PPI Minutes 2021-03-20

Agenda of the Joint PPI-PPEU BOARD MEETING

--- 20.3.2021 13:00 CEST (12:00 UTC) ---

Venue: PPEU's Jitsi room: https://jitsi.pirati.cz/PPEU-Board

Audio recording: PiratesOnAir Streaming, recording (https://piratesonair.net/)

1 - ATTENDEES

1.1 - Members of the PPI board (and alternates)

List: Bailey Lamon (chair, Canada), Gregory Engels (vice-chair, Germany), Mike Gill (gen. secy., Czechia), Sebaistian Krone (treasurer, Germany), Carlos Polo (Switzerland), Keith Goldstein (Israel), Daniel D. Prazeres (Brazil), Manuel Caicedo (Chile), Dario Castañé (Catalonia); Alternate PPI Board Members: Svein Mork Dahl (Norway), Thomas Gaul (Germany), Ji Yong Dijkhuis (Netherlands)

participating: Mike, Keith, Bailey, Gregory, Svein, Bastian, Manuel

excused:

unexcused:

Quorum: reached

1.2 - Members of the PPEU board

List: Mikuláš Peksa (chair, Czechia), Florie Marie (vice-chair, France), Katla Hólm (vice-chair, Iceland), Sebastian Krone (treasurer, Germany), Alessandro Ciofini (Italy), Jan Mareš (Czechia), Lukáš Doležal (Czechia), Mia Utz (Germany), Oliver Herzig (Germany/Catalonia)

participating: Exile, Alessandro, Mia, Bastian, Katla, Lukáš, Mikuláš, Florie

excused:

unexcused:

Quorum: reached

1.3 - Others

participating:

excused:

unexcused:

Guests:

participating:

2 - PROCEEDINGS

Meeting opened at 13:00 CET by Bailey Lamon and Mikuláš Peksa

Meeting chaired by Mikulas and Bailey? :XD

Secretary for this meeting is Everyone

Quorum established with X (7 out of 9) PPI board members present and X (8 out of 9) PPEU board members present.

Streaming started: started https://piratesonair.net/live-stream/

Recording started: 13:00 CET

3 - AGENDA

Short PPEU introduction

Mikuláš: we recently had a new election, most people are continuing, we started using working groups so topics get discussed separately from the board meeting, Lukáš has media, Bastian does IT, Katla moderates our systems, Alessandro to talk about finances. We have filled the GitLab team, it works that issues to be published are fed in and a publishing team takes care of publishing it. Maybe PPI might be interested too.

Exile: We started a group for supporting struggling Pirate movements led by Katla.

Mikuláš: We've been contacted multiple times by people requesting moderation on Mattermost; Katla is in charge of that.

Katla: PPIS recently started heavily moderate it's platforms, so I can share the experience. Mattermost is massive and I don't really see how we can moderate it. The plan is to ask the working group from Iceland, that did very thorough work on their own social media platforms, to share their experience with us, and from there organize next steps for PPEU and mattermost. Preliminaries for upcoming Iceland parliamentary election are in progress, so Iceland isn't very responsive due to being busy at the moment.

Mikuláš: As we set-up Mattermost, we're responsible for potential incidents happening there.

Short PPI introduction

Bailey: We're also having working groups called standing committees, for media and campaigning (SCENE), UN and conferences (SCUBA), interparty cooperation and internal functioning of member parties (SCULL), party finances (SCURVY); usually they are about people sharing best practices.

We're trying to encourage actual projects to come out of them, such as Pirate radio one day, Pirates on Air. These would usually go under the Scene committee. It is both about people collaborating and also about projects. There is the SCULL committee, which is about party functioning and day-to-day work. One topic was on graphics and design work, and as a result we built a design vault. You are welcome to use it to store graphics or anything you want. We will share the link. The SCUBA committee is about the UN. We did the IGF last year. Gregory put together a discusssion for that. Under normal circumstances people would get groundspasses and go to the UN in NY, Geneva, or Vienna. Over the past year that has not been possible. There are some things online, but not with a lot of notice. Due to the pandemic things have been limited this past year. We have a lot of discusssions around tech and helping parties get started.

We started doing PPI clinics for folks looking to start new party or renew dead parties and such. Meeting with these people and figuring out what they need and trying to help them. We're able to provide technical infrastructure if people want our help. There have been a few over the past year. PP Georgia is trying to restart itself for example. We're still organizing social events (always last weekend of the month, alternating between FRI and SAT at 9 PM CET); good way to get to know each other and stay motivated. We have board meetings on Wednesdays every three weeks. The fourth Think Twice Conference got cancelled last year due to covid. In July we're doing the intl. Pirate Camp.

