April 17th, 2019 IRC Meeting

Projects

Goals for Q2:

• Organize meetups
• Organize election
• Organize Fundraiser(s)
• Organize candidate trainings
• Revise platform

Video Newsletter

• Latest pirate news is up
• Next pirate news recording?
• Make a video supporting the European Pirates in the upcoming EU election?

Officer/Pirate Council Elections

Sent out the ballots sent 4/14 due to technical difficulties. Move the due date back two days to 4/25?

Need to schedule a follow up meeting with new elected folks and volunteers.

Tech/Outreach

• need to schedule a May meeting
• find discussion/voting system
• update blog theme
• update civicrm software
• set up torrents for PirateCon videos (creynolds)
• post remaining audio for PirateCon talks (srevilak)

Bills to make the Film Credit Permanent

HD388 would make the film tax credit permanent. It is supposed to expire in 2023. The bill has 100+ signatures this time around. There isn't a hearing date for it yet.

Action items:

• Tell our supporters how to oppose it
• Look out for a hearing date
• If possible, reach out to other groups to organize a lobby day

Other To Dos

These have been on our agenda for a long time. How do we make them a reality?

Computer Donations

On hold - https://piratenpad.de/p/MassPiratesComputerDonations

FOSS Tutorials

Worcester farm group is interested in having some FOSS tutorials. Perhaps:

• how to do basic labels in GIMP,
• work through a few sample spreadsheets related to seed cost and
• similarly applicable real-world situations, depending on the needs of the group

Basically how to do graph design & product management with open source tools. Malt will put together a one paragraph description of what we need and we can mail it out to ask pirates to help.

Upcoming Events

• 4/23, Ballots due back for vote counting
• 4/23, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting
• 4/28, 4:30-7:30pm, Worcester-area Pirate Meetup, Worcshop, rear entrance, 1168, 233 Stafford St, Worcester
• 4/30, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting
• 5/7, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting, Industry Lab, 288 Norfolk St, Cambridge
• 5/14, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting
• 5/18, 10:30am-1:45pm, Somerville-area Pirate Meetup, Somerville Public Library, 79 Highland Ave., Somerville
• 5/21, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting
• 5/23-26, European Parliamentary Elections, #VotePirate
• 5/28, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting
• late June, Holyoke Pirate Meetup, Holyoke

Participants

• Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
• jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
• igel[m]

Observers

• ChanServ
• hvxgr
• davidd
• Mikaela_Suomalainen
• bonelesspepsi[m]

Summary

• Agreed to support the Stop & Shop Strikers. jokeefe will ask Moses to write a statement
• Will record the next pirate news show on Sunday, 8pm.
• Agreed to push the date that ballot are due back two days to 4/27.

Minutes

 


