New Babbage Election

[Shaunathan Sprocket]

If you are serious about being mayor for New Babbage, post here explaining what you will do as mayor, please understand if you are elected you must purchase New Babbage for $6,000.00 USD payable to me. Let the Campaign Begin.

If you just want to make a comment please see the official comment thread:
http://newbabbage.ning.com/forum/topics/term-limits-for-babbage-a

[Baron Klaus Wulfenbach]

Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren - dear Ladies and Gentlemen of New Babbage,

I would like to submit my name as a candidate for Mayor of New Babbage. Some of you know me well; many have not met me at all. I plan to remedy this as thoroughly as possible. As a start, I have purchased #3 Babbage Palisade and established a Consulate office there.

Those who have read the histories of my homeland, as presented by the Professors Foglio as Girl Genius, will notice this would not be far different from what I have been doing in Europa, although far more peacefully. I do not seek to take and change New Babbage into some other creature, to remake it in the image of any other land. I am, however, concerned that a valuable portion of the steamlands, and a valuable cultural addition to the grid could possibly diminish or disappear. I seek election to preserve New Babbage and encourage the growth of this vital community.

To ensure the citizens of Babbage always have contact with their government, I would create a town council to act both as advisors to the Mayor's Office and administrators for common land needs. This would be a combination of appointed and elected individuals, the exact composition to be determined. This will also ensure that Babbage looks after Babbage, for those with any concerns of excessive foreign influences.

I would also encourage more diplomatic activity between New Babbage and other lands, as a country cannot exist either in or as a vacuum. This once again applies principles I have in action at home -- standing together is much stronger than standing alone. This will encourage not only a flow of ideas, but also bolster land sales, retail and goodwill overall.

New Babbage is a proud nation of engineers and hard workers. If you are willing to stand behind me in support, I am willing to follow your example and to lead.

Any questions may be directed to me via the Ning, or the post-box in the Consulate in Palisade.

Yrs.,

Klaus Wulfenbach, Baron
Consulate of Europa Wulfenbach

[Aeolus Cleanslate]

Greetings all! Let me say that I am excited and pleased to be offering myself as a candidate for Mayor. I’m also honored to be part of such illustrious company (nods to Bob and the Baron)!

As many of you know, I’ve been considering this decision for a while now, but wanted to wait until I felt I had a good grasp on what would be involved. Being an effective Mayor of New Babbage would be a commitment – both of time and of resources – and I wanted to be sure I would be able to meet that challenge before declaring myself. So thanks to Shaun and Kandace and those who have provided that data!

First let me congratulate Shaun and the other Founders on putting Babbage together - it's a wonderful, complicated place with its own distinctive personality and fantastic potential. In many ways I think Babbage is breaking out into very interesting cultural territory – there are masters theses galore waiting to be written about this place... *grin*

For those of you who have been here a long while, I recognize that I'm a newcomer and largely an unknown quantity, so here's a bit of RL background: I'm a technical entrepreneur by training, and have spent the past nine years as an executive for the website hosting company that bought my startup back in 2000 - writing code, designing software and managing people. I'm a business guy, but having been an actor/writer/filmmaker in a past life have a strong creative streak as well. ((For those of you who are interested in more about my RL background, let me know!)) I've been a Jules Verne and Conan Doyle fan all my life, so in a way I've been playing in the steampunk space for a long time, even though I only bought land in Babbage this past fall.

Since then I’ve come to love this place consider it home. When Shaun suggested a few weeks ago that he might sell, I started to think about what it would be like to follow in his footsteps, and have been trying to articulate Babbage’s unique value for myself ever since. Rather than take up space here, I posted it for those who are interested.

