What's a YAMO?

I've been in a couple of Facebook groups devoted to micronations for a number of years now. Something that tends to happen on a regular basis in those groups is someone (always someone relatively new to the group) says, "Hey, we should organize a micronational United Nations!" This is invariably met with a number of comments that include the acronym "YAMO", which means "Yet Another Micronational Organization".

We really do not need a micronational United Nations, for several reasons. First, the reason why the macronational United Nations was formed (the aftermath of World War Two) doesn't exist in the micronational world. Second, trade between micronations is, for the most part, non-existent, and what there is can be negotiated directly between those micronations. Third, frankly, many micronations are fairly short-lived, so the membership would be constantly fluctuating and it would be a nightmare to try to elect a "secretary-general" or equivalent. And I prefer micronational diplomacy to be more, well, personal - I like meeting the representatives of other micronations, either at MicroCon or otherwise.

I'm not going to say that micronational organizations aren't possible or can't be successful, just that the idea of a massive umbrella organization equivalent to the United Nations isn't viable or needed. There are other micronational organizations that have been established, with varying degrees of success:

• Apparently there's a World Micronational Chess Federation but it seems to be dormant at this time
• The Organization de la Microfrancophonie is an organization of French-speaking micronations, although I understand there has been some recent disagreement among the members that caused a number of them to leave earlier this year
• MicroCon itself is, in some respects, a fairly loose organization of micronations
• There is a group on Facebook devoted to micronational postal systems (see also my previous post about micronational stamps) and one for micronational bank notes (ditto)
• After MicroCon 2025, a group of micronations (including Molossia) formed Mikro-Esperantujo, an international micro-organization to build cooperation and mutual assistance between Esperanto-speaking micronations

The MicroWiki site lists many other intermicronational organizations, some of which I've never heard of. Conveniently, they also have a list of defunct/inactive organizations.