At our minister's request, I have thrown together a little something on the WA. It is part inspirational speech, part pitch to get more use out of WALL as a source for drafting resolutions. I felt it was a bit colder than it could have been, maybe it lacks some punch to really sell it, but I could also have just felt off when I worked on it and it could be perfectly fine. I felt the ending could possibly use some work, so feedback on that would be appreciated.
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A lot of people like to complain about the World Assembly. From the unequal distribution of votes due to the influence of delegates, to the tendency of most voters to neglect the very simple act of reading the resolutions they’re voting on, also known as the lemming effect. It is a shame, then, that so many of these critics choose to sit out when the voting happens, or to pass on being part of the WA at all. These people are precisely the ones who should be part of the WA, as both voters and participants in the art of resolution drafting. The only way to overcome the foolish votes of the uninformed lemmings is to cancel them out with your own informed votes; the only way to really make sure quality resolutions come to vote is to craft them and help improve the ones presented by others. It might be better to teach them to be better voters and writers, but it’s a big game world and there are a lot of deaf ears.
The North Pacific has the most influential delegate in the game but all of that power depends in large part on the votes of the individual WA members of TNP. To have over 1,200 endorsements means that over 1,200 individuals gave the delegate their endorsement, yet we obviously do not see over 1,200 posts in our voting thread. If people really want to make a difference, they need to step up and be heard. This means voting on the forum thread in addition to voting in the actual WA vote. Everyone believes that the system moves without them, that they are too small and insignificant to change things. It is true because they make it so. Just this term we have witnessed several close votes in our forum, and in one case the votes changed the result from the delegate’s original vote. There’s no reason this couldn’t happen more often, if only people realized just what kind of an impact their contribution could have.
As the Minister of World Assembly Affairs, I spend a great deal of time reading up on resolutions, observing debate in the WA forum, and engaging with my fellow TNPers as we figure out how we want to proceed on every proposal that makes it to vote. One of my goals in this position has been to improve education and participation, and our efforts in reaching out to more nations in TNP and encouraging them to vote in the WA and to join our team have met with positive results so far. To aid us in achieving that goal, our forum has a section called the World Assembly Legislative League. In addition to offering tutorials and information about the World Assembly, it serves as a drafting table where anyone can begin the process of creating a WA proposal even before it is taken to the WA section of the NationStates forum. It provides a friendly environment of TNPers offering guidance and feedback before the harsh spotlight of the GA and SC forums bears down on the would be author.
The North Pacific has the greatest number of WA nations active enough to endorse their delegate, and hundreds of nations active enough to regular cast votes. There is a lot of untapped potential here and WALL could bring it out. Even nations residing outside of TNP could benefit from that potential, through new ideas and points of view or simply new manpower from the participating nations. It is time that nations stop yelling from the sidelines, stop lamenting their voices are unheard or stifled by the sheer size of delegate votes and start pitching in their own time and talent. We have a lot of talented individuals serving with aplomb, but there’s no reason they should be the only ones, no reason their style and their approach should be the only ones determining what work is produced in the World Assembly. Change starts from the ground up, and it takes a while for it to be realized. Let’s begin here.
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A lot of people like to complain about the World Assembly. From the unequal distribution of votes due to the influence of delegates, to the tendency of most voters to neglect the very simple act of reading the resolutions they’re voting on, also known as the lemming effect. It is a shame, then, that so many of these critics choose to sit out when the voting happens, or to pass on being part of the WA at all. These people are precisely the ones who should be part of the WA, as both voters and participants in the art of resolution drafting. The only way to overcome the foolish votes of the uninformed lemmings is to cancel them out with your own informed votes; the only way to really make sure quality resolutions come to vote is to craft them and help improve the ones presented by others. It might be better to teach them to be better voters and writers, but it’s a big game world and there are a lot of deaf ears.
The North Pacific has the most influential delegate in the game but all of that power depends in large part on the votes of the individual WA members of TNP. To have over 1,200 endorsements means that over 1,200 individuals gave the delegate their endorsement, yet we obviously do not see over 1,200 posts in our voting thread. If people really want to make a difference, they need to step up and be heard. This means voting on the forum thread in addition to voting in the actual WA vote. Everyone believes that the system moves without them, that they are too small and insignificant to change things. It is true because they make it so. Just this term we have witnessed several close votes in our forum, and in one case the votes changed the result from the delegate’s original vote. There’s no reason this couldn’t happen more often, if only people realized just what kind of an impact their contribution could have.
As the Minister of World Assembly Affairs, I spend a great deal of time reading up on resolutions, observing debate in the WA forum, and engaging with my fellow TNPers as we figure out how we want to proceed on every proposal that makes it to vote. One of my goals in this position has been to improve education and participation, and our efforts in reaching out to more nations in TNP and encouraging them to vote in the WA and to join our team have met with positive results so far. To aid us in achieving that goal, our forum has a section called the World Assembly Legislative League. In addition to offering tutorials and information about the World Assembly, it serves as a drafting table where anyone can begin the process of creating a WA proposal even before it is taken to the WA section of the NationStates forum. It provides a friendly environment of TNPers offering guidance and feedback before the harsh spotlight of the GA and SC forums bears down on the would be author.
The North Pacific has the greatest number of WA nations active enough to endorse their delegate, and hundreds of nations active enough to regular cast votes. There is a lot of untapped potential here and WALL could bring it out. Even nations residing outside of TNP could benefit from that potential, through new ideas and points of view or simply new manpower from the participating nations. It is time that nations stop yelling from the sidelines, stop lamenting their voices are unheard or stifled by the sheer size of delegate votes and start pitching in their own time and talent. We have a lot of talented individuals serving with aplomb, but there’s no reason they should be the only ones, no reason their style and their approach should be the only ones determining what work is produced in the World Assembly. Change starts from the ground up, and it takes a while for it to be realized. Let’s begin here.