The Forest Embassy｜Our Neck Of The Woods

[Jutsa]

Hello everyone! Just a quick update this time.

First, we just saw the conclusion of the Portugal-Forest Challenge Cup, an event graciously hosted by Associacao Multi Desportiva Portuguesa from Portugal. Forest may not have scored first, but we did score second and third place. (And honestly, were we expecting anyone other than Caxina to win? We've seen their model sports players - it would not have even been close.)

Second, we just closed two embassy request polls, both of which did not meet our 2/3 majority approval in order to construct embassies. We do have a couple more FA-related affairs ensuing, and in combination with a region-wide event that will be commencing this weekend, we will have our hands full for a couple of weeks!

Lastly, we at long last have the results of the winners of the Forest Poetry Fantasia we held in May! If you'd like to read any of the poetry that was submitted for the contest, you may find those here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2514420

Many thanks to everyone who participated in all of these events. Can't wait to give you all the next update.

_{P.S. I also updated a couple of links at the end of the first bar in the OP.}

[Jutsa]

New update! (Probably gonna have two more next month too at this rate xD)

Firstly, I'd like to announce that Forest Trivia is back! This is a "Special Olympics" edition of the Forest Trivia, and we'll probably have new editions of the trivia (I won't link all of them here) out throughout the rest of August, until the end of the term!

We also have a new Forest Cup tournament being hosted by a Forestian (and partly carried out by our Minister of Culture), which will be going live throughout August! We will also be having a special event being hosted by our Minister of Cultural at the beginning and in the middle of August, so feel free to keep an eye on our RMB for those

Nextly, I'm extremely happy to announce that our Master Dispatch got a whole new makeover! Four Forestians (three in cabinet, one ambassador) have been working tirelessly on making the hub of dispatches beautiful, convenient, and up-to-date! They also hope to include several historic dispatches, so our rich history can easily be viewable to all Forestians and those interested in our history and culture.

Lastly, regarding Foreign Affairs, I'd like to announce that we have just concluded a vote and are now constructing embassies with Valaryia! We had also created embassies with Lands End on July 18th after a vote on the 15th. On the same day (funnily enough), we also signed a treaty with our recently acquired embassy in Ridgefield, pledging our commitments to cultural activities and what we hope to see out of our relationship going forward. I look forward to our activites together, within all three of our new embassies.

I have also assigned old and new ambassadors to several regions, half of which are our newly constructed embassies. I'd like to thank them very kindly for their help, and am excited to work with all of them for the rest of August.

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On that note, I would also like to mention that we will be holding our next election in September, which will last for two and a half weeks. With N-Day coming up after that, along with time needed for the Forest Keeper to get acquainted with the new office, we will likely not be seeing updates here on the forum for a little while. I also am not certain I'll be reappointed as MoFA, so the thread may once again go dormant for several months or years, as seems to be tradition at this point.

With that in mind, I do want to ask folks who might be interested in creating embassies with Forest if they'd be alright waiting until autumn. I greatly appreciate all of the regions who've contacted me this summer requesting embassies with us; though many of them failed our 2/3 majority requirement, the folks I'd interacted with have always been very pleasant and nice to work with, and I want to thank everyone greatly for that along with their patience in me trying to organize everything.

Nonetheless, folks in Forest have grown a bit weary of having so many requests brought to vote and be the center of discussion for so long, and with only a month left for our term, and the fact that we only have the one on-site polling process for votes relating to just about everything, the other cabinet members would like to get some things done. (Plus I already have a couple of matters lined up regarding our existing relationships; you guys don't have to wait ) So while I do appreciate it, I do ask any interested regions to wait until at least October to ask the next administration for a request.

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I think that is all for now. We definitely have more stuff coming up though; we currently have a constitutional amendment proposal at vote, and may have more coming up. So it'll be a pretty busy final month for everyone this summer.

[Jutsa]

"Well that was quick" yeah, gonna be one to three more posts like this this month

I just wanted to let everyone know that we have three more major events this month!

The first announcement is that The Realizer is currently hosting its own version of Eurovision, the Forest Summer Symphony! Folks are welcome to submit music they like into four separate categories, as well as vote on their favorite entries! Submission phase will last until August 9th, whereby voting will commence, and the results will (hopefully) be released on the 15th!

The second announcement is something I should've announced last update! ( ) That being a Forest football tournament being hosted by our resident Bilsa! Entries are closed, as 32 nations have already applied (hence why I refrained from posting here sooner), but you all are welcome to watch the games as they go live throughout the month! (Should be starting very shortly!)

The third and final announcement (for now) is that The Realizer will also be hosting a treasure hunt! Ngl I don't know the bulk of the details, including exactly when, but roughly speaking, it'll be a kind of puzzle where various players will have to search through various aspects of the site to find clues that lead to further clues and ultimately to some kind of prize. It shouldn't begin some time in a couple of weeks, presumably by the middle of the month. I'm certainly looking forward to it, and we wanted to make sure to announce the event plenty ahead of time so folks outside the region would have plenty of time to receive word of it.

