Hi all,

I can't really call this a resignation: My nation ceased to exist a few days ago, and while there's technically a week-long grace period during which I could try to regain enough endorsements to meet the CRS eligibility requirements, it's obviously near-impossible. So I figure it's probably a good idea to make my intentions clear now: I'm not on the CRS anymore.

I didn't intend to let my nation CTE, of course, and I didn't intend to leave the CRS this abruptly. But it served as a wake-up call. It's clear that the way I'd like to participate in TSP right now is not by holding government positions with regular responsibilities. Checking a website for new buttons to click, day in and day out, is no longer at the top of my priorities list each morning. It just doesn't bring a lot of satisfaction anymore. I only barely follow what's going on in today's TSP, and I don't really know half the people -- that's not a bad thing, generations turn over, and if it's anyone's responsibility to keep up it's mine -- but it does make me a pretty poor excuse for an endorsements-cum-intelligence officer.

When I joined the CRS in August 2020, I was a very active endotarter with strong ideas about how to reform or stand up against the dominant trends of the institution. I saw the CRS as essentially being the Retired Delegates' Club, a sluggish body where conservative TSP big-names tried to resist as much change as possible while also not bothering to actually perform their endorsement duties. I don't really think anything has changed since then. The only thing that's changed is me -- I've become just as negligent and indifferent. Now I understand.

Jay and Seraph and I have all now passed through the CRS, all with -- to varying extents -- the intention or possibility of trying to make some change. To his credit, Amerion is still going strong, and is probably the single best thing the CRS has had in years (as he is to most things he's involved in). But the truth is, the CRS is really pretty boring on the inside. I don't think there's any better way to describe it than reactive -- in all dimensions, and usually at a temporal remove of a week or two. Rarely is there proactive motivation in the CRS.

Last time I was thinking about security reform, I proposed thinking about the roles of the CRS in terms of a three-way division. Perhaps I, at this point in my TSP lifetime, would have been better suited to continuing on in the position if I had only been responsible for the second of those roles. I do hope that the increasingly weakened state of the CRS will provide some impetus for the Assembly to seriously consider reform. But as long as the CRS is responsible for the first and the third, I can't in good conscience be a part of it. I know, at this point, I'm not going to be able those fulfill the duties which in the past I complained about others for not fulfilling. At the very least I want to acknowledge that -- and not try and hold on any longer than I should.

So, that's about it: I can't claim credit for the idea to resign from the CRS just now, but I still hope it leads to productive discussions. I've revived my nation, but I'm not rejoining the WA. Call me if you ever need a body for the SPSF.

~ Somy