December 6th, 2015 Campaign Planning Meeting

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Participants

Attending: Steve, Noe, JamieO, Glen

Discussion

Before the meeting, please review the following documents:

Why Run as a Pirate?

Quick review to see if there are any additions to the Why run as a Pirate? question. Kendra suggested we address opposing the Police State, Mass Incarceration, Police Brutality, Racial Profiling, For profit prisons, etc. at the 11/30 IRC meeting.

Tasks & Who will do them

Election Schedule

  1. Nomination papers available:
    1. State: 2/16/2016
    2. Federal: 2/16/2016
  2. Last date to unenroll from a party
    1. State: 3/1/2016
    2. Federal: 5/31/2016
  3. Last day to submit signatures to registrars
    1. State: 5/3/2016
    2. Federal: 8/2/2016
  4. Last day for registrars to complete validating signatures
    1. State: 5/24/2016
    2. Federal: 8/23/2016
  5. Last Day to ask registrars to review non-certified signatures
  6. Signatures due at Elections Division
    1. State: 5/31/2016
    2. Federal: 8/30/2016
  7. Last day to register to vote: 10/20/2016
  8. Election Day: 11/8/2016

What are our tasks, when are they due, who does what?

Working backwards from Last day to submit signatures to registrars a rough selection of tasks are:

  1. Review how this phase of the campaign worked
  2. Setup rally when dropping off ballot signatures
    1. Publicize
    2. Setup logistics
    3. Invite media
    4. Hold event
    5. Talk with media
    6. Review progress
  3. Have all candidates hand in enough signatures
  4. Post how many signatures candidates have gathered weekly
  5. Contact candidates weekly to check on their progress and get them help
  6. Setup site where people can see who our candidates are so they can contact them
  7. Train candidates and their campaign teams to gather signatures
    1. Every candidate gets a mentor / go to person for questions
  8. Publicize that we are looking for candidates and what we expect of them
  9. Identify candidates from within the party and allies and their campaign teams
  10. Organizers call our supporters to invite them to regional meetings
  11. Make list of supporters available to organizers
  12. Work with organizers to setup regional meetings
  13. Identify the organizers
  14. Setup quick how to publicize and run a regional meeting
  15. Email our supporters to ask for candidates and regional organizers
  16. Identify potential organizers among members and allies
  17. Setup simple page for people to volunteer to be regional organizers / candidates / supporters
  18. Post videos on:
    1. why run
    2. how to get on the ballot

Open question: when should we hold PirateCon 2016?

When is the 1st January meeting?

Summary

Attending: Glen, Noe, Jamie, Steve

Campaign Issue Ideas

Environment. We can definitely focus on energy efficiency. For example, subsidies to help people weatherproof their homes (via insulation and what not). They'd use less energy and save money.

We discussed oil company subsidies. These may have been needed 100 years ago (when the petroleum industry was in its infancy) but they're not needed today. The petroleum industry is well-established, and highly profitable. All present felt that oil industry subsidies should be ended.

Asset forfeiture. Law enforcement can seize your assets (aka take your stuff) by claiming that it was obtained illegally. They don't have to prove it was obtained illegally; they just have to claim it. If you want your stuff back, the burden of proof is on you, to demonstrate that it was obtained legally.

Currently the police collect more in asset forfeitures than burglars steal. We oppose this; the police should be required to show proof.

We also object to the term "asset forfeiture". It's more like "money harvesting" or "highway robbery". It's an incentive for the police to become thieves.

We talked about US border patrol, and their jurisdiction of 100 miles from the nearest border. All of Massachusetts falls under this jurisdiction.

We discussed the "are you an American citizen" Border Patrol checkpoints (which are common in the southwestern US). At a checkpoint stop, and officer can lie to you, or try to trick you. However, the law can punish you for lying to a officer.

MBTA: What does "make it focus on transporting people" mean? Consider public transit in Germany. There are no turnstyles, meaning that people can quickly move into and out of train stations. Instead of turnstyles, German public transit officials spot check people on trains (to make sure you have a pass). The trains are clean, they run on time, and there are systems to show you where the next train is, and when it will arrive. You genuinely get the impression that the transit system exists to move people around as efficiently as possible.