[9:05pm] jokeefe: Agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/April_17th,_2019_IRC_Meeting
[9:05pm] jokeefe: ids
[9:05pm] Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
[9:05pm] jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
[9:06pm] jokeefe: Anything to add?
[9:06pm] Joe: Emails
[9:06pm] Joe: Under reviews?
[9:07pm] jokeefe: Sure
[9:07pm] jokeefe: Review
[9:07pm] jokeefe: Democracy/Tech Meeting - had a new person who is interested in privacy issues
[9:08pm] jokeefe: srevilak and I got the voting system working
[9:08pm] jokeefe: I want to have another meeting in May
[9:08pm] jokeefe: looking for what works
[9:08pm] jokeefe: Moving on to Emails
[9:08pm] Joe: Agenda fixed
[9:09pm] jokeefe: thanks
[9:09pm] Joe: So, the email from Sarah?
[9:10pm] jokeefe: The national party one?
[9:10pm] Joe: There are a few I would like to review.
[9:11pm] Joe: One from MEGA, one for the National party looking to start up
[9:12pm] jokeefe: Sarah’s email should be addressed to Meg. It wasn’t sent to us
[9:12pm] Joe: And then one was a student looking for our positions on specific issues
[9:13pm] jokeefe: MEGA: We have a free account storing videos.  If we don’t use it, they will delete it. I logged in and hopefully that will fix that.
[9:14pm] Joe: Should we post those videos on Youtube so that we can show the world?
[9:14pm] jokeefe: Most are.
[9:15pm] Joe: I do not fully comprehend the whys but that is a non-issue, moving on.
[9:15pm] jokeefe: Just a place to store videos so we can share them with people who are editing them.
[9:15pm] Joe: I see, ty!
[9:16pm] Joe: And the IT side, server issues are straight?
[9:16pm] jokeefe: I believe so
[9:17pm] jokeefe: sab? yes that is squared away
[9:17pm] jokeefe: anything else?
[9:17pm] Joe: Ok. That's all I have for emails
[9:17pm] Joe: But some stuff for Platform now
[9:18pm] jokeefe: lets talk about that when we get to that in projects
[9:18pm] Joe: Sounds good
[9:18pm] jokeefe: Decisions/Endorsements
[9:18pm] jokeefe: Support Stop & Shop Strikers?
[9:18pm] jokeefe: Discussion?
[9:19pm] Joe: I am not educated on the subject.
[9:19pm] Joe: Do you have a link?
[9:19pm] jokeefe: 30,000 Stop & Shop, Hannafords and Be Fresh workers are on strike over pay
[9:20pm] jokeefe: and healthcare costs
[9:20pm] jokeefe: Boss got a raise, but it trying shift more healthcare costs to workers
[9:20pm] jokeefe: so workers went on strike
[9:21pm] Joe: I mean, they are higher paid than Market Basket and have a pension
[9:21pm] Joe: But HC is an issue
[9:21pm] jokeefe: Don’t think that Market Basket is unionized
[9:22pm] Joe: It's not, most of that industry is like that as well which makes this a difficult situation
[9:23pm] Joe: What is your stance on this issue, I'm on the fence
[9:25pm] jokeefe: I think corporations routinely try to drive down the wages and benefits of workers and use the savings to give themselves bonuses and pay for stock buy backs that shift money to the 1%
[9:25pm] Joe: https://www.boston.com/news/business/2019/04/17/stop-and-shop-strike-wages-health-care-pension
[9:25pm] jokeefe: It is what we have seen for 30+ years
[9:26pm] Joe: I was reading the wage part, says it all
[9:26pm] Joe: I support
[9:26pm] Joe: "Unions says the proposed raises amount to less than 2 percent and wouldn’t be enough to offset the rising cost of living, as well as increased health care and pension payments for some workers."
[9:27pm] jokeefe: As do I
[9:27pm] Joe: And at the same time removing Sunday time + 1/2 for 75% of it's workforce
[9:29pm] jokeefe: I remember working at one company during college that counted overtime over a two week period instead of over a week. Work 60 hours one week and 20 the next and no overtime for you
[9:29pm] Joe: We should oppose the Grand Bargain bill then, since this allowed for a situation just like this to happen.
[9:29pm] jokeefe: The one at the state level or is that a national bill
[9:30pm] Joe: That's state level
[9:30pm] Joe: https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2018/06/28/massachusetts-minimum-wage-paid-leave-sales-tax-law
[9:30pm] jokeefe: Any opposed to supporting the strikers?
[9:31pm] jokeefe: Unfortunately the bill passed. are there any bills to change it we can support?
