General Roundtable

[King Txec]

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

[King Txec]

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

[M:sr Pôl dal Nordselvă, D.Div, M.Ed]

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?

[Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be]

For 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 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.

[King Txec]

My apologies! I will edit my post.

-Txec R

[Baron Alexandreu Davinescu]

• 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 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.

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?

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:

Maybe 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?

The 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?

[xpb]

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.