Forty years of llamas!

 This year is Slabovia's Ruby Jubilee - forty years!

MicroCon EU will continue!

 Just a brief update tonight, but we have confirmation that the European Union edition of MicroCon will be an ongoing event.  I believe the plan is to hold them every two years, like the current one, but on the "off year".  More information when I have it, of course!

Awards standardization - an example

 Recently, I've been proposing a standardized form for awards (i.e. medals) - see, for example, our brochure on the topic at the MEDALS website.

Today, I'd like to show you why this is something I think is important.  The below picture has two awards: on the left is the the "Order of the Pink Flamingo", which was presented to me by Aigues-Mortes at MicroCon in 2019, and on the right is the "King's Mark of Friendship" (or KMOF), which is a small award I give out to people I've formed a close personal bond with, both inside the micronational community and outside of it.

The size disparity is, to say the least, striking.  Attempting to wear both of these awards at the same time would look fairly awkward, in my opinion.  And, I'll admit that part of this huge disparity is my fault, because I'm the one who designed and makes the KMOF medals, and I chose to make them small based on the parts that I'd found.  (I have a LOT of those crown charms!)

Now, this example is somewhat contrived, as these are, respectively, the largest and smallest awards in the MEDALS collection (at least, at the time of writing).  However, I think that it demonstrates my argument for me, that standardization of award sizes within the micronational community is beneficial.  Of course, if you're only giving awards within your own micronation, and not presenting them to people from other micronations, then you can model your awards any way you wish.  (I'm aware, for example, that the "Klingon Assault Group" (or KAG, a Star Trek fandom group) uses "battle notches" for marking event attendance that are small, triangular pieces of medal - they have hook-and-loop fastener on the back, and as more are earned, the wearer can arrange them into more complex geometries.)

NOTE: The Order of the Pink Flamingo is, unfortunately, damaged - one of the flamingo feet "snapped off" during the MicroCon closing banquet, and has never been seen again.

MicroCon retrospective video from West Who

West Who recently posted this video over on YouTube - a nice little retrospective of MicroCon, including a good shot of our delegation (in all of our gala finery) at about 0:43.  The video's literally only a minute long, perfect for those of us with busy days or short attention spans!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDr1rZ38OXg&ab_channel=WestWho 

Pamphlets available for download from MEDALS

Five years ago, I established MEDALS, the Microphalerist Educational Archive and Library of Slabovia.  That site (and the physical collection) documents the wide variety of medals, honours, and awards bestowed by various micronations.  As part of this, we've created several different pamphlets that we distribute at MicroCons.  And, as of today, these pamphlets are available for download (PDF format, English only) from the MEDALS website under "Printable Materials".

The first pamphlet, Introduction, (which we first made up for MicroCon 2019) provides an abridged history of phalera (decorations) and the field of phaleristics.

The second pamphlet, Storing and Displaying, (which was premiered at MicroCon 2022) provides the reader with thoughts about storing, caring for, and repairing their decorations and honours.

The third pamphlet, Standardization (new for MicroCon 2023) proposes a standard size and materials for decorations, and gives some suggestions for how to present awards.

If you're at all interested in micronational awards, feel free to go to the MEDALS website and browse around!

MicroCon photos!

 My thanks to Adrienne Baugh, First Lady of Molossia, for these photos.  The first is a picture of me with the President and First Lady of Molossia, and the second was taken during my cyber warfare talk.

Another MicroCon is done...

 Another MicroCon is in the books... and in some ways, this was Slabovia's best ever!

Slabovia gave two amazing (but VERY different) talks during the conference - Our chancellor presented the recent "Zenda" mission as a photo essay with accompanying commentary, while We spoke on cyber warfare as an existential threat to micronations and steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.

Related to the latter talk, We also proposed that individual micronations sign the CHICAGO (Cyber Hostility Intervention Comprehensive Agreement Governing Offense) Accord that We'd authored, which prohibits the use of offensive cyber weapons or cyber attacks by signatories.  The leaders from24 micronations signed the accord on Saturday, out of approximately 40 micronations in attendance, so the proposal was very well received.  Notable signatories included Molossia, Westarctica, Ruritania, the Aerican Empire, and Aigues-Mortes.  All signatories were presented with a special challenge coin that was created just for the occasion, shown below.

We were also able to present a number of awards while We were there.  We gave out patches to a number of delegates who'd attended all of the first five MicroCons, We presented Queen Carolyn of Ladonia with the Order of Slabovia for organizing a successful MicroCon, and We awarded the Make George Cross to Commodore Jonathan Miller of Molossia for his repeated attempts to get Us to give him a Coke Zombie award.  (Details on both of these awards, as well as all of the others that Slabovia awards its citizens and others, can be found here.)  We also presented five "King's Mark of Friendship" mini-medals and one "King's Mark of Merit", to the Sultan of Slowjamastan.  

The commemorative patch for the attendees of all of the first five MicroCon events is shown below - it lists the host nations and their flags for each of the five MicroCon events.  The patch was designed by Our chancellor based on an idea We came up with, and We think it turned out quite well!

Finally, We got to reveal the location of MicroCon 2025 and introduce its hosts - this event, which marks ten years of MicroCons, will be held in Montreal, QC, Canada, and will be hosted by three micronations, including the Aerican Empire, the Newgraviate of Saint-Castin, and the Principality of Sancratosia.  It's currently scheduled to be held the last weekend of June (subject to change based on the world situation at that time, of course...), and We hope to see everyone there!  We're already planning some interesting ideas...