It's been nearly two years since the announcement on October 12th, 2016 on the establishment of the Asgardia initiative by Dr. Igor Ashurbeyli. Since then, the population size has grown and ebbed, grown and ebbed in a repeating cycle that closely resonates with the movement of life itself. Above all, the hopes of many for the project are very much alive, and with the Inauguration of our head of state and receiving a blessing from Astronauts on board the ISS, the promise of Asgardia seems to be more real than ever.

But another issue that Asgardians seem to overlook is their place in the nation, it's growth, and it's success. It's one thing to sit in your mom's basement being a keyboard warrior for justice and equality, it's another thing to launch a rocket full of supplies into space, and an even further thing to build something in space; that simply cannot be done from your mom's basement.

Many public figures have come and gone, myself included. I started right at the forefront of the initiative, assisting Civic Asgardia in their formation, building Voices of Asgardia, and I assisted in setting up the first live stream.

But reality struck, and when my real life overcame my virtual one, I was forced to point my attention back to my life situation that needed it. In the process, I fell off the wagon. Now I'm looking down the road at my colleagues who nearly a year later are travelling, making official events and hanging out with the real forces that drive the country - and I'm so far behind I don't know if I'll ever catch up.

So to those of you like myself, who's real lives have not afforded them the luxury and the freedom to be a major contributor to Asgardia, I ask you now - what can you bring to the production of our nation, and do you think it will be significant? I ask this question because the people from the Room, the AIRC, and Asgardia are mostly aerospace engineers and contributors, and have been involved with the industry for years. I don't even know anybody in the aerospace industry outside of my brief conversations with them. How can I be significant?

My associates and I spent nearly a year using every waking hour to run the radio station that went nowhere. Perhaps in the beginning it fit, but towards the end of our time there the focus was so heavy on governmental development that we lost our ability to truly contribute - and so, we lost our support.

I'm not rich. I'm not in the aerospace industry. I don't even have a degree (though I have returned to college). So what good am I when compared to the engineers in the AIRC that hold multiple degrees, and some even multiple PhDs?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Hello Asgardia!

WE NEED YOUR HELP.

We at VOA believe we've come up with a solution for the Parliamentary candidate issue. Many of us don't even know who is running in our own districts, so we've devised a plan: Give the candidates a chance to explain their platform, in their native language, and we will not only make the files available for immediate public streaming, we will broadcast them on the radio.

CANDIDATES:
Please follow the instructions on the sheet. Limit your platform discussion to two minutes in length, in your district's language please. (YES, you don't have to speak English unless you're running for the English district.)

PATRONS:
Do you know of someone who is running? Tag them or share this! The more candidates we can get involved the bigger of a success story it can be, but that power lies in your hands. SHARE THIS EVERYWHERE!

The Platform:
Once a candidate has emailed their sound file, we will upload it directly to our Soundcloud account, which will make it available for On-Demand streaming; we will also put the file in our general rotation to be played on the air.

Thank you for supporting us in this endeavor, and happy holidays from Voices of Asgardia.

INTRODUCTION

I've been with Asgardia for nearly an entire year. I started first with seeing the introduction on social media. Now, this advertisement could NOT have come at a better time you see; it was right before the 2016 election in the United States, and I'd reached my limit with faith in humanity. Our choices were a business guru or a known criminal, and neither I felt had what our country needed to overcome the issues we were facing.

THE FIRST MONTH

I was excited about Asgardia; decidedly, I wanted to contribute. I HAD to make a difference. I was tired of feeling helpless among the chaos of cultural unrest that plagues my country still; and a nation devoted wholly to science and space had my destiny written all over it.

So first I emailed citizens@asgardia.space in an effort to find a fit; of course, with hundreds of thousands of emails streaming in, mine was not the first to get looked at. I was convinced however, that there was something I was good at - and that was inspiring people. So I started Voices of Asgardia.

THE RADIO STATION AND WONDERFUL PEOPLE

Finding help wasn't difficult - there were many people as inspired to be part of it as I was - and soon I picked up my two most trusted compatriots, who have been with me since working at the radio station. Ideas flowed like water, and overall the entire community actively and positively debated various topics.

Things were going really good, until elitists started moving in.

THE ELITES

I can at this point only speak from my experience.

