Agency 12: Public Relations Agency
The Public Relations Agency is the twelfth agency in the community. The agency handles the community’s public engagements with the outside world. It also handles the mass communications within the community, ranging from TV and radio, and the equipment needed to access these services – TV screens, and radios, for instance. The agency is the third agency in the Public Administration Bureau, which also has Communication (agency 10), and Bylaws and IT Infrastructure (agency 11).
The Capital Bank Agency (agency 8) invests capital in all agencies, including the Public Relations Agency. The capital is used for operations. The agency needs loans to procure or otherwise develop the infrastructure and gadgets it uses to deliver some of its services to participants. It uses some of the capital as a down payment for loans granted by the Commercial Bank Agency (agency 9). To repay these loans, and also pay the Capital Bank a return on its investment, the Public Relations Agency must endeavor to make a good profit by charging for services. The capital invested is originally limited partners’ partnership interest, and therefore, they are the ultimate beneficiaries of the agency’s good financial performance.
Functions of the Public Relations Agency
The Public Relations handles public relations and mass media communication services by performing the following services:
- Handling communication between the community and external entities
- Facilitating mass media communication
- Providing tools needed to access media
Handling public relations
The Public Relations Agency is the community’s spokesperson. In this capacity, the agency collects relevant information from different agencies, villages, and districts, and communicates it through relevant channels. The agency engages the press as the community’s face and voice. It also issues its reaction to developments in the outside world. The agency presidency performs this role through its automated system and contractors who issue the necessary press briefings and engage the media. The system aggregates information as desired by community agencies. The contractors can thereafter edit the information and package it for mass consumption.
In communicating with the public, the agency is expected to cultivate and maintain a positive brand for the community. The agency frequently highlights the community’s achievements and aims. The aim is not only to communicate to the public but to draw interest in how the community works. This, in turn, leads to investment in the community.
Facilitating mass media communication
The press has an important role in disseminating information in the community. The community fosters the presence of a vibrant and responsible media, by actively engaging with practitioners through the Public Relations Agency. The agency uses its position to encourage practitioners to gather, assess, and present information in a way that ensures the information is truthful, helpful, and generated using the right methods.
To ensure that this is the case, the Public Relations Agency liaises with relevant practitioners to ensure that they are well-trained. The agency assesses the practitioners before they set up their business, to ensure they understand their role properly. It can then issue them with accreditation to cover various topics within the community. Accreditation is a useful method of establishing professionalism in the discipline while ensuring that those who inform do so responsibly and for the public good.
The agency serves as a platform through which practitioners can collaborate not only in their work but also in the regulation of professional practices. The agency hires contractors who work with practitioners to draw up regulations and implement them in their work. The regulations formulation process also incorporates other stakeholders, including participants and community public servants. The agency’s automated system is trained to receive information from the public and its own algorithm on any deviations. The agency has a set of remedies where issues occur, which range from requiring the withdrawal of misleading information to the withdrawal of accreditation in extreme circumstances.
Providing access tools
The Public Relations Agency builds, acquires, or hires the infrastructure and equipment needed by participants to access TV and radio entertainment and news. For instance, television services will often require cable services to reach their audiences.
The agency develops the infrastructure needed to host television programs. The agency then offers the service to businesses, in the form of frequencies, and encourages participants with relevant skills and expertise to set up channels, so that the service can have variety, and therefore, attract subscribers.
While channels will likely pay up to have their frequencies on the service, the agency may also give subsidies or even pay some channels if it feels the content they offer is critical, and will likely lead to more subscriptions, or substantially benefit participants. The service is not limited to businesses within the community. It also actively engages TV channels beyond the community to provide content that the agency deems appropriate.
The agency then engages participants to pay subscriptions based on their preferences and ability, having come up with packages that are priced based on the nature of the content. As with other services, the agency achieves this through its automated system and contractors. The agency provides subscribers with television decoders and installation where necessary, though some of the said infrastructure can be pre-installed as buildings are developed.
The Public Relations Agency also provides participants with the tools needed to access the services, namely television screens and radio sets. The agency uses the information at its disposal to approximate the demand for these services, and, with loans from the Industrial Bank Agency, procures them. It then hires contractors who handle the logistics of managing the hiring process, especially the delivery and collection of equipment rented out, as well as any maintenance required. The contractors are also tasked with studying the environment to establish when new equipment is needed or if existing equipment needs to be replaced.
