From Arch Chancellor Milograd

Joe Bobs

TNPer
FRA-update-1.png

From the Office of the Arch-Chancellor of the Founderless Regions Alliance

Date: May 2014
Forum: s7.zetaboards.com/FRA

Greetings;

This is the first update of the May-August term for the Founderless Regions Alliance's cabinet.

Moving Forward with a New Term

With the new term starting, my goals as Arch-Chancellor largely revolve around general modernization and streamlining the FRA's operational facilities and policies in hopes of increasing our productivity. This term only started mere days ago, so not much has been done quite yet in regards to that, but we hope to take a look at reforming our forum structure, the FRA Rangers' chain of command, our training procedures, our resources, etc. in the coming weeks, while also recruiting, defending, and doing what we usually do.

If these reforms go well, we will follow by experimenting with an interesting line-up of ideas that you'll have to wait a bit to see. Regardless, I and the Cabinet are looking quite forward to making the most of the new term.

FRA Leads Liberation of Liberal Haven

I am pleased to announce the successful liberation of Liberal Haven from the Right Wing Uprising. The mission, which was performed on 5/14's major update, was led and organized by the FRA Cabinet in cooperation with the Lazarene Liberation Army and, of course, Tim, who daringly attempted to trigger for a region that updated immediately after a feeder. Due to a sleepy delegate, the triggering ultimately wasn't necessary, but his efforts are nonetheless appreciated.

Liberal Haven was of particular concern as a mission because the RWU placed several long-term sleepers in the region and was able to put the stockpiled influence to use through banjections and passwording the region. Cercueil, who is also known as "German Dragons" of NAZI EUROPE, took the delegacy just over fifty days ago and was succeeded by Curious Gecko, another sleeper. We originally planned to submit our own liberation proposal of the region, but Cormac A Stark wrote a fine resolution, beating us to the punch. All in all, it worked out, as the passing of that liberation opened the door for removing the Fascists from Liberal Haven.

The coalition of forces that liberated the region include the FRA and the Lazarene Liberation Army, whom were responsible for coordinating the operation, the East Pacific Sovereign Army, the RRA, Spiritus, the New Southern Army, the New Pacific Order, and the UDL. We also found ourselves in a rare instance where we were pursuing the same objective militarily as the UIAF; though they originally intended to work separately with TSP to liberate the region, our operation was underway prior to their set-up and thus TSP joined us, and the UIAF, ISRA, and the UK ended up endorsing our lead and Geomania of TSP. The logistics of this arrangement were certainly uneasy at first, but fortunately the liberation was not derailed.

A good laugh was had after the mission as well...

Liberal Haven Point's Happenings:
4 hours ago: The People's Liberation Army Xiao-Yang was banned from Union of Nationalists by The Middle Republic of The Kuomintang.

Rangers Withdraw as Natives Successfully Refound Slavia

The Rangers withdrew from Slavia this Tuesday after receiving North Polish Union's request to do so in preparation for a refound. Slavia, which was raided because the UIAF saw an opportunity to target it after the founder of the large region suddenly ceased to exist, was held by the occupying imperialist piling force until Dyr Nasad thwarted their refound attempt at the end of the winter.

The effort was a long haul, both for us and, more dramatically, the residents of Slavia. The initial confusion caused by raiders insisting that their attack was an attack on Slavia because of its role in the FRA, even though Slavia was in the process of withdrawing from the Alliance, was as baffling as it sounds. The massive piling force that was deployed to Slavia was an obstacle that made a standard liberation impossible, so NPU and myself had no choice but to request help from the Security Council in ensuring that the UIAF didn't turn Slavia into a trophy.

When we managed to take back the region, we had to spend almost a month securing Slavia before we were able to safely transfer the delegacy to NPU, and this week Slavia's community finally pulled off a professional-grade refound of their own, thus ending the ordeal. It is obvious that this has been a trying experience for Slavia, and it was tough not being able to help sooner, but I'm truly glad that the community was able to brave through it all and work with us to re-secure their region.

I wish them the best of luck on their future endeavors and the protection of their region's sovereignty. Regardless of whether or not they are members of the FRA, we will continue to offer our support of their right to sovereignty in the face of imperialism.

New Cabinet Elected, Term Length Amendment Passes the RA

The FRA Regional Assembly recently wrapped up cabinet elections. You may notice that we usually don't have elections in May: this is correct. As Joneswest alluded to in the previous update, we recently implemented election reforms that effected a constitutional amendment mandating terms that are longer than past terms by one additional month. Our short terms have often been a subject of slight irritation, so the amendment was able to pass with ease. The change required that our usual election schedule be altered to suit longer terms. Elections will now occur in February, May, August, and November.

The new cabinet is as follows:

Cabinet of the Founderless Regions Alliance

Arch-Chancellor: Milograd
Vice-Chancellor: Jonewest
Regional Liaison Officer: Joe Bobs
Chief of Defense: Dyr Nasad
Minister of Intelligence: Guy
Speaker of the Regional Assembly: Wibblefeet

Just Around the Corner: FRAVision

FRAVision, our annual song contest between NS players on their region's behalfs, is also just around the corner. While the details and scheduling are still being worked out presently, those interested in participating as contestants are encouraged to begin thinking about what they'd like to submit. I and Wopruthien will be serving as the event's organizers this year and I fully intend to take bribes from any person who can convince Blue Wolf to actually record a cover of "Tradition" from Fiddler on the Roof.

Fun (Or Maybe Not?) Discussion of the Week: F.R.A. vs. FRAH, With Linguistics Lessons from Joe Bobs

To the surprise of some of us in the FRA, there are actually people who pronounce FRA as "FRAH" instead of reading aloud the initialism. We made a topic about it and people were simply horrified that people actually do that.

That's not terribly interesting, but what is interesting is that Joe Bobs, our RLO, was actually able to explain why most people use "F.R.A." but some use "FRAH". His linguistics degree was the source of both knowledge and sympathy for his financial well-being -- he took the time to explain the initialism's popularity below. It's actually pretty interesting.

Joe Bobs:
However, 'f' is a fricative (a sound where friction is used, e.g. s, f, th, z), and a fricative into an approximant, ending on a vowel, is less natural to say. I'm trying to think of other examples... 'schwa', 'three', 'free'. But notice that the two of those which are easier to say 'three' and 'free' end on high vowels towards the front of the mouth. For 'frah', your tongue has to move backwards in the mouth, and the 'r' almost becomes a 'w', or it does to me anyway. I think the phonemic pattern may be more common in German, so maybe Germans could say it easier.

I took up asking him why "ointment" is such an unappealing word after the fact, and he happily explained that too. He may analyze a word of your choice upon request if you're lucky.

Comic of the Update

Finally, enjoy this comic.

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The lesson? Lima beans are a tool of the opposition. Lazarene rice is inalieable freedom.

Thank you for reading, and you'll be hearing from us again later this month.

Milograd
Arch-Chancellor of the Founderless Regions Alliance
 
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