December 5th, 2017 IRC Meeting

Decisions/Endorsements

GOP tax bill

Statement by USPP Chair

Projects

Net Neutrality Rally

Where will folks be?

Planning for 2018 Elections & Organizing

Training schedule:

• 12/9, Holyoke
• January: Boston
• February: Worcester

Once we set dates for the trainings we will put up a poll asking about our 2018 conference and whether to change it into several regional conferences.

In 2018, towns decide when their elections are held, but most are held in the first half of the year. State & county elections are in November. What offices are up in 2018 is listed here. We have been asked to hold a town election training in Milford this year.

Nomination papers for federal/state/county elections are available in mid-February. State/county candidates have until the end of May to gather all of their signatures, while federal candidates have until the end of July. The number of signatures needed vary from 150 for State Rep. to 2000 for US House of Representatives.

The electronic election for our officers went well in 2017, and we should consider doing it again. Such a change would allow us to decentralize our yearly conference and hold multiple regional conferences in different parts of the state. We could schedule monthly conferences starting in March or April. We could limit them to about 4-5 hours long, with the first half being training and the second half being discussion. If we want to go this route, we should ask our members soon and see who wants to organize their regional conference.

Digital Right of Repair

Details. Making calls to volunteers and members.

Statements In Process

• MA Bill H.3641: An Act relative to electronic tolling - Approved our opposition to it. Past position is to remove the tolls on the Pike since it has long been paid for.
• US S.1241 - Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017 - Approved our opposition to S.1241. Need statement (Joe)

Other To Dos

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.

Tech/Outreach

• Review regular IRC meeting day. Poll sent to email list - Sent (jokeefe)
• email Loomio invite to supporters (jokeefe)
• set up torrents for PirateCon videos (creynolds)
• post remaining audio for PirateCon talks (srevilak)
• finish setup of myBB (jokeefe)
• install mattermost as slack alternative (jokeefe)

Mayfirst is looking at setting up a Discourse instance we could use.

Upcoming Events

• 12/6, 6pm – 9pm, Community WorcNite #15, The WorcShop, 243 Stafford St, Worcester, MA 01603. Registration
• 12/7, Net Neutrality Protests
• 12/9, noon-3pm, How to Run for Office, Conference Board Room, Holyoke Public Library, 250 Chestnut St, Holyoke. Register
• 12/17, Chelsea Manning's Birthday
• 12/27, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville
• 1/1, Pirate Parties 11th Anniversary
• 1/3, 6pm – 9pm, Community WorcNite #16, The WorcShop, 243 Stafford St, Worcester, MA 01603. Registration

See: 2017 calendar

Participants

• jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
• Malt: Sam Capradae, Worcester
• admech: Matt Fealy, Boston
• hvxgr: Ahoy.. Tom Rodman (Milwaukee)
• Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell

Observers

• igel

Summary

• Agreed to oppose the GOP tax rewrite bill the Senate and House approved. Writing Statement
• Attending Net Neutrality protests
• Tracking down leads for space for January campaign workshop
• Will know more about space for a fundraiser next week

Minutes

 