The first elitist I ran into was actually a contact from a professional associate of mine; he offered to mentor me and take me under his wing. Prior to this experience, I had zero knowledge of business; but under his guidance and the guidance of other professionals, I was taught how a business works, set up the plan for it, and submitted it to Asgardia NGO for funding. We spent many hours and countless business meetings going over various portions of the 100 year plan; the idea was to set up a floating space them park called "Asgardia" in an old supertanker. We could run it the same way as Disney runs their theme park, and it would generate revenue for Asgardia.

The plan was delayed, until Asgardia could build an approved business schematic; in the meantime, I have and continue to pay for VOA out of my own pocket.

This "delay" in business dealings struck a sour nerve with my associate, mentioned before. He didn't seem happy that the hours worth of work we'd put into a couple of different business plans could be so easily shelved, and he began to push harder on his ideas; this resulted however in a stern "no" from Asgardia. Clearly upset at the waste of time, he swore off Asgardia and marched out to do his own thing. To my knowledge, he is still working diligently on his dreams.

Another elitist who popped up was a man named Scott Trombley. Scott Trombley was a liquor enforcement officer from the United States. He began a side project, which he named Project Jericho to raise money for the purchase of an island off the coast of Chile, which would be used as a terrestrial land base for Asgardia.

Again, Asgardia said no. Infuriated (or, whatever his reaction was) Trombley left Asgardia, slammed down a trademark on Asgardia and various other related things in the United States, and effectively tried to hijack the project out from under Dr. Ashurbeyli. With the quick response of the volunteer network (of which I was a part of at the time), we shut down his marauding on the facebook pages. So he started his own facebook pages (most are marked with a parenthesis, like Asgardia General (official)). AGH, or Asgardia Global Holdings was the company started to compete with Asgardia NGO (which did not become an NGO for another few months).

Then there was the guy who wanted to start Asgardia TV. Now I'll be honest, I have no idea who the guy was or what his professional background actually was; but he claimed to have the experience and know-how to start an actual TV station. As the volunteer communications coordinator at that time, I was asked to help him in setting everything up - only, he didn't want anything to do with me. Through a private message, he told me to "stick your nose back in your radio where it belongs."

I'm not a hard guy to get along with - but as the liaison for his program, that probably wasn't the best thing to say to me. Either way, I washed my hands of it and told Asgardia they'd have to work directly with him. To my knowledge, Asgardia TV went dark nearly six months ago and nothing has developed since. When I tried to follow up with the guy, he told me he was "waiting for Asgardia to fund it" whereas Asgardia told me they were waiting for his revisions to a business plan.

Lesson learned here: Don't shit where you sleep.

THE AGE OF TROLLS

After the "elites" figured out that they weren't going to get rich off Asgardia, many of them fled. By fled, I mean they probably put their attention back in to what they considered to be "worthy" causes.

I still remember when the trolls started in; first, there was a guy who would literally shit his pants every time he was censored on Facebook or the forums. MetaBorg, I think was his handle. Anyways, this guy had an entitlement complex like you wouldn't believe. He tried to tell us that he was a masterful hacker and even went so far as to threaten Asgardia when they banned him for his inappropriate commentary. Whether or not any of his "hacking" attempts were successful or not remains unknown.

You know, the forum rules are pretty simple. Don't be an asshole, and you won't get the shaft.

Then - haha - I can't remember the guy, but it started innocently enough with posts about magnetism. The poster did not have a solid understanding of magnetism, and somehow came across this cultist physicist's skewed point of view about what magnetism is - and when we tried to correct him, he screamed "I'm a victim of online bullying" and didn't understand why we couldn't just agree to disagree.

When you're wrong, you're just wrong. You can't compromise the truth for the sake of feelings.

There were many others after that - athiests, for one rings a bell. I was in charge of moderating the first religion forum - that lasted a week. I just don't have patience for abrasive personalities looking for a fight, and the religion forum was an excellent place to level your weapon and start shooting.

Eventually I gave up forum moderation altogether - we turned it over to people who were trained to do it properly, and that took a load off my shoulders.

THE HONG KONG PRESS CONFERENCE

From February to June of year 1, Asgardia was mostly quiet - which raised the uneasiness of the community. I don't know if it was boredom or just a golden opportunity for trolls - but Pseudoscience posts started popping up everywhere. Between that and Metaphysics I shyed my way out of the forums - and really, haven't been back since.

