From PPI
Agenda PPI BOARD MEETING
- --- 21/02/2015 18:00h CET ---
- Mumble: mumble.piratenpartei-nrw.de
- Room: "/international/pirate parties international/board meeting"
- mumble://mumble.piratenpartei-nrw.de/International/Pirate%20Parties%20International/board%20meeting/board?title=Piratenpartei%20NRW&version=1.2.0
Minutes of the PPI Board meeting from 2015-02-21
Record of the meeting
- Audio recordings: http://archive.org/details/PPIBoardMeeting20150221
1 - ATTENDEES
1.1 - Members of the PPI board
- participating: Thomas, Bastian, Koen, Gregory, Marco, Anders
- excused:
- unexcused:
1.2 - Others
- Alternates: Min Chiaki,
- Guests: AlexVox (PP-RU), Tom (PP-JP)
2 - PROCEEDINGS
- Meeting opened at : 18:13 CET by Koen
- Meeting closed at 20:46 CET by Koen
- Meeting chaired by Koen
- Secretary for this meeting is: all
- Quorum established with 6 out of 7 board members present
- Streaming started: Not possible
- Recording started: yes
- Postal votes: yes, see Item 4
3 Short Reports
- Very brief
- Koen: Delivered paperwork to Paribas, updated financial statements for 2012 & 2013.
- Bastian: I had various meetings to explain the circumstances in the board and many lawsuits.
- Thomas: cleared up the forum, lot of phones calls due to the retreat of PP-AU tying to explain the situation, organising party related stuff
- marco: communication system: after some research, I thought we could try telegram ( https://telegram.org/ ), which seems to conform to the requirements. It would be used as an IM system, and without replacing the emails.
- Anders: From previous meeting: Visited PP-CZ a couple of weeks ago to discuss how they had success during the election campaign. Several talks with Koen about the finalising the official registration process. Had a few chats with PP-DE, Jens Stomber about the situation in PPI and PPEU. Started talks with Norwegian School of Economics about the TT15. See #7 Second and Next ThinkTwice conference.
- Gregory: drafted a response to a press inquiring about pp-au. installed patches to lists server.
4 Response to press article
- Postal Vote (deadline today 12:00 CET):
- In favour: Gregory (2015-02-19 22:18 CET), Bastian (2015-02-21 16:47 CET),
- Against: Koen (2015-02-21 15:14 CET), Anders (2015-02-21 18:20 CET)
- Abstain: Marco (2015-02-21 15:19 CET)
- (18:23 Thomas has left the meeting due to connectivity problem)
- 4 votes had been received after deadline
- Motion failed.
- -> new version to be drafted till Monday 21:00 CET, then meet in Mumble.
5 Board issues
Rules of Procedures - Board
Quorum?
- Changes:
* Added §1.3
a)
No board meeting shall take longer than 1:30 hour. If the agenda cannot be completed within the given time a new meeting is called for the day after.
b)
Alternative: If the board meeting is taking longer than 1:30 a break of 15 minutes is scheduled and the meeting adjournes.
c)
Alternative: If the agenda cannot be completed within the given time a new meeting is called within 3 days
d)
Alternative: No board meeting shall take longer than 2:00/1:30 hours. If the agenda cannot be completed within the given time, a new meeting with items from the reminding agenda is called for latest 3/5 days after the meeting in mention started. Withdrawn
Strawpoll:
General 1:30h: Koen, Gregory, Marco (1st choice), Anders, Bastian
General 2:00h: Koen, Gregory (1st choice) , Marco (2nd choice), Anders, Bastian
- No indication of a clear winner.
- Vote (choose one):
- 1:30h: Koen, Anders, Marco
- 2:00h: Gregory, Bastian
- 1:30h is a winner.
- Vote:
15 minutes break: Basti, Gregory , Marco
next day:
3 days: Anders, Koen
5:days:
- 15 minutes option is a winner
- The RoP are changed: §1(3) is amended:
- Alternative: If the board meeting is taking longer than 1:30 a break of 15 minutes is scheduled and the meeting adjournes.
* Introduction of paragraph 5 "Decisions", renumbering the following paragraphs.
§5 Decisions
1) In principle the board will strive to reach consensus. A consensus decision can only be valid if at least 4 board members were present at the meeting.
2) In case a consensus can not be reached a formal voting is required. Every board member can request a voting on any topic.
Vote:
in favor: Koen, Anders
abstain: Gregory, Marco
against: Bastian
- comment by marco: I'm abstaining for my "unclear status", but I don't think this paragraph is needed. Redundant words in rules of procedure can result in less clear rules.
- comment by gregory: i do not see any content that is being added or changeged by the inclusion of this paragraph, but i do not see any harm either (other than introducing unnecessary lenght and a new paragraph), so I abstain. (understanding, that currently it is a "hidden no" vote)
- Motion failed.
