Karputsk

The voting period shall be closing in just under two days so don't forget to vote! Since I have no doubt some of you are very lazy I will even provide you with all the details you need to vote. The Awards People to vote for How to vote Get voting! Oh, and before I forget, if you register on the FRA boards to vote you won't be able to vote until you are masked. If this is the case it would be better for you to vote using the other methods listed.

Sorry for the lateness but busy weekend. The nominations are now officially closed and so we commence the voting. Voting will close on March 2nd at midnight GMT, and will be followed by the Awards Ceremony. There are a number of avenues by which you can vote: 1) Send a Private Message to the 'Ballot Collector' on the FRA forum. 2) Send a Private Message to 'Karputsk' on the regional forums of 10000 Islands, Texas, The Rejected Realms, Lazarus or the UDL. 3) Send a Telegram Message to the nation 'Defender Awards 2014'. http://www.nationstates.net/nation=defender_awards_2014 In your message please indicate clearly the names of those who you wish to vote for. Please remember there is one vote for every award - if you vote for more than one person for a specific award, then those votes will be discounted. You can only vote for those people who are nominated - write-in nominations will not be accepted. The confirmed nominations list is here. Please note: Although there are a number avenues by which it is possible to vote only one vote per award per person is permitted. All ballots received via telegram will be vetted to ensure they are not puppet accounts, and any votes from people I suspect have already voted will be discounted. Happy voting!

The Defender Awards are now officially open! The forums can be found here. If you are having any issues accessing the Awards please contact Karputsk. Good luck to all nominees and have fun!

That would be quite a collection.

Welcome to the FRA embassy, I would ask such that such juvenile comments are kept to yourself in future. Still true today, I am afraid. Despite all this the Awards should be fun and such tensions have never got in the way of that in previous years. I hope to see you there, AGP. Maybe you could pick up the Lifetime Achievement Award. Last I checked, Consular, your time on the game has seen one Defender summit. So, please, why don't you enlighten us on your vast knowledge of Defender summits?

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the 8th annual Defender Awards shall begin on the 1st February! The Awards are hosted by the Founderless Regions Alliance and those wishing to participate are welcome to register on our forums. I will be sure to add a link straight to the subforum when the Awards open and shall announce the Awards beginning here as well. The Awards allow us a chance to reflect on the previous year while also recognising hard work and success, but also are a chance to have a bit of fun. Everyone is welcome to participate - regardless of whatever side you happen to identify with - and not all of the Awards recognise just Defender success/failure. This year there are four notable changes, specifically we see two new awards introduced, namely the; "Can't We All Just Get Along Award" and the "Tin Foil Hat Award", while the "WASC Award" is to be shelved this year and the "Worst Invasion" award is to be renamed to the "Worst Operation" award in order to avoid controversies surrounding it last year. Awards list wrote: The Defender of the Year Award The formerly named 'EuroSoviets' award is given to the nation who is viewed by the NS community as the one nation who has helped the defender cause the most in the last year. The Ananke Award The Ananke Award is given to those nations who spend their own time looking out for any invasions that are taking place. This normally means staying up till very late and sacrificing their sleep for the greater good. The Anarchotopia Award This award is given to the region or organisation which has proved the most successful in preventing invasions. The Blackbird Award A special award that is given to the invader group which the NS community considers the best out there due to whatever reason. The Sir Lans Award The old 'Updater of the Year Award' is for the person who has been involved in more update missions than any other, and has shown dedication to be there if they are needed. The Operation of the Year The mission which stands out from all others from the last year due to the success, the numbers involved or any other reason. The Best Newcomer(s) Award Given to the region, nation or organisation which has appeared within the last year, and impressed the defender community the most. This award has two recipients. The Dipes Award Given to the nation whom has best served the Defender Intelligence cause. The Worst Operation Award The award given to the operation which was classed as the worst due to defender mistakes, invader cunning or any other reason. The Worst Invader Group Award The award given to a group of Invaders for abysmal failure and/or being a large annoyance overall. The Best Defender Quote A light hearted award, given to the nation whose quote or motto has been considered strange, funny or different. The Meltdown of the Year Award Given to a nation, region or organisation which has self-imploded in spectacular (and often hilarious) style. The Lifetime Achievement Award for Dedication to Defending The award given to the nation who has been a dedicated servant to the defender cause for many years, often sacrificing different luxuries in order to help as much as they can. The Can't We All Just Get Along Award Successor to the Defender Unity award seen only in the first Awards, this award is given to whichever organisation, region or player is deemed to have contributed and improved the unity and solidarity of the Defender cause as a whole. The Tinfoil Hat Award Similar to the Defender Quote of the Year Award, this Award is a light hearted to recognise the funnier and best conspiracies suggested by or about Defenders. Quite a list and I am all ready excited to see some of the nominations. I don't really have much more to say but here's a schedule to peruse! Awards schedule wrote:February 1st: Awards and nominations begin. February 14th: Nominations close and voting is opened. February 28th: Voting closes March 1st: Awards ceremony That was easier than I thought. Anyways, I look forward to seeing some of you participating!

I definitely won't disagree with you there.

It was certainly nothing personal but Tim hasn't been involved in the Alliance all that much and until recently wasn't even a Ranger. Not to mention Kog has just returned for a second time after announcing his retirement. I am sure if they continue to involve themselves they will have a decent shot at Cabinet in future elections. Oh, and cheers Charchar!

