PPI Minutes 2025-01-11

---11.01.2025 12:00 UTC ---=

• JITSI: https://jitsi.pirati.cz/PPI-Board
• Backup of BBB https://bbb.piratensommer.de/b/gre-cnw-a9v
• Second Backup Mumble: mumble.ppi.rocks
• Audio recording: PiratesOnAir Streaming, recording

https://owncloud.ag-technik.de/s/L8CD2Tiyka4HPgw

Video: https://www.youtube.com/user/PiratePartiesInt https://piratesonair.net/live-stream/

Piratesonair.media

• Online Discourse link: https://ga.pp-international.net/c/july-2023-ga/33
• Minutes of the last GA: https://wiki.pp-international.net/wiki/index.php?title=PPI_Minutes_2023-12-09

• Timeline

Time is in UTC

12:00: Delegates accreditation

13:00: Opening of the General Assembly, earlier if we reach quorum. We will start once we have quorum

13:30: Formalities–Meeting chair, secretary, acceptance of agenda

14:00: Reports–Board, Treasurer, CoA, Lay Auditors, Keynote Speech

15:00: Lunch

16:00: New Member Applications (if any)

17:00: Budget proposal

17:30: Election of Board positions

18:00: Other Motions

19:00: Break

19:30: Other Motions, continued

20:00: Any Other Business

20:30: End of GA

Day 2 will be scheduled if necessary

• Agenda

Minutes:

1 - ATTENDEES

1.1 - Ordinary Members of PPI

• List of Members

Pirate Party of Australia
Pirate Party of Belgium - (insolvent perhaps)
Pirate Party of Brazil - MToledo
Pirate Party of Catalonia -
Pirate Party of Chile - Mauricio Vargas
Czech Pirate Party -Petr Kocourek
Estonian Pirate Party - 
Pirate Party Germany - Thomas Gaul
Pirate Party of Greece - 
Pirate Party of Hungary - 
Pirate Party of Israel - Dr. Keith Goldstein, Ohad Shem Tov, Noam Kuzar
Pirate Party of Italy - 
Pirate Party Luxembourg - 
Pirate Party of Netherlands - Mark Anthony van Treuren
Pirate Party of New Zealand (1/2 vote; vote shared with IP New Zealand) -  (insolvent perhaps)
Internet Party New Zealand (1/2 vote; vote shared with PP New Zealand) -
Pirate Party of Norway - (left?)
Polish Pirate Party - 
Pirate Party of Portugal - 
Pirate Party of Russia - Nikolay Voronov, Alexander Isavnin
Pirate Party of Slovakia - Miro Čech
Pirate Party Switzerland - Phillippe Burger
Pirate Party of Tunisia - (confirm if still present, dissolved)
Pirate Party Turkey (old Pirate Party of Turkey, confirm if still registered, dissolved) -
Ukrainian Pirate Community - (confirm if still present), arrived late and delegated to Germany
Pirate Party of Venezuela - (confirm if still present, dissolved)

1.2 - Observer Members

Internet Party of Serbia

Pirates without Borders - Thomas Gaul, Treasurer
Pirate Lobby, France
Pirate Party of Berlin (Piratenpartei Berlin)
Pirate Party of Bavaria
Pirate Party of Hesse
Pirate Party of La Rioja (Spain)
Pirate Party of Lower Saxony - 
Pirate Party of New York
Pirate Party of North Rhine-Westfalia
Pirate Party Potsdam (present - Sebastian Krone, Chair)
Europe beyond division e.V. Formerly: Young Pirates of Germany
Young Pirates Sweden (Ung Pirat)
Pirate Party of Japan [1] (old)
Pirate Party of Brandenburg  - Bastian (Chair)
Pirate Party Potsdam - Bastian  (Chair)
Pirati
Pirate Party of Finland
European Pirate Party
The Pirates Center of Belarus
Pirate Party of Japan (new)
Pirate Party of Slovenia
Pirate Party of Spain
Pirate Party Romania
Pirate Party of Latvia
United States Pirate Party
Pirate Party of France

Pirate Party UK - Lucy Maber

1.3 - Guests Participating

Mike Gill (lay auditor)

1.4 - Proceedings

Total Voting Power of the GA is 9 out of 24 . Power needed for establishing the quorum is (1/3). Ukrain arrived at 2:15 Utc and delegated their vote to Germany, so we have 10.

