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The South Pacifican Government of Office of WA Legislation.
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A Beginner's Guide to OWL and the World Assembly | OWL
—GA RECOMMENDATION LIVE — —SC RECOMMENDATION LIVE —
—WELCOME— —BEGINNER'S GUIDE— —WRITING GUIDE— —VOTING CENTER— —
DISCORD—
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—HOW THE WA WORKS— | —INDIVIDUAL VOTING— | —OWL DASHBOARDS— | —THE DELEGATE— | —OWL VOTING— | —HOW TO VOTE IN OWL—
—WRITE PROPOSALS— | —WORK FOR OWL—
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quite literally) of the NationStates universe. It passes resolutions that apply to all of its member nations and regions to achieve various noble goals like peace and better living conditions for everyone. WA resolutions are voted upon by all nations that voluntarily join the WA and apply to all members equally.The Office of WA Legislation (OWL) is a dedicated department of the regional government of the South Pacific (the region your nation is in now) that will assist you—especially if you are a beginner—in making the correct choice when voting on resolutions. OWL helps you understand your choices to make sure your decision benefits your nation and the world the most, enables you to be a part of the process by allowing you to democratically decide how the Delegate and the region's nations should vote, and it helps you draft your own proposals if you want to make an impact to the world by yourself! The following is a comprehensive guide to the basics of the World Assembly, the way it works, and how you can participate in and utilize OWL to make your WA life easier.
First steps first: join the WA by clicking here and join the South Pacific's Discord server here if you want to get involved in our WA community.
A list of all passed GA resolutions can be viewed here.
Commend and condemn: The SC can pass resolutions that commend a nation (example) or region (example) for their accomplishments which better the world, and, contrarily, can condemn a nation (example) or a region (example) for the destruction they have caused to the world. Each nation or region commended or condemned will have a shiny badge on their nation to show it! There is no effect on nations' statistics, however.
Liberation: A region that has been invaded by raiders and locked down (put a password on so nations can’t enter) can be liberated if the SC passes a liberation resolution. A liberation will prevent a region from being passworded; nations can freely enter the target region after it is passed. Liberations are primarily related to the Military Gameplay or Raiding/Defending (R/D) part of the game, which is concerned with invading regions or defend them from being invaded. (You can join our own regional military to learn more if you want!) Liberations cannot be applied to a nation.
Declaration: Declarations express opinions or policy preferences from the point of view of the Security Council. They can address issues of national, regional, or global concern, but typically limit themselves to issues of "Gameplay" so as not to overlap with the General Assembly. One of the most fluid categories in the World Assembly, they neither award badges nor affect nations' statistics, but merely allow authors to define the World Assembly's official stance on an issue.
A list of all passed SC resolutions can be viewed here.
To vote, you first need to be member of the WA. Learn how to join the WA here, it only takes a minute! After you have joined the WA, just go to the WA page, choose a chamber to display the current resolution, scroll down, and then click "For" or "Against" to cast your vote. All WA resolutions are voted on for 3 days. Every time there is a WA resolution being brought to the floor to vote, your nation will receive a sidebar notification from the game.
Discord server. It contains a short text that recommends how you should vote and why you should vote that way along with opinions, both in favor of or opposing the resolution, from regional nations, nations of other regions, and experienced or notable WA experts and authors to help give you multiple perspectives on the issues. You can choose to view the current SC or GA recommendation on the top of the dashboard. These OWL recommendations will give you ideas on how to best cast a vote that will benefit your nation and the world the most. Of course, as you become more experienced, you can form your own decision instead and use the recommendations only as a source for reference.
