Hello all, We all know that the founder intends Asgardia to be a space based nation and from what I have gathered a nation with no terrestrial connection to Earth. However, when you look realistically at the possibility of Asgardia gaining recognization as a nation. When it does not have a physical location you begin to realize that the chances of it gaining said recognition is slim at best. Because the attempt to create a nation but not claim or possess any land on which to build it lacks a sense of seriousness. Which is why I believe it would be in the best interest of Asgardia to start off as an island nation. By having a physical location the message that this nation is indeed serious and should be treated as a serious nation is sent to the nations of the world. Which in turn increases the likelihood of Asgardia being recognized as a nation by the UN. It also speeds up the building of our nation by eliminating the need to wait for the advent of the technologies required to build a space station meant to house the citizens of a new nation. We would need a way to shield the citizens from the deadly radiation found in space and that is blasted from our sun during periods of severe solar activity, we would also need a way to combat any electrical disturbances that would also be a result of severe solar activity, on top of that we would need a detection and defense system for larger threats such as comets, asteroids, leo debri zipping around the planet, and possibly hostile alien threats. I know a lot of folks do not believe in aliens or that they could travel to Earth if they do by chance believe in them. But realistically, none of us truly knows who else maybe out there and assuming they do not exist would be incredibly foolish. We would also be able to build the infrastructure needed for the nation to be able to support a small population. While our other citizens continue to reside in the nations that allow dual citizenship. Thus, relieving Asgardia of the burden of having to house and care for every Asgardian citizen until it has developed to the point where it can do so. It would also be safer, no danger from radiation, electrical disturbances caused by solar activity, debri in low Earth orbit, no space rocks that could possibly destroy the nation, or any other possible threat in the environment of space. An island nation could harnest the kinetic energy in the ocean to generate a source of green renewable power. Best of all we would have a place to test out what works and what does not as far as ideas that follow the philosophy expressed by the founder. So when Asgardia makes it into space if it does, the framework will already have been laid and the nation will have a headstart toward becoming what it was envisioned to be! Put simply, this nation needs a physical location and it not having one makes this whole idea seem like nothing more than a dream, an attractive dream, but a dream nonetheless

[NEW SERVICE SURVEY] The official language of Asgardia is English. Yet, our community spans the globe. National chapters promote themselves in both English and their native languages. This gives Civic.Asgardia, the community branch of Asgardia, access to many talented translators. These people have helped translate many Asgardian documents and forms. We are considering offering translation services to our members. Do you know of any need that could be filled if our volunteers offer translation services to Asgardia members and organizations? Would you be interested in language tutoring to learn a new language? Would you listen to member-created language classes on audio? Would you be willing to pay a donation to the service to provide a stipend to the volunteer translators? This is simply an idea. When I ask these questions, we take the first step to learn about community interest. We can move faster toward this goal if there is strong support; we can save the idea for later if there is no support. What do you think?

The Senior Staff of Civic.Asgardia met Sunday for their weekly meeting. Here is the activity report based on notes from that discussion. Last week, we posted the minutes directly into a Forum post. We lost much formatting. This week, let's try a view-link to a Google Doc. **Translation staff, Chapter staff - you are welcome to localise this for the members in your forum. Please send a summary of comments back to myself or Rebekah during your weekly census report to ensure we can respond to your chapter's needs. If there are issues viewing this link, please let me (Nik) know. Thanks.

Hello all, When Asgardia is up and running I was thinking it would be a good idea to establish a committee designed with policing the actions of public officials. Who's juridstiction could be expanded to include peace keeping forces. The committee would consist of citizens from all groups. By groups I mean Blacks, whites, and so on

Education is key if we're ever going to colonize space. In many countries, education is somewhat poor. Oddly, the United States of America even has some problems, despite being arguably the richest country in the world. I'm not going to try to dictate to people what education should be like. However, I'd like to point out to you a way you can have a small beneficial impact on the world today. You can donate small amounts of money to charities that help purchase supplies for schools. Specifically, I'm referring to: https://www.donorschoose.org/ I'm sure there are other similar websites. At donors choose, you can select what project you want to fund and how much funding you want to provide. It's basically kickstarter for education. I discovered this website a short time ago, and I think it's a great idea. I haven't donated yet because I'm waiting on an estimate for dental treatment. Later, I plan to donate a small amount each month. In my case, I plan to mostly support math and science projects, but you can support whatever you want to.

