do-able for me.

I believe that public influence should be valued, but I don't oppose the Chief Executive's veto power. I trust that it's in the best interest of the CE to protect and oversee order in our region and I would likely oppose a motion to remove that power.