Formalities

Meeting chair

Bailey and Keith,

Secretary

Alexander and Keith

Vote Talliers

everyone

• Acceptance of agenda

• Keynote Speech (Improptu)

Reports

Board Report

https://ga.pp-international.net/t/board-report-jan-25/475

• 2025 January PPI GA Board Report==

The following is the report of the 14th Board of PPI.

The Board meets every 3 weeks on a rotating hour on Tuesdays on Jitsi. We held 18 official board meetings, 1 unofficial meeting, and had 2 postponed meetings.

Over the course of the year, we devoted significant time to administrative housekeeping, such as finalizing financial access and adjusting official registration. We finalized access to the organization’s bank account and solved administrative issues related to finance for the Treasurer. We also moved forward with registering a new PPI headquarters in Germany. This step was meant to provide better legal standing and pave the way for additional projects like an official PPI shop.

Throughout the year, we prepared for the next General Assembly. We also looked at improving communication with member parties. Improving PPI’s social media presence is another task we discussed, which remains a work in progress. We examined missing login credentials and discussed a centralized, secure way to store them, including use of a dedicated phone number and email addresses.

The working groups that were active throughout the year, include the working groups for media (SCENE), Pirate Beer, United Nations (SCUBA), and AI. Regarding the UN and ECOSOC, we applied for new passes, coordinated with volunteers who attended conferences, and explored ways to submit statements at events like the Internet Governance Forum where we presented again. We also began applying for official observer status under other UN treaties related to desertification, climate change, and biodiversity, but we have not yet succeeded in completing our applications. We are now seeking out new representatives for groundspasses at the three centers: Vienna, Geneva, and NY. Please let us know if you have nominations.

We regularly discussed election campaigns, from local to national and supranational, and we offer support. In addition, the Board considered hosting a Think Twice–style conference, potentially after EU elections, to bring together members and outside partners in person or in a hybrid format.

Several members of the Board resigned or were dismissed due to attendance issues. We hope that we can find incoming nominees who will be committed to attending meetings and also have the energy and motivation to support the organization. The following are the attendance tallies of each of the board members, including notes on changes:

• • Roles and Number of Meetings Attended by Board Members

Gregory Engels (Chair): 12

Keith Goldstein (Vice-Chair): 16

Alexander Isavnin (GenSec): 15

Sebastian “Bastian” Krone (Treasurer): 15

Bailey Lamon (Board Member): 13

Mia Utz (Board Member): 8

Carlos Polo (Board Member): 5

Raman “Raman Ojha” (Alternate, then Board Member): 0, changed from alternate midway as replacement

Owen “Mlemt” (Board Member): 5. His seat was declared vacant due to absences and he later sent a letter of resignation

Julian Häffner (Board Member): 4. His seat was declared vacant due to absences and he later sent a letter of resignation

Maycow Toledo (Board Member): 5. His membership was reinstated after a personal request due to excused absence.

Sarai “Sopphey Vance” Oviedo (GenSec for initial board): 1 meeting attened before resigning.

• • Alternate Board Members

Thomas Gaul: 3 (due to sickness)

• • Guests: Lucy, Adam Golding, Numero6, PiratesOnAir, Joseph (USPP), Sergey Quantum, dominik983, Alexander K, neila (JP), Exile, Babak

• • Summary of Changes

General Secretary: Shifted from Sarai V to Alexander.

Board Vacancies: Owen and Julian were removed after missing 3+ months.

There were two postponements, but one of them included a short informal meeting. Board membership changed over the year, so not all individuals were required to attend all 18 meetings. In fact, board members are only required to attend approximately one third of all meetings (absence of less than 3 months), although routine attendance or participation outside of board meetings is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

The Board

Mark from PPNL asks why did the other board members stop attending meetings.

We are not exactly sure but we think they just got busy. Some board members communicate their absence, sending excuses or postalvotes. But some just disappear.

Treasurer Report

https://owncloud.ag-technik.de/s/rkyMMSjjAm93QeY

Bastian: We have a crypto account that needs to be incorporated into our bank account. We have outstanding fees of about 8000 euros, and we get currently 1097.02 euros this year for last year. I am not sure how we can solve this situation. We have to pay 240 euros for office work. All together we have about 1085 euros in cash flow. This is not enough. If members do not pay their fees we will have a problem in the future.