**ACTIVITY REPORT** **Civic.Asgardia Management Meeting SUN 15 JAN 2017** Civic.Asgardia is an officially-endorsed volunteer organization that provides an administrative infrastructure to manage the many volunteers and civil projects of the developing Asgardia micronation. We provide organizational support to the community and encourage unified standards of content and behavior. Senior Staff meet weekly to discuss the needs of the community, to coordinate volunteer activities, and to provide feedback to Asgardia Officials. **Attending:** Rebekah Berg, Cheyenne Voss, Christina Cole, Dominic Sturt, Oriane Kaesmann, Nikari Steve MIller. **General Updates.** Discussed translations of Dr. Ashurbeyli’s January video address. Volunteer translations are proceeding well. 70 volunteer translators participate in that team with a strong focus on cross-Chapter translation, training documentation, and public release of official addresses. **Staffing.** Training material for Cultural Sensitivity and Professionalism being planned. Shane Watt and Alan Player end probation and are promoted to Moderators of Facebook General, Facebook Fun, Forum General, Forum Education and another forum of their choice. We congratulate Christina Cole on resuming her studies at university. She will focus her volunteering on Asgardia’s U.S. Chapter. She will remain available to train team leads for the Translation area. Alex Fiume resigned his position as Moderation Supervisor. We appreciate his contributions to organizing Facebook groups, training moderation staff, and many other talents that he shared in helping to begin the civic support of Asgardia.Space. Active moderation staff was identified. Jason Rainbow, Zahira Yahyaoui, and Monir Zaman are very responsive and pro-active. **Forums.** More help needed in Constitution this week. Voted to shift all moderation staff from Interest Group to the Global Moderation group. This allows far more flexibility to manage ad-hoc issues at any time of day. Concern was voiced about the need for social media channels to support Persian, Arabic and other languages which need script written right-to-left. **Facebook.** Response to forums is lower than anticipated. There is discussion about re-opening select Facebook groups as the forums are under review. A richer feature set is being tested to improve member engagement in the Forums. **Chapters.** During the first quarter of the year, increased focus will be given to the National Chapters with training, staffing, and coordination. More advocate engagement is needed. **Official Updates.** Business planning is nearing completion. The official team is very busy with scientific and business development. **Department Roundtable (Status, Updates, Issues)** Scores of applications were received from members to become Moderators in our social media area. Intake and screening of the applicants continues; they are vetted but many are unable to pass the English reading comprehension assessment. Interviews are being set up. This week two moderators are coming into live-training and six applicants are being processed Among the applicants are also candidates for administrative assistants and translation positions. The second edition of the Moderation Guide is almost finished. Integration of the new Code of Conduct is complete. Staff discussed benefits of translating the manual for non-English moderation volunteers. Languages under consideration are Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese. Translations are going well. They are seeing more use of Google Docs for collaborative, real-time processing of localising documents. Reliable translators are being identified. There was discussion of different dialects of Japanese, Italian and Arabic. Law forums are doing well, things are stable. Awaiting official posts about constitutional issues and policies. The Administrative Affairs forum is being underutilized. We plan to use it share activity reports that inform members of volunteer activities and projects. This will increase transparency and enable constructive feedback. **Note to members:** Any Asgardia member is able to welcome to help organize our community. We have positions available for volunteers with experience in forum moderation, office administration, volunteer coordination, localisation/translation, project management, and other areas. Applicants are screened and expected to meet the requirements of a position description. Respectfully submitted, Rebekah Berg, Lead Community Administrator Nikari Steve Miller, Administrative Coordinator

[ADMIN, OPEN-LETTER] 15 JAN 2017 Asgardia Members, Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli announced the formation of Asgardia: The Space Nation in October, 2016. Within months, a project that was expected to draw 10,000 members saw itself overwhelmed with half-a-million interested people. A group of volunteers soon emerged to help organize the social media community for the program. Their activity started with Facebook groups and grew alongside Asgardia. These advocates became Civic.Asgardia, a group of volunteers who support Asgardia.Space. Civic.Asgardia is now an officially-endorsed volunteer organization that provides an administrative infrastructure to manage the many volunteers and civil projects of the developing Asgardia micronation. We provide organizational support to the community and encourage unified standards of content and behavior. Since October, 2016 this group of people have adapted and grown as the needs of Asgardian services have evolved. Hundreds of volunteers now work to moderate social media areas, to translate official announcements into dozens of languages, to manage internal media outlets, and to promote the idea of a space nation through national chapters. Senior staff of Civic.Asgardia meet regularly to discuss the needs of the community, to coordinate volunteer activities, and to provide feedback to Asgardia Officials. The volunteer staff of Civic.Asgardia hope to maintain clarity and transparency in how we support Asgardia, itself. We hope to share such information using the Administrative Affairs forum as the official Ministries are being formed. LIke everyone in Asgardia, we value the suggestions and insight of colleagues. We hope to see our volunteers recognized, their accomplishments acknowledged. Each person is worthy of credit. However, we operate within the same behavior guidelines as all members. Overt criticism of your civil support organization is not required and will not be tolerated. To put it simply, if someone does not like the way we do something then they are invited to join us. Please volunteer to help make things better: Apply for a position, pass through the screening and intake process, complete some training and help us make Asgardia better. We are an informal organization that strives for professional standards. There have been calls for government transparency and open communication. This is an important aspect of any government. They are goals that the volunteers of Civic.Asgardia support. Yet, like any organization, be it commercial or governmental, there will be things that are not spoken of until they are prepared. Not every idea or plan is ready to be presented; not every issue needs brought out for public scrutiny. Already there have been misunderstandings. Some people did not read the Asgardia Concept - they did not grasp the idea and became disillusioned or aggressive when the perceived promises about Asgardia failed to manifest. This is something that Civic.Asgardia works to prevent. We reinforce the goals of Dr. Ashurbeyli and work to share an accurate, professional opinion of Asgardia. Transparency does not mean revealing all plans. Transparency means involving members when it is prudent to do so, it means acting responsibly with resources. Asgardia officials are aware of our actions on their behalf. Our staff are aware of official announcements and news. We do our best to share information back-and-forth between members and officials. However, Civic.Asgardia will not share certain material: some information about volunteer staff is considered private; some information is privileged - volunteers sign non-disclosure agreements to maintain confidentiality when we help Officials get material ready for presentation, such as having translations of official notices ready for timely release. Some material is for internal-use, such as training materials or staff advisory notices. We encourage Asgardia officials to provide timely, accurate information as it becomes available. There is much work going on behind-the-scenes. Officials are working towards Dr. Ashurbeyli’s goals of establishing a micronation. They also work to prepare a satellite for launch. They plan national and corporate partnerships. The myriad and technical details of these projects are not subject for public debate. When progress has been made, it will be announced. When Ministries are formed, it will be announced. When elections are prepared, it will be announced. Forming a micronation takes time… far more than the few scant weeks in which Asgardia has existed. Members must have patience. Large organizations do not ever move at the speed of public opinion on the Internet. Civic.Asgardia exists to mediate and to mitigate the process of growth. We help provide a framework and a context for member interaction as the larger goals of Asgardia are being readied. To be honest, we have been so busy these past months working hard to organize and to facilitate hundreds of volunteers that we do not pause often enough to share our achievements. Let the start of 2017 also show the beginning of more appreciation of both our volunteers and of Asgardia members. Thank you for working with Civic.Asgardia to make Asgardia: the Space Nation a stronger, more supportive environment. Sincerely, Nikari Steve Miller, Civic.Asgardia Administrative Coordinator

