PPI Board Minutes 2011-12-06

--- 06/12/2011 19:00h CET ---

Mumble: mumble.piratenpartei-nrw.de

Room: "/international/pirate parties international/board meeting"

Record of the meeting

Part 1 [1] Part 2 [2] Part 3 [3]

1 - ATTENDEES

1.1 - Members of the PPI board

participating: Thomas, Samir, Lola, Pat excused: - unexcused: -

2 - PROCEEDINGS

Meeting opened at 19:20 CET by Meeting closed at 20:18 CET by Meeting chaired by Thomas Secretary for this meeting is Pat Quorum established with [4] out of [4] board members present. Streaming started: [No] Not possible Recording started: [Yes] Postal votes: [No]

3 - Short report of the board members

Members of the board shall give a short summary ( one minute at maximum ) of what happened since the last board meeting or their last report. If something needs more attention, it should be discussed in separate points.

• Thomas explains that Marcel resigned last week
• Pat: Usual work, sent stickers to all of you
• Samir: Travelling around Europe, most notably been visiting Bosnia and Serbia. At Bosnia I've done media training to prepare press conferences and things like that for the Bosnian parties. There is a federal one, however for the other parliament and sections in Herzegowina the pirate party has been formally launched and I basically arranged the entire process for that to happen together with Aleksandar Blagojevic (president of the pirate party of Serbia). I'm currently in the Czech Republic, I was at the German GA as well. Recently went to a foreign affairs comittee workshop in the European parliament which was on balancing cybersecurity; there I critized American and European plans for the territorializiation and militarization of the Internet and also pointed out that Anonymous is not Pirate Parties and vice-versa.
• Lola: present at German GA with speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpTLyNJWWeM, has a lot of views in few days, recieving a lot of messages where people ask what can be done for PPI and/or PP-RU
• Thomas: I excuse myself that there was an issue with the timeslot at the GA. Not done much for PPI board last week, lots of background work for the PP-DE GA

4 Board - vacant seats

Decision by the members: do nothing No discussion by the board members.

5 Changing the Rules of Procedure (RoP)

current RoP :http://int.piratenpartei.de/PPI_Board/Rules_of_Procedure §1 Board meetings

  Regular board meetings will take place no less than once a  month. At   the end of each meeting the date and time of the next meeting  will be  announced. 
Extraordinary meetings can be called by any member of the board for urgent matters. 

§2 Agenda

The provisional agenda of the regular board meetings shall be published in the PPI wiki the day before the meeting. 
New items to the agenda can be brought in during the meeting and will be discussed at the end of the scheduled agenda. 
Every member of the Pirate Parties International can propose an agenda item to the board.  

§3 Publicity

  The board meetings are public, unless the board votes in favor  of a   secret meeting. The decision to hold a secret meeting has to be    motivated. 
Guests are allowed to speak up during a meeting if requested to do so by the chairman. 
Guests that disrupt the meeting can be excluded by the chairman. 

§4 Procedure

At the beginning of each meeting a chairman and secretary will be appointed.  
The secretary of the meeting will write the meeting minutes and make sure they are published. 
The chairmen of the meeting moderates the discussions and makes sure the rules of procedure are respected. 

§5 Votes

Only members of the board are entitled to vote. 
A vote is only valid if four or more members of the board are in favor of the proposal. 

§6 Meeting minutes

The minutes of the meeting will be published before the next meeting and not later than two weeks after the meeting. 
The CAO is responsible for publishing the meeting minutes and links to the published meeting recordings on the PPI wiki. 

§7 Tasks

At  the end of each regular meeting the board members will  present a  report with all the new developments concerning their  respective  tasks. 
The person responsible for a specific task can take minor decisions concerning that task without prior voting by the board.  
  The CAO is responsible for entering all tasks that have been  agreed   upon in the meeting in Redmine, ensuring that the due date is  set. 

§8 General provisions

These rules of procedure can be modified at any time by the board. 
These rules of procedure are immediately applicable. 

Annotation: Chairman in the text above is the Chairman of the meeting. Change into: §1 Board meetings

   Regular board meetings will take place no less than once a  month. At  the end of each meeting the date and time of the next meeting  will be  announced. 
Extraordinary meetings can be called by any member of the board for urgent matters. 

§2 Agenda

The provisional agenda of the regular board meetings shall be published in the PPI wiki the day before the meeting. 
New items to the agenda can be brought in during the meeting and will be discussed at the end of the scheduled agenda. 
Every member of the Pirate Parties International can propose an agenda item to the board.  

§3 Publicity

   The board meetings are public, unless the board votes in favor of a  secret meeting. The decision to hold a secret meeting has to be  motivated. 
Guests are allowed to speak up during a meeting if requested to do so by the chairman. 
Guests that disrupt the meeting can be excluded by the chairman. 

§4 Procedure

At the beginning of each meeting a chairman and secretary will be appointed.  
The secretary of the meeting will write the meeting minutes and make sure they are published. 
The chairmen of the meeting moderates the discussions and makes sure the rules of procedure are respected. 

§5 Votes

Only members of the board are entitled to vote. 
A vote is only valid if more than half of the members of the board are in favor of the proposal. This is valid if four or more members are in the board. If less than four members are in the board a veto right is given to the minority. The decision will have to be reviewed at the following board meeting.