We are still discussing whether and how to reschedule. The Pirate Summer Camp is still on, and it is schedule in Poland. We are doing it for the 6th time.

Mikuláš: I'm quite interested in the "Pirate clinics". We're kinda lost when it comes to the emerging parties. We should tackle this issue in a systemic way.

Gregory: We handle it on a case by case basis. There is no individual member in charge. Keith facilitated the meeting with the India Pirates, as he knew more about local politics there. I currently have a contact with Pirate Party of Latvia. They have been out of communication for 7 years, but since the last autumn some people want to restart. They want to see what they need to do to become a political party. Before that I am communicating sometimes with different people. In our Redmine, we have a section with people who contacted us over the years about starting a PP. These people could be contacted by PPEU too. We offer them IT resources, make them kick-off the party without worrying about technicalties.

Mikuláš: Can we have access to the database? What are the GDPR implications of sharing the database?

Gregory: We are bound by the GDPR. It applies to us. We would have to have an external data processing agreement.

Mikuláš: Should we be member of PPI, it would help. Then we should settle this legally and connect our databases of contacts.

Gregory: We have 33 contacts from different parties, but the databese is not that well maintained. Many people went out of contact and we don't really have a PIC to do this job. Congo, Honduras, Sardinia, Nicaragua, FYROM, Mauritius, Iraq, Qatar, India, Mali, Mongolia, Andorra, Indonesia... It's mostly extra-European countries though.

Mikuláš: We should be contacting these people. We should have European volunteers working on that. Do you have some SSO for accessing these databases?

Gregory: We don't have a single system. No.

Mikuláš: Maybe we will put together a team that will be able to go through this databese, if possible from PPI parties to avoid GDPR problems.

Bailey: The committee I forgot about is SCURVY, which deals with finances. We don't really have any finances, but we have bank accounts. We hope to figure out our fundraising this year and a web shop is planned too.

Gregory: But we have expenses like IT, which should get covered by member fees.

Bailey: We have Pirate Times started up again. You guys should definitely write stuff for it, no matter the topic. It is thanks to Bastian. Whether it is something that is happening in your country. I think it is sometimes cool to just write about Pirate politics in general, even if it is not in your country. It would be great to have contributions from everyone. Let us know that you wanna contribute and we'll get you set-up.

Alessandro: I miss Pirate Times. I would love to. That is a great news.

https://piratetimes.info/

Mikulas: What is the proceedure to get involved?

Bastian: It is a multilingual system, so you can use it in your own language. It makes it easy to post. If you want to help us, it would be great.

Alessandro: It is in Wordpress?

Bastian: Yes, it is in Wordpress.

Bailey: We also have the PPI website, and we are more than happy to publish stuff there too. If you want to also have it published on our website, they are also welcome there too.

Mikulas: When we talk about Pirate Times, is there also a social media account?

Bailey: There is a Twitter account I think.

Gregory: If you'Re working with Pirate Times, we can put you on TweetDeck team.

Mikuláš: How do you advertise the appearing articles?

Bastian: We have an automatic tool for that.

Gregory: It's mostly Bastian and me at the moment.

Mikuláš: So the twitter account is @piratetimes?

Gregory: Yes, thanks to Patrick, who found the old password and it's under our control.

Mikuláš: When there is a content to be also published on Pirate Times, we should also prepare it on GitLab. On the topic of the radio, how far is it?

Bailey: It's still just an idea. The plan is to make an international one, but we didn't really do anything towards that. It's a topic for the SCENE committee.

Alessandro: Things like the radio are something that we definitely should pursue, so we can present our stories ourselves and spread our stories. For EU campaign, we were interviewing all major candidates. It doesn't have to be this big, but we should create the narrative. People speaking about our topics is a strong medium.

Bastian: Pirate Radio. It is a brand, and I think we should use it. We have it on 24 hours. You can use it. Everybody can use it. It is licensed in the European Union, and video is another point. If you do video sessions, then you have another issue with media controllers, and we can sort that. If someone wants to do something, then it is ok. You get your own channel. It is an offer for anyone who wants to do somethin.

Bailey: I remember asking Bastian last year what we could do to build more on Pirates on Air. We should look how we can build more on what you have created. If everyone had their own channel or even could just request a segment. If they didn't want to have their own show but just wanted a segment every now and then. I agree with Alessandro, hearing from people doing the work, telling stories. There is the work that we are doing everyday, and there are also the narratives and the stories that go with it. I 100% agree with what Alessandro was saying. Is there anything that PPI has done that we forgot to mention?