* Additions to §5.2, modifications to §5.3
§5.2) Decisions are taken by a simple majority of board members present at the meeting. If less then 4 board members are present decisions require an unanimous vote. At least 3 members of the board need to be voting for a decision to be valid.
§5.2) Board members not present at the meeting can vote on a proposal published in the provisional agenda by citing the proposal and expressing their vote in an e-mail sent to board@pp-international.net (postal vote). The postal votes shall be added to the votes casted at the meeting if the proposals are exactly the same. The postal votes shall be mentioned in the provisional agenda and can be repealed before they are added by a different postal vote or by a vote casted at the meeting. For any vote that was added to the agenda during the meeting or for which the content was changed during the meeting an additional period of 96 hours is given to board members that could not attend the meeting during which they can cast a postal vote.
- Anders: Alternative 48h
- Bastian: it is quite undemocrativ, because the discussions from the board meeting could be ignored.
- Gregory: allowing people to cast their vote after the meeting would allow for buying votes and i second Bastian.
- Thomas reconnected
- Vote:
- in favor: Koen, Anders
- abstain:marco, Thomas
- against:Gregory, Bastian
- marco: I'd have abstained anyway
- motion failed
§5.2) Decisions are taken by a simple majority of board members present at the meeting. If less then 4 board members are present decisions require an unanimous vote. At least 3 members of the board need to be voting for a decision to be valid. withdrawn
- §5.2) Decisions are taken by a majority of board members that have casted a vote in due time. If less then 4 board members have voted, decisions require an unanimous vote. At least 3 members of the board need to be voting for a decision to be valid.
- Alternative Gregory: strike the word "simple" as it have different meaning in BE and AE.
- Vote:
- in favor: Koen, Anders, Gregory
- abstain: Thomas
- against: Bastian
- Marco disconnected 19:17
- Bastian request a break until Marco reconnect.
- Break until 19:23
- Motion passed - the RoPs are changed. changes from ln 157 are now in place.
- Alternative Bastian: Decisions are taken by a majority of board members present at the meeting. If less then 4 board members are present decisions require an unanimous vote. At least 3 members of the board need to be voting for a decision to be valid.
- Vote:
- in favor: Gregory, Bastian
- abstain: Thomas, Anders
- against: Koen
- Motion passed. RoPs are changed again. Wording from ln 173 is in place.
* Added §5.4
- §5.4) Any board member can always request a postal vote on any topic for which they deem a formal decision necessary. A minimum period of 96 hours is given for other board members to cast their postal vote. The exact wording and results of the voting will be included in the minutes of the next board meeting.
- Question Thomas: how about urgent matters? the alternative would be super-urgent meetings?
- Koen: we could add a provision, that if a majority of board members have voted in favor (or against) the vote could end. (alternative: is final)
- Proposal Anders: Let's vote on either to take this during a work meeting and discuss it the next ordinary board meeting. or continue the new proposals this meeting.
- Bastian: if this would pass, we would not neet regular board meetings at all.
- Koen: We are still required to do a board meeting every month
- Alternative Gregory: introduce the word "urgent decision" instead of "formal decision"
- Any board member can always request a postal vote on any topic for which they deem an urgent decision necessary. A minimum period of 96 hours is given for other board members to cast their postal vote. If a clear decision is given according to these RoP's before the deadline has ended, the vote is final. The exact wording and results of the voting will be included in the minutes of the next board meeting.
- combined proposal from Thomas/Bastian:
- §5.4) Any board member can always request a postal vote on any topic for which they deem urgent and a formal decision is necessary. A minimum period of 96 hours is given for other board members to cast their postal vote. If a clear decision is given according to the these Rules of Procedures before the deadline has ended, the vote is final. The exact wording and results of the voting will be included in the minutes of the next board meeting. Rules of Procedure must not be a subject to postal votes.
- Gregory: I am withdrawing my proposal in favor of that of Thomas / Bastian
- Votes:
- In favour Gregory, Bastian,
- Against:
- Abstain (will count as no against): Koen, Thomas, Anders
- Remark Thomas: I would have voted in favour but due to the circumstances... see prev. meetings
- motion failed.
- Due to the new RoP we now are 1:30h into the meeting, so we will have 15min break until 20:00h CET.
- Marco rejoined the meeting 19:48h
- meeting continue (20:01hrs).
- Any objections to proposal from Anders to postpone the other subitems?
- no objections.
* Added §6.4, removed last part §6.1
- postponed to next meeting.
6 Online General Assembly
- What have been agreed upon at the extraordinary board meeting on Feb 15:
- a) The oGA is postponed to 29.03.2015 10.00 hrs. CET. The invitation for this is dispatched in time.
- b) Items on the agenda are: RoP, decision upon affiliation fees, AOBs.
- c) The oGA will be prepared by the board. The board sends out a new request to the members on contributing resources to conduct the PPI's oGA.
