Update: this resolution lost quorum when the quorum count went up from 62 to 64 and I missed the window to re-campaign. Re-submitted.
This is now a serious post, since I note that the United Nations does sell plenty of merchandise (shop.un.org) and the United Nations Development Programme (which relies on voluntary donations) is particularly aggressive (shop.undp.org).
I am sure a plush doll of the Simone Republic Bear will sell really well and better than the stuff from Hello Kitty that the UN is selling right now. And all the Roman gifts from IA will beat all the UNDP stuff.
Here's an example for TNP: (I am not using actual WA logos in my examples due to - you guessed it - trademark reasons)
I changed the resolution from a light-hearted post to a serious one, although I am aware that this is not a particularly important issue, so it could loiter for quite sometime before I submit it. I do not acknowledge it explicitly, but GAR#8 already specifies retailers within the World Assembly HQ, so no reason this cannot also involve hawking official merchandise.
And, as an aside, NationStates is supposed to be a web site to help Max Barry sell his books, so no reason not to have an IC retailer to raise some money to help the WA General Fund.
Draft 3
Category: free trade/mild
The World Assembly (WA),
Noting the WA's popularity across member states throughout the multiverse;
Dismayed that such popularity has not been leveraged to help fund the initiatives of the WA by selling merchandise to citizens of member states and fans of the WA across the multiverse;
Hereby defines:
"WA merchandise" as products of all kinds carrying WA IP and authorized for sale by WATCH;
"WA IP" as all intellectual property associated with the World Assembly and its constituent committees, including their names, logos, mascots, and other symbols deemed as such by WATCH;
"WATCH" to mean the WA Trust for Cultural Heritage;
- Hereby requires WATCH to:
- Authorize businesses within member states to produce and ship WA merchandise in a fair and transparent process;
- Encourage individual member states to license (for valuable consideration) their own national symbols, important books and works of art, and other items deemed significant to their culture for use as WA merchandise;
- Ensure that all WA merchandise meet quality, environmental protection, safety, reliability and other requirements applicable;
- Ensure that all WA merchandise sold in an individual member state meet the technological, cultural, social, and other requirements, norms and practices of the said individual member state;
- Promote exports of WA merchandise to non member states;
- Arrange for retailing of WA merchandise in such manner as WATCH deems appropriate across all member states, tailored to the customary methods of retailing of each member state across the multiverse;
- Hereby requires the WA General Accounting Office to monitor the profits generated from WA merchandise, and further specifies that such profits be used:
- Firstly, to fund the humanitarian activities of the WA;
- Secondly, if any funds remain, for the benefit of the WA General Fund;
- Hereby encourages member states' government agencies (including sub-national governments and agencies) to purchase WA merchandise for their use as well as for the benefit of its citizens.