Court of Arbitration Report

Bailey: As far as I know there have not been any issues for the CoA and no one is present. No news is a good news.

We hope somebody will appear later.

Lay Auditor Report

https://ga.pp-international.net/t/lay-auditor-report/472

Mike Gill:

Nikolay Voronov:

Noam Kuzar:

All three lay auditors are present.

Mike: We created a pirate chat at the start of the term. We were hoping to regularly meet with the treasurer but in the end we did not really managed to stay in touch throughout the year. It will be up to the newly elected auditors to keep that line open. We sugggest that this (Wire) line of communication remains. On the wiki it says there is an email for the lay auditors but we lack access, so this should be deleted from the wiki or made alive again; as far as we can tell that email is inactive now. We contacted Bastian on finances. He provided the links and made sure that they are current. He also said that he will create new live financial statements for the new auditors. As for the finances on wiki, we approve them, though there is not that much movement anyway. We suggest the board to be more in touch with the member parties, so we can improve the cashflow which mainly eminates from the membership fees. Only two parties paid any fees in 2024. It would be useful perhaps if the lay auditors were elected for more than one year but this would require a statue change. The monthly fee for the Swiss account seems quite high. It would also be great if we could arrange that our PayPal account would accept donations in other currencies and not just CHF.

Bastian: First of all, I am glad that we have such great lay auditors. It is the first time in a while. We have to have a good discussion in the near future. I think that the financial oversight is quite easy. We have records on the internet, but I need an NDA contract from the lay auditors because of GDPR. Thank you for your work.

Alexander Isavnin: Thank you for your report. As you suggested auditors need to be elected for 2 years. I would like to ask you all not to abstain from being elected again for the next term.

Budget Proposal

https://owncloud.ag-technik.de/s/rkyMMSjjAm93QeY

Sebastian: It is a simple budget. We start in 2024 with 4600 euros and we had to paz some debts, therefore we end it with 1885 euros. That is the cash that we have, nothing else.

We need a person in Switzerland to care for the office, it is 20 euros-month.

We have some variable expenses, such as the GA. Every year we support the Pirate Security Conference.

In case we get all of the fees, but they do not pay it and this is the problem that we have.

Only PPCZ, PPDE, PPLU pays their fees

We founded a PPI foundation in Potsdam. We moved our headquarters from Belgium. We have to pay some fines in Belgium. We did not pay them and left. I am not willing to pay some 1000 euros for nothing. The important thing for the new headquarters is that we need it for the UN. The second thing is building up a shop.

Procedural Annotation: PP-BR Delegates its vote to Keith.

• Counting Table

Pirate Party of Brazil - yes

Pirate Party of Chile - yes

Czech Pirate Party - yes

Pirate Party Germany - yes

Pirate Party of Israel - yes

Pirate Party of Netherlands -yes

Pirate Party of Russia - yes

Pirate Party of Slovakia - yes

Ukrainian Pirate Community PPDE is Proxy

Motion
Do we accept the 2025 budget.
Yes : 8
No : 0
Abstain : 0
Result: accepted

New Member Applications

• No member applications 4 weeks in advance were given.

Keith: do you know any othr parties which would like to apply, which we could reach out too?

Procedural Annotation: Meeting paused till 14:05 UTC

Elections

Bailey does role call.

Pirate Party of Brazil - yes, by proxy through Keith

Pirate Party of Chile - Mauricio

Czech Pirate Party - yes

Pirate Party Germany - yes

Pirate Party of Israel - yes

Pirate Party of Netherlands - yes

Pirate Party of Russia - yes

Pirate Party of Slovakia - yes

Pirate Party Switzerland - yes

All positions to be filled in are being elected for 2 years according to the statutes.