People kept asking us - what's next for Asgardia? As a volunteer for Civic Asgardia under the sanctioned leadership of Mrs. Rebekah Berg, and the community's communication coordinator, I spent much of my time trying to set up the ANN - the Asgardia News Network. Having no journalism background proved to be the biggest challenge - and about the time we were ready to put a department together, I moved across country to a place with no internet. This ended up being the end of my ability to aid Civic Asgardia, and thus after a few months of being unable to attend meetings, resigned my position to be an average citizen.

I did end up being able to view the Hong Kong press conference live though - and what it showed me was the absolute solidification that Dr. Ashurbeyli had plans already for our kingdom, and intended to see them through to the end before he turned it over to others for their leadership. Personally, I think a 5 year term limit isn't enough for the leader of Asgardia, but - it's his plan.

THE CONSTITUTION FIASCO

Though I wasn't directly involved with it, I know there were multiple panels who worked very hard to produce a number of different approaches to the constitution - all of which were rejected, to my knowledge. The constitution, once it became available, raised a few eyebrows about the constitutional monarchy.

But I wasn't ready to give up on it yet. Many of my American colleagues had already written Asgardia off as a pipe dream, but I just couldn't let it go. Why? Because I felt I saw what others failed to see - and that is, this is the most non-traditional approach to creating a country ever devised - and what the world needs now is something different.

I voted in favor the constitution - not because I agreed with it, but because I knew it was the next necessary step to reaching our goal.

What happened next flabbergasted me and shook my faith in Asgardia. Stories started coming up about changes to the constitution - in the middle of the voting period! I didn't believe it at first, until I started researching them - and then, yes, indeed changes had been made - specifically to articles 42 and 43 of the constitution.

Now realistically, the wording was changed to facilitate the passing of the constitution, and while I don't agree it was a good thing I do agree that it did less harm than most attribute to it. I understand the reasons behind the changes - they needed that constitution to pass to move on to the next step - and it can always be changed or amended later.

BEYOND

Throughout the months of August, September and all the way to the Founding Day - I watched the flag, symbol, motto, and other things get chosen as they were promised to us from Day 1. Realistically, most of the promises that were made to us as citizens have been accomplished - but one thing most people DON'T really recognize is the amount of change that has occurred with the original vision.

In November-December last year, we were telling people that we were NOT going to space - that Asgardia was meant to exist on Earth - only for Mrs. De Winne to confirm to me later that they did eventually plan to reach for the stars and build a space-bound community. The original vision has changed dramatically, dropping dead-ends and picking up new ideas - but the mission remains the same. We need to protect Earth from  space - and there are many, many, many things out there that could wipe our entire planet out of existence.

CHANGE IS GOOD - EMBRACE IT

Over the course of the next year, more changes will happen - but as a progressive society I urge you to relax your  expectations and enjoy the ride. We're doing something that's never been done before - and if we do it right, we could be the first in a string of virtual communities fighting for independence from overbearing ideologies that our own countries impose on us (and yes, that includes the "freest nation on the Earth", the United States). I'm done being told what I should wear, what I should expect, and that my ideas are wrong, misplaced or a waste of time.

The best part of Asgardia is it LITERALLY is the new America - a place where you can bring your ideas, develop them, meet people who can help you reach your goals, and in turn you can help them  reach theirs. For those who've watched their ideas fall by the wayside, you gave up too early, or your ideas didn't align with our mission - but you took the time to present them and I honor you for that.

Engage your communities, start the ideas flowing - and once the Solar is up and running, put your plans into motion. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast, as we used to say. Everything in Asgardia can flow smoothly - but it can't be rushed or it won't be made properly.

You've seen the questions. The ones about the island, or the passports, or the space station - many of these, innocently come from newer Asgardians who haven't been here long or are unfamiliar with the history of the last year.

I'll run you through a quick chronicle.

I started in Asgardia a week and a half after the initial announcement. I was so excited to read about it, that I wanted to be involved. So I started a radio station - and got (and still have) an official sanction for it.

Shortly thereafter I volunteered to help the volunteer pool which later became Civic Asgardia. I watched the rise and fall of a multitude of projects - the Human Codex, Trombley's Island, Asgardia TV - and one thing above all else played a very important part in their demise. This detail was overlooked by the project's creators, and continues to be overlooked - so allow me to spell it out.