In Boston, the MBTA seems more concerned with preventing fare evasion.

To add insult to injury, the plastic MBTA passes (the kind you'd get as a commuter rail pass) typically wear out in less then a month; once they've worn out, the turnstyles can't read them. If this happens to you, there are two alternatives: (1) go to an MBTA service booth, and ask to have the defective pass replaced. You'll be required to show ID, and fill out paperwork. Or (2) tailgate when your pass doesn't work.

Suppose you put your pass into an MBTA turnstyle, and the turnstyle responds with "See Agent". There's no agent in the station, so you use the nearest call box to request assistance. The MBTA agent who answers will ask you to tailgate. They'll also advise you to stand in front of a security camera and hold your pass up, after you walk through the fare gates.

In other words, the agency that spent years running anti-fare evasion campaigns wants you to act like a fare evader.

We also discussed problems people have had with turnstyles "eating" plastic passes. There's only one station where you can get a refund, and refunds are only available during 9a-5p. It's an obstacle, aka "do I really want to run all the way down to JFK during business hours to get my three bucks back".

Piratecon 2016

We discussed whether to have a pirate conference in 2016, what it should focus on, and when it should be held.

One idea was to make it more like a traditional political convention. Let candidates talk about issues, discuss strategies, discuss pooling resources.

If we decide to have speakers, we should put out a call for speakers, rather than building the schedule from scratch.

June seemed like a good time. June is after the signature gathering deadlines.

Reviewed Campaign Schedule

We reviewed the campaign schedule listed above and added some tasks. The updated list in chronological order is:

  1. Setup simple page for people to volunteer to be regional organizers / candidates / supporters
  2. Post videos on:
    1. why run
    2. planning your campaign
    3. how to get on the ballot
    4. how to gather signatures
  3. Identify allies
  4. Identify potential organizers among members and allies
  5. Email our supporters to ask for candidates and regional organizers
  6. Setup site where people can see:
    1. What our campaign plan is and why run as a pirate
    2. Where regional meetings are
    3. How to sign up as a candidate
    4. Who our candidates are and how to help them
    5. This site will change to a campaign site as we go along
    6. It must use SSL and will likely be a static site
  7. Setup quick how to publicize and run a regional meeting
  8. Identify the organizers for the regional meetings
  9. Work with organizers to setup regional meetings
  10. Make list of supporters available to organizers
  11. Organizers call our supporters to invite them to regional meetings
  12. Identify candidates from within the party and allies and their campaign teams
  13. Publicize that we are looking for candidates and what we expect of them
  14. Train candidates and their campaign teams to gather signatures
    1. Every candidate gets a mentor / go to person for questions
  15. Weekly tasks
    1. Post how many signatures candidates have gathered on the web site and announce in email/blog/etc.
    2. Contact candidates to check on their progress and get them help
  16. Have all candidates hand in enough signatures
  17. Setup rally when dropping off ballot signatures
    1. Publicize
    2. Setup logistics
    3. Invite media
    4. Hold event
    5. Talk with media
    6. Review progress
  18. Review how this phase of the campaign worked

Misc

We discussed fundraising including:

  • having a specific email fundraiser;
  • having a fundraiser in late January or early February;
  • mailing a fundraising letter.

Public records requests to make:

  • Forms people have filled out for MBTA pass replacement.
  • Records for the number of passes "eaten" by turnstyles

Talked about possible panel topics at upcoming events:

  • HOPE XI (Steve)
  • A gaming convention - "How to score points against the Surveillance State"

TODO

  • Add "regional organizer" to the list of categories on our supporter signup form (Steve)
  • Look into setting up an instagram account (Noe)
  • Look into setting up a cryptoparty in the Lowell area (Glen)
  • Mail Glen info on email lists (Jamie) - Done
  • Finish setting up regions in CiviCRM (Jamie) - Done

Next Meetings

The next meetings will be Saturday, Dec. 19th at Regina Pizzeria in Allston, 3-5pm. The first January meeting will be Saturday, Jan. 9th at Regina Pizzeria in Allston, 3-5pm.

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