Chairperson

• Proposals:

Gregory Engels proposed by PPDE, PP-RU

Keith Goldstein - Proposed by PP-IL

Gregory. I am currently in the car. A lot of people know me, since I have been in PPI since its foundation. I am happy to continue to be involved. In the last year I had a busy year with European elections and personal work projects. I could not make it to all the board meetings that I wished to. Nevertheless, my work project is going to end in February, and I will have significant more time, even though we have Bundestag election coming up. I see significant more time that I could delegate. In the board report, we had a lot of new developments, applying for observer membership with other treaties. There is a need to apply with the intellectual property delegation, which we try to coordinate with the US. We have new developments with the PPIHQ as a German entity that would involve creating collaboration and enable liquidity. With the German entity we can create an account with euros and other outlets. There is a lot to do. I am happy to continue to take this on. I am open to new questions.

Keith: Members of my party have proposed me. Currently i'm vice-chair. I'm founding member of PP-IL. Currently i ssee decline number of member and hope we will engage more patries around the world. I participate in UN activities, attending meeting and creating statements in divverent UN venues, including related to cyber-security.

I see PPI as potential research organization, creating reports andd important blog posts.

Mark: how do you see increasing of envolvement in PPI? Does it require funds?

Keith: first of all we can start without funds, but we could apply for grants, including UN grants. But we need to be more visible and create content.

Mark: What is you personal involvement in UN activities?

Keith: Participation in IGFs 2025 (online), 2024 in person, also crating statements. There are more possibilities around UN events.

Mark: do candidates see possibilities for medication of conflict around Ukraine?

Keith: we had croudfinding campaingn

Gregory: yes, we had croudfunding, we collected and transferred some money, but that was a complicated issue, now with movement to DE entity we could use more possibilities.

Ohad : we nonimated Keith not against Gregory, bt Keith was such a great asset for PPIL, he is a very educated person, so we hope he will elevate PPI even more!

• Candidates Gregory Engels (G) and Keith Goldstein (K)

• Counting Table (approval voting)

Pirate Party of Brazil - abstain

Pirate Party of Chile - abstain

Czech Pirate Party - Keith

Pirate Party Germany - Keith, Gregory

Pirate Party of Israel -Keith

Pirate Party of Netherlands -abstain

Pirate Party of Russia - Gregory, Keith (alphabetical order)

Pirate Party of Slovakia - abstain

Pirate Party Switzerland - Keith

Ukrainian Pirate Community Proxy PPDE - Gregory

• Count:

Gregory: 3

Keith : 5

• Result: Keith have been elected Chair of PPI

Vice Chair one year position

• Proposals:

Gregory Engels by PPDE, PPRU

Gregory: I also look forward to running as vice chair and congratulate Keith. If anyone has any questions.

Bailey: Any other candidates? No...

• Counting Table (single vote)

Pirate Party of Brazil - yes

Pirate Party of Chile - abstain

Czech Pirate Party - yes

Pirate Party Germany - yes

Pirate Party of Israel - Yes

Pirate Party of Netherlands -yes

Pirate Party of Russia - yes

Pirate Party of Slovakia - abstain

Pirate Party Switzerland - yes

Ukrainian Pirate Community - yes

• Count:

Gregory: 8

no: 0

abstain: 2

Result: Gregory Engels elected as PPI vice-chair for one year

4 Board Members

• Proposals:

Bailey Lamon - PP-CA proposed by PPDE, PP-RU

Bailey: I am from the Pirate Party of Canada that does not officially exist at the moment. I have been in PPI for many years, as chair, vice chair, and a regular board member. Thank you to both parties for nominating me. Professionally I am social worker, and I help people. I am an activist, starting with occcupy in 2011 and projects after that. I consider myself libertarian left, I support elections, as well as civil disobediance. I think we need people to do a lot of activities, and the pirate movement feels like home. I had to step back a little bit to get my self in order. I would love to stay around. I am concerned about how the political framework is moving to the right. I am against capitalism and war. I do not belong to a geopolitical camp. I will criticize any war that deserves criticism. For PPI I know that we struggle with outreach and building the community. I love and support this community. I know this happens in life, but I very much believe in us and the movement. I very much believe that we have the power to build up this community and movement. I would love to play a role in that. If you would like to have me, I would be honored to still be here.

Marc: Question for Bailey. What would you like PPI improve on?

Bailey: I think outreach and building up the community. We were more active, had more events, working group meetings... We need more of that. I have been thinking about it, and when the Internet Party of NZ had online gatherings where they started policies and stuff. I remember joining a livestream meeting where we came up with a global antisurveillance policy.

