14 Aug 2011 meeting minutes

Minutes for the Aug 14 2011 First Pirate Party NZ Annual Conference

Actionables
The Executive Council now consists of Pervach, pj, inkybutton, ubergeek85 and Brad Tipper, in the positions of President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Media Spokesperson (since renamed "Media Adviser") respectively It is now official PPNZ policy that NZ law should allow circumvention of DRM, and require warnings where DRM is used Interim disclaimer to be placed on Facebook Page"Please be aware that facebook is tracking all activities on facebook and pages showing their like button and use of facebook removes your rights under the privacy act 1993." The most preferred next topic for the policy committee to consider is software patents</li></ul> The rules to be (retroactively) amended to provide for the withdrawal of a candidate for any positions, on written notification from the candidate to the EC</li></ul> The Policy Committee may endorse Gareth Hughes and/or Clare Curran in their electorates as the Policy Committee sees fit (update: the Policy Committee endorsed them both on 6 Oct 2011)</li></ul>

Agenda
1400-1530
 * Welcome and program intro
 * President's Address - recapping the events of PPNZ thus far (or something)
 * Guest Speaker - a person from PPI about events in Europe and the response of European PPs
 * (Speech: )
 * Past minutes &amp; report on outstanding actionables (incl any motions concerning these)

1600-1800
 * Executive Council elections:
 * Voting method discussion
 * Candidate Q&amp;A
 * Start collecting votes (in parallel over 2 hours)
 * Policy Development process demo:
 * Final votes on DRM policy
 * Open discussions on another policy area (TBA)

1900-2030
 * Results of DRM policy vote
 * Discussion about November elections &amp; what we hope to achieve (read: give up on registering for 2011)
 * Announce results of Executive Council elections
 * Preliminary decisions on which electorates to stand candidates in &amp; how to select candidates
 * Endorsements of select candidates from other parties (e.g. Gareth Hughes in Ohariu, Clare Curran in Dunedin South)

Minutes
In Attendance: (28) Pervach (Conference Chair, PPNZ President) nut nn gilz Brad Tipper (duly elected PPNZ board member) Mark (Plato) Hubat Mab (Mattias Bjärnemalm - PPse) LongJohnMatt okpotato Tom Vymazal (PPcz) pj (PPNZ board member) kiwipeso (PPNZ Co-Leader) int808 Luke-INZ Marcel Kolaja (PPcz, PPI, Guest Speaker) edisoncarter (PPNZ Co-Leader, retiring board member) AEnertia parsley72 gracefool Allen (mib _ez9t0n, machiavelli, machi, AL) buttonnz JEREMY Alhambra (mib_2y6lm1) ubergeek85 (duly elected PPNZ board member) inkybutton (PPNZ board member) benjr c_k Apologies: james g (PPNZ Co-Leader)

Welcome and Program Intro
(1432)

Conference Opened</li></ul> Acknowledgement of international guests</li></ul> Upcoming General election noted, talk about registration requirements</li></ul> Discussion about Wellington local meetings &amp; recruitment &amp; nethui</li></ul> Mention of lowering the membership fee further</li></ul> <ul><li>Discussion about cannabis policy</li></ul>

Guest Speaker
(1518-1549)

<ul><li>Guest Speaker starts (Marcel Kolaja, PPI Co-Chair). Speech is on mumble with Pervach and inkybutton transcribing important points to IRC and Piratepad.</li></ul> <ul><li>(| http://piratepad.net/mkolajaspeech-ppnz)</li></ul>

President's Report
(1554)

<ul><li>Treasurer: $1797 in the bank, mostly from membership fees and donations, basically no outgoings</li></ul> <ul><li>PPNZ needs to set up a proper bank account soon (update: this has since been done)</li></ul> <ul><li>Secretary: Membership is 146 (not all have paid, not all count towards ECNZ requirement)</li></ul> <ul><li>Policy Committee is up and running</li></ul> <ul><li>Still only 1 Chapter (Auckland), Wellington trying to get off the ground</li></ul> <ul><li>Uni Clubs Days: only Auckland has a stall</li></ul> <ul><li>We seriously suck at press releases atm</li></ul> (1608-1645)

Adjourned

Past Minutes &amp; Report on Outstanding Actionables
<ul><li>Motion "to accept all outstanding previous minutes"</li></ul> <ul><li>Moved: Pervach, Seconded: edisoncarter</li></ul> <ul><li>In Favour: Pervah, edisoncarter, inkybutton, Hubat, Allen</li></ul> <ul><li>None against or abstaining</li></ul> <ul><li>Motion passed 5-0</li></ul> <ul><li>outstanding actionables page explained</li></ul> <ul><li>Privacy vs Transparency committee discussed</li></ul> <ul><li>proposed to set one up now</li></ul> <ul><li>offer to everyone to participate/join the committee. No one does</li></ul> <ul><li>Off-topic discussion about Simon Powers and his dual roles/hats</li></ul> <ul><li>decision to leave "Treasurer to make summary spreadsheet of PPNZ finances" to the incoming treasurer</li></ul> <ul><li>informal vote supports an interim facebook disclaimer in principle</li></ul> (1740)