From the Office of the Arch Chancellor - 25/01/2014 Greetings from the FRA and from everyone here I wanted to wish you a (very) belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. As you might be able to tell from the lack of update the FRA has been very busy of late. Despite the likes of exams and other such annoyances we were able to complete elections, finalise the details surrounding the upcoming Defender awards and we even found the time to defend. Going into the January elections I am sure nobody expected what was to be an election season of surprises. The biggest surprise to be had was in the Chief of Defence election where a joint ticket of Tim/Kogvuron was beaten by abstain - triggering a snap election. Despite being the only ticket the concerns raised over their commitment and involvement with the Alliance were enough to put voters off. In the following period of nominations Frattastan and Guy offered to stand as joint ticket and were approved without incident by the Regional Assembly. In the race for Minister of Intelligence we saw Milograd (yes, Milograd) join Wabbitslayah on a joint ticket. Despite most Assembly members fainting or otherwise fleeing upon Milograd's acceptance we managed to get them to vote and the ticket was approved easily. With two joint tickets already you would assume that would be the end of joint tickets - and you would be right. In the elections for Regional Liaison Officer we saw incumbent The Saturnian Republic reconfirmed in an unopposed election, while the Speaker election proved to be the most hotly contested with Seneca beating the incumbent Iro and Christian Democrats. Last but by no means least I was elected as Arch Chancellor and was the only candidate for the position. I am extremely happy with the Cabinet I will be working with this term and would like to congratulate them again and offer commiserations to those that missed out. With the addition of several Deputies and the return of Dyr Nasad as Vice Chancellor, I am sure this will be a good term for the Alliance. As many of you are well aware December through January is a sleepy period for Nationstates and gradually work within the FRA is beginning to get into gear. The Regional Liaison Office is kick-starting the Regional Development Project of terms past in the Global Right Alliance - one of our founding members and a region rich with history and infamous in its own right. Additionally, we will be actively looking for new regions interested in joining the Alliance. If you are interested in aid or joining the Alliance be sure to contact myself or our Regional Liaison Officer - The Saturnian Republic. The Rangers remain an active and organised force and were a core component of recent large missions including Asia, Makhnovia and Coalition of Leftist Comrades. The first of those missions was triggered by myself and it was great to see so many Defender groups putting aside past differences and coming together to end what would have been a substantial grief if left unchecked. Despite many players predicting the death of Defenderdom we were able to bring the year to a close with a resounding show of strength, determination and cooperation. I think it is fair to say the FRA was a big part of this and going into 2014 I am confident we have a strong base from which to build upon. Of course, with the close of another year that means the Defender Awards are soon to be upon us. I imagine some of you had thought we had forgotten about them but we have been hard at work ironing out the last few details and now that exams, the Holidays and everything else is out of the way we will commence the awards on February 1st. I want to keep the changes a surprise for now, but I can reveal that we will introducing two new awards and slightly altering some older ones. If that's not enough and you are particularly impatient then you can find the discussions and its final conclusions on our forums. There only remains one thing to be said and that is good bye, but before I do so I would just like to thank the Rangers, Cabinet ministers both present and past, our Regional Assembly representatives, our Allies and everyone who has been a part of the FRA in 2013. You made it a thoroughly enjoyable year and despite many predicting our demise before last year even began, we have persevered through your hard work and determination. Thanks for reading. Karputsk Arch Chancellor

He pops by from time to time but he's not active, at all.

Submissions from last year included youtube videos that were relevant to those submitting them, straight up lyrics without a video or soundbite and participants singing songs they had wrote or re-worked. I don't see any reason why musical compositions wouldn't be allowed. Regardless, the more the merrier!

FRAvision is here! The greatest cultural event of Nationstates has begun! Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the Second Annual event the FRAVision song contest- a cultural exchange like no other! Each year is hosted by the previous winner, so please welcome your hosts… Lazarus! Great! But how the hell is this going to work? FRAVision will be a song contest between regions and individuals. Any individual, collection of individuals or regions can submit an entry. The contest will last 12 special days and take the form of three phases... 1. Submission (15th-23rd May 2013)[/color] Anyone wishing to participate will submit their entry by creating a thread here: Submissions]http://w11.zetaboards.com/ns_lazarus/forum/3726466/]Submissions, using the following format... 2. Judging (23rd-26th May 2013) Once the submission phase is over the judges (made up of all regional reps of the FRA Regional Assembly) will vote on their preferred songs. Judges will rate their top 5 songs in order of preference (awarding their favourite 10 (dix) points, then 8 (huit) points, 6 (six) points and so forth). This will be done by judges posting their votes in a designated thread I will open. 3. Award Ceremony (26th May 2013) Once the judging period is over the winners will be announced in an awesome and special award ceremony. Awards will be available for the top 3 candidates. Sounds awesome. Can anyone take part? I know, it does. Anyone can take part- you don't need to be a citizen of a FRA member region or even a defender. Each person is limited to one entry only however, including if they are submitting an entry as a group. Can we make up our own song? Of course. Entries are only required to be a song- if you've written your own we'd love to hear you sing it, but failing that lyrics are also accepted! So get composing!

Internationally renowned ass has a nice ring to it.

But I thought everyone loved Falc?