2014 Event Notes

5/9/2014 Fundraiser

• Held at the Democracy center in Cambridge, 7-11pm on a Friday night. Weather was nice.
• 21 in-person donations, ranging from $5 to $200 dollars.
• Ten of these donors were new donors.
• Approximately 30 attendees, including pirates
• two advance donations (one of which was from a Pirate officer)
• One new voter registration

5/18/2014 Cryptoparty

• Held at General Assembly Boston. Done in conjunction with Together Boston
• Sunday afternoon, very nice day
• Approx 7 attendees (plus several pirate activists)
• We probably had too many concurrent sessions for the audience size. We might have been able to get away with one track, and three presentations.
• Met one person interested in working with us on future cryptoparties/crypto classes.

5/24/2014 March Against Monsanto

We marched to the State House and Copley Square with Pirate literature and a large Pirate sign. Many members of diverse political parties were in attendance including Socialist Alternative, Green-Rainbow, and We The People. We had a lot of great conversations and handed out pamphlets: generally, the reaction to us as Pirates was very positive. It may be possible to do collaborations with the Socialists and the Green-Rainbows.

The action itself: Entirely outdoors demonstration with a march to the State House, speeches, March to Copley Square, speeches and then breakout sessions called teach-ins.

Numbers: ~3,000 participants, the entire event clocked in at about 5 hours, and this was the 3rd official MAM in the Boston area.

I highly recommend we continue to go to events that rally against corporate interests, especially corporations like Monsanto who abuse IP law flagrantly.

5/24/2014 WEMF Interview

Noe Candidate (that's me!) and Joe Candidate did an interview at WEMF tonight. It went well, and will probably be up on YouTube for your perusal at Mike Cann's channel.

5/24/2014 Boston Security Meetup

• Captain James gave a presentation called "How Dare You Molest the Sea"?
• Approximately 60 people attended the talk.

6/5/2014 Reset the Net

• Held reset the net event at E5
• Attendance: four pirates, and two journalists; one from Dig Boston, and one from WERS.
• The six of us had a into a two-hour conversation about Pirates, Privacy, Surveillance, Net Neutrality, public access to the Internet and similar topics.

6/14/2014 Boston Pride Parade

• 16 people marched at some point during the parade. Three people found us while marching and joined us for a bit.
• This is the first year that we carried signs, and we got a very positive reaction from them. At one point, we rounded a corner, people saw our "Free Chelsea Manning" sign, and began chanting "Free Chelsea Manning".
• Handed out a few hundred flyers

6/21/2014 In-Person Meeting

• Pizzaria Regina, Alston. Sunny day, nice weather.
• 5--6 people attending
• two of the waitstaff were interested in what the Pirate Party was doing. Exchanged business cards.

6/22/2014 Citizen Koch Screening

• Brattle Theater, Cambridge, MA for a 5pm screening
• Steve was one of three people who gave short talks after the film. Steve spoke about money in politics, the challenges faced by third parties, and the importance of transparency.
• ~ 10 people stayed for the post-screening talks

7/12/2014 Net Neutrality Panel at SCATV

• Noe was panel moderator. Other panelists were Charles Clemons (Touch 106FM), and Lolita Kelsey (Boston Neighborhood Network)
• Approx 12 people in the audience for taping. Two folks were walk-ins from the Union Square farmer's market.
• The panel focused on the importance of net neutrality for community radio and tv, as well as net neutrality as an issue of social justice.

7/18/2014 HOPE-X

• Steve gives a lightning talk on the pirate party. Approximately 60 people attended the lightning talk session
• Steve, Jamie, Kendra spend the weekend talking to people, and handing out business cards

8/16/2014 Rally For Michael Brown

• Four of use participated in a Soliday rally for Michael Brown (#Ferguson)
• Marched with Pirate Party banner
• Demonstration met at Copley Square, then marched to BPD station at ruggles
• About 200 people took part in the march
• Got the opportunity to meet people, hand out pamphlets, listen, show solidarity

8/19/2014 Interview on TOUCHFM.org The Morning Show

• Lucia interviewed by Charles Clemons

8/19/2014 Interview on BNNTV's The Real Talk Show

• Jamie and Noe appearing with Charles Clemons and Lolita Kelsey
• http://youtu.be/JpfDitZmIw0 (Jamie and Noe appear at around 14:50)

9/13 - 9/14/2014 Freedom Rally

Saturday (9/13/2014)