RELEVANCE TO ASGARDIA
These words make some Social Media goers cringe. Why? Because they've seen them before - psuedoscience posts, religious discussions, politics - blocked comments and raised tempers later, nobody seems to understand what the concept of Relevance is. It's pretty simple guys - NGO Asgardia has a "master plan" that Dr. Ashurbeyli and his staff had laid out long before we got to this point. They're trying to stay on that path.

But... what about transparency? The voice of the people? Democracy?

This isn't a democracy. It wasn't meant to be. At least, not yet. It has the potential to GROW into a democracy, but we're not there yet.

GROWTH TAKES TIME

Nobody plants a tomato plant expecting it to bear fruit the very next day. NO, it takes a germination time, then curation - growth, care, and several weeks to months later - a few tomatoes to put on a sandwich (or if you're like me, salt and cottage cheese).

Asgardia is in a growth period - we've overcome the first part of Dr. Ashurbeyli's plan - the adoption of the constitution. "Why wasn't I allowed to vote no?" Because it's not YOUR vision. It's NGO's vision. You're along for the ride.

YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF A FANTASY COUNTRY RIGHT NOW

Asgardia has received no official recognition, and little press coverage. In layman's terms, it's not real. NOT YET. It will be, but it's not real YET. What is real is our common desire to make it a reality - and to do so, you need to let the professionals the space they need to make it happen (yes, pun intended).

So sit back, donate, contribute what you can - and be patient. The future is being made, and you WILL be a part of it. But sitting on your hands waiting for a passport isn't making your tomatoes grow any faster.

Voices of Asgardia, Asgardia's premiere radio station is getting a makeover.

For the first time in months, www.voicesofasgardia.com is being revived thanks in part to efforts by VOA's Staff who have been working quietly behind the scenes while station founder Ryan Zohar was on furlough following a cross-country household move to Arkansas, United States.

Things to expect with the makeover:
>> New website design and layout. Graphics Coordinator Eric Viana, who is also the acting webmaster, is currently working with an Asgardian volunteer on migrating the site and radio station to a private server in Germany. Eric will be implementing a new site design in the near future, geared towards suggestions from  fans and contributors.
>>News updates. Contributors Marco Nowak and Lukas Alexander Jones will be keeping the news up to date, starting with weekly updates.

>>New Programming. Founder Ryan Zohar is currently planning a weekly talkshow, adding to the lineup which already includes a weekly show from  Asgardian musician Ejay Ivan Lac. Lukas Jones is also planning an electronic music show, and more DJs are petitioning for positions.

>>Contributions from  NGO and Civic Asgardia. Community Lead Rebekah Berg will be contributing to VOA through updates made available on Asgardia.Space, and you can expect to hear from  NGO CEO Lena De Winne in the near future.

Stay tuned to www.voicesofasgardia.com for more updates.

Recently I've been teaching my daughter how to play checkers. You can imagine a five year old's mind has a difficult time focusing on a game with structure and rules to gameplay, as there are no unicorns or random thoughts being generated on the game board. My daughter's imaginary adventures happen so fast often it's difficult for me as a rational adult to keep up. I find myself consistently lost in our conversations, and her short term memory and random comments often overwhelm my cognitive abilities.

I learned something today though from teaching her how to play checkers. I had noticed immediate improvement from the last time we had played, as she had been practicing by herself on how the pieces moved about the board. She actually jumped one of my pieces when I wasn't paying attention, and this surprised and delighted me. I asked her how she suddenly became so good, and she told me she had been practicing when she was playing by herself.

After a fairly difficult match involving a number of Kings on the board though, the match Ended as it often does with myself being the victor. Expressing obvious frustration, she became upset and said "Daddy, you're too good. I'll never win at checkers."

I immediately stopped and corrected her. I told her that she was better this time than the last time we had played, and that I was impressed with how she was learning the game. She asked me how she could get better, and an epiphany dawned on me that I felt I needed to share with the world, because I truly believe I may have just answered the ever-elusive question of what is the meaning of life.

In the famous science fiction, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there is a reference to a story told about a computer designed by beings millions of years ago to calculate the answer to the meaning of life. After millions of years, it developed the answer of 42, but nobody remembered the question. I personally believe after my Epiphany that the answer was not 42, but three.

