December 2010 meeting minutes

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This article details the proceedings of the Pirate Party of New Zealand General Meeting 19th December 2010.

Actionables

 * Matt to get Alex’s contact off Bruce soon
 * Bruce to tidy up membership admin and give Jason backup of confidential data by the next meeting
 * Bruce to identify who’s paid and who hasn’t - Secretary to chase up payment by 20/2 (prerequisite: 2)
 * Tommy to change sign-up forms to express one-year membership by next meeting
 * Hussain and Waleed to ensure that they are enrolled to vote (asap)
 * PPNZ to identify a candidate (volunteers: Hussain, Waleed) for botany in January
 * Secretary to lodge logo registration application with electoral commission by 14/1
 * Hussain and Waleed (or another botany co-nominator) to officially nominate candidate, by 2/2 (nominations open 2/2, close 8/2 4pm) (prerequisites 5, 6, 7)
 * Forum/wiki users to design new material for O-Weeks to also be used for botany by-election by 18/2 (incl make use of new privacy policies)
 * Wiki users to develop stock press release library by mid february
 * Media Person to make submission on local government secret ballots before the close of submissions
 * Media Person to draft a letter to the attorney general asking about wikileaks and mirroring in their own time

Present
Noel, Jason, Matt Tommy, Waleed, Hussain, Bruce, Emily
 * Auckland venue:
 * Elsewhere:

Minutes
Meeting called at 15.20 on 19/12/2010

All members were on skype, although much of the meeting was also transcribed in #ppnz The agenda/minutes document was open for the duration with minutes taken by collaborative editing, post-edited by Tommy. Item 0: Updates on Membership, Financials, and PPI

Executive Council

President: Jason (IRC: master5o1) Vice-President: Peter (IRC: pj) Treasurer: Bruce (IRC: Edison Carter) Party Secretary: Emily (IRC: Emily) Auckland Chapter President/Young Pirates President: Tommy (IRC: Pervach) Memberships

Somewhere between 27 and 32 Financials

Bruce reports $180.29Cr in balance. Item 1: Botany By-election

With Pansy Wong’s resignation, there will be a new by-election in Botany on March 5th. Hussain and Waleed are in the electorate and have no problem with being or nominating a candidate. $300 for deposit to contest the by-election. Can we afford it? Rules for nominating a candidate: http://www.elections.org.nz/rules/candi ... ation.html Doesn’t have to be in the specific electorate to be a candidate. Jason suggests a campaign that concentrates on advertising the party. Last week of campaigning for by-election is also week for Orientation (at university campi). Will discuss this in more detail after holiday break. Item 2: O-Week stuff

- For both by-election and O-Week - make more kiwi brochure material (as opposed to australian flyer material like last O-Week) - Doing PPNZ t-shirts at Tangleball? - Massey orientation 1 week earlier (than UoA O-Week) - test run for material and etc. Item 8: Privacy Issues

Matt thought that the barcode on the local governance elections broke UNDHR. Would like PPNZ to make a submission.Tommy said that some miners in West Coast thought the same thing (about non-secret union elections) - shows that people do care. Matt suggests making votes secret, by removing all unique identifiers in ballot papers. Also public monitoring in the ballot counting process - currently there are only (unidentified) Justices of Peace present. This is only applicable for local governance. Could make a submission to the inquiry on the issue.

Matt: Smart meter - not much benefit (measure once a month), but collects a lot of data, from which one’s behaviour and patterns that can be inferred. Power company doesn’t tell who is collecting it, where it is being stored. Tommy asked whether it’s voluntary. Matt replies it is voluntary, but power company doesn’t tell users enough information for them to make a meaningful decision. Matt thinks that PPNZ should recommend power companies replace the smart meters until they can provide them information about the data being collected and what it’s used for, and the user agrees to it. Bruce suggested that these ideas be put on forum for wider discussion. Could get huge media coverage. Item 3: Media Spokesperson

Roles of a media spokesperson: Speaking press releases Having the authority to make some statements without having to discuss with rest of party. Interviews with the press Stock press release library

Matt is nominated for the role of Media Spokesperson by Tommy. Seconded by Jason and Emily. Nomination accepted. Matt is now the Media Spokesperson. Item 7: Hosting a Wikileaks mirror

- No immediate action to host a mirror - Efforts to be focused on dialogue with the attorney general as to the legality of wikileaks and hosting a mirror - Several cables concerning NZ have been recently released by wikileaks Item 4: General Business

Wikileaks cleared of breaking Australian law. Not yet in NZ. We should try to contact the NZ Attorney-General. Also make a PR, urging the NZ Police to clear it of wrongdoing. Alex (our lawyer) is not an expert on IP issues. Matt suggests that we could ask NZ Police whether we can set up a Wikileaks mirror to introduce this issue. Noel questions whether NZ police has standing to clear Wikileaks of breaking NZ law. Jason thinks it is important to be clarified whether it breaks the law or not. Matt as the Media Spokesperson requests the Executive Council to delegate him responsibility to inquire to the authorities. Jason as President sees no problem. Tommy suggests Matt be in direct contact with Alex - doesn’t have to go through group.

Noel asked whether other policies should be added (ones apart from IP, privacy).

Future system for communicating - could use Skype for voice chatting then fall back to IRC if Skype cuts out.

Meeting closed at 18.19