RidgefieldBoard

Ridgefield is the name of a small town originally founded by Ridgefielders in October 2010.

Presently, the town serves as the de facto capital to the Meritocratic League. As part of the agreement, the leader of each of the member nations lives in the town, among all the other leaders - regardless of differences in ideology, race, creed, etc. - to promote diplomacy and diffusion between otherwise distant residents of the union.

The town seeks to maintain a compliant community that upholds quality and efficiency. Ridgefield's system of government is 'meritocratic' where officials are appointed, not elected, based on merit and capability to hold to their responsibilities. The town also prides itself in its appearance, and, accordingly, all residing leaders are encouraged to put their best foot forward with every action taken and word spoken to uphold a level of maturity. Thus, there are a number of restrictions pertaining to the Regional Message Board (RMB): Notably, residents are not permitted to make consecutive posts (more than one in a row) or post any content deemed to be excessively graphic or obscene.

A brief history:
After a major economic boom that lasted for two months after the region's founding, driven by national leaders flocking to a land of new opportunities, the town was struck by a severe depression in early 2011. The founding nation's government was unable to handle it and collapsed, and most of the town's residents abandoned ship. Powerful militant groups attacked the dying town several times that year, eventually destroying it. A band of heavily-armed squatters moved in and encamped in the empty buildings, and vicious wild animals roamed the streets.

In mid-2014, some former denizens of the land regrouped and made a public plea for international aid. None came, and the squatters rebuffed their efforts to move in. They mockingly offered to allow some townsfolk to live in Ridgefield, but only if they agreed to live under the squatters' absolute rule.

Finally, in January 2017, a fatal disease borne by the animals swept through the town, leaving none alive. The original founder of the town, who had been spying on the squatters and negotiating with them anonymously for months, immediately gathered reinforcements and took over the land. It was slow work removing all the animals and the foul stench left by the dead squatters, but in time, all traces of their presence were cleared away, and the streets and storefronts looked like new again. Before long, fresh residents inhabited Ridgefield once more.

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The Meritocratic League is a multinational political and economic union between the residing nations of Ridgefield. With the ultimate goal of maintaining healthy cooperation between all members of the League, member nations adhere to a number of stringent policies:

1. Each nation's leader resides in Ridgefield and must seek to represent their nation respectfully, to the best of his or her ability. Leaders may live in communal areas or claim a plot of land through the map claims procedure. Furthermore, while leaders often make comprehensive decisions that affect their nation as a whole, regular statements made by leaders do not represent the legal entity of the nation and should be clearly separated from statements officialized by the state, unless explicitly stated otherwise.

2. Membership in the World Assembly is mandatory to increase the union's overall international influence.

3. Trade is relatively unrestricted, with a limit to the circumstances and degree in which tariffs, taxes, and/or embargos may be placed on other nations in the League.

4. Member nations are part of a loose military alliance - solely to protect the sanctity of the League, if it were ever to go under attack from foreign invaders.

5. Members officially recognize the currency and language of the League, the Ridger and Ridgesh.

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Discord Server Overhaul
Review and rebuild the Discord-based communication server to minimise clutter, ensure intuitive access to information, and eliminate unused channels.

Encourage & Reward Interaction
Addressing the low volume of server interactions by designing mechanisms to incentivise active participation. The URA does not need to be a centralised community but it should be a common-sense resource for member regions' leadership as well as an approachable space for participation in our central goals: World Assembly influence, cooperation, and collaboration.

Review Executive Policy & Strengthen the Alliance
As part of the larger cabinet committee, failing or rotting systems should be reviewed during the more active period while it is here. Alliance systems should be built so that they do not fall apart during the low activity periods. This may include being open to changing the nature of the executive committee.

Outreach & Foreign Affairs
The foreign policy of the alliance must be more obvious and properly tiered by priority. We must work to maintain established relationships, present a more interactive tone with larger delegates, and above all else facilitate positive relationships within the alliance's member states. We must be brave as well as honest in our dealings internally and externally.

In-Character and Inter-Community Integrations
We should provide sound opportunities for the IC governments of our alliance members to interact. The variability of themes within the alliance makes direct influence between member states difficult and our alliance is well placed to act as a black-box to translate and telegraph interactions between communities which may otherwise be incapable of interacting.