News & Announcements

[Iverica]

During this historic phase of our great founding, the interim leadership realised the need for some simple clarifications.

1. The first elections for Chairperson will be among Panel Members only. Though this process may become more open in the future.
2. Nomination for Flags and ATARA HQ will be up shortly. Note that all members and "Honourary" positions may vote for these items as they are essential "founding" symbols.
3. This is the founding phase, thus voting for things like flag and HQ may have to be majority-based rather than consensus-based for the moment.

 

IMPORTANT: Once all founding elections and nominations are complete, ATARA will announce and host the official SIGNING CEREMONY at the new HQ (which presumably was built or prepared in advance. ALL accepted applicant delegates must be present or must provide a signing representative. If no representative is present, your application will be reviewed and membership postponed until the next round of applicants.

[Iverica]

Please hit the "follow" button this thread for updates... unless you don't want to be informed *shrugs. Nothing I can do about that.

Update

DEADLINES AND TENTATIVE SCHEDULES

 

APPLICATION DEADLINE- Signing Ceremony is being planned and will be scheduled soon. Deadline for application forms will be Sunday, December 3, 2017.  

If you wish to be part of the founding batch, please submit on or before the deadline. Forms submitted unreasonably late (leadership's discretion) will be pinned for Batch 2 signing, in 2018.

NOTICE- To all confirmed members/observers lacking a delegate, @The Eurofuhrer, @Derthalen, kindly submit your delegate forms any time before the signing ceremony. All confirmed members will receive a formal invitation in advance for the ceremony. The tentative date is on Dec. 9-10 (subject to change). Rest assured that administration will inform you of any changes prior.

Tagging nations which have expressed interest: @Fleur de Lys @Astriedan @Lusotropia

Not to worry. If you miss it, the second wave of signings (Batch 2) will follow this coming January.

Stay Tuned,

Iverica- Interim Chairperson

Edited November 28, 2017 by Iverica (see edit history)

[Iverica]

APPLICATIONS CONFIRMED- as of December 2, 2017

@Lusotropia, @Astriedan, @Cristina

Congratulations! Your respective applications have been deliberated upon and approved by the ATARA Panel!

Welcome to ATARA!

Edited December 2, 2017 by Iverica (see edit history)

[Iverica]

UPDATE- JANUARY 13, 2018

Application (Delegate) for @Derthalen as Observer with Honours has been accepted.

Please note that as the ceremony is ongoing, Delegate of Derthalen will be active and "usable" the moment the Founding RP has concluded. (Its really hard to interject another character in, and won't be fair to those who applied on schedule).

AHRANA SITUATION & THE FOUNDING CEREMONY

I have absolutely no idea how to integrate this. I'm currently managing the Founding RP and can't really afford to think about accurately involving those events. I'll leave it up to @Ahrana to make the decisions on how to handle the Delegate of the Kingdom of Ahrana.

RP PROGRESSION ISSUE- NEW RULE

As of this post, the Founding Ceremony RP will move on automatically after 7 days of my post "transitioning" it to another phase.

This is simply to keep the RP from going dead in the water. Players who can't post within that time are welcome to make delayed replies with no consequence (though it's advisable not to conflict with the narrative by contradicting earlier posts).

[Iverica]

QUICK UPDATE:

APPROVALS FOR SECOND WAVE APPLICATIONS

Delegate Applications made by @Greater Serbia , @Gallambria , and @The Eurofuhrer are hereby officially recognised by this organisation.

Notes:

-Eurofuhrer was entitled automatic recognition of his position given his early member status (joined and confirmed prior Nov 18, 2017)

-Gallambria was confirmed as an Observer many months before, let this announcement serve as an official notice.

-Greater Serbia has been cleared for Observer Status only.

-All applications processed and given legitimacy by unanimous or unopposed vote of the ATARA PANEL

Edited March 21, 2018 by Iverica (see edit history)

[Iverica]

New Member!

WELCOME, MAURIDIVIAH--LATEST APPLICATION APPROVAL

After a very quick vote held by your dutiful ATARA Panel, it has been decided (by unanimous vote, as required) that the Serene Republic of @Mauridiviah and her delegate be granted full membership to the Association. Welcome!

Edited May 2, 2018 by Iverica (see edit history)

[Iverica]

PLANS FOR 1ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY

As some of you might already be aware, ATARA is planning to hold it's first General Assembly from the 21st to the 27th of May, 2018. Official scheduling will be announced in a follow-up post here.

 ATARA will be asking for confirmation of your delegate's attendance by the 7th of May and will also be opening an inbox for any appeals to speak or tentative proposals--note that only Member or Panel submitted proposals will be entertained, Observers who wish to make a proposal will have to seek Panel or Chair approval first.

