User:Camelfantasy/UC Presidential Campaign
As a candidate for the presidency of the United Cities, Camelfantasy aims to largely maintain the status quo while aiming to fix some issues that hinder the efficacy of the United Cities.
As a member of the United Cities since day 1, Camelfantasy has been part of the P&R, Canals, and Roads Committee at some point or other, and has done quite a bit of work with the Roads Committee. He does pay attention to the general operations of the United Cities, evidenced by scrutinizing and recommending amendments to resolution proposals and checking revisions to United Cities pages (notably, his discovery of the two proxy votes in Resolution 102, hours after they were falsely cast).
Issues
Most of the issues are obvious and well known to the members of the United Cities, and will be addressed here.
Parks and Recreation Committee
The issue of the P&R Committee has been controversial and was a major topic among other candidates among all races. Despite the current framework being promised to greatly increase the efficacy of the committee, an astoundingly very little amount of work has been done in the past few months, notably with Bakersville where not one bit of on-site work has been accomplished for weeks after its supposed commencement. To fix this, Camelfantasy will impose a strict time limit on the current backlog. If it is not met, the entire structure of the committee will be rearranged, including but not limited to removing the team system and/or changing the membership.
Punishment for Unconstitutional Actions
This idea has been brought up occasionally throughout the history of the UC, but no concrete resolutions have surfaced. At the time, Camelfantasy does not believe that any punitive action needs to be taken given present events. In the event any severe cases were to arise, he will recommend a system where the UC Court will determine if the actions of the accused parties were unconstitutional, and if such, a resolution would be put up to the General Assembly to temporarily demote the guilty parties to Observer status for a specified time (pending a constitutional amendment of the Bill of Rights to allow such an action). Any specific details on this will be worked out as the need arises.
Voter Apathy
Not much can be done about this issue as currently it is freely within members' rights to abstain from voting for whatever reason, except perhaps for individual outreach to members that are yet to vote but are active enough to. It must be pointed out that on Resolution 102, there was a turnout of 33 voters, or approximately half of the UC members, while Resolution 105, voted on closely after 102, received only 5 votes (less than 10%).
Politicization
Another big issue recently within the United Cities, which led to increased tensions and controversial proxy votes in a few cases. Among coalitions, there may be less of an issue now that the MRT International Coalition has collapsed, but the same has yet to be said of political parties. As a basic approach, Camelfantasy would like to stress several things:
- Server rule #4: Remember that this is just a game. Chill out and have fun.
- The prime directive of the United Cities: The United Cities is a server-wide organization dedicated to fostering diplomatic relations among cities, encouraging cooperation among their mayors, forging unity among players, and increasing the enjoyment people get out of the server. This cannot be accomplished if increased politicization continues to raise tensions among members.
- Staff intervention has already been seen as a possibility if major conflicts were to continue, and more likely than not, most members of the UC would rather that the organization remain independent.
Again, it does not seem that much can be done about this issue, but if major conflicts were to occur involving political parties and/or coalitions, Camelfantasy will recommend terminating the United Cities' recognition of political organizations.
Status Quo
Many candidates, including Camelfantasy, has promised to maintain the current status quo of the United Cities. But what exactly is the status quo? As Camelfantasy sees it, it would be allowing the current committees to operate as they have been (the P&R committee will be reviewed), not bringing about extremely radical sweeping changes to the UC, and to allow the democratic nature of the resolution system to continue unhindered.
Ideas
Monthly Reports
To increase awareness of the general public on the workings of the United Cities, as well as set forth goals the United Cities should accomplish, there is something Camelfantasy would like to try. Upon the conclusion of each month, a monthly report will be released by the president, with potential contributions by other officers, of what has been accomplished in the past month, both major and minor. In addition, it will contain goals that the president, and perhaps the other officers, would like to see accomplished by the United Cities as a whole or by its committees. These goals will remain within constitutional bounds and be not difficult or impossible to achieve, and will not required to complete, for any reason. Such goals may be short-term with a goal of the end of the following month, or long-term with a goal of several months. This is not official, and input will be gathered before implementing such an idea.
Member Input
As an initiative for the president (and other officers) to work together with the General Assembly, Camelfantasy will strive to be as open to ideas, input, and complaints from other members, and will attempt to resolve them to the best of his ability, from seeking out the appropriate people to delegating tasks to other departments and committees. As he is fairly active on the server, input will be responded to and dealt with in a timely manner.
Meetings
In its 7+ months of existence, the United Cities has yet to hold a single General Assembly meeting. Given how the United Cities has been able to function fairly well even with this fact, Camelfantasy will not be actively advocating for one be held any time soon.
Closing
Camelfantasy would like to take a moment to thank the other presidential candidates, as well as those for other races, on campaigns and races well run. No matter what the end result is, he will accept the results (barring Russian interference) and aim to work with the new administration.
Well, that's enough said. Please, remember to vote when the polls open, so your new administration can be as representative of the United Cities as a whole. It is you, the voters, that will ultimately decide how the United Cities will be run for the next 3 months.
Thank you all for listening,