I told my daughter that to get good at checkers, it involved three things. The first, is to learn how the game is played. The second involves experience, and lots of practice. And the third aspect is Imagination. Using cunning and wit to outsmart your opponent requires imagination, as you often have to calculate your opponent's moves prior to them actually making the moves. This calculation involves imagining and using reason to guess.

Learn, practice, imagine. Realistically these three steps apply to everything we do in life. You cannot practice something you have not learned, but you cannot Master something without putting your own touch on how it is done. This applies to everyone from Craftsman to musicians, designers and engineers. You cannot design a space station without the knowledge to do so, the experience to know what works, and the imagination to combine various elements to improve efficiency.

On a personal note, I encourage all Asgardians to take this into consideration. Not having come from an aerospace educational background, I honestly feel lost sometimes in regards to what Asgardia is about. Who am I to contribute anything to this nation? I don't know anything about space. None of my formal education was based around any kind of space industry. So what can I contribute?

If nothing else, then I can impart wisdom. As our nation grows and develops we will be faced with many challenges. Many of those challenges are different, because nothing like our nation has ever existed before. What we are trying to do has never been done. There are many unknowns, and one thing that mankind is very predictable on is being afraid of the unknown. But we don't have to be afraid. We can learn. We can use this network to seek experience. And we can use our imaginations to help it grow and flourish.

Knowledge. Experience. Imagination.

Learn. Practice. Imagine.

And I believe the irony lies in the fact that it was one of the simplest acts of my day-to-day life that I came across this concept. While our nation expands and grows, do not lose sight of the small experiences of everyday life. They have much to teach us if we are willing to listen.

Civic Asgardia Launches ANN

BY YOEVELYN RODRIGUEZ

ASGARDIA - April 28, 2017 (USA EST) - Civic Asgardia launches its newest initiative, the Asgardian News Network (ANN), in an effort to offer a centralized news hub for Asgardians. The ANN is an initiative of Civic Asgardia under volunteer Communications Coordinator Ryan Zohar.

Zohar, a US Navy veteran and a communications technology technician, stated the ANN initiative came out of issues surrounding planning and transparency which he encountered when the community was in it's infancy. Inspired by the Asgardian project, Zohar had immersed himself in any topic and opportunity he felt could be beneficial to the project. One such opportunity, which has been endorsed by the administration and the community, is Voices of Asgardia.  Zohar founded and runs the first radio station of Asgardia.

Now Zohar's commitment to the Asgardian project has pushed him to find a solution to the issues surrounding dissemination and transparency of information to the broader Asgardian community. That solution is the Asgardian News Network. The Asgardia News Network will focus on gathering and distributing news pertaining to official Asgardian affairs and the every-day life and opinions of Asgardians. The sources for news are primarily the Asgardia NGO and the Asgardian community.

In an email, Zohar explained, “Information [within Asgardia] is being released in the same manner that NASA releases their research information: In large chunks, so that the whole picture makes more sense, and the real achievement can be recognized rather than the small day-to-day progresses in legal and diplomatic functions". It is the purpose of ANN to ensure those releases are brought together in one formal area for the Asgardian community.

Major contributor to ANN, Linda Yeleussizova, believes that ANN will be part of the "…  new and very interesting features..." surrounding the launch of the new website and community on May 20th. In her opinion, the Asgardian project "...  is developing and we need to form a pool of independent opinions and articles in addition to the official chronicles."

From the perspective of the founder of ANN, Ryan Zohar, “the ANN was designed for the community - to give them a chance to be Asgardian while the diplomacy and legalities are being developed by professionals". Zohar's aim is that ANN will help create a distinctively Asgardian culture by giving Asgardians a channel to put forth their ideas and to be exposed to the ideas of other Asgardians. It is the hope of all involved that ANN will have a positive impact within the community and that Asgardians will take full advantage of it.

If you are interested in submitting your own articles please read the guidelines (Link to guidelines goes here) and submit your finished piece via email to submissions@asgardia.space

Yoevelyn Rodriguez
Volunteer Communications Assistant
Civic Asgardia

Asgardia News Network
Submissions Guidelines

Overview . This document expands on the proposed submission guidelines as listed in the forums. It will cover recommendations for approval and disapproval of user submissions.