How the agency works
Background on presidencies
Every presidency is a four-member entity whose members represent one of the four major demographic groups, otherwise known as divisions: married men (A), married women (B), single women (C), and single men (D). However, a president serves the whole community in their role, rather than only their own demographic. Presidents’ diversity and commitment to serve all is provided for in the community bylaws and ensures that all access services without any discrimination.
These four major demographics are evenly split in ordinary society, with each group accounting for between 23 and 27% of the population, and with regular fluctuations as people’s status changes. The community appreciates that discrimination across all social categories happens based on marital status, other social categorizations notwithstanding; married men are likelier to dominate other demographics, especially single men and single women. Married women are also likelier to have better prospects in careers and leadership than single women.
The community’s infrastructure promotes equal access to economic and social resources and opportunities. The composition of the community as a whole and those who serve it in the community public service is closely monitored to prevent numerical domination, which can lead to nepotism or unequal access.
Besides marital status, the recruitment to be a participant, and to serve in the public service carefully considers other social categorizations, to ensure racial, ethnic, religious, and sexual groups are well represented in the community as they are in the society in which a community operates. These considerations inform the constitution of the community public service. The diversity in community public service, which is provided by bylaws, is aimed at creating a community that is blind to all other considerations besides service to participants. The service is therefore designed to be free of discrimination.
Agency presidency, bureau board, and demographic presidencies
The Public Relations Agency is served by an agency presidency, comprised of 4 presidents from the four divisions,[1] which handles strategy formulation and adjustment, as well as formulating and communicating operational procedures for the agency. Additionally, the presidency facilitates the setting up of the agency’s automated system and adjusts it as necessary to better achieve its goals.
As part of the Public Administration Bureau, the agency presidency forms a bureau board with agency presidencies serving the Communication and Bylaws & IT Infrastructure agencies. The board acts as a check and monitoring tool for individual presidents and agencies, especially when decisions have far-reaching implications for the community.
Within the bureau board, three presidents from the same demographic form a demographic presidency. There are four such presidencies in the bureau. The demographic presidency performs an advisory role to presidencies and agencies regarding a particular demographic; it does not have operational or executive authority. that cut across the three agencies. The demographic presidency also plays an important role in the mentorship and training of new presidents.
| Demographic presidency A | Demographic presidency B | Demographic presidency C | Demographic presidency D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agency presidency, Communication (10) | 10A | 10B | 10C | 10D |
| Agency presidency, Bylaws & IT Infrastructure (11) | 11A | 11B | 11C | 11D |
| Agency presidency, Public Relations (12) | 12A | 12B | 12C | 12D |
Limited partners and branch presidencies
Limited partners and dependents
A limited partner is the basic unit in the community. A limited person, usually above 18 years old, but sometimes as young as 16, has been admitted into the community and has invested $20,000 as partnership interest, for which they earn a return. This is regarded as one unit of partnership interest.
Over time, a limited partner can add more units of partnership interest, as their business prospers. The more partnership interest units a limited partner has, the more the return they receive from the Capital Bank.
A dependent is a minor, or a person living with a disability, under the care of a limited partner. In some instances, a dependent may be a fit adult, who for various reasons is supported by community agencies, and assigned by contract to a limited partner. Limited partners are responsible for any legal agreements that their dependents enter into, either with community agencies or other participants, and therefore have the right of attorney.
Together, limited partners and dependents are referred to as participants. Participants who are dependents, because they are still minors, can start a business when they reach 12 years of age. This allows them to save up and invest $20,000 into the community by their 18th birthday, and possibly as early as 16.
Limited partners and their dependents reside in apartments (village buildings). Each apartment has 4 floors, with each floor containing 16 apartments. Each floor has floor has 7 – 12 limited partners, with each limited partner having 1 – 3 dependents. Each floor therefore has around 25 residents. With four floors, each building has approximately 100 residents. An apartment building also forms a branch.
Limited partners and unit
A limited partner is the basic unit in the community. A limited partner, usually above 18 years old, but sometimes as young as 16, has been admitted into the community and has invested $20,000 as partnership interest, for which they earn a return from the Capital Bank Agency, which invests other community agencies. This is regarded as one unit of partnership interest. Over time, a limited partner can add more units of partnership interest, as their business prospers. The more partnership interest units a limited partner has, the more the return they receive from the agency.