Which gets to some specifics about what I’d do in the role. I have plenty of ideas. *grin*

First of all I agree with my fellow candidates that we should move immediately to form a Town (City!) Council. As I see it, the Council’s purpose would be to hear and discuss proposals, advising the Mayor on how or if they should be implemented, and at the same time acting as a sounding board for ideas the Mayor has (as a relative newcomer, I would benefit greatly from this!). It should be made up of people respected and trusted – experienced veterans and enthusiastic newcomers. The Council would comprise both elected and appointed members (nine, maybe, one for each sim and two extra), and formally serve in an advisory capacity - but a prudent Mayor would be foolish to go against its recommendations. I think that arrangement brings the right mix of community-rule and executive decisionmaking - one without the other seems like it could be perilous.

The other early change I’d work to implement is to strengthen the admin system. I’d like to establish regular, publicized, daily office hours when the Mayor or admins can be expected to be online and available.

I have plenty of other ideas – but I think it best to treat them as ideas, using the Town Council, the Ning, and the Town Halls to discuss and refine them. A few of them can be found in this post.

The key to all this, from a Mayoral perspective, is to be reliable and professional and committed to good governance, but in the end to let Babbage Be Babbage. This role is not about making huge money, and it's not about driving things from the center, it's about facilitating and enhancing Residents' ability to do what they enjoy doing, and the result will be valuable to all concerned. I'm not really a politician, and I'll always be "the new guy" compared to many of you, but I do consider Babbage my home, and would love to have the opportunity to invest my time and energy into such a Magnificent Experiment.

I know I haven’t met many of you, and look forward to doing so soon. To get a jump on things, I’ll be hosting a small reception at Ruby’s in Babbage Canals this evening (January 7) at 8PM SLT. If anyone has any questions, please don’t hesitate to IM me!

Oh and one other thing - I mentioned earlier that New Babbage is my home,and I mean that. So no matter who wins this contest, I pledge my support and continued enthusiasm. Cheers!

[Eggberta Echegaray]

This discussion is closed and will only be re-opened for the existing or any new campaigners to update and/or add to their speeches. To new Campaigners who wish to place their speech here, please email all four mods to gain access to this page.

If the public wish to make a comment, or ask the campaigners questions, please go to the official comment for candidates thread:

http://newbabbage.ning.com/forum/topics/questions-for-candidates-pa...

Thank you,
Eggberta

[Mr. Tenk]

*Mr. Tenk tears up his old speech and throws it on the coals*

So.

A Spark, an Engineer, and a Mathematician walk into a bar, that one just around the corner and down that alley there, next to the Cooper's Workshop.

Just as their drinks arrive, a fire breaks out across the steet, at Obolensky's warehouse, because the Fire Marshall is on the take and didn't seem to notice that those kipper barrels smelled like gunpowder.

The Spark leaps out into the street and assesses the situation. A great crowd of people gather, the famous man launches into a brilliant exposition of thermodynamics and chemical heat cycles for the edification of all. Then he strikes a heroic pose, calmly turns his oscillating endothermatic fire-extinguishing ray-gun to the blaze, and puts out the fire.

Just as the Spark returns to his drink, another fire breaks out at the Workhouse across the street, because those urchins has raked some coals over from the warehouse to make sure the fire would spread.

The Engineer runs out into the street, digs a trench to the nearby canal, brandishes his tools and builds a mighty steam powered fire pump. He lowers his goggles and pushes the button. The engine shudders to life, water spews from every nozzle, the fire goes out, and the inhabitants cheer and wring out their hats.

But, just as the Engineer returns to his drink, another fire breaks out, because, well, because Breezy must be throwing another one of her mysteries and that's just how it works.

The Mathematician, noticing the stares of his drinking companions, gets up and saunters out into the street. He looks at the fire, looks at the people, looks at the canal, and looks at the stack of buckets in front of the Cooper's Workshop next to the bar, and says: "A solution exists."

The Mathematician then goes back into the bar to finish his drink.

It is not an easy thing for me to step out into the open. My goal is to organize the City to ensure her survival into the future. You have ideas, the talents, and passions to keep New Babbage great. You need a mayor who will consider your visions, then authorize the tools you need bring it about. And that is why I am standing for Mayor.


~M. Tenk
Clockwinder of New Babbage

[Viv Trafalgar]

Mod - Bumping this up to make sure it is seen.