Gregory: We decided to do Pirate Beer in different formats. Sometimes it's going to be a reguar social, or breakfast and other formats. So we switch things up. It would be nice if we meet at other times, as some people might be hesitant to come to something that calls itself Pirate Beer.

Bailey: Everybody is in different time zones, so there is no perfect time for everyone, but switching it up might help. Nobody is obligated to drink alcohol there. Whatever floats your baat. In February we tried to do a bar camp, but there were like five people there, so we mostly just hanged out. Next one is on Friday 26th, probably a regular one.

Gregory: We were talking about diversifying the Pirate beer and different events. Also Pirate Governance Codex is an idea to compile non-profit codices and create one describing together with experts how to run NGOs and online organisations. We have a shorltist of some experts and are planning to discuss this topic with them to create some 50 page manual. So that's our plans for this year.

Bailey: We wanted to put together a SCULL meeting on party statutes.

Gregory (discusses the layout of our working group meetings). BDSM is a play on names for Buddies Doing Social Media.

Mikuláš: We could set-up a working group to facilitate cooperation between our two organisations. Starting with the GDPR issues, contact between our courts, issues touching both organisations. Let's create joint team to meet and facilitate the cooperation.

Katla: I don't see why the parties in PPEU should be extending into PPI.

Mikuláš: We should be clear on the process when conflict arises. Now we have an overlapping situation. We should have a clear understanding who has sovereignty.

Gregory: If PPEU becomes observer member of the PPI, it will be obliged by the statutes by PPI (vice versa it's already happening). It's a rather academic discussion.

Mikuláš: It's not on the table to merge any bodies. The point is to clear sovereignty issues. I would like to avoid any conflicts. Let's have a process in place to know who's responsible when problems arise.

Svein: It would be useful to get in writing the proposal.

Katla: I'd like to see something in writing too.

Mikuláš: I'd like to set-up a group which will go through all the alternatives, PPEU join the PPI and have on the table legal options.

Gregory: GDPR situation needs to be solved. Let's make a group of people and talk the requirements. There might be needs that do not apply to other PPI members. We need to share resources, we have an understanding on that.

Mikuláš: Anything will have to be approved by PPEU Council and PPI General Assembly.

Gregory: If it's just administrative regulation, then boards can solve it. We will discuss it in a smaller circle.

Bailey: I think it is better to discuss it between members, so we can have it in a smaller group. It would be good to have this conversation to see in what realm we will handle these conversations and see where we can collaborate. I also understand the issues that... even if at the end of the discussion we realize that we cannot collaborate in this way, then maybe that is fine (that things need to stay the way they are). I understand these concerns, and I think it is worth a conversation even if the final answer will be no.

Mikulas: At the end of the day, we will announce a working group meeting, which means the council members are immediately informed. We should include the information that we will include perosnal information and related stuff, so the parties should nominate someone who is an expert in the field and at least understands.

Bailey: Exile makes a good point in the chat about noticing the differences between the organizations. I agree with Exiles point that we should recognize the different aims and recognize the boundaries that are there and should stay there. I think we will figure these things out.

Svein: I think we should include the member parties in these conversations.

Bailey: I agree that in all of these conversations the members should be involved. Even if it is a small group of people that end up meeting.

Alessandro: Fully equiped is that when you go on a journey... Should we discuss about overlapping issues and resources.

Mikulas: My thought when discussing overlapping issues was how to handle these issues, like Court of Arbitration, so we should create a smaller group to offer solutions. We understand each other that this is not about restricting the members of any of the organizations. It is about giving rules to the issues that touch both of the organizations.

Alessandro: So we're not talking about common resources, such as mattermost, mailing servers?

Mikuláš: There is the question of legal responsibility. If one organisation uss resources of the other one, we should have understanding what the consequences are. We should have an agreement regarding the mutual exchange.

Alessandro: We already had this kind of conversation in the past, like streaming tools. No matter who provides something, everyone should be able to use it. It would be great to collaborate on this and collaborate on common projects.

Bastian: In GDPR there's article 26, which requires contract between two organisations. I can supply a lawyer and it should be easy to handle.

Mike: Can you invite him to the joint working group?

Bastian: I'll try. He knows the problems between EU and non-EU organisations well.

Mikuláš: At the end of the day, we should put out a statement for the Council and the GA, to be clear what is planned. Let's settle the joint working group at our regular board meetings. To decide for PPEU, we need to do that at our board meeting anyway. Let's get in touch after we both had board meetings.

Bailey: Let's meet again like this soon.

Alessandro: Let's do it before summer.

Bailey: Thanks to everyone being here, let's colaborate more, build the movement.

Mikuláš: I believe we can meet soon.

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• Meeting Closed: 14:48 CET