October 11th, 2016 IRC Meeting

Projects

Ballot Question Poll

Forty seven people responded to the poll we emailed out. One response came after the due date we specified and it lined up with the majority in each of the questions. I bolded the items that got the most votes.

The poll allowed people to provide comments on their votes, and there were numerous comments.

Question #	Description	For	Against	Undecided	Abstain
1	Allow the Gaming Commission to issue an additional slots license	12	20	13	2
2	Authorize 12 new charter schools and expansion of existing charter schools	11	30	6	0
3	Prohibits certain methods of farm animal containment	33	5	6	3
4	Legalizes recreational marijuana for individuals at least 21 years old	46	0	0	1

November Run for local office conference

The objective is to teach people to run for local office. Suggestions for speakers for:

• running for representative town meeting
• running for town-wide and city elections
• what you can accomplish in local office.

Sign up sheet?

Upcoming Events

1. 10/19, 5pm, Last day to register to vote
2. 10/22, BPL Cryptoparty
3. 10/26, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty
4. 11/8, Election Day
5. 11/12, 12:30-5pm, Running for local office conference, Democracy Center, Harvard Sq., Cambridge
6. Dec?, Democracy/IT meeting
7. Jan?, How to file a FOIA request by Maya Shaffer

Participants

• jokeefe
• srevilak

Observers

• davidd
• igel
• pagegaai
• Velveeta_chef

Summary

Wikileaks Birthday party. Went well. Around 12 people at the standout, and dinner afterwards.

Rock Against the TPP. Event was very well attended. Jamie will post some pictures on the blog.

Aaron James campaign. Still going door to door. Updated literature.

Ballot question poll. We got a nice response rate, and unanimous support for question four.

Run for local elections workshop. Have signup page for event. Steve will do orientation @ democracy center, likely in a week or so.

Minutes

 
21:02 < jokeefe> agenda -
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/October_11th,_2016_IRC_Meeting
21:02 < papegaai> Title: October 11th, 2016 IRC Meeting - Mass Pirate Wiki
        (at masspirates.org)
21:03 < jokeefe> ids - James O’Keefe, Somerville
21:03 < jokeefe> how was your arlington meeting?
21:04 < srevilak> The last ZBA meeting had two big items: a large
        development project called Thorndike place, and a warrant article on
        rock removal
21:04 < srevilak> Warrant article will come up in a few weeks, during
        a special town meeting
21:05 < jokeefe> rock removal?
21:05 < srevilak> Yes.  As in "I'd like to put a house where this massive
        rock ledge is, so I'll spend the next 6 weeks jackhammering the rock
        ledge away"
21:06 < srevilak> Someone did that this past year, and lots of people
        were really irate about it
21:06 < srevilak> Basically 8 hours of pneumatic hammering/day for a
        couple of weeks
21:07 < jokeefe> that would be loud.  at least they aren’t using
        explosives :-)
21:07 < srevilak> The warrant article tries to limit that kind of
        excavation through the ZBA, but ZBA really doesn't have authority to
        regulate it.
21:07 < srevilak> IMHO, it's more of a health department, DEP, noise
        issue.
21:08 < srevilak> Have to see what the text of the article is.
        The proponents filed something, but I'm sure they'll amend with a
        substitute motion
21:09 < srevilak> Originally, the special town meeting was supposed to
        be about capital funding for schools, but there's other stuff in there
        as well
21:09 < jokeefe> good
21:10 < jokeefe> Review
21:10 < jokeefe> Wikileaks Birthday - seemed to go well.  I counted 12
        people between the stand out and the party
21:10 < srevilak> That's not bad for a Tuesday night
21:12 < jokeefe> Agreed and better than last year
21:14 < srevilak> How was rock against the TPP?
21:14 < jokeefe> Well attended.  I put up the videos and pictures up
        at jamesokeefe.org.  Will repost at the blog.
21:20 < jokeefe> Projects - Aaron James Campaign
21:21 < srevilak> How have things been going with the campaign?
21:21 < jokeefe> Going door to door.  Updating trifolds to distribute.
21:21 < srevilak> I'm hoping to be available this weekend
21:22 < jokeefe> they will appreciate it
21:23 < jokeefe> meeting tomorrow to go over db
21:23 < jokeefe> Ballot Question Poll
21:24 < jokeefe> Poll went well
21:24 < srevilak> We got a nice response rate
21:24 < srevilak> And a very unambiguous position on question 4
21:25 < jokeefe> aye
21:27 < jokeefe> any inconsistency with any of them?
21:27 < srevilak> Not that I'm aware of.  IIRC, a large number included
        comments
21:28 < jokeefe> Will get a post up about them, and do a press release.
21:28 < srevilak> Thanks!
21:31 < jokeefe> November Run for local office conference
21:31 < srevilak>
        https://masspirates.org/crew/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=19
21:31 < papegaai> Title: Workshop on Running for Local Office | Mass
        Pirates Crew (at masspirates.org)
21:31 < jokeefe> Will put it out in the next email / blog.  Thank you
        for the sign up form.
21:32 < srevilak> That's the signup form.  Event description might need
        tweaking (for me, description copy is always the hardest part)
21:33 < jokeefe> I’ll look at it.  Thanks.
21:34 < jokeefe> I have nothing else.  Anything you want to bring up?
21:35 < srevilak> On MAAPL front, I've got my.maapl.info restored.
        Lot's of work left to do between now and end of year
21:36 < jokeefe> How much more is left?
21:36 < srevilak> From what I gather, statute of limitations on contesting
        improper foreclosure runs out at the end of the year
21:36 < srevilak> I have a couple of webform customizations to do
21:36 < srevilak> then a workflow to allow individuals to do self-service
        intake forms
21:37 < srevilak> and some work on narrative generation
21:37 < srevilak> There's a bit of PHP hacking involved
21:38 < srevilak> On 11/12 workshop, I'm talking with democracy center to
        schedule an orientation time.  Hope to get that done in next week or two
21:38 < srevilak> That's all I got
21:38 < jokeefe> sounds good
21:39 < srevilak> Also been following #wikileaks on twitter
21:40 < srevilak> There's one email with the search term "spinach".
21:40 < srevilak> Apparently it takes $87 to convert a voter
21:41 < jokeefe> that would make for an interesting post
21:43 < jokeefe> why did you choose spinach to search on?
21:44 < srevilak> First thing that popped into my head.  I usually start
        with chocolate
21:45 < jokeefe> lol
21:45 < jokeefe> good find
21:45 < jokeefe> shall we adjourn?
21:45 < srevilak> So I can find it later:
        https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/1977
21:45 < papegaai> Title: WikiLeaks - The Podesta Emails (at wikileaks.org)
21:45 < srevilak> aye to adjourn
21:46 < srevilak> will post transcript