Tepertopia) has 750 endorsements; if they cast a vote, their vote will be equal to 751 votes of normal nations. It is very clear that Delegates are the "big bad figures" of WA politics! Feeder Delegates (Delegates of the North Pacific, West Pacific, South Pacific, East Pacific, and the Pacific) are the most powerful of them all, as they have from 500 to over 1000 endorsements on their nations. The South Pacific has the second-most-powerful Delegate in this game (only behind the North Pacific). The fate of WA resolutions depend in large part on how feeder delegates vote. As such, it is important that each nation has the right to democratically decide how their Delegate should vote to benefit the region as much as possible.If you are in the military (the SPSF), you may vote with a non-WA nation, but you need to mention your active military status on your ballot every time you vote.
Yes, you can, as long as you don’t have more than one WA nation at a time!
Absolutely: you can't vote, but you are nonetheless encouraged to debate, discuss, and post your opinion.
How to vote: When OWL staff detect a submitted or prepare-to-submit resolution proposal, they will post a notification on The South Pacific WA Voting Center’s page (the World Factbook Entry) and on its message board along with instructions on how to cast your vote, give your opinions, and debate with other nations if you want.
You vote by posting a message on the board that states:
The name of the resolution you are voting on (required)
Your vote selection (there are 5 options you can cast) (required)
Your opinion on why you are voting that way (not required but heavily recommended)
You can cast any of these 5 options in your vote:
For: Means you want OWL to recommend that citizens vote for the resolution
Against: Means you want OWL to recommend that citizens vote against the resolution
Abstain: Means you want OWL to recommend that citizens don’t vote on the resolution
No recommendation: Means you want OWL to not put out any recommendation (although the recommendation dashboard containing just opinions from voters will still be published)
Present: Means you cannot decide, but you want OWL to know you are active
The screenshot below is an example of what a ballot looks like. You don’t need to follow the exact formatting, but all the necessary information needs to be included.
If there are multiple votes going on, use separate message posts for each vote like below:
OWL votes will decide how the Delegate will vote and what OWL’s recommendation will advise to other nations when the resolution is brought up to vote in the WA. Voters’ opinions will be included in the recommendation dashboard to help nations see the resolution in multiple dimensions.
Discord server to ask for advice. There's a channel in the server, #world-assembly, meant specifically for working on writing resolutions. OWL also has a set of players know as WA Mentors who are experienced in World Assembly matters and can tell you what sounds good, what information you should keep in mind, what's likely to pass, and so on. Don't hesitate to contact them by tagging "@WA Mentors" in one of the drafting channels on Discord.You should also make sure to read the complete guide to World Assembly resolutions to better understand the standards, style, and history of the WA: [TBA]
OWL welcomes anyone who has further interests in the WA no matter their experience and want to contribute to the wider community. The Office's staff are responsible for keeping the entire process ticking. The staff have two main roles: opening and closing votes on World Assembly legislation, and writing recommendations for our recommendation dashboards.
There are two primary ranks of seniority in the Office of World Assembly Legislation: senior staff and junior staff. Senior staff oversee all operations within the office, as well as events and group projects (like group resolution writing). Senior staff are responsible for opening votes on proposals and writing OWL’s analysis of each proposal, and are appointed directly by the OWL Director (the head of OWL). Junior staff carry out the basic procedural responsibilities of the Office. A junior staff member’s responsibilities consist of regularly checking in on forums and proposals that have been submitted, notifying a senior staff member about any proposals likely to be submitted or reach queue. Junior staff are also responsible for preparing text for the recommendation dashboard, including compiling opinions, counting up votes, and formatting the dispatch.
Anyone with their WA nation in the South Pacific can apply to join the OWL junior staff. To do so, you must first join the South Pacific's Discord server, which is where OWL conducts all of its activities. You can join here. Just hop in, introduce yourself, and check out the #world-assembly channel. Then, join the South Pacific's offsite forum and apply to join OWL by filling out the form here. The OWL Director will then process your application.
Most new staff will be contacted by a member of the senior staff once they have posted an application, so if you do have any questions, do not hesitate to ask in the Discord server! Newer staff are also encouraged to read the full World Assembly guide, which can be found here: [TBA]. New staff should remain active on Discord and respond to instructions from senior staff or the OWL Director.
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