§6 Meeting minutes

The minutes of the meeting will be published before the next meeting and not later than two weeks after the meeting. 
The CAO is responsible for publishing the meeting minutes and links to the published meeting recordings on the PPI wiki. 

§7 Tasks

At   the end of each regular meeting the board members will  present a   report with all the new developments concerning their  respective  tasks. 
The person responsible for a specific task can take minor decisions concerning that task without prior voting by the board.  
   The CAO is responsible for entering all tasks that have been  agreed    upon in the meeting in Redmine, ensuring that the due date is  set. 

§8 General provisions

These rules of procedure can be modified at any time by the board. 
These rules of procedure are immediately applicable. 

Annotation: Chairman in the text above is the Chairman of the meeting.

---

Discussion:

• Thomas explains the issue with the proposal "A vote is only valid if more than half of the members of the board are in favor of the proposal."
• Samir: I would suggest that we could think about a veto for the board members.
• Thomas: I would only see this as usable if there would be a financial decision.
• Samir: I think the RoP could be better alltogether; but it's just this certain part that I suggest.
• Samir suggests the addition "A vote is valid, if there are no votes /against/ the proposal being made by the board."
• (discussion on pros and cons between Samir and Thomas)
• Thomas suggests a short break, no objections

short break ending at 19:45 CET

• Thomas: new opinions? Lola and Pat have not said anything yet.
• Marcel wants to speak
• Marcel considers the regulation good for the current situation, but it might be problematic if further people resign (i.e. 3 people) as it may lead to isolate people, thus he suggests to implement a veto if there are less than 4 people in the board. Marcel reflects on a situation where he had 3 people in an organ and where no veto was present.
• Pat: Did you try to implement the veto there?
• Marcel: No, as the situation changed. So we didn't had to solve it.
• Samir: Democracy is more than the will of the majority, thus I agree with Marcel.
• Thomas formulates a proposal according to Marcel's suggestion.
• Thomas speaks out the proposal "This is valid if four or more members are in the board. If less than four members are in the board a veto right is given to the minority. The decision will have to be reviewed at the following board meeting."
• The previous proposal is out of discussion.

BALLOT YES: Thomas, Samir, Lola, Pat NO: - ABSTENTIONS: - Result: motion passed Thomas will publish the new RoP in the wiki

6 General Assembly 2012

• Czechia - http://int.piratenpartei.de/2012-GA-offers#PPI_Conference_offer_proposed_by_the_Czech_Pirate_Party

  Russia - http://int.piratenpartei.de/2012-GA-offers#PPI_Conference_offer_proposed_by_the_Pirate_Party_of_Russia

  Tunisia - http://int.piratenpartei.de/2012-GA-offers#PPI_Conference_offer_proposed_by_the_Pirate_Party_of_Tunisia

Discussion

• Thomas and Lola discuss the current status. It is suggested that Tunisia and Russia should be given 2 weeks to finalize their proposals.

REDMINE Thomas: 3 days

• Thomas suggests that further people are needed, likely apart from the hosting team. Possibly ask pp-leaders.
• Lola thinks that the place should be set first.
• Thomas suggests a conference coreteam of 3-5 people which will be filled up when the venue is clear.
• Marcel asks when the place and the date will be decided in the board.
• Thomas explains that there's a deadline of 12 days to finalize the proposal.
• Samir thinks that it's best to know and assess what ressources are in the hand of the board, also how many local people can help out prior to making further decisions.
• Thomas explains that the suggested coreteam was intended to be partially consisting of people being not from the venue and partially from the venue. So participants for the first part of the coreteam can already be looked for.
• Samir: I think we think the same. We only don't agree on the way of decision making.
• Thomas: I think the call for help is not a real decision as I see it as a necessity.
• Lola: I think it should be first clear where the conference take place. I really think that it should be the other way round; i.e. if we organize it in Russia, we don't need anyone that cannot speak Russian.
• Thomas suggests to postpone.
• Samir has doubts about having Lola deciding upon the conference place as a principle as there may be a conflict of interest.
• Thomas thinks this is not necessary.
• Marcel makes a general notice by saying that he thinks that people in the PPI board should be not be international coordinator of their respective pirate party. That this was exactly the reason why Marcel has not been CZ coordinator so far.
• Lola: I think it's a bit offtopic. I'm currently international coordinator as no one else is doing it.
• Thomas: It might be indeed a matter of interest. But anyone is invited to suggest an amendment to the statutes.
• Thomas asks if anyone disagrees with postponing the overall issue.

No objection. Conference Team: next meeting Tasks: next meeting

7 Situation in Italy

PP Italy: Call for help - proposal - send to CoA as it is its function

• Thomas explains that there was a suggestion concerning the situation in Italy. He suggests that the CoA should be involved.
• Pat: I'm not opposed to involving the CoA; however it should be formulated in a way that is compatible with the statutes as the CoA is not responsible for conflicts between a member and a third party.
• Samir: The CoA cannot make a decision here, but I would prefer not to have a court case between 2 pirate groups that are fighting for "IP". Also there's a potential conflict of interest with members of the CoA being from Italy.
• Thomas: proposal, postpone by two weeks
• Samir remarks that he has contacts which might be helpful in the matter.
• There's no objection on postponing the issue.
• Pat remarks that the CoA should be themselves responible at avoiding conflicts of interest.

8 AOB

no further issues mentionned Meeting Closed: 20:18 CET by