Lastly, aside from events, it looks like we will (by a significant margin) be passing an amendment that removes Head of State successor provisions that were in place from before the stronghold and frontiers update. It won't change much, and for the most part is just cleaning up no-longer applicable artifacts left behind after made irrelevant by either the update or other amendments.

That should be all for now! Will keep you posted if anything more comes up, and I hope folks enjoy the upcoming events!

[Londoniopol]

Sounds fun :3

[Jutsa]

The Forest Cup has concluded! Link to channel livestreams: https://www.youtube.com/@Bolbon/streams
(Also linking this in the OP Bulletin Gourd)

First stream can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCAQKJi1tY
Second stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXmJWsaps2w
Third stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcMl-k45pg4
Fourth stream 1/2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx4vbe9Pj6o
Fourth stream 2/2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSry_npwMiU
Fifth stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-5xhnmFhLo
Sixth stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1FiG9rR0NA

Round of 16: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCABsWwHmq0
Quarterfinals and Semifinals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRNMIK59fb8
Finals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJPwf45Eh4w

Hope you all enjoy ^^

[Jutsa]

Forest Cup has concluded! All the streams should be linked above; let me know if I made a booboo '^^

In other news, the Forest Summer Symphony has entered voting phase! Feel free to join us in listening and voting ^^

The final results will be announced on the 15th, so be sure to submit your vote before that!

That's about all from Forest for the moment. Aside from us closing embassies with Alcris, but that's a whole other can of wormholes most of you've probably heard elsewhere already ;p (but if you haven't)

Only three more weeks left in the term! Will probably have one final announcement for you all before then. (And one last update for the Bulletin Gourd [op].)

[Jutsa]

With the conclusion of the Forest Summer Symphony, we only have a week left in the current term. But that doesn't mean we're done! No-sirree, we've got one other major cultural event before election period.

The Realizer has announced in our RMB the Forest Scavenger Hunt! It will last for 1 week, and will have prizes! Everyone is invited to participate! Hope you all have fun

[All Wild Things]

Loving the scavenger hunt! (Except for the frustration of having entered the wrong password too often and having to wait ages before I can try again)

[New United Common-lands]

The Scavenger Hunt does looks awesome, just ashame I am defintely not smart enough to participate in that.

Well done to The Realizer!

[Jutsa]

The Scavenger Hunt has come to an end! Many thanks to Realize for hosting this; it's been a blast, and their term has been absolutely loaded with incredible surprise activities. Truly some of the most dedication I've seen in Forest in a long time, and an absolutely brilliant mind - I couldn't believe some of those puzzles

Sad they couldn't get the Forest Olympic Trivia and Trivia Week 8's answers announced before the end of the term, but...

hey, speaking of terms, Forest's election season is starting in... 5 minutes! So I better hurry up and get this post made and update the Bulletin Gourd.

It's been fun being MoFA for Forest. Hope to do it again, but ultimately, time, Forest, and the individual we elect will tell. And on that note, in case this is the last time we see the Bulletin Gourd for another year, I'd like to bid my farewells for now. Til next time

(Please note: all government functions beyond moderation duties and carrying out the election will be postponed and all incoming diplomatic inquiries will automatically be shot down. Please hold until the next cabinet is established by the end of the month if you are interested in sending a request!)

[Jutsa]

Welp, our elections have concluded, and we have a new Forest Keeper! Or, rather, an old one. Congratulations to Garbelia for being our new Forest Keeper

I myself have been reappointed as minister of foreign affairs, so unless the folks of Forest take an issue with the gameplay embassy, I'll keep posting sporadic updates here

Edit: The new cabinet has also been posted in the original post above the Bulletin Gourd (which I'll leave with some old news for a little while since aside from N-Day and Z-Day we should have a somewhat slower start to the term - I think.) Will update it again should we have any new appointments!

[Jutsa]

Hi, everyone! So, bit of an update, mainly regarding our Foreign Affairs.

So, firstly, the folks of Forest approved a vote to ratify a treaty with The Region That Has No Big Banks - namely, The Accord of the Bankless Arboretum! This was essentially putting to paper (or, well, digital print) a relationship we'd already had, one that became notably stronger over the ongoing year. I do look forward to more events and the like with them. I thank them very much for reaching out to us and for writing the entire thing; we're not very good with writing treaties ourselves xD I greatly appreciate the work they'd put into it, and wish NUCL and ATG well after their efforts.

Speaking of doing more stuff together, after that Forest approved of a vote to construct embassies with Blue Ridge! We now have embassies with them, and I also look forward to any events that are planned with them Many thanks to Adkissa for reaching out to us and proposing the embassy!

Lastly, we had our first published interview between our governor and our minister of culture! This will hopefully serve to set the tone for several more interviews with various Forestians in the near-coming future.

That's about all for now. After appointments, N-Day took a fair bit of our time, as I suspect will Z-Day. We have a fair few things planned in our cultural department, and we're expecting to at some point bring to vote a few embassy closure proposals (primarily with very small regions we haven't done things with for quite some time now), but that's all the news for now. Take care

[Hulldom]

So excited for our future together! Blue Ridge x Forest just makes sense.