[9:32pm] Joe: Not that I am aware of
[9:33pm] jokeefe: we should review it as part of the platform update process
[9:33pm] jokeefe: Motion passes. I will ask moses to write the statement.
[9:34pm] jokeefe: Projects
[9:35pm] jokeefe: Regional Meetings - No update. Will focus on promoting the Worceter meetup
[9:36pm] Joe: Ok
[9:36pm] Joe: Video Newsletter, Sunday work for you again?
[9:36pm] jokeefe: What time?
[9:36pm] Joe: PM preferred, I have my eldest the next two weekends
[9:37pm] Joe: 8 worked great for me. We could make it perm.
[9:37pm] jokeefe: 8pm was fine. Will schedule it and send an invite.
[9:38pm] Joe: Meg was not happy with my "curve-balls". She said poor Jamie, lol
[9:38pm] jokeefe:
[9:38pm] Joe: We need to also post a link when one is posted, both Nationally and Statewide.
[9:39pm] jokeefe: I’ll put up a post tomorrow.
[9:39pm] jokeefe: The EU election is in late May. One of the ways we can help is make a video supporting the European Pirates
[9:39pm] Joe: That was another email from someone from Australia, forgot to mention
[9:39pm] Joe: Lets do that for our next piece
[9:40pm] jokeefe: I responded to him
[9:40pm] Joe: Also, reviewing Sarah's email q&a could not hurt.
[9:42pm] jokeefe: Questions were rather loaded, I thought. If we are going to choose questions to answer, we should write them ourselves
[9:42pm] Joe: I disagree.
[9:42pm] Joe: brb
[9:42pm] Joe left the chat room. (Quit: https://webchat.pirateirc.net/)
[9:42pm] Joe joined the chat room.
[9:43pm] jokeefe: ok
[9:44pm] Joe: Loaded questions what we will have to face in any debate. Deconstructing them is good practice.
[9:44pm] jokeefe: Fair point
[9:45pm] Joe: I mainly agreed with you on them. By doing a video we will strike at the heart of the current climate.
[9:45pm] jokeefe: Let’s discuss Sunday
[9:45pm] Joe: Well, first should be our pirate family anyways.
[9:45pm] Joe: Ok
[9:46pm] igel[m]: hello
[9:46pm] jokeefe: ahoy igel[m]
[9:46pm] Joe: Ahoy!
[9:46pm] jokeefe: Would you forward the questions to the email list for others to take a shot at writing responses?
[9:47pm] Joe: To info?
[9:47pm] Joe: Not a problem
[9:47pm] jokeefe: activists@
[9:47pm] igel[m]: howdy
[9:47pm] jokeefe: could also send it to sab@
[9:48pm] jokeefe: how goes mesh nets, igel[m]?
[9:48pm] Joe: That's next for topics, no?
[9:49pm] igel[m]: plugging away on things, blog updates help talk more here
[9:49pm] igel[m]: is there a tech meet sunday? did someone say last week?
[9:50pm] jokeefe: it was last weekend. we got the voting system up and running. I have to write up the notes so it easier next time.
[9:50pm] igel[m]: blog is here https://massmesh.github.io/blog/
[9:51pm] jokeefe: thanks
[9:51pm] jokeefe: need to get that at massmesh.org
[9:52pm] jokeefe: Officer/Pirate Council Elections
[9:52pm] jokeefe: We were two days late to get the ballots due to tech difficulties
[9:54pm] igel[m]: aye
[9:54pm] Joe: Are they still being worked on?
[9:54pm] jokeefe: ballots?
[9:54pm] jokeefe: or notes?
[9:55pm] Joe: I read that wrong. So should we give a two day extension to the voting period?
[9:56pm] jokeefe: The voting period is nine days instead of 11. Last time around we had 7 days
[9:57pm] jokeefe: So we could extend it two days. Depends whether we want the results before the next meeting
[9:58pm] jokeefe: what do you think?
[9:59pm] Joe: Most people probably already voted if they are going to. Still, some care even if life does carry them away. My vote would be to give the extra time. We waited this long.
[10:00pm] jokeefe: I am fine pushing it back two days.
[10:00pm] Joe: Anyone opposed?
[10:01pm] jokeefe: Pushing it back two days allows us to send two notifications instead of one
[10:01pm] igel[m]: not contesting nada nope
[10:02pm] jokeefe: Seeing no opposition, motion to exten the voting period by two days passes.
[10:02pm] Joe: We are at time
[10:02pm] jokeefe: I’ll add it in the next email update.
[10:02pm] jokeefe: agreed Joe
[10:02pm] jokeefe: shall we adjourn?
[10:02pm] igel[m]: gn all
[10:02pm] jokeefe: night igel[m]
[10:02pm] igel[m]: aye
[10:02pm] Joe: 2nd
[10:02pm] Joe: And aye
[10:02pm] jokeefe: aye
[10:03pm] jokeefe: have a great night. hope you all get some rest
[10:03pm] Joe: I make no promises 
[10:03pm] Joe: Good night everyone.