Arborhaven is a region committed to the principles of direct democracy, peace, and the rule of law.

If you're reading this guide, you're either considering joining our region, or you've just joined. In any case, we welcome you with open arms!
If you're new to the game as a whole, we heavily suggest reading this guide first. Now that you hopefully know what NationStates is about as a game, let us tell you more about what our region is about and how you can get involved.

Our region prides itself in its robust political system and roleplay. As you might have seen, we have:

• a full-fledged Constitution which dictates how our region runs and what powers our leaders have

• a Secretariat (cabinet of ministers) consisting of the most influential people in our region. And who knows, you might even become one of them!

• political parties and movements that anyone can form, giving you an easy way to mark your influence on our region and how it operates (and also run for elected office!). More on this later.
  

and much, much more!

Great question! There's a few things you can (or should) do, which I'll now be going over.

Join the World Assembly
Generally speaking, the World Assembly is a legislative body (think United Nations) that lets you vote on resolutions, condemnations, and the whole nine yards.
You can join it by going here, clicking the button "Apply to Join", then following the instructions there.

What's in it for me, you might ask?

• you get to exert regional influence by casting votes (endorsements) to people you deem fit to be our Delegate,

• you get to vote on World Assembly resolutions that have a direct impact on your nation and its' statistics,

• you indirectly make the region more powerful on the diplomatic stage,

• if you yourself manage to get 2 or more Endorsements, you can submit WA proposals of your own!
  

Endorse the Delegate
If you haven't done the above, you can safely ignore this part.
Since our region isn't anti-World Assembly, we have the collective power of electing our very own WA Delegate. The Delegate can push directives for voting certain ways for certain resolutions, and has a voting power equalling their total amount of Endorsements.
Thus, it is imperative for you to endorse the current Delegate, Lunarvi.
Why should I do this, you might ask?

• it makes our region more powerful by making us more resistant to organized raiders,

• it makes us less likely to set up endorsement caps in the future (see the point above.)
  

Apply for Citizenship
Applying for Citizenship is one of the cornerstone actions you need to do in order to have a role in our government. This is done to prevent fraudulent/subversive nations trying to undermine our democracy. But it's not as difficult as you might be thinking!

To send your Citizenship form, you send a telegram to the Delegate (presently Lunarvi) with the following information:

• Nation Name?

• In what previous regions have you been?

• Is this your main nation?

• What are your puppet nations?

• Are you in the World Assembly? (you must join the WA in order to apply)

• Have you been a regional officer in any other region(s)?

• Are you currently banned from any region(s)? If so, which one(s)?

Your application won't take too long to write, and will be promptly reviewed by the Delegate.

How to join a Political Party?
Political parties are essentially vehicles to use in order to push legislation and changes you want enacted, or jettison those you don't want enacted. Or abstain. All three of those work.

Generally, interacting with or joining Political Parties requires you to fulfill these prerequisites:

• being a Citizen,

• endorsing the Delegate,

• not being a member of a Political Party already.
  

Form
To form your very own Political Party, you need to do the following:

• Fulfill the requirements for interacting with Political Parties

• Make a Dispatch consisting of basic information about your Political Party and its' platform/stance.

• Have atleast one Endorsement from any other nation.
  

You must telegram the Delegate with this information in order for your request to be processed.

Join
Joining an existing Political Party is even easier! You need to:

• Fulfill the requirements for interacting with Political Parties

• Have evidence of the Political Party leader approving your membership,
  

and that's it!

If you fulfill the prerequisites, you DM the Delegate with this information in order for your request to be processed.