<ul><li>Motion: to have "Please be aware that facebook is tracking all activities on facebook and pages showing their like button and use of facebook removes your rights under the privacy act 1993." placed on PPNZ facebook page (as an interim disclaimer while the Policy Committee considers a permanent one)</li></ul> <ul><li>Moved: nn, seconded: Jeremy</li></ul> <ul><li>In favour: Jeremy, c_k, btipper</li></ul> <ul><li>None against or abstaining</li></ul> <ul><li>Motion passed 3-0</li></ul>

Executive Council Elections
(1753)

<ul><li>Discussion about Executive Council voting including explaining the preferential voting system</li></ul> <ul><li>(the system is also described here: </li></ul> (1756)

<ul><li>Inkybutton puts his name up to become secretary,</li></ul> <ul><li>Pj nominates Inkybutton, Pervach seconding nomination.</li></ul> Motion to "accept the in-meeting nomination of inkybutton for the position of Secretary" <ul><li>Moved: Jeremy, pj, seconded: Pervach</li></ul> <ul><li>In favour: Jeremy, btipper,Mark (Plato1)</li></ul> <ul><li>None against or abstaining</li></ul> <ul><li>Motion passed 3-0</li></ul> (1801)

Another motion to "that the rules be (retroactively) amended to provide for the withdrawal of a candidate for any positions, on written notification from the candidate to the EC" <ul><li>Moved: Jeremy, seconded: Plato1</li></ul> <ul><li>In favour: Jeremy, btipper, Plato1</li></ul> <ul><li>None against or abstaining</li></ul> <ul><li>Motion passed 3-0</li></ul> <ul><li>Will's earlier withdrawal as a candidate for President is now accepted</li></ul> (1806)

Idea of having a returning officer announced Discussion to have either Plato1 or edisoncarter made Returning Officer for the EC elections <ul><li>Motion "that the meeting appoint Plato1 returning officer for the purposes of this EC election"</li></ul> <ul><li>Moved Jeremy, seconded Pervach, Mark accepts</li></ul> <ul><li>Motion carried unopposed,</li></ul> <ul><li>Mark is made Returning Officer</li></ul> Voting inbox using 10 minute email created Final list of Candidates announced by Pervach Member asks if Allen and Brad could make a speech, not possible with current logistics (1829)

Member discusses whether Brad and Allen could work jointly? Party constitution disallows that proposition. Pervach changes topic.

Policy Development Process Demo
(1843)

Pervach opens forum voting to members, for the PPNZ policy proposal concerning Digital Rights Management. Options provided: <ul><li>[A] no policy on DRM</li></ul> <ul><li>[B] allow circumvention of DRM</li></ul> <ul><li>[C] allow circumvention of DRM, and require warnings where DRM is used</li></ul> <ul><li>[D] disallow DRM on copyrighted works</li></ul> <ul><li>[E] disallow DRM entirely (the original policy on the wiki page)</li></ul> (1900)

Members dicuss their thoughts on voting for the proposal and arguements over DRM itself. With edison carter saying: the problem with 'copyright or drm not both' is that the decision to add DRM is made by the publisher, not the artist. Allen asks whether any case studies have been done on profit margins concerning DRM. is there any case studies where a publisher actually gained higher profits after the implementation of DRM in their products? nn asks whether the EC candidates imagine PPNZ making a controversial move like ppcz? - in relation to the EC board elections. General consensus is that party to small to provide the resources needed to equal the PPCZ's awesome tactics. But alternative Proxy/VPN workshop ideas suggested with future goals in mind. (1927)

Pervach moves to adjourn <ul><li>None against, none abstaing</li></ul> (1932)

Confrence adjourned to 2015 <ul><li>EC elections voting closed temporarily for technical reasons</li></ul> (All conversation between refering to social conversation discussing DRM definition, voting reminders and other idle chit chat.)

(2019)

Conference reconvenes <ul><li>DRM voting announced about to close</li></ul> <ul><li>EC elections voting opening again, just for 10 minutes</li></ul> <ul><li>DRM voting extended for a few minutes to allow one more person to vote</li></ul> (2028)

Pervach reporting on Policy vote results on behalf of Policy Committee <ul><li>Option C won - "allow circumvention of DRM, and require warnings where DRM is used"</li></ul> <ul><li>Beats all other options by at least 4 votes (of 11 votes)</li></ul> <ul><li>2nd place is option B by 5 votes against options A, D, E</li></ul> <ul><li>allow circumvention of DRM</li></ul> <ul><li>D and E were 3rd equal, both just one vote ahead of A</li></ul> <ul><li>It is now official PPNZ policy that NZ law should allow circumvention of DRM, and require warnings where DRM is used</li></ul> (2032)

