In this thread, I invite the members of the Commission to post all the useful or zany ideas you might have in regards to improving the immigration system or immigrant engagement.
Members of the public, while you are not able to post here, I openly invite you to send a message to any of the members with your ideas as well.
For public reference, the members of the commission are:
@King Txec (Chair)
Sir X. Pol Briga
@xpb @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu @Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be Mieusegnhor
@Dr. Pôl dal Nordselvă -Txec R
I'll start:
- Bring back the Talossa Assistant program
- Embargo in a citizens only area public debates within the Ziu
- The King has the power to grant Charters to organizations. I'd love to give out a bunch of these
- I can't recall the name, but citizens who helped bring in other citizens used to be decorated by the Seneschal (I received one myself). We should do that again.
I have a lot of other ideas, but I'll add more as time goes by. Let's get sharing!
-Txec R
Change the process if immigration by allowing immigrants time to adapt to our society and customs before being required to explain why they are requesting citizenship. I can guarantee we have lost prospective citizens because the application process is intimidating. Most will have no experience in how Talossa is governed and might take time to understand before requesting immigration status.
Additionally we need to understand the scope of immigration. What is the hope and focus we are trying to achieve? Do we need a specific number of immigrants to feel validated? Or is the purpose to expand at any cost?
Quote from: King Txec on July 15, 2025, 07:36:10 AMFor public reference, the members of the commission are:
King Txec (Chair)
Sir X. Pol Briga
Baron Alexandreu Davinescu
Mieusegnhor Dr. Pôl dal Nordselvă
-Txec R
Ouch, Your Majesty. :c
On a more serious note:
- I agree that reviving the Talossa Assistant program is something we should try to do. I think the trick is getting people to stick with it (assistants I mean, not prospectives) but I'm sure we can come up with something.
- I also think that the Prime Minister's Patriotic Award (I believe this is what His Majesty was referring to in his fourth point) is worth reviving.
- The New Citizen's Guide (https://talossa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/New-Citizens-Guide.pdf) could likely use a refresh.
- I think we inadvertently hide a lot of our "fun" topics in the Chat Room board, because the "main" Wittenberg board is seen as being more for formal business (election announcements, that sort of thing). Since prospectives cannot see the Chat Room, they miss out on a lot of the events we have going on. I think we do a disservice to both ourselves and prospectives by hiding them.
- We could consider simply moving our "fun" threads (TCAT, CRT, TMT20, etc.) to the main Witt board and encourage people who make new fun events in the future to put them on the main board as well.
- There's also been talk of reorganizing the boards, which I think is something we could be doing at the same time.
My apologies! I will edit my post.
-Txec R
Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be on July 15, 2025, 11:20:19 AM- I agree that reviving the Talossa Assistant program is something we should try to do. I think the trick is getting people to stick with it (assistants I mean, not prospectives) but I'm sure we can come up with something.
- I also think that the Prime Minister's Patriotic Award (I believe this is what His Majesty was referring to in his fourth point) is worth reviving.
- The New Citizen's Guide (https://talossa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/New-Citizens-Guide.pdf) could likely use a refresh.
- I think we inadvertently hide a lot of our "fun" topics in the Chat Room board, because the "main" Wittenberg board is seen as being more for formal business (election announcements, that sort of thing). Since prospectives cannot see the Chat Room, they miss out on a lot of the events we have going on. I think we do a disservice to both ourselves and prospectives by hiding them.
- We could consider simply moving our "fun" threads (TCAT, CRT, TMT20, etc.) to the main Witt board and encourage people who make new fun events in the future to put them on the main board as well.
- There's also been talk of reorganizing the boards, which I think is something we could be doing at the same time.
I agree with all of this, except to note that the boards have already been significantly reorganized.
Quote from: Dr. Pôl dal Nordselvă on July 15, 2025, 11:06:06 AMChange the process if immigration by allowing immigrants time to adapt to our society and customs before being required to explain why they are requesting citizenship. I can guarantee we have lost prospective citizens because the application process is intimidating. Most will have no experience in how Talossa is governed and might take time to understand before requesting immigration status.
