In 2020, I wrote an article and made two videos regarding the issues facing the Micronational Assembly. It was a different time for the organization since activity had declined, and Discord became the primary venue for communication between Member States. Google+, which had been the platform the MA operated on discontinued the year prior, on April 2, 2019.
For those who may not be aware, the Micronational Assembly is one of the largest active micronational organizations presumed to be founded in April 2016 (possibly earlier) that aims to promote peace and the common good.
Issues
I made five points relating to the subject: the organization’s inactive state, lesser traits shared with many micronations (in terms of identity), aging members, the use of Discord as the primary venue, and hostile member states. At the time, my solution was to have the MA move to Reddit and promote the MA further. Looking back, I feel I was mostly right with my points, but I misunderstood the issues relating to Discord. While the Discord sector has specific issues in formality, it is the best option for the MA because of its user base and its functionality. I would say that it is the new Skype for the micronational community since it has had a similar impact in the MicroWiki Sector with an increase in activity. I also thought a more feasible platform option would be MeWe; the MA has a community on MeWe, which was made in 2019. However, it has less activity than the Discord server. Regarding Reddit, there have been controversial micronations on the platform; therefore, I am opposed to moving the MA to Reddit. I think the actual problem was that it did not have the same name recognition because the MA did have many members from the YouTube Sector when it rose to prominence in 2017, but after Google+ shut down, the organization experienced inactivity. Regarding the issue of traits shared with other micronations, the MA would improve as long as the organization is friendly, and that also solves the issue of hostile member states. At the time, there were members of the MA who had been involved with the organization for a while and had become older, resulting in less time availability. There have since been newer members of the MA who have joined.
There are only two other issues that I did not mention prior, which are the structure and objective. Essentially, the way the MA works is that there are three separations of power, the Executive Branch (which would be the Chairman and the Council), the MA Court, and the General Assembly. The Chairman is the organization’s executive leader (also a member of the Council); the Council votes on membership applications and propositions that the General Assembly passes with a three-fifths majority vote in approval which also require approval from the Chairman or Chief Justice. The MA Court is the Judicial Branch comprised of the Chief Justice and Deputy Justice, who judicially examines trials. The General Assembly is the main legislative body that comprises the Delegates of the MA. I think more power should be vested to the General Assembly in having the power to decide on propositions and membership applications, as it would allow for more insight into applicants, and the MA Council should be replaced with Secretary positions, who would handle matters such as Diplomacy or Public Relations. The Council formerly represented certain regions worldwide, such as the United States and Europe but was changed to have Council Members from the same area in 2020. I think the objective should include establishing good diplomatic relations and promoting development in member states.
Solution
I believe that the solution to all of the issues would be to prioritize creating a new Charter (which is currently underway) that allows for more power vested to the General Assembly in deciding on propositions or membership applications and replacing the Council with Secretary positions. In addition, having rules of conduct and continuing to promote the MA further would help maintain activity, including good diplomatic relations, and promote diplomatic relations to the objective.