During the last couple of weeks in the RIA, there has been a lot of change. Our regional tags now includes “role player” (!), we have several new members in our community, and we have a new delegate. As Red Dusk enters into his position, our previous delegate, Kerg, steps down.
Kerg, or The Successfully Couped Delegacy of the Kerguelen Archipelago,was a grand delegate, in my opinion. He held down the fort when Shizensky and Tim were away. In the last IMGUR surge of new members, he was wildly successful in recruiting new nations. He was the delegate who appointed me to Secretary of the Interior, which led to this (most fabulous) publication, for which I am grateful. He has been a mentor and a friend since I became a part of the region. Lucky for me, Kerg volunteered for an exit interview. So, here we are.
How do you feel about being replaced?
I guess I'll miss being able to make decisions about stuff but it's really a huge burden off me now and I'm happy to have time for other NS things. I mean I was the one that decided not to run again so it's not like this isn't the outcome I wanted.
What did you like and dislike about the job?
I definitely liked being able to increase activity and help the region grow. I did feel like there was a lot of pressure on me at times though. If people had problems they often went to me, so I was the one making small decisions that had big effects on a few people.
What was your biggest challenge and how did you handle it?
Well the actual biggest challenge was taking advantage of the imgur/Reddit bumps, but that mostly involved buying stamps and setting up mentors and citizen apps at the right time so that's not really a fun answer. I guess probably the biggest challenge I faced was finding secretaries. It isn't a position for everyone and being in government takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication and I had a small pool of candidates who would even be willing to be a secretary if asked. It really was just dumb luck that good secretaries just happened to come into the RIA.
Advice for future delegates?
I guess my advice would be make sure to set goals in mind so that you make suitable progress. When you're the one who has to move everything along and push everyone else to keep up the good work, it's really easy to for you to get lazy and everything just grind to a halt. Keep up with what the GC is doing, push yourself to write regular updates, etc. Don't be afraid to tell people what to do. It's your job to lead and manage, and you can't be a good leader without leading. You can't always lead by example; sometimes there's work that needs to be done by someone else and that someone needs you to push them to do it.
Any regrets?
I think my biggest regret is not pushing hard enough on foreign affairs. We really have not kept up with our embassies at all and I think that is really unhealthy for a region as large as the RIA. Keeping in touch, interesting, posting on each other's forums/rmb are all qualities of a good interregional relationship that we as a whole did not maintain well.
How do you think you benefitted the RIA?
Well, aside from recruiting 700 nations in 24 hours (😉 ), I think my overall importance as delegate was basically keeping the region running in growing in the shaky time after Tim left. Not everything was set in stone in regards to government procedure, so there were a lot of things that we still had to work out. There really wasn't anyone in the region who was ready/able to put in time as an exceptional delegate and really help the region thrive. I think of my duties as mainly holding down the fort.
Thoughts on Red’s campaign?
I mean I think there's not much to talk about campaign-wise. He suggested decent ideas, set out a clear plan for the future, and came up with methods to execute them. My main support for him was from the fact that I really know him well as a government official and I know how hard he works almost every day to keep everything running smoothly in the RIASF, discord, and pretty much everywhere else as well. I truly believe that he'll go down as one of the best delegates in the RIA.
What will you miss most?
Honestly I'll miss #coupkerg because that was a pretty big part of my NS identity and it doesn't really work anymore.
There will be many more #coupkerg moments in your future, my friend.
-Laurel