Design and workflow. In keeping with the spirit of the ANN design, user submissions are welcomed under guidelines from this document.
Submission Methods:

The only currently approved submission method is via email to submissions@asgardia.space

1. User submits the article via email.
2. Article is reviewed by the Communications Coordinator or Assistants for compliance with the Submission Policy.
3. Article is routed to appropriate staff for development (i.e. proofing, fact-checking, etc.).
4. This could be a desk specialist who focuses on a subject area; it could be a chapter specialist who fact-checks articles related to their country.
5. Article is proofed again by an Assistant.
6. Assistant posts the article to the ANN.

Article Scope. Submitted articles should revolve around the following topics:

News from your community (as it relates to Asgardia)
News from local events, and situations where Asgardia is directly related.
Scientific Discoveries and Material
Discoveries or scientific declarations involving Asgardian scientists or medical professionals. Any articles regarding scientific or medical discoveries or declarations must be peer-reviewed and approved by a credible source prior to publishing. Please refrain from sending in Hypotheses unless there is a current operation to test them.
Asgardian Culture/Music/Arts
Contributors to the arts may post articles relating to their craft, reviews on their work or articles about this topic in Asgardia so long as the primary focus is on contribution to Asgardia itself.
Opinion
Negativity breeds negativity. Articles that shed poor light on Asgardia, it’s administration or related parties will be refused. Opinion and speculation are accepted so long as they are constructive in nature.
Sports
Any Asgardian sports teams, players or contributors may send articles about sports so long as it is centric on Asgardia.
Technology
Asgardian inventors may send in articles about their work, so long as it is centric on Asgardia.
Philosophy
Asgardian philosophers may send in articles about philosophy as long as it is not destructive or demeaning in nature.
Politics
Asgardians may post factual articles regarding politics, as long as they are properly sourced and contain credible references.
Asgardia
Asgardians may contribute their own articles about Asgardia.

Article Acceptance. Articles will be accepted under the following premises:

1. They are constructive in nature, intended to inform, inspire and share aspects of Asgardian life.
2. They are well written, following proper English grammar rules. Suggested reading: http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/write-a-how-to-article-in-6-easy-steps
3. They contain factual references from credible sources.
4. The reviewer feels the article would be beneficial to the community.
5. All submitted articles should be in English.
6. Length should be limited to around 6,000 characters.

Article Refusal. Articles will be refused under the following premises:

1. The article is negatively critical and does not offer positive suggestion.
2. The article promotes violence, militarization of space, radicalism and terrorism, religious concepts, calls to action, and/or racist or hateful ideologies.
3. The article does not follow proper english grammar or requires excessive editing.
4. The article blatantly attacks Asgardia, Civic Asgardia or any of its affiliations.
5. The article contains malicious code or links to external advertisements.
6. The article promotes a call to action that is not under direction of an authoritative entity.
7. The article presents a view or suggests a concept that does not align with the Asgardia Concept.
8. The article contains links to external sources not related to Asgardia or intended to detract away from Asgardia.
9. The article contains scientific data or information that cannot be confirmed by our staff.

Right to Refuse. ANN/Civic Asgardia has the absolute right to refuse articles without requiring explanation.

Clarification. In the event that an editor/reviewer needs to request more information regarding the article submission, failure to respond to clarification request within a reasonable amount of time will result in article refusal.

Do’s and Don’t’s quick reference.

Hello Asgardia,

In an attempt to centralize news from around Asgardia, we have successfully implemented the ANN - the Asgardia News Network. The concept is simple - go to the ANN subforum (https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/ann-asgardia-news-network-153/) and read the news!

Feel free to share these posts and articles through your own communities, or translate them into your respective languages.

The ANN will take articles from the Chronicles, news releases from the volunteers - and submissions from the community!

The ANN was designed with the community in mind - swing over to the subforum and read "Submit An Article to the ANN" or click the link here: https://asgardia.space/en/forum/forum/ann-asgardia-news-network-153/topic/submit-an-article-to-the-ann-4925/

I look forward to reading your submissions and sharing your story with your countrymen.

