This is a full interview with newly re-elected Chancellor Caylen Vyshir of the United Space Confederation (USC). The USC elects both its Chancellor and its Prime Minister—two key leaders who, together with the Cabinet, guide the entire Confederation.

In the interest of helping members get to know the newly elected Chancellor and providing insight into the USC’s leadership processes, we conducted the following interview.

The Interview :

Thank you Etow, It’s always a pleasure to answer questions for the Compass. An outlet that does not let’s itself fall into the trap of wanting to sensationalize and is willing to report in full integrity and objectivity… I congratulate you on a great publication.

Question 1: Describe your role as chancellor, what are the duties and challenges?

Answer: That’s a great question, The Chancellor’s role at first glance, of course, is to ensure the proper functioning of the Senate, The legislative branch of our government. Day to day I receive topics of discussion, concern, ideas for reform and improvement, sometimes complaints and other times positive feedback. All this anonymously if the sources wishes it to be. At other times the topics come from observations from current events, perhaps even from reading the compass. The topics are then filtered and studied by the Chancellor in order to ensure that the presented issues/topic is relevant, not currently being worked on by an existing team/piece of legislation and/or promotes a strategic interest for the betterment of the USC. They are then prioritized and prepared to be delivered to our Citizen Senators for a fair and objective voting process. The results of which are then presented to Cabinet for execution or ascension. Indeed choosing which topics get chosen and which take a back seat can be challenging as it is indeed impossible to put everything to a vote. We have to keep things pragmatic.

And…Before you ask, yes.. there is a certain degree of finesse and decorum to be had when preparing the topics. There in lies the soft power of the Chancellor and the importance to pick one that will represent our citizens fairly and objectively. The Chancellor is also the keeper of the constitution and is consulted on matters of past legislation. The keeper of “the code” if you will so that in times of troubles or turmoil we can refer to the “big book” and see how things should be dealt with. In this regards he/she may be asked to arbitrate on a course of action. Working hand in hand with the Cabinet. At some other times, the Chancellor is called upon to mediate through disagreements by working with each involved party fairly… It’s these times I find the most challenging but they are necessary. We indeed have some very passionate citizens and you know what they say… “Passion can be a double edged sword.”

Question 2 : How do you look back on your past term? Did you achieve all the goals you hoped?

Answer: I cannot completely accept them as “my” goals as indeed everything that crosses the senate should be a reflection of our united wishes but indeed… I do set myself a certain mandate when I put my candidacy up. During my past term I’ve set upon myself that I would promote topics and ideas that: 1) Let our people shine. 2) promote event planning 3) Foster an Environment Prosperous to content creators and promoter. Again, I will never take personal credit for any of that but can I say that we’ve let our people shine? Yes we have. In the last two years we’ve onboarded 6 directors, Elected 4 Prime Ministers, we’ve had several media initiatives achieved and participated in person to Citizen’s Con to promote our Government’s ideals and values to the citizen’s of the UEE. and It’s only begun. There are still many many opportunities to shine within the USC.

On the event planning front, the USC is the most active it’s ever been! In most part because of our excellent Directors and Event planners which have taken up their duties with determination and passion! Regarding having an environment prosperous to content creators, of which we now count 3 within our ranks, all promoting the USC in their own ways, I believe that there is still some work to be done to promote positions directly responsible to maintain and produce content directly for our different media outlets withing the Confederation Media Network. I will keep an eye out to ideas and promote topics that makes that more interesting or easier for able persons to contribute to those.

Question 3 : Since there was no opposing candidate this election there was no opportunity for election campaigns, our readers are still curious though what your plans are as chancellor for your next term, could you perhaps present your ideas and plans for the new term?

Answer: My thoughts were laid out in my candidacy speech on the 21st of November 2955 and indeed the election was a validation of that mandate. Some of the objectives are somewhat reflective and a continuation of some of my previous objectives from your previous question. Namely first: We should continue to promote and cultivate talent. We should support our citizens what would like to step up and take up posts within our organization so that activity keeps increasing and so that we can cover activities that our current directors and Ministers are “multi hatting in”. Second: Creating an environment prosperous for grassroots endeavors just like the Griffins or the Compass, amongst others, to grow and enrich our citizen’s lives is indeed a priority for this term. I want to promote an environment that anyone with an enterprising idea can make it work within the framework of the broader USC. Of course these need to be within the umbrella but the organization was built in a way that almost any initiative or small subgroup can exist as part of the whole. It’s the basis of the “Confederation” structure of our government.

