Is the Assembly of Nations Worth Having?

[Grub]

The Assembly of Nations is a basically dead organization. Should we flat out disband it, change its name and make it a suggestion area or keep it as it is?

Grub

[Mukeli]

I say leave the AoN as it is. It essentially is a suggestion area already since it has been determined that it isn't a governmental body, so a name change isn't needed. If residents want to bring forward ideas for the region they'll have a designated thread for it. It wouldn't be a bad idea to archive a lot of the discussions though.

[Estayland]

Why can't the residents just contact their senators to bring up ideas? Isn't that why we are elected?

[Sheynat]

I applied in early September, and it's like I dropped the post into a black hole. They don't even have enough members to induct new members.

[Iwerddon]

Mine fizzled in May for awhile before I got a Senate spot

[New Dracora]

I hate to be the one that says "I told you so" but here we are.

Ever since that ordeal where you pretty much stomped on it's face and made it clear that what the people we're doing there didn't really matter, I just knew the organisation would die out.

[Bad Infinitum]

No one ever said it didn't matter, it was just determined that nothing it said would be made law without the Senate's approval, which is exactly what it was designed for. The Assembly was an outlet for the everyman, allowing the average citizen's ideas to be debated and filtered thoroughly before being presented in Council of Nine discussion. The Assembly did a lot of good things, if I remember correctly, until a few people got the wrong idea and saw it as a "lower house" of the government, which it was never meant to be.

The Assembly of Nations served its purpose quite effectively as a public forum, an open floor, a liaison between the newest of new nations and the Senate. During the peak of the Assembly's activity, the Senate did more for the region than I've ever seen them do. It allowed them to focus their energy on a few crucial topics, rather than spend hours debating everything.

I don't think it's worth it to abandon the Assembly. It doesn't cost anything to keep it running, the only thing it is inconveniencing is three quarters of an inch as we scroll past it. Besides, if we were to get rid of it, some new nation would come in and suggest something exactly like it in a month, and it would take us another whole month to get it off the ground again.

[Anime Daisuki]

Who are the speaker, censor, patriation today?

[MinnaCaroline]

It always seemed like kind of an elite thing to me. You got voted in and everything was passworded. You were no longer allowed to be part of it if you actually got elected into the CO9.

I think if they opened it up to anyone and everyone who wanted to bring a proposal forth it would be a lot more popular.

AD makes a good point.

[Anime Daisuki]

I'm not making a point actually, I really am asking the question (cuz I want to update the "government officials of 10000 islands" thread. =P

[Twobagger]

Oct 10, 2008 13:49:54 GMT -5 Anime Daisuki said:

Who are the speaker, censor, patriation today?

I am the Speaker. I believe Lichto was the previous patrician, but as of his absence that office is unfilled. The censor's office is vacant partly because I did not see any consistently active members that were not Senators to promote, and partly because I do not want to appoint someone to an office so close to the Speaker election date.

[Fleeb]

I like what Minna said. Simplify it. Make it a space available to anyone. Don't let it be (what it seemed some wanted to let it become) a shadow government.

We can always use an open space where people are totally free to boot around ideas and suggestions that can be taken up by senators for legislation if they seem sensible. That is what an Assembly can be, if it is genuinely for all nations.

[Harmonious Treefolk]

Greetings! Our nation is new to 10000 Islands, and we appreciate being invited and made to feel at home.

I know the literal AoN is out of commission, but there should always be a public forum for debate within the region. I would like to debate WA matters and regional legislation matters, even if it is the CO9 that makes the final decisions.