Hello all, I just thought I would question one of the intents the founder has for Asgardia because at the time it does not seem very plausible to me. That idea is that Asgardia will protect the Earth from space based threats. How does he intend for Asgardia to do that? That would require much more than one space based nation and it's good intent

Hello all, I was thinking about something that has an impact on the arts and everyday life and that is censorship. I often question the efficacy and if there is any reason to censor things. Personally, I do not think so and do not see the purpose censorship serves other than. To control what people see and hear from television, radio, and other entertainment sources. As I though more on the subject I found myself wondering will there be such useless concepts such as censorship in Asgardia. I hope not because censorship laws limit a person's creative freedom and treats people like children who are not. Mentally stable enough to not be traumatized by things like words, the human body, and other things that are ultimately non harmful

Most people think that aliens do not exist but, given the evidence that life will be found wherever it can get started I firmly do. So, I want to ask folks what should the citizens (by citizens I am referring to all Asgardians, not just non government officials) of Asgardia do if ET decides to pay a visit to Asgardia?

So there was this guy Bob and he was at the local bar telling a stranger he had met about the time he and his ship was shrunk. "My ship's name is Ai and one day I was caught in a weird storm." "Apparently the storm caused my ship to shrink to microscopic levels" "Really said the stranger with a this guy has had one too many look on his face" "So, what happened next?" "Well to make a long story short I frantically flew my space ship around the space station looking for help, ended up getting lost inside the body of a friend of mine, found my way out, and eventually found help and returned to my normal size!" "That's good" "Ya, it is I thought Ai was going to be stuck in Yomamma forever!"

Hello all, I have been wondering for a very long time now about how the founder intends to protect the citizens of Asgardia from space based dangers while they are on the space station when it is built. Has anyone else been thinking about that issue? I mean do humans even have the technological capabilities to design a defensive measure against the numerous types of particles zipping around space? How would you go about addressing the issue? Please do tell **Mod Edit** This post has been moved from General Discussion to Health and Safety forum for further discussion. Jewell Ledoux, 01/05/2017, 9:44am

Hello all, As many of you know laws all over the world are not always worded in an easily understandable nature. Leaving many, many, grey areas for people to manipulate and escape legal punishment. As well as abuse the law and punish those who should not rightfully be punished. So I believe it will be a good idea to wording the laws clearly and leaving no room for interpretation. So no one person or group of people could ever abuse the law or find some loophole to slip out of. What say the rest of you?

Hello all, Before anyone gets the wrong idea I am not saying that Asgardia as a nation will fail. However, I am saying that building an ideal society is far more complicated than it sounds, if it is even possible to begin with! There are just too many questions that simply can not be answered. For example who's ideal society will Asgardia be? Mine, your's, or the founder's? It can not be everyone's ideal society which means there will be disagreements. Also since Asgardia can not be everyone's ideal society and everyone has different things they would consider an ideal society to have. Some people's ideals will not be chosen, which could lead to resentment towards those whose ideals were chosen. It might be a better idea if Asgardia sought to be a new society, one built upon the knowledge gained from the mistakes of the past. One that looked upon the issues with the severity necessary. One that focused on solutions meant to actually protect the freedoms we are all born with and not turn the majority into the slaves of the few. If anyone has anything to add please do