• Very large turnout (similar to last year)
• about 400+ 1/3-page flyers distributed
• two voter registrations
• 22 email list signups
• 11 volunteers in the tent over the course of the day
• ___ buttons distributed
• Day started out sunny. Started to rain around 17:00. Rain was hard enough and steady enough to clear out much of the crowd. Pirates cowered under the awning. We packed it in a little after 19:00
• Good response when handing out flyers wearing a Guy Fawkes mask

Sunday (9/14/2014)

• Nice weather all day, but a little chilly
• James, Noe & Kendra handed out flyers and fielded questions
• about 550 1/3-page flyers distributed
• one voter registration
• five sign ups
• Jason came later dressed as a Pirate with David
• Lucia came later made buttons (total tally of buttons handed out to follow)
• Received a $5 donation. James will provide the info to Steve.
• Vermin Supreme dropped by right before closing time. He gleefully showed off his jolly roger vest and Lucia gave him a MassPirates shirt, which he appreciated.
• Jason, Lucia, David, Kendra, and Tristan cleaned up and packed up
• Vermin Supreme got a large Mass Pirates T-shirt and David Walker received an extra large t-shirt.

9/20/2014 Software Freedom Day

• Ran 90-minute Cryptoparty
• Steve demonstrated packet sniffing, Noe demonstrated GPG and Mailvelope, Kendra demonstrated Jitsi
• About 35 people attending

9/27/2014 What the Fluff

• What the fluff is a festival held in Union Square somerville. It celebrates Somerville's invention of Fluff (aka, the stuff one spreads on peanut butter sandwiches)
• Sunny day, quite warm for September. Lots of people in attendance.
• 90 minutes of campaigning/flyering (Noe, Noe's brother in-law Joe, Steve, Jamie)
• around 30 flyers distributed, along with a couple of buttons

10/4/2014 MIT Maker Faire

• This was an outdoor event. We were tabling, and all the tables were under large tents. It rained off and on all day (sometimes heavily), but there was still a good turnout.
• Around 50 flyers handed out
• Around 75 buttons handed out
• One person took a voter registration form (to fill out later)
• We had a lot of good conversations with people throughout the day
• 6 people tabled throughout the day. Total of 26 volunteer hours.

10/4/2014 Wikileaks Birthday Party

• Held at Asgard Pub, Cambridge MA
• 13 people attended the dinner party
• We had a cake, and sang "Happy Birthday Dear Wikileaks". Several tables applauded

10/11/2014 Honk Fest

• Held in Davis Sq., Somerville. March extends from Davis Sq. to Harvard Sq. in Cambridge. March cannot include political parties, but does allow political groups to march. Anti-drone and $15/hr minimum wage campaigns marched.
• Noelani & James handed out campaign flyers to Somerville voters, registered voters and gather signatures for the Pass Mass Amendment
• Registered one voter and gathered 26 signatures for the Pass Mass Amendment. Biggest #s were from Somerville, Cambridge, Boston and Arlington. Voters from Belmont, Watertown and Canton as well.

10/29/2014 Net Neutrality & Copyright Talk

• Steve gives a 30--40 minute talk on Net Neutrality and Copyright to a Social Issues and Ethics in Computing class at UMass Boston.
• 20--25 students attending.

11/5/2014 Noelani Campaign Post-Mortem

Noelani's Campaign review

11/6/2014 Net Neutrality Protest

• Held at the state house
• Pretty rainy
• Organized in conjunction with Fight for the future
• Demonstration took place from 6-7. Jamie spoke for a little while. Afterwards, we held lights and "save the internet" signs on mobile devices
• Peak turnout 50--60 people. Enough to fill the steps in front of the state house.
• Total turnout: approx 100 people (coming and going at different times)
• Although people did not seem hopeful about the FCC's decision, they still felt strongly about standing up for what they believe in

11/9/2014 Pirate Social

• Dinner at Asgard, Cambridge
• 12--14 people attending. Three new people, and one Pirate visiting from the Netherlands

11/13/2014 Net Neutrality Demonstration

• Organized by fight for the future. We participated (but were not co-organizers)
• Held at MakeShift Boston, 549 Columbus Ave
• ~20 people total. Steve and Anoninmass attending from MAPP
• Indoor demonstration, mainly for publicity photos.
• Steve talked with Dig reporter. Might be an article published.

12/7/2014 Planning Meeting

• Held at E5
• Six people attended