- d) All the other decisions to oGA are withdrawn hereby.
- Invitation should be sent out today before midnight. As the requirements of five weeks prior to the GA. We collaborate on text details right after this meeting.
- Pad for drafting: https://ppi.piratenpad.de/oGA2015-Invitation
Location
- Even an online GA needs a destination to meet up.
- NRW Mumble and as backup Brandenburg.org Mumble (Bastian have admin rights)
- Time is 10:00h CET for begin. 09:00 for accreditation (acording to the RoP has to be via email). Test a day before, 10.00 & 18.00hrs..
RoP
- Standing RoP: http://wiki.pp-international.net/PPI_General_Assembly
- Amendment need to adopt it to online online. "Hammelsprung" instead of raising cards (moving into a specific "yes", "no", "abstain" mumble channels)
- Pad for preparation: https://ppi.piratenpad.de/oGA2015-RoP
Chair
- We need Chair (and her team). - as decided we need to ask our members for suggestions.
7 Member issues
PP-AU
- PP-AU - as of 11.02.2015 the the President Brendan Molloy representing PP-AU provided an email giving up membership immediately
- The decision given by the NC of PP-AU is public information http://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Minutes/National_Council/2015-02-11 (The
bear currently the notice "This document is currently under development and is not approved or endorsed by the party. Some statements may be incorrect, unverified or otherwise objectionable to party policy or intention, and until such time as it is endorsed by the party, it does not represent the views or intentions of the party. )
- option 1
- Motion by Thomas Gaul
- Deviating from the Statutes of PPI who requires the cancellation of the membership to be addressed to PPI HQ by registered mail the board itself will confirm the cancellation of membership by registered post to the PPAU-HQ (Post Box), serving the same legal effort.
- option 2
- Alternative counter-motion 1 by Gregory Engels
- It is clear, that the PP-AU has expressed a clear statement and there are no doubts about it's validity. However, our statutes and the belgian law practice is also clear that a mere email is not sufficient for being legally binding. Therefore we are starting a donation pledge to collect AUD 30 to cover the cost of the sheet of paper, an envelope and the postage for a registered letter - to be transfered to PP-AU so that they can be compliant with the legal proceedings. (We can not just simply take it from our own budget, because we don't have one.)
- option 3
- Alternative counter-motion 2 by Gregory Engels
- It is clear, that the PP-AU has expressed a clear statement and there are no doubts about it's validity. However, our statutes and the Belgian law practice is also clear that a mere email is not sufficient for being legally binding. The Statutes offer us however a simple way out to be compliant with the statutes and the belgian legal practice. This is, the PPI Board decides to propose to the Court of Arbirtration the exclusion of PP-AU from PPI Members following its own will. (PPI Statues VII(2) "A proposal for the exclusion of a Member may only be submitted by the Board, or by a tenth of Members from three different continents.")
- Strawpoll (who is in favor of):
- option1: Thomas
- option2: Koen, Gregory, Anders, Thomas
- option3: Gregory, Marco, Bastian
- the option 2 seems to have the strongest support
- Gregory withdraws the option 3
- Thomas withdraws the option 1
- Vote on option 2:
- In favour: Gregory, Anders, Bastian, Koen
- Against:
- Abstain: Thomas, Marco
- Motion passed.
- Bastian will proceed with it.
- Any exceeding donations of AUD 30 will still be transfered to PP-AU for the intended purpose.
- Question Anders: Do we for sure know if we need to publish in the Gazette about members leaving?
- According to PPI Statuts:
- VIII. Membership Register
- The Board keeps a Membership register at the PPI Headquarters of Pirate Parties International. This register lists the name, legal form, address of the registered office, identity of the representative and, where applicable, the registration number in accordance with existing legislation and regulations. All Members may consult this register at the registered office of the PPI Headquarters.
PP-UK
- PP-UK as announced by signed email copy of a dispatched registered letter and attached PDF to retreat from PPI.
- Thomas will send out a recognation letter when the registered mail is received at the HQ.
8 Second and Next ThinkTwice conference
- Anders: Are as of now in contact with the student group Global Economic Perspectives - GEP at Norwegian School of Economics and trying to get them to organise TT15. Initial contact atm. They are considering if they have the resources and motivation to be a part of ThinkTwice. Delivered two printed copies of the "Proceedings of ThinkTwice2 2014" to NSE for review (the rectorate).
9 Financial Issues
- No changes since last year.
10 pp-leaders and pp-leaders.discussion - Terms of Use
- postponed
11 UN / WIPO / ITU / WSIS
- ought to be one of the first Items in the next board meeting. postponed.
12 AOB (being urgent)
- no urgent ppi matters.
- ===================================================
- Next Meeting: Tuesday 2015/03/03 20:30 CET
- Meeting Closed: 20:46 CET by Koen