Carlos Polo PP-CH proposed by PPDE, PP-RU

Bastian. I would like to recommend Carlos, who is doing a lot of stuff on our behalf.

Maycow Toledo - PP-BR proposed by PPDE, PP-RU

Bastian: I recommend Maycow too because he is our contact on the south american contact. itis a good .

Alexander Isavnin - PP–RU proposed by PPDE, PP-RU Etienne Evellin - PP-FR proposed by PPDE not present and no acceptence letter

I am a board member since 2022. In Russia as a member of the Pirate Party I try to join local elections. Somehow I comment for media about improvements of censorship, work on human rights activities. I work on activities associated with digital rights, protection of censorship, and so on. I see great potential for us to improve and set up new connections, bring new knowledge, and possibility to sustain freedom in the world.

Mark Anthony

I am from the Dutch pirates and have run in national elections. I have been less active in the past year. I am involved in a citizens project to let them have more authority and give more trust in existing authorities. I am advocating for this with more local authorities. I drove with medications and created an international group of volunteers to assist. Most people know me as the Pirate without shoes. I am a construction worker in my daily life.

Alex: Mark asked the questions about why people disappear as board members, it is just a wish that all elected candidates will appear at a board meetings regularily.

Mark: I will do my best. I would like to see PPI become an organization that others see is useful.

• Candidates

Bailey

Carlos

Maycow

Alexander

Mark

• Counting Table (approval voting)

Pirate Party of Brazil Proxy Keith- all

Pirate Party of Chile - Bailey Lamon and Maycow Toledo

Czech Pirate Party - Bailey Lamon, Alexander Isavnin, Mark Anthony

Pirate Party Germany - all

Pirate Party of Israel - all

Pirate Party of Netherlands -all

Pirate Party of Russia - Bailey Lamon, Alexander Isavnin, Mark Anthony

Pirate Party of Slovakia - all

Pirate Party Switzerland - Alexander, Carlos, Mark

Ukrainian Pirate Community Proxy PPDE- all

result

Bailey: 9

Carlos: 7

Maycow: 7

Alexander: 9

Mark: 9

• Quorum 50 % = 5 votes

Term limits

Bailey, Alexander, Mark are elected for 2 years.

We will have a run off for the other 2 year position.

Pirate Party of Brazil Proxy Keith- Maycow

Pirate Party of Chile - abstain

Czech Pirate Party - Maycow

Pirate Party Germany - abstain

Pirate Party of Israel - abstain

Pirate Party of Netherlands - Maycow

Pirate Party of Russia - Carlos

Pirate Party of Slovakia - abstain

Pirate Party Switzerland - Maycow

Ukrainian Pirate Community Proxy PPDE- abstain

Maycow is elected for 2 years.

Carlos is elected for 1 year

3+ Alternate Board Members

Sara Hjalmarsson PP-SE proposed by PPDE - not present and no acceptance letter is given

Babak Tubis PP-DE proposed by PPDE

Schoresch Davoodi PP-DE proposed by PPDE

Keith: I would recommend him as he very well known for participation in a PSC, very good person to communicate

Stefan Dekkers- PP-NL

I am from the Netherlands, and the secretary for the party for 2 years. I am in IT engineer. I am very involved in technology and concerned about all of the tech issues we facet

Babak: I have been a member of the council of Cologne, leading it for some time, and I am now part of the council of PPDE. :I am a member of PPEU at the moment, on the board, and I am trying to get papers for the election of Germany. I have been involved with the Pirate Party for some time.

• Counting Table

Pirate Party of Brazil Proxy Keith- all

Pirate Party of Chile - abstain

Czech Pirate Party - all

Pirate Party Germany - all

Pirate Party of Israel - all

Pirate Party of Netherlands - all

Pirate Party of Russia - all

Pirate Party of Slovakia - all

Pirate Party Switzerland - all

Ukrainian Pirate Community Proxy PPDE- all

• Result:

Babak Tubis, Schoresch Davoodi, Stefan Dekkers are elected as Alternate board members

Election of Court of Arbitration

Procedural Annotation: Meeting paused till 15:35 UTC

Ohad Shem Tov- PP-IL proposed by PP-IL

Alexander Kohler - PP-DE proposed by PP-IL. He accepts only if we need him as a third candidate. Let's consider him third, skiping #2

Nikolay Voronov: PP-RU proposed by PP-IL.