[9:04pm] jokeefe: agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/December_5th,_2017_IRC_Meeting
[9:04pm] jokeefe: uds
[9:04pm] jokeefe: ids
[9:04pm] admech: ahoy
[9:04pm] jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
[9:05pm] Malt: Sam Capradae, Worcester
[9:05pm] admech: Matt Fealy, Boston
[9:05pm] hvxgr: Ahoy.. Tom Rodman (Milwaukee)
[9:05pm] Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
[9:05pm] jokeefe: anything to add to the agenda? I just updated it
[9:05pm] Joe: Nay
[9:05pm] Malt: nope
[9:06pm] admech: Nothing here
[9:06pm] jokeefe: Decisions/Endorsements
[9:06pm] jokeefe: GOP tax bill - thoughts?
[9:07pm] Malt: it's fucking atrocious
[9:07pm] Joe: ^
[9:07pm] Malt: it's as massive an upwards transfer of wealth as the bailout
[9:08pm] hvxgr: Went to small protest event  in MKE outside of our senator's office - sadly small turn out.
[9:09pm] admech: It's straight-up class warfare, but also not really an issue within our scope.
[9:09pm] jokeefe: calls for certain Senators might still be effective since the bill needs to go through reconciliation
[9:09pm] jokeefe: admech - https://blog.pirate-party.us/on-h-r-1-the-tax-reconciliation-act-of-2017/
[9:10pm] Joe: I am honestly surprised this one is not more ill received\
[9:10pm] Malt: same
[9:10pm] jokeefe: “ push through a bill that will affect so many Americans in such a short time, without letting anyone enough time to read it or even present it properly, with so many obviously unrelated items added”
[9:10pm] Joe: it goes to show who is controlling the gov
[9:10pm] Joe: $$$ yo
[9:11pm] jokeefe: it is a transparency issue
[9:11pm] jokeefe: among others
[9:11pm] jokeefe: should we articulate a position?
[9:12pm] Malt: coming out hard about how the middle class "cuts" evaporate after a decade
[9:12pm] admech: Oh, it's absolutely an affront to pirate and human values. I'm just not sure if we can do anything about it at the state level
[9:12pm] Malt: pushing hard against the subsidization of private school
[9:13pm] jokeefe: sorry, brb
[9:15pm] jokeefe: back
[9:15pm] Joe: welcome back!
[9:16pm] jokeefe: The MA delgation is against it, but having a Pirate position on it serves to show what we stand for
[9:16pm] admech: I haven't even seen the full damage yet, but there probably are areas where the state's going to have to cover loss of federal funding.
[9:17pm] admech: jokeefe: that makes sense
[9:17pm] Joe: We should be limiting our spending but not the rate by which we pay it off.
[9:17pm] jokeefe: it removes deductability of state/local taxes, so it will favor states without income/property taxes
[9:17pm] Malt: i'm extremely socialist and extremely heated about cuts to social spending
[9:18pm] Malt: torches and pitchforks! torches! and! pitchforks!
[9:18pm] admech: Seconded?
[9:19pm] Joe: I am less socialist, but cuts to infrastructure already in place is never wise.
[9:19pm] jokeefe: I am in favor of opposing it
[9:19pm] Joe: I will also support it opposition
[9:19pm] Malt: it seems lazy to say "irresponsible at every level" but it just is that
[9:19pm] admech: Agreed.
[9:20pm] hvxgr: "Force without morality" - I like to think repubs  will eventually fail; but how long will it take?
[9:20pm] jokeefe: and how many will they take down
[9:20pm] jokeefe: ?
[9:20pm] jokeefe: looks like we are in agreement about opposing it. anyone want to draft a statement?
[9:20pm] Joe: They replaced a major party. I am sure they will be replaced when one of high moral code comes along 
[9:21pm] Joe: I am still booked solid, unfortunately.
[9:21pm] jokeefe: well, it has been over 150 years
[9:21pm] Joe: Demo's have been going longer 
[9:21pm] jokeefe: so they are long over due, for both
[9:22pm] Malt: https://splinternews.com/all-the-ways-the-republican-tax-bill-will-help-rich-peo-1820981809?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
[9:22pm] jokeefe: thanks
[9:23pm] jokeefe: I will put up a pad with a draft and send it out for comment, then.
[9:23pm] Malt: here's a good thing though: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/senate-gop-accidentally-killed-all-corporate-tax-deductions.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark
[9:23pm] Malt: i might be able to add to it tomorrow bt i haven't been myself for a while
[9:23pm] Malt: personally i hope it continues
[9:23pm] Malt: the not being myself
[9:24pm] jokeefe: thanks for the link, Malt
[9:24pm] jokeefe: moving on to Projects - Net Neutrality Rally
[9:24pm] jokeefe: I will be at the Boston one. Will get an email out tomorrow with the MA protest list.
[9:25pm] jokeefe: Joe, will you be at the Lowell one?
[9:25pm] Malt: i wasn't able to get anything going in worcester
[9:25pm] jokeefe: well, you have the event tomorrow night
[9:25pm] Joe: Same in Lowell
[9:25pm] jokeefe: admech, will you be able to make the Boston one?
[9:26pm] admech: Yes.
[9:26pm] jokeefe: cool. will look for you.
[9:27pm] jokeefe: Fundraiser - update?
[9:27pm] Joe: Been playing tag with the guy but I have it set up for me to speak with him at noon tomorrow
[9:27pm] jokeefe: good to hear
[9:28pm] jokeefe: Planning for 2018 Elections & Organizing
[9:28pm] jokeefe: Event on Sat.
[9:28pm] jokeefe: Have some possible locations for the January one
[9:29pm] jokeefe: that is all I have. looking forward to the video meeting on Sunday
[9:30pm] Joe: I am getting a rush in for the internet. it will take a bit but the office is coming along
[9:30pm] Malt: yeah i've also got not much to add
[9:31pm] Malt: recieved the package of goodies, thanks james
[9:31pm] Malt: priming myself for the talk by reading up on new standards
[9:31pm] Joe: I have been starting to get caught up but still a ways to go
[9:31pm] Malt: had somehow missed out on the news about Kaspersky
[9:32pm] jokeefe: yeah
[9:32pm] Malt: been researching FOSS to use in the farmer tutorials also
[9:33pm] Malt: there's a handful of pretty interesting programs
[9:33pm] jokeefe: cool
[9:33pm] jokeefe: those would make good videos
[9:33pm] Malt: yeah, good thinking!
[9:33pm] Joe: Yeah, The conference room is almost done.
[9:34pm] jokeefe: wonderful
[9:34pm] jokeefe: anything else to bring up?
[9:35pm] Joe: Not tonight
[9:36pm] jokeefe: since there is nothing else, shall we adjourn?
[9:36pm] admech: Seconded.
[9:36pm] Joe: Aye
[9:36pm] Malt: aye
[9:37pm] hvxgr: Aye. Thanks/good night all.
[9:37pm] Malt: night
[9:37pm] jokeefe: aye
[9:37pm] Malt left the chat room. (Quit: https://webchat.pirateirc.net/)
[9:37pm] jokeefe: good night all. posting notes