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As much as I appreciate the external merit source's efforts to assist us and put us in competition with the Russian and Turkish boards, I must point out that those merits are not given organically; instead, they are given based on what a few individuals think of other users' posts, and most of the time these individuals favour only a specific circle rather than the entire board. I don't want to get into too much detail, but having a local dedicated merit source will make a lot more sense than what we currently have.
We have two pending applications at the moment.....
You are right, having an internal and dedicated merit source on the local board is a great help rather than relying on an external merit source. However there are a lot of applications pending so far and two of them belong to your local board, so I don't know what you should do other than be patient and continue with your usual dedication.
Sending the admin a PM and telling them your willingness to apply to become a merit source was once a solution I thought about, but is that okay to do?