As former president and still counsel to the new administration, Justin’s views of the future seem clear and expansive. We asked to lend us his thoughts to understand more of what is to come for him and the White House.
1. Describe your journey as President of the WH.
It’s definitely an interesting role, and one that’s pretty unique in terms of Habbo agencies. The White House is one of the few organizations in Habbo where we change our 1iC frequently, due to having our democratic election process, so it’s a short period of time to implement your vision and to try to do what you can to help the White House. My Presidency overall had three real main focuses: relationships with our allies, improving communications and transparency, and making the White House more enjoyable. So, we set out back in June of this year to build a campaign that got us elected at the end of July. And were fortunate enough to serve two consecutive terms to work on our manifesto and our goals. It’s been a fascinating experience, and we’ve had the chance to do a lot of great work, meeting a bunch of our allies, working with the larger community, and helping to better the position of the White House on the wider Habbo stage, both inside and out.
2. What steps have you successfully taken in growing and focusing on the White House’s relationships in the wider Habbo community?
There’s a few things we accomplished this term. There’s little question that when we took office back in July that there was a strain between the White House’s leadership and some of our allies and other organizations. We took steps in our first week in office to sit down with foundations of some of Habbo’s largest agencies to work on our differences and set the tone for the term. We took on a larger presence in Habbo Organizations, and worked with our partners there to help ensure the Habbo community remains safe and enjoyable; as a member of the CIW-T, we worked with partners to improve the reach of the treaty and invite new active members to the cause to join the mission to condemn illegal warfare. And on a home front, we worked with our State Department to better the Diplomatic Corps, and introduce regular, diplomatic events with allies, and increase our number of visits to allies.
3. Did you achieve everything you set out as the President?
We didn’t accomplish absolutely everything on our manifesto, unfortunately four months isn’t as long as it seems in the terms of the White House, but I’m proud that we were able to implement some of our bigger changes and reforms, especially when it came to increasing our Office of Public Engagement, raising pay for employees, and overall improving our relationships both with the White House’s branches but also on a wider scale with our allies and other partners on Habbo, so despite not having achieved absolutely everything we set out for, I’m proud that we were able to get a very large part of our goals done.
4. What was the experience like when you were first elected?
It’s a unique experience. I’ve been part of the White House since 2011, so I’ve been around for a lot of the change that’s happened over the years and I’ve served in a lot of key positions. The Presidency is a wholly different and eye-opening experience in the White House. There aren’t many organizations where you can become 1iC overnight, and the White House is very unique in that sense. The transition into the office is a long one and takes quite a fair amount of time to have the meetings and start to work on the goals you have for your term, so to put it shortly, I figure, the experience was quite eye-opening, and humbling, it’s quite a busy role and responsibility you wear when you’re elected, but I have absolutely no regrets about the process, or what I was able to do as President.
5. What’s next for you at the White House?
That’s going to be determined shortly, I hope. With Habbo2020 on the horizon, there’s a lot of work to be done on the Administrative side to prepare us for the transfer off of Flash and into the new Habbo UI. I began working on our transition plans while I was President, so I’m looking forward to working with our new Administration to keep working to maintain the White House as we venture into this period of uncertainty and change. In terms of rank or status, I can’t say for certain, but I figure I’ll be staying around for a bit longer at the very least.
From us at SS: a huge congratulations to the new President of the Habbo White House. This is a huge accomplishment and we can not wait to see what they both bring to the agency floor.