Pirate Party of Brazil Proxy Keith- all

Pirate Party of Chile - abstain

Czech Pirate Party - abstain

Pirate Party Germany - all

Pirate Party of Israel - all

Pirate Party of Netherlands - all

Pirate Party of Russia - all

Pirate Party of Slovakia - abstain

Pirate Party Switzerland - all

Ukrainian Pirate Community Proxy PPDE-

Election of Lay Auditors

Noam Kuzar - PP-IL proposed by PPDE

I am Noam from PPIL. I have been active in the movement for a while. I hope to be more active. I run an NGO for culture and art. I am knowledgeable on finance and NGOs...

Nikolay Voronov - PP–RU proposed by PPDE, PP-RU

elected to CoA

Mike Gill - no party, proposed by PP-IL, PP-RU, PP-CZ, PP-DE

First of all thanks for the four nominations.

I've been a member of PPCZ from 2012 to 2024. I'm 37, so that's a third of my life. Had to quit the party two months ago due to vast "philosophical differences" with the new power-centralising statutes and the new right-leaning leadership of the party. As the loudest critic of these changes it was impossible for me to remain a member of the party and among quite a few others I opted to quit, though I believe I remain a Pirate at heart and it's the PPCZ that's currently departing from the Pirate course.

For the last three years I was the head of the PPCZ's Foreign Department. I also used to be a PPI board member between 2018 and 2023. I'm a copywriter and translator, currently, since 2019, working as an assistant to the two Pirate councillors at the Prague 3 District town hall. Thank you.

Pirate Party of Brazil Proxy Keith- both

Pirate Party of Chile - abstain

Czech Pirate Party - all

Pirate Party Germany - all

Pirate Party of Israel - both

Pirate Party of Netherlands - all

Pirate Party of Russia - all

Pirate Party of Slovakia - all

Pirate Party Switzerland - all

Ukrainian Pirate Community Proxy PPDE- all

All are elected

Motions

• There are no motions.

Working Groups' Updates

• UN. We need nomination for permanent groundspasses, and we also have temporary passes. Please let us know if you have any nominees for these passes.

Alex: We had some activities for social media. It is not mentioned in the agenda, but there is an AI working group that was active. It is not just our working group, it is linked to global pirates. We had a few pirate beers, some of which were also tied in with global pirates. I hope we will be more active in the next year. I think we can be more effective with more participation.

Bailey: Pirate beer has moved from PPI to USPP and global pirates, but we support this. We do it in the last weekend of every month. It is a social gathering, also in Jitsi. There is no agenda. It is just a space for pirates to get together and hang out. SCENE was a social media working group, and we had a couple meetings with that. We are still working on improving that and making sure that we give people access. Like Alex said there are recommendations, but as far as actually going forward, we still have to do that. We need people to commit to doing that work. The tough thing with working groups is that it is difficult with attendance. We need to do a better job of getting the word out.

Mark: Are the Pirate beers on the calendar as well.

Bailey: It should be on the 25th. We need to add it to the calendar. It is on rotating times.

Mark: The times of the board meetings, do these rotate as well?

Bailey: the board meetings do rotate. the morning slot does not work for people, so we changed it.

Alex: The next board meeting will be on the 28th at 14 utc. After that we will change times.

Bailey: We will clarify during the first board meeting about future meetings.

Mark: The meetings need to be in the calendar.

Alex: it's in now, enjoy

Any Other Business

Pirate Security Conference 15.-16.02.2025 in Munich

https://events.pirate-secon.net/

Bastian: I would like to invite everyone. It is a lot of fun. Please come. There are a lot of interesting speakers and interesting topics.

Mark: I am interested. Do we need to buy tickets? How and how much? Where to stay?

Bastian: We have some room for our team. It is not so easy to get rooms. Otherwise, the tickets are sold on the internet. We start next week. You can get news about the conference online. We will inform on the mailing list.

StopWars Questionnaire and Exhibition

https://lime.ppi.rocks/index.php?r=survey/index&sid=121389

Bastian: Especially for new members, please share your contact information with me and join our Wire channel.

Closing of the meeting

Bailey: Thank you to everyone who attended. Congratulations to those elected.

Meeting is closed at 16:14 UTC