Discussion on what question the Policy Committee should take on next <ul><li>Several ideas came out of discussion, most of them topical:</li></ul> <ul><li>Software Petents - the patents bill is on parliaments order paper, though it won't get passed until after the election</li></ul> <ul><li>p2p/Skynet come into force on 1 sept, infringements count from 3 days [before the conference]</li></ul> <ul><li>riot response: england riots</li></ul> <ul><li>e-voting: people are talking about it, including gareth hughes and david farrar</li></ul> <ul><li>Informal vote at 2055:</li></ul> <ul><li>1 vote each, the 6 options are:</li></ul> <ul><li>Software Patents</li></ul> <ul><li>p2p</li></ul> <ul><li>the Skynet law</li></ul> <ul><li>Riot Responses</li></ul> <ul><li>e-voting</li></ul> <ul><li>none of the above</li></ul> <ul><li>In the short time left, the results were:</li></ul> <ul><li>Software Patents: 4 votes ("it's not over until the bill passes")</li></ul> <ul><li>e-voting: 2 votes (would only influence elections from 2013 local body)</li></ul> <ul><li>p2p: 1 vote</li></ul>

Executive Council Election Results
(2047)

Executive Council Election results delayed <ul><li>Mark ready to announce results</li></ul> <ul><li>Stopped at the last minute to confirm advance votes had been handled correctly.</li></ul> <ul><li>There is something else to be done in the vote counting, final announcement rescheduled for 2100.</li></ul> <ul><li>Returned to previous discussion point (next Policy Committee question)</li></ul> (2100)

Mark reporting as Returning Officer: <ul><li>President</li></ul> <ul><li>Tommy (Pervach) re-elected</li></ul> <ul><li>margin: 10 (of 10 votes)</li></ul> <ul><li>no other candidates</li></ul> <ul><li>Vice President</li></ul> <ul><li>Peter (pj) re-elected</li></ul> <ul><li>margin: 10 (of 10 votes)</li></ul> <ul><li>no other candidates</li></ul> <ul><li>Secretary</li></ul> <ul><li>Noel (inkybutton) re-elected</li></ul> <ul><li>margin: 10 (of 10 votes)</li></ul> <ul><li>no other candidates</li></ul> <ul><li>Treasurer</li></ul> <ul><li>Jesse (ubergeek85) duly elected</li></ul> <ul><li>margin: 10 (of 10 votes)</li></ul> <ul><li>no other candidates</li></ul> <ul><li>Media Spokesperson</li></ul> <ul><li>Brad Tipper duly elected</li></ul> <ul><li>margin: 2 (of 10 votes)</li></ul> <ul><li>second place: Allen with 6 preferences (including equal preferences)</li></ul>

Discussion about November elections &amp; what we hope to achieve (read: give up on registering for 2011)
(2118)
 * split opinion on whether to discuss in conference or later via mailing lists.


 * There is general agreement that, since the timeframe for applying to register is now short, and since we are still far away from having 500 members, PPNZ should now change focus. We should work on our electorate campaigns and finding good candidates, and getting more members is a lower priority.


 * Discussion about our requirements for candidates. The general agreement is that we only want to run very good candidates, even if it means cutting back on the number of electorates we contest. We will select electorates based on where the good candidates happen to be.


 * Discussion about how to select candidates. No conclusions, but the concers were: having a democratic process and debates, care not to scare away good candidates, casting a wide net to find potential good candidates who might not have joined PPNZ yet.


 * Kiwipeso states that he wants the top position on the party list for 2014, and that he wants to go all out to get registered in time to run a party list in 2011


 * General rhetoric about what PPNZ needs to achieve before the election, e.g. "hubat: people don't know that there is such a thing as the PPNZ. This must vanish."


 * Extended discussion on the MMP referendum and whether to officially endorse keeping MMP and STV as the least bad other option, not just out of pragmatism, but for democratic ideals. General opinion is in favour, but Mark objects to having any official mandate. Someone suggests the Policy Committee look into this question next.

Endorsements of select candidates from other parties (e.g. Gareth Hughes in Ohariu, Clare Curran in Dunedin South)
(2239)


 * Discussion about whether to only endorse candidates who give us permission to. Pro: candidates we endorse might distance themselves from us. Contra: It gives us a chance to be "bold and proactive". An informal vote went 6-2 against needing permission first.


 * An informal vote went 5-1 against endorsing "least bad" candidates, i.e. we only encourage endorsing candidates that are actully good from our PoV.

(2255)


 * Motion: "to allow the policy committee to endorse Gareth Hughes and/or Clare Curran in their electorates as the policy committee sees fit"
 * Moved Pervach, seconded Mark
 * In favour: Pervach, nut, Mark, hubat, ubergeek85, benjr
 * None against or abstaining
 * Motion passed 6-0


 * Thanks given to all attendees, guests and organizers.

(2307)

Conference closed by Pervach