Additionally we need to understand the scope of immigration. What is the hope and focus we are trying to achieve? Do we need a specific number of immigrants to feel validated? Or is the purpose to expand at any cost?
I also agree with 100% of this, and I reiterate that the Government should be doing a top-to-bottom review of the immigration process.
The only take I disagree with here, I'm sorry to add, is His Majesty's take that public debates should be removed from the Ziu. They are a
feature for prospective immigrants, since they are a consistent sign of a lively and interesting political culture. A silent governmental apparatus just makes us look very quiet.
Other ideas I have been proposing:
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 24, 2025, 08:03:43 PMMaybe we focus on our strengths with heraldry, and appeal to the online heraldic community? Maybe we incentivize recruiting with awards, and publicize those awards with recorded video speeches? Maybe we explore reaching out to former Old Growthers to invite them back? Maybe we offer prizes for Talossan language writing, and then advertise those prizes on conlang forums?
Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 28, 2025, 06:12:52 PMThe immigration form has something like thirty steps, including boxes to be expanded and questions and checkboxes and an essay -- have we looked at this and seen if it can be improved? Have we looked at our websites and seen if they can be made more welcoming? What exactly has even been attempted?
I personally have been unsuccessful in what I think would be the most effective way to increase the number of Talossans. Perhaps I need some assistance with an elevator pitch or a better way of using the wiki or other resources to inform those I think would have interest.
The simple idea is "+1"
Each citizen would endeavor to identify one person that they already know from other spheres of activity, that they believe would have interest in becoming an active citizen.
I think if we had at least a third of our current citizens make this attempt, and if a third of those influenced by a specific person they know became active citizens by the end of calendar year 2025, that would constitute significant growth.
Certainly there be no restriction on others who stumble upon or otherwise land on the pier, and they should be supported as much as possible. However, a personal connection to people through other hobbies, interests, education, work, etc. has potential.
I will leave this discussion open for now. I want to point out that I'm hopeful the upcoming article in Milwaukee Magazine will be a great draw as well. Later this week or next I'll compile all the ideas generated so far.
-Txec R
Here are the ideas presented so far:
- Talossa Assistant Program
- Royal Charters
- Prime Minister's Patriotic Award
- Moving of "fun" threads for public viewing (TCAT, CRT, TMT20, etc.)
- A renewed focus on heraldry
- Streamlining the immigration form
- Each citizen +1
Are there other items to be added or something I missed?
-Txec R
Quote from: King Txec on July 28, 2025, 09:01:49 AMHere are the ideas presented so far:
- Talossa Assistant Program
- Royal Charters
- Prime Minister's Patriotic Award
- Moving of "fun" threads for public viewing (TCAT, CRT, TMT20, etc.)
- A renewed focus on heraldry
- Streamlining the immigration form
- Each citizen +1
Are there other items to be added or something I missed?
-Txec R
Right, so I will give the members of the Commission one additional week for further comment and suggestions. Our next step will then be to consider each proposal for its merits before beginning work on our proposal.
@xpb @Baron Alexandreu Davinescu @M:sr Pôl dal Nordselvă, D.Div, M.Ed@Mic'haglh Autófil, O.Be -Txec R
As for immigration, I have discussed previously the idea of a two-tier structure for new immigrants.
Newly applied immigrants should be granted temporary residency with a goal of finding areas of participation or involvement. This would ensure potential new citizens are active and not just joining out of curiosity or other reasons. Once the temporary residences reach either 6 months or completes a citizenship test/review they are granted full citizenship.
I think this will help us get new active citizens rather than someone ti prip up the numbers.
I apologize to the members of the commission for not following up sooner. The start of the new school year has been very pressing on my free time. I hope to spend some time this weekend working on this.
-Txec R
I should point out that, by my count, we currently have fifteen prospective citizens in the application pipeline, confirming our initial suspicions about the nature of the issue. This would seem to be a good opportunity to seize, both through official and unofficial methods (things like continuing to accept TalossAssistant volunteers for the former, generally trying to be very welcoming for the latter).