The New Atlantis royal family are not members by birth but by undertaking. Membership is also for a period not necessarily for life, so a person could become a princess and devote some years to the service of other citizens, but at a later point decide to retire to an ordinary citizen or to one of the intermediate ranks.
There are several ranks within the princes and princesses. Male and female members rank equally within these ranks, as are members of varying backgrounds and nationalities.
| Citizen prince or princess | New members of the royal family, or temporary members, or those with restricted involvement. |
| Peoples Prince or Princess | Not implemented yet, see below. |
| Prince or princess | Full time members, with active involvement. |
| Trustee | Formal or legal role within corporations etc. |
| Regents | Form of deputy to the president, normally for a short period, may not be publicly announced. |
| President | Head of state. |
The royal family, comprising princess and princesses, is not at any time very large, are unpaid by New Atlantis, although a NA trust may sponsor them. We traditionally put NA in front of the title so as to not confuse people of hereditary titles in other kingdoms.
Being a member of the New Atlantis royal family is not a ceremonial role but very much a working role, coordinating, motivating and sometimes settling disputes between trusts or citizens. They put a considerable proportion of their time and effort into improving the quality of life of other citizens but are not necessarily fully occupied on this, as we recognize the value of people within this role who have a full understanding of real life as it effects real people.
You will have discovered that New Atlantis comprises many trusts, these may be clubs, interests groups, businesses or family or other groups. Most citizens are a member of several trusts.
Most citizens see the best way for them to serve New Atlantis is within a trust of specific interest or relevance to them.
A small number of people will decide they would like to work towards the overall concept of New Atlantis, some people like to think of this as the presidents ' Team', doing whatever is needed to improve the quality of life of all citizens. These people are the members of the royal family. Therefore the members of the New Atlantis royal family are volunteers rather than chosen in any conventional sense. There is no qualification, in terms of years of citizenship, or other ranks necessary.
They start as an assistant or junior member of the royal family, and do not use their title initially until the president tells them to, so get the opportunity to find out what it is all about before making a major commitment. As you will have seen elsewhere, the president can grant many other titles, and it may be that on reflection a specified role may be more relevant to an individual.
Some years ago we had decided to increase the size of the NA royal family and in particular to look towards having one from each country or continent, who would be principally a friendship ambassador to spread our message within their native country. These were to be a new grade within the royal family called peoples princes and princesses. However weeks before the announcement was due there was the death of Diana Princess of Wales, and the decision was made to put off the launch for the time being.
Since that there has been several other delays, but the intention is still at some point to set up this extended group. This we believe would create additional interest in the honor based society concept and would mean we had people to take part on PR events and the like, more in line with the activities of some other royal families, which we so far have avoided. Clearly there is a lot that can be achieved in this area.
So far no date has been set for this to be implemented.