---

In summary, ATARA's tentative schedule is as follows:

• MAY 7 
  • OPENING OF APPEALS & PROPOSALS INBOX ON THIS FORUM
  • BEGINNING OF SIGN-UP PERIOD (CONFIRM ATTENDANCE--REGISTRATION)
• MAY 14 (2359 HR--ZULU/GMT) 
  • DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS OF APPEALS AND/OR PROPOSALS (CLOSING OF INBOX)
• MAY 20 (2359 HR--ZULU/GMT)
  • CLOSING OF REGISTRATION
• MAY 21
  • TENTATIVE DATE FOR GA OPENING

---

SUBMITTING APPEALS/PROPOSALS

Appeals- Motions by Observers to speak on the Assembly floor. An appeal must be a formal written statement stating the specific issue, intention, and goals of the Observer. It may be written in the format of a formal or business letter or in block type, so long as it underlines the above items.

Proposals- Motions to mobilise the Association into forming Resolutions. This must be presented using the NS World Assembly format (tentative).

PROCESSING

The above are to submitted to a thread which will be called "APPEALS & PROPOSALS INBOX" which shall be opened on the 7th of May, 2018.

The Chair and Panel shall deliberate on the submissions from a period between the 7th and 14th of May, advising on necessary edits. By that date of the deadline, the Panel and Chair shall announce which Appeals and Proposals shall take the floor during the Assembly.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Iverica
Changed "Closing of Registration" date to May 20 (previously May 18) (see edit history)

[Iverica]

OFFICIAL ROSTER LAUNCHED

With some draft contributions from @Prymont , ATARA now has a sufficiently detailed Roster active on Google Sheets!
 

This should waylay any future confusion on who's in and who's who!

Edited June 5, 2018 by Iverica (see edit history)

[Iverica]

WELCOME, FULGISTAN--LATEST APPLICATION APPROVAL

After a brief and unanimous voting process, the ATARA Panel has decided that @Fulgistan and her delegate be welcomed to the ranks of the Argic-Thalassan-Alharun Regional Association as a Full Member State!

I am resisting the strong urge to mimic Ian McNeice--Fulger's profile pic persona on our Discord Server.
 

 

Edited June 6, 2018 by Iverica (see edit history)

[Iverica]

1ST GA COMMENCING; BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING

 

The introduction post to the 1st GA is here. Please be aware of the OOC portion and be guided accordingly.

NOTE

•  All submitted proposals and appeals in the INBOX must be finalised and ready by JUNE 15--when all hearings and debates will begin in earnest.
• Proposal Authors ( @Mauridiviah, @Andalla), please ensure that you are prepared with your item's content!
• 48 Hours (counting from the 0000 hours of June 15 ZULU TIME) shall be allotted for you to introduce and make general arguments for your claim, failure to respond within that time shall see the withdrawal of your item.
• Full Procedural Guidelines shall be issued with the opening of the Chambers (Failure to follow will rule you OUT OF ORDER)

[Iverica]

1ST GA TEMPORARILY RECESSED

Due to difficult circumstances preventing one of the scheduled proposals (Andalla- who has submitted his proposal on time and has enough content and possible benefits to justify a recess), the GA will be placed in recess. All concluded proceedings so far are to be considered canon, however, the final proposal's IC result shall await @Andalla's return and completion of the requirements.

The reason why Andalla's proposal shall not be rejected due to absence is because it is the last session in the GA, therefore nothing else will be bothered by OOC pause.

Therefore:

IC: Presume that the session has concluded normally, avoiding mention of the Andallan proposal until it is resolved through RP.

OOC: Wait for Andalla to return to forum RP

[Iverica]

ATARA: Making Participation Easier

I think 2018 had many lessons to offer for the Association. The first and most pressing being how slow activity can be for threads (awaiting replies, awaiting permissions typing prose for RP, etc.). Well, this has to change--what better time than now?

Starting this month, I am proposing just two things--and simple ones at that. These should be the first steps in making participation in ATARA easier for everyone.

1. Easier Voting- I propose to do away with the need to call a full assembly RP for passing resolutions or starting projects. A simple thread stating the activity, followed by a decisive poll will suffice (poll will follow our current rules, see Procedural Addendum). No need to RP attendance, no need to for speech writing. Naturally, the rules for who can propose resolutions and whether they are valid (in keeping with our Charter) will still be in effect. Here's what it will look like:
   1. Member writes a proposal and submits it to the leadership for consultation.
   2. If the proposal meets Charter rules, the author member can put up a thread and poll on the ATARA subforum.
   3. Members vote and debates can happen if anyone wishes to.
   4. Votes counted, any revisions to the proposal are taken into consideration by the leadership.
   5. If the proposal passes, whatever activity it begets can begin--an RP can follow or a news post can summarise the execution.
2. Association News Letter- as proposed on Discord and discussed by @Andalla, we propose to create an ATARA newsletter. In the simplest terms, this will be a monthly post of collected articles summarising ATARA's activities. These articles will be short and in the news post style to be written by any Member State or Founder State and will be submitted to a chosen editor (any volunteer from the ATARA Leadership). Remember the Easier Voting thing earlier? Yes, this news periodical can serve to canonise the effects of the proposal. Here's how it will work in the example of a single month:
   1. Week 1: Informal Discord discussion on #atara about any ideas for ATARA activities of the month. 
   2. Weeks 2-3: Willing Members write articles and submit to chosen editor.
   3. Week 4: Any problems discussed in #atara. Articles are edited and formatted in a simple news post style. The periodical is then posted on the as yet to be named thread.