A dependent is a minor, or a person living with a disability, under the care of a limited partner, and who has, in any of these cases, given their power of attorney to the limited partner. In some instances, a dependent may be a fit adult, who for various reasons is supported by community agencies, and assigned by contract to a limited partner. Limited partners are responsible for any legal agreements that their dependents enter into, either with community agencies or other participants. Together, limited partners and dependents are referred to as participants.
Participants who are dependents, because they are still minors, can start a business when they reach 12 years of age. This allows them to save up and invest $20,000 into the community by their 18th birthday, and possibly as early as 16. Limited partners and their dependents reside in apartment buildings (village buildings). Each apartment building has five floors, with four containing apartments. An apartment building also forms a branch.
Captains and branch presidencies
Of the approximately 100 residents in a branch, around 40 of them are limited partners.They are divided into 4 units, each of which has 10 limited partners and their dependents. The limited partner membership in a unit is diverse, containing different social groups that are reflective of the society within which a community operates.
Additionally, a unit contains members of the four main demographics: married males (A), married females (B), single females (C), and single males (D).
The 4 demographics in the branch form 4 groups, as follows:
- Group 1: married males and married females
- Group 2: single females and single males
- Group 3: married males and single males
- Group 4: married females and single females
Within each group, there are different subsets, known as classes, based primarily on age. There is a class for Nursery (0-2), toddlers (3 – 5), young children (6-9), pre-teens (10-12), teens (13-18), young adults (19-31), adults (32-72), and empty nesters (73+).
| Meeting week | Class 1 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 4 | Class 5 | Class 6 | Class 7 | Class 8 |
| Week 1 and 3 | All married adults | All single adults | Teen boys and girls | Pre -teens | Young children | Toddlers | Nursery | |
| Week 2 and 4 | All men | All women | Teen boys | Teen girls |
Further details on the composition of units, groups, classes, and branches, and their meeting schedules, is detailed here.
Recruitment and diversity
Captains are responsible for recruiting limited partners into the community through their council and by extension, branch. A captain does not recruit limited partners only from their demographic. Instead, they work to ensure that their recruits are diverse, considering social categorizations, gender, and social status, in addition to demographic groups.
Captains work in concert with their fellow captains in the branch presidency, and other presidencies in a village and district to ensure that the district is as diverse as possible. They are guided by present data on how diverse their district, village, and branch are, and what needs to be focused on to improve. They are also guided by community bylaws, which expressly require diversity as shown by demographic data about a population from which the community intends to recruit limited partners.
The captain serves as a service extension of the Human Relations Agency, though they also act as an interface between participants and other community agencies. For agencies that do not have operational presidencies, such agencies in the Economic and Public Administration Bureaus, captains come in handy in helping participants navigate these agencies’ automated system and other relevant tools used by the agency to deliver services.
The automated system is designed to help participants with all the help they need in matters related to various agencies, including the Human Relations Agency. However, should they run into problems, captains assist them in navigating the system, or direct them to relevant contractors who help them at a fee.
Automated system
The Public Relations Agency provides its services through an automated system. The system can engage with participants and community public servants without the human involvement of the agency’s agency presidency. The agency presidency is responsible for setting up and running the system.
The automated system is connected to other agencies’ systems, giving it access to extensive information it needs to provide high-quality services to the community. For instance, it can use information on participants to run targeted marketing ads and promotions.
Practitioners in the community use the agency’s automated system to collaborate, enforce self-regulation, and train. The agency is also used to help participants access mass communication gadgets, while also helping in monitoring information disseminated by various media outlets, ensuring quality and accuracy.
Contractors
The Public Relations Agency relies on contractors to do the tasks that branch presidencies, the agency presidency, and the automated system are unable to handle properly. As the agency sets up its operating strategies and policies, it enlists the help of contractors who specialize in the fields it is concerned with, such as mass communication, and the hire of various mass communication gadgets such as radios and television screens, as well as cable services.
The agency also needs contractors to help it set up its infrastructure and facilitate delivery to participants. Additionally, the agency needs contractors to help in setting up the automated system, and the tools needed to monitor and adjust it to ensure optimal performance.