Respectfully,
Ryan Zohar
Volunteer Communications Coordinator
Civic Asgardia

From Civic Asgardia
4/20/2017

Asgardia NGO to Hold Community Gathering in Montreal

Asgardia announced plans earlier this month for a community gathering that is to be held in Montreal, Canada. This event will be the first for Asgardia NGO, who previously had only released statements through their website or through interviews in Russian. The Montreal event, which is expected to be the first public appearance for Asgardia NGO outside of Europe is the first event organized and implemented by the volunteer entity Civic Asgardia. The Montreal event will be held at the Institute of Air and Space Law, which is overseen by Dr. Ram Jakhu.

Dr. Jakhu is the Director at McGill’s Institute of Air and Space Law, which is in association with McGill University and is an associate professor, who among other things, teaches and works with faculty and students in the Air and Space Law department. Dr. Jakhu is most notable for his contributions to the development of Space Law, receiving awards from International Institute of Space Law, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety.

Asgardia NGO CEO Lena de Winne will be at the conference as well. Lena  De Winne holds an MSc in engineering from Moscow Power Engineering University, an MBA from European University in The Hague, and a PhD in psychology from California Southern University. Lena’s experience covers fifteen years at the European Space Agency, working in business development as well as Education. In addition she has published several popular books in English and Russian on the topic of space for children and adults, and hosted a television program in Belgium. [Source: AIRC.AT]

Also present at the Montreal gathering will be Rebekah Berg, who is Civic Asgardia’s Head of Community Affairs, and Asgardia’s legal counsel Markus Gronback. All of the aforementioned parties will be available for questions, which will be followed up with a meet and greet.

Here are the details for the gathering:

Monday, May 8th
4:30-6:30 PM EDT
McGill Faculty of Law
3660 Peel Street, Room 312
Montreal, Quebec

You can join the discussion on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1651942138448486/

Ryan Zohar
Volunteer Communications Coordinator
Civic.Asgardia

The ANN was designed to begin generating print media from within the community; though published material from Asgardia NGO and Civic Asgardia are shared here as well, we encourage any and all writers in our nation to feel free to contribute their influences into the article pool (we call it giving it the ‘’Asgardian” flavor).

Feel free to write about any of the listed topics:
News from your community (as it relates to Asgardia)
Scientific Discoveries and Material
Asgardian Culture/Music/Arts
Opinion
Sports
Technology
Philosophy
Politics
Asgardia

Please follow these guidelines for your submission .

1. Make your article interesting. Talk about something Asgardians would be interested in reading about, perhaps updates from your local community chapters, expansion of the Asgardian concept, etc.
2. Refrain from plagiarism or paraphrasing. Please don’t “rewrite” articles, if someone else has already written them. Do not share articles written by non-Asgardian contributors, as this defeats the purpose of internally generated material.
3. Topic Sensitivity. Do not write articles that contain strong violence or sexual references, or highlight ideologies based on radical or theological concepts. The use of curse words is considered unprofessional and they will be removed from your article. Do not write articles attacking entities or organizations within Asgardia. Criticism is acceptable if it is constructive.
4. Provide references to back up your statements of facts. Articles requiring additional fact-checking or multiple attempts at correction will be refused for publishing.
5. Avoid Pseudoscience articles. We’re sorry, but until the Ghostbusters release their hardware blueprints, we are unable to process articles based off of metaphysics.
6. Be professional. The community will be reading your articles, it’s important to make a good impression. Be informative, precise and unbiased.

Those interested can begin submitting their articles by sending them to submissions@asgardia.space . From there, volunteer editors will check grammar and spelling, fact check as necessary and then post the article. Please note, our editors will not edit the content of your article or adjust the meaning or topic.

Welcome to the Asgardian News Network (ANN). The ANN was designed to be a pool of articles generated from within the nation of Asgardia. The articles come from various sources, including Asgardia NGO (also known as the Chronicles), Civic Asgardia and volunteer contributors from around our nation.

This article pool is maintained by the Communications Division of Civic Asgardia, a group of volunteers who dedicate their free time to ensuring the public receives any and all available information regarding the progress of our nation’s development.

Feel free to browse and share articles that appeal to you via your own mediums, such as social media accounts or blogs. Comments have been disabled to prevent amassment of biased opinion; rather we encourage you to take the articles back to your communities and open discussion there.

Please follow the rules and guidelines of the forum as they are posted in the announcements.