[Oseao]

Thrilled to see that The Accord of the Bankless Arboretum has passed and that Forest has now established ties with Blue Ridge! I hope to see some fun events between us before too long.

[Vernonia]

It’s always nice to see the new stuff going on in Forest!

[Jutsa]

Hello, everyone! Got a new update from Forest for you all ^^

Firstly, our relatively-new Osionic has actually gone ahead and compiled a transparency report for us here in Forest! I figured it'd be fair to share it with you all as well ^^ https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=57390464

It's not quite a newspaper, but it does the job of one without the fluffy bits. Includes everything from N-Day to Z-Day, from our embassy with Blue Ridge to our treaty with TRTHNBB, from Garbelia's elections to A&K's song of the week, and from Realize's interview with our governor Ruinenlust to their next event.

Speaking of: secondly, we have a new event being hosted by The Realizer! They've started the No Planet B themed Forest Storytelling Showdown, which you can find here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=57395967

All nations (including anyone from outside of Forest) may participate! The window to submit an entry is from four days ago (woops) to November 20th. If you have a penchant for writing, or you'd like to give it a whirl for the heck of it, we'd love to have you participate

That's all for now! Will keep you posted once the results come in.

[Jutsa]

Hey everyone! Quick post this time - just wanted to announce Mount Seymour's tenth annual photo contest :mrgreen:

RMB Announcement: https://www.nationstates.net/page=rmb/postid=57882996
Dispatch: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2592139

[Oseao]

Yay, it's photo contest time!

[Jutsa]

Also, transparency report lol: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2592918

Included are two things I totally forgot to make a post about / put in the bulletin gourd... over a month ago

Firstly, we have the interview with our Deputy Forest Keeper, Anxious and Kevin: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2574446

and Secondly, we had passed the combined voting amendment: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2574391
Results: https://www.nationstates.net/page=poll/p=306558

Edit: Oh, right, and thirdly we closed embassies with three regions, being Antarctic Oasis, A Liberal Haven and Union of Free Nations. Wow I've really neglected this place the past month haven't I >_>

So uh... yeah will add those to the original post

(But again don't forget the 10th annual Forest photo contest!)

[Adkissa]

I can’t wait to see everyone’s submissions in the photo contest. It’s always fun to see what people submit

[Jutsa]

Hey everyone! Just wanted to announce a few things, chiefly among them an invitation to everyone for >>> The Big Quiz of 2024 <<<!

The Region That Has No Big Banks and Forest are working together to host a trivia game on Blooket (basically Kahoot! Just slightly more affordable apparently!)! Heavily organized by our Events Branch minister The Realizer, this event will be hosted on the TRTHNBB discord THIS SATURDAY, January 4th, at 2:00 PM CST (8:00 PM GMT), and will run for 120 questions. Please telegram The Realizer if you're interested in joining so we can sign you and/or your region up for the event!

In other news, Mount Seymour's 10th Annual Photo Contest submission phase will be ending VERY SOON - January 2nd at 23:59 GMT! Submit your photos ASAP if you wish to participate! Voting will commence January 3rd at 23:59 UTC and conclude January 10th at 23:59 UTC!

Lastly, a special mention to The Realizer's latest interview with our Forest Keeper, Garbelia, which you can also find here: https://www.nationstates.net/page=dispatch/id=2596676

Hope you all had wonderful holidays! Happy new year!

[Orcuo]

Might as well go ahead and give me the award. I am a mastering of quizzing.

[Valentine Z]

I might give the quiz a try (I don't mind per se, just been busy both IRL and NS; ain't we all?) - but I am just more stoked for the Photography stuff - wins or otherwise. ♥

[Jutsa]

Hey everyone! Updated the Bulletin Gourd (a teensy bit late... again. lol.), and I had a couple of announcements to make!

Firstly, wanted to announce that the Photo Contest has entered its voting phase! (Several days ago >_>) We have a ton of entries, and even folks who didn't submit any entries are welcome to vote! (Just don't puppeteer. I know you were thinking about doing that. )

Secondly, Osionic (not osaionic, sorry) has released their third transparency report for the region! This also sums up all (hopefully) of the events that transpired in December! Nothing too crazy - and that's good, given it was the holiday season lol.

Lastly, I've removed the Big Quiz of 2024 from the Bulletin Gourd, since it's already passed. I'm not actually sure if we'll have a big final scoreboard, but if memory serves me correctly (which it honestly might not given I ate during 75% of it), the winner is as much a beast at trivia they are at chess and is in neither Forest nor NBB. xD (If you find this post and want to gloat, please do.) We had a genuinely impressive turnout with 36 22 genuine non-nucl-imitation players! Was a very fun event, and I thank The Realizer and America the Greater very much for setting it up and hosting it, respectively! (And I'd also like to thank the lot for the rest of the game night that ensued - 'twas nothing short of legendary. :'))

[Adkissa]

Oseanic*

But seriously, I can't wait to see the results of the photo contest. Looking through everyone's submissions was truly a treat.