---

 

I realise that big changes such as the Easier Voting raises some questions:

Q: What about ATARA rules specified on the PA? Are they still relevant?

A: Yes, yes they are. The only change here is that mechanisms like the Quorum call, First/Second Voting Stage, and oversight by the Chairperson can be taken as "implied to have happened". The confirmation the forum's poll system gives us is more than enough to provide proof of a player's participation and the RP aspects, while nice, can be reserved for bigger, more critical ATARA events (General Elections, Charter Change, etc.).

Q: I'm worried about the expediency of this new system leading to faulty writing, loopholes, or miscommunication.

A: While the new system will be faster and can possibly lead to some post-voting debate about interpreting the words of the resolution, I did emphasise that writing and legalese will still be checked by the leadership. It will be natural that some wordy proposals will create debate later on, I do think this can easily be resolved by addendums. This is, after all, a game, not an actual IGO with a hundred lawyers to scrutinise every comma and semicolon--write as best and as professionally as you can, but should there be problems that surface later on, rest assured, further writing can explain them away or amend them

Q: This is a big change in procedure! Shouldn't we have a General Assem--

A: Hush my sweet, we probably ought to, but remember, these changes are trying to deal with the problems caused by the slowness of our previous system. If there is enough consent to the two above changes, they are not rule-changing enough or IC breaking enough to really warrant a full blown 12 player RP (shudder). Much of the fun in NS RP can be lost in boring procedure, I understand this from our beta runs last year, which is why those bureaucratic ramblings will have to be left to the individual imagination.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Orioni
replaced "---" lines with [hr] (see edit history)

[Iverica]

APPLICATION APPROVALS: LIMONAIA & TIKVA

Limonaia's application for member status has been approved by the Panel! Warm hand of applause!

Decisions, in keeping with ATARA's system of full consensus decision making, was acknowledged and approved by all sitting and active Panel members as of the time of consideration. Voting was held in a private group session on Discord.

Welcome, Limonaia!

 

---

Note (October 18, 2019): Tikva's application and all his interactions with this association are hereby considered void and cease to exist in the Eurth canon.

[Iverica]

APPLICATION APPROVALS: FRAVINA

 

Welcome, @Fravina! Feel free to join in our second general assembly which will soon be continuing with its second round of discussion (the Canamo Canal and later: international financial regulation) Also note that ATARA has a resolution that reduces tariffs which you are free to partake in. 

Feel free to poke around and ask questions. Any projects you want to get start with are also welcome, feel free to slip them in this subforum's inbox or DM @atara in #atara on Discord!

[Iverica]

APPLICATION APPROVALS: 2 New Members!

 

I'm pleased to announce 2 new members. Please welcome @Ahrana and @Tagmatium Rules.

 

Ahrana is an old acquaintance of the Association, coming to us first as an Observer way back in 2017 and now joining as a full Member. Ahrana shares a colourful and exciting history and is one of the newest members to join the free market club, transitioning from a Communist government. Ahrana boasts valuable commodities like Oil with a developing and promising maritime industry to boot.

Tagmatium needs no introduction but we'll say something anyway. Tag joins us as a Sui Generis member, meaning a member outside of the Tricontinental Region (Argis, Thalassa, Alharu). Tag is the 2nd Sui Generis member, the first being Gallambria. Sui Generis status is earned through demonstrating a willingness to cooperate in values that align with the ATARA Charter. So far, Tagmatium has been a wurld-leader in cultivating diplomatic and economic relationships and has been a ready supporter of intercontinental economic projects like the Argic Passage (Polar Service). They also have a humanitarian bent, being one of the first nations to participate in the Cussian Humanitarian Coalition and a top nation in providing asylum to Gerenian Cussian refugees.

 

To everyone: remember, the 2nd General Assembly will remain open for a little longer if you want to get any proposals or commitments in!

[Iverica]

APPLICATION APPROVALS: New Member!

 

I'm pleased to announce a new member, The Most Serene Republic of @Montedica! I would also like to take the opportunity to re-confirm the memberships of the following members despite their inclusion into the roster for the past months:

@Seylos, @Neswetej Per Aten, @Garindina, @Nyanta

 

For Montedica and for other new members that are unaware please take some time to review some of the acts and projects ATARA is involved in.
 

• Resolution No. 001 - Common Tariff Scheme
• ATARA Financial Protections (TBA)
• The ATARA Bank of Development
• The Canamo Canal

ATARA does have other projects including Charity/Disaster Relief operations and journalistic/public information projects mentioned in the ATARA Bulletin (though further publication has been shelved for now). Members are free to suggest any project in line with the charter. You can submit your ideas here.

 

As a general PSA, I would just like to remind everyone that posts here by some of the more senior members may take a while to get through. There is a war going on IC, which has immediate priority.