The Services that the agency provides are made possible by contractors. The agency needs contractors to develop and maintain its services. It also needs contractors to handle the logistics of delivering and retrieving equipment to and from participants as per their lease agreements with the agency.
Inter-agency cooperation
The 24 community agencies form three columns of 8 agencies each. There is loose collaboration between the agencies in a column. The Public Relations Agency is part of the third column.
For specific asset requirements, the Public Relations Agency takes loans from the Commercial Bank (agency 9). It acquires the required assets in collaboration with the Business Operations Agency (agency 3), which helps the agency in renting out any assets needed.
The Business Operations Agency requires extensive advertising services to ensure that its services reach all participants who need them. The Public Relations Agency has extensive media connections, as well as the cable services it provides. It uses these services to run an automated advertising service for the Business Operations Agency.
The Recreation and Arts Agency also needs advertising services as it aims to have all participants engage in a recreational activity or an art, as part of maintaining their mental and physical health. The agency relies on the Public Relations Agency’s infrastructure to reach participants.
Presidencies’ offices, meetings, and quarterly conferences
Offices
The Public Relations Agency presidency has permanent dedicated offices in District Building 12’s first floor, on the western side. Facing them on the eastern side are the offices for trustee presidency and Regulatory Bureau’s agent presidency serving the agency and District 12.
Trustees and the regulatory presidencies alternate their offices. Trustees have the offices in building 12 on Mondays and Wednesdays, while the operational presidencies use the offices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as shown in this timetable:
| Building 12/ Public Relations Agency | Building 24/ Raw Materials and Transport Agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Trustee presidency | Regulatory Bureau presidency |
| Tuesday | Regulatory Bureau presidency | Trustee presidency |
| Wednesday | Trustee presidency | Regulatory Bureau presidency |
| Thursday | Regulatory Bureau presidency | Trustee presidency |
The first floor’s layout is as follows, including other public servants who serve District 12
Working hours and meetings
Agency presidents, trustees, and regulatory agency presidents work in their offices on a full-time basis. To allow for this, they are required to be at least 50 years of age, be experts in NewVistas concepts, an be semi or fully retired from their business. This allows them to dedicate much of their productive time to serving the community.
Other presidencies work from Monday to Thursday, from 8 – 8:45 AM. their offices are converted for this purpose, and can thereafter be used for other activities, such as office space for participants, hotel rooms and hospital consultation rooms. On Thursday, each presidency (four presidents serving A, B, C, and D) meets for a 45-minute meeting from 9:00 to 9:45 in the morning.
On the last Friday of each quarter, between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM, each demographic presidency meets. The three-member presidency discusses common bureau matters that are of interest to the demographic they serve. On Saturday, again between 9:00 AM and 12:00 PM, the whole board meets, where the presidents present their input from the previous day’s demographic presidency meeting, and prepare for the quarterly conference. The aim is to have a cohesive presentation during the quarterly conference but tailored to specific demographic interests.
Quarterly conferences
Quarterly conferences are held on the last Sunday of each quarter, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with a lunch break in between. During quarterly conferences, each demographic presidency sits together in the same row.
Quarterly conferences are held in District Buildings 5 and 17. Each building has a lower and higher assembly court. The different demographic groups use the assembly courts as follows:
| Building | Assembly court | Demographic |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Lower court | Married men (A) |
| 5 | Higher court | Married Women (B) |
| 17 | Lower court | Single women (C) |
| 17 | Higher court | Single men (D) |
Branch presidencies do not attend quarterly conferences. Instead, they follow the relevant proceedings online alongside other participants.
Each of the four assembly courts has seats for 480 presidents representing the respective demographic. In the diagram below each of the 4 courts is illustrated. The ceiling of each court has an elliptical arch that enables agency presidents, who are the only ones who make a presentation during the conference, to speak without the need to amplify their voices. The 480 seats are easily rotatable to enable presidents to face whoever is speaking.
Each of the four courts has an identical arrangement and number of seats. The exact arrangement of each court can therefore be illustrated using one court, in this case, building 5’s lower court that is used by married men (A).
Within an assembly court, the 480 presidents are arranged in terms of demographic presidencies of 3. The Public Administration Bureau’s demographic presidency for married men (10A, 11A, and 12A) sits in the highlighted seats. Various district demographic presidencies also sit on the same row.
[1] These demographic groups are married men (A), married women (B), single women (C), and single men (D).