April 20th, 2025 Meeting

Meeting to be held via video conference: https://communitybridge.com/bbb-room/mass-pirates-member-meeting/

Recording:

Decisions/Endorsements

Federal Bills to Review

• Senators working on a bill that would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 is the primary reason we have freedom of speech on the Internet. See this explainer. We have long supported Section 230 implicitly, but we never wrote up a statement why. Including why we support free speech seems important right now, as well.
• TAKE IT DOWN Act / Analysis - Passed the Senate
• S.4875 - NO FAKES Act of 2024 / Analysis

Commonwealth Bills to Review

• An Act relative to unregulated face recognition and emerging biometric surveillance technologies (H.1538)
• An Act establishing a moratorium on face recognition and other remote biometric surveillance systems (S.1385)
• An Act relative to unmanned aerial systems (H.3749 / S.2438)
• An Act relative to protecting Massachusetts residents against federal government surveillance (H.2687)
• Dignity Not Deportations Act (H.1588 / S.1122)
• Civil Asset Forfeiture reform (H.1953)
• Right to Repair Bills:
  • H.433 & S.189
  • H.398
  • H.1278

Here is an etherpad for people to offer suggestions.

A reconsideration of Member Meeting Articles

We haven't adhered to our Articles of Agreement's Member Meetings section strictly since we have existed, specifically the [ https://masspirates.org/wiki/Articles_of_Agreement#4.2_Form Form] and Time sections. Meetings have met weekly and bi-weekly (our current form) and not twice a year each over six weeks.

Rework them to:

• Have a section on conferences (possible spring/fall, at least one a year)
• Rework the member meetings to be on-line at least once a month
• Set when elections for the pirate council is and that we can elect people at a conference or on-line by secret ballot

Projects/Events

Pirate News

Leader: Joseph

• Pirate news recording scheduled for every other Sunday, 7pm with go-live at 7:30pm. Unless changed

2025 Voter Outreach

• Letters to city election committee/town clerk asking for pirate voters/election dates
• Follow ups as necessary
• Snail Mail supporters in December to tell them about:
  • Conference
  • Call for officer nominees
  • Municipal elections
  • Other events/efforts
  • Donate/join our mailing list

2025 Local Campaigns

Need a leader for this effort.

Actions:

• Outreach to volunteers:
  • Ask them to organize locally
  • Ask them to campaign/run
  • Ask them to give us their full contact info
  • Call potential candidates/supporters
• Videos:
  • Selecting campaign
  • Planning campaign
  • Get on the ballot
  • Fundraising
  • Voter Id
  • GOTV

Participants

• eli
• jamie
• joe
• steve

Summary

Reports

• Email update done
• sign up pages for june events are done
• Wed April 9, 1pm. Joint committee on advanced information tech and cybersecurity. Will hold hearing on various privacy bills, including the location shield act. Testimony can be emailed by April 14th. https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/5114
• June: Boxboro fifer's day. Have requested a table for the Boston Dyke March.

Decisions and endorsements

• If we want to do the Rooted Cafe again. We'll give people a week to respond to the conference questionairre.
• A college student asked if they could intern with us during the summer. We'll proceed with finding out more about what that would entail.

Bills

• H.73, https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H73. Agreement to oppose.
• H.103. https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H103. Had some discussion about the definitions.