Third: I’m making a bold prediction that the systems will be in place in the next two years for us to start building, expanding our territory and staking our claim in the vers. This prospect will bring us a renewed purpose and give us indeed a “raison d’etre”. We will need to be ready, learn, build up our processes, and fill empty department seats that cover activities needed in the times ahead so that we can achieve our goals as a group. We are truly gearing up for exciting times ahead for the USC.

Question 4 : This election having no opposing candidate is a little strange no? do you plan to perhaps do something about that in your term?

Answer: As mentioned before, I indeed intend to promote the fact that anyone can step up for any position including being a candidate for Chancellor to run in the next elections. I have no problem with that and invite the chance for us to exercise our democratic processes. At the same time, I would encourage any candidate for chancellor, Minster or Director to take a good think before stepping forward to take these roles. As with any position of leadership within the USC, they are positions of responsibility and Service. Never of power. I do find that serving is it’s own reward however. Seeing the USC grow and being a part of that is indeed very motivating. Do I find it strange that I was the only candidate?… Not more than the compass being our only running news outlet at the moment so I guess the circumstances might be similar. Would you not agree?

Question 5 : Have there been any highlights in your last term? And have there been any low points?

Answer: I’ll start with the low points… The decision to impeach a standing Prime Minister was situation that in anyway you look at it was a challenging for the Confederation. It was however necessary… Any official, elected or not, raising the specter of sedition, slandering other members of government to gain an edge and/or spreading misinformation about the state of affairs brings us closer to us breaking apart. We are meant to be United else we wouldn’t be the “United” Space Confederation… There is a reason that there is no single head of state or a single focused source of power in the USC and that reason is that all members of Cabinet and the Chancellor all keep each other to account. There are ways to work out our differences at the highest levels of leadership and those methods definitely do not involve speeding vitriol and inciting rebellion within our ranks! On to the points that I am most proud of… I cannot claim credit for any of these, mind you, as they are of course shared successes and at time Senators were involved to move these key pieces of legislation… I can’t name them all as we would be here all day but here are 4 that I feel were quite important…

First, I would like to highlight that we’ve officially enshrined the role of “Directors” within our constitution… Something that was long in the planning but put in stone in early 2954. The fruits of that labour showing signs of success already and we’ve only started. We’ve tested out our ability to mobilize for a common goal when Wikelo entered the Stanton system and sent our citizens into a scavenger hunt of galactic proportions. Lessons were learned that will set the foundation for our future objectives. For security of the Confederation, It was determined that we should take a more “Direct” approach when dealing with Criminals and that we cannot fully trust the UEE to uphold peace and order. We are now actively engaged freedom of Navigation missions as well as have UEE specific enterprises within our scopes to uncover the truth behind allegations of inhumane work practices and Scientific experimentation. And lastly, One of the most controversial results of the previous term was the decision to move Mining and Salvaging activities into the supervision of the Ministry of Interstellar Commerce once new Engineering systems come online which should keep the Ministry of Engineering and Support much occupied… More on that decision to come as I feel that some conversations and concessions may require further discussions in the new term… I mention it now because it’s often the hard subjects that have the most impact and we are not after trivial results, we are after evolutionary ones. There are other successes that I would love to mention but I think these were quite notable.

Question 6 : Anything you wish to add?

Answer: I just want to mention 2 things. First a heart felt thank you again for all the citizen’s whom have entrusted me with their confidence in the last election. For those that might still harbor doubts, even though they’ve still voted positively for me, my door is always open for a discussion and an honest chat. Second, If you have been a citizen of the USC for at least 1 year, harbor no other affiliations and have been on the fence whether to step up for an open director’s post, There is no better time than now to make your interest known. The USC is in full growth and it’s a very exciting time to be part of that momentum. If you are one of these people, please make your interest known to myself or to the corresponding Minister overseeing the Department that you are interested in. Thank you Etow for the interview. Happy to do it again.