November 14th, 2017 IRC Meeting

Review

• Boston Anarchist Bookfair

Projects

Planning for 2018 Elections & Organizing

Training schedule:

• 11/18, Milford Training
• 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

• 11/18, 1pm-4pm, Town Government Workshop, Milford Public Library, 80 Spruce Street, Milford
• 11/19, 7-8pm, Monthly Video Magazine Meeting
• 11/26, 7-8pm?, Recording Monthly Video Magazine
• 11/29, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville
• 12/3, 7-8pm, Monthly Video Magazine Meeting
• 12/10, 7-8pm, Monthly Video Magazine Meeting
• 12/17, Chelsea Manning's Birthday
• 12/17, 7-8pm, Monthly Video Magazine Meeting
• 12/26, 7-8pm?, Recording Monthly Video Magazine
• 12/27, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville
• 1/3, 6-9pm, Cryptoparty at the Community WorcNight, Worcshop, 243 Stafford St, Worcester, MA 01603. registration

See: 2017 calendar

Participants

• jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
• Squee: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
• Ross
• hvxgr - Tom Rodman / Milwaukee

Observers

• igel

Minutes

 


[9:04pm] jokeefe: Agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/November_14th,_2017_IRC_Meeting
[9:04pm] jokeefe: ids
[9:04pm] jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
[9:05pm] Squee: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
[9:05pm] Squee: Can we pass over the fundraising issue tonight, I have not had a chance to work on it this week.
[9:05pm] jokeefe: sure
[9:05pm] jokeefe: any thing to add to the agenda?
[9:06pm] Squee: Not tonight.
[9:06pm] jokeefe: Review
[9:06pm] jokeefe: Boston Anarchist Bookfair went well. We had about 15 signups
[9:07pm] jokeefe: five volunteers at the table
[9:07pm] jokeefe: cryptoparty went well
[9:07pm] Squee: Very nice.
[9:07pm] jokeefe: I attended the anti-doxing workshop. I’ll post the meeting slides when they are available
[9:08pm] jokeefe: I came in at the end, but it was really good
[9:08pm] jokeefe: I paid for our share of the table. Will need to be reimbursed $20.
[9:09pm] jokeefe: Worcester repair fest/cryptoparty
[9:09pm] jokeefe: Malt posted about his efforts.
[9:09pm] Squee: On Facebook,Twitter or both?
[9:09pm] jokeefe: Need to get the repair fest info up and find people to help with the cryptoparty(ies)
[9:10pm] Squee: I did see a lot of activity on Twitter
[9:10pm] jokeefe: yes and blog, craig’s list, etc.
[9:10pm] jokeefe: Asked for trainers for the January cryptoparty.
[9:11pm] jokeefe: Will follow up with Malt
[9:11pm] Squee: I know https://www.ifixit.com/ has been pushing for the right to repair lately, perhaps we can cross platform.
[9:11pm] Squee: or even show our support.
[9:12pm] jokeefe: Yes, we have advocated for the bill. Will touch base with them about it. Suggested setting up a lobbying day, but that may be something we should do.
[9:13pm] jokeefe: Need to check the state of the bill.
[9:13pm] jokeefe: Skipping to Projects - Planning for 2018 Elections & Organizing since the other items don’t have updates
[9:14pm] jokeefe: Steve and I are looking forward to the Milford training.
[9:15pm] jokeefe: Need a sign up form for the Holyoke training and call all candidates/volunteers in the area.
[9:15pm] jokeefe: Haven’t locked down a place for Boston yet.
[9:16pm] jokeefe: BTW: this is our post on right of repair https://masspirates.org/blog/2017/09/26/digital-right-of-repair-bills-need-your-help/
[9:17pm] Squee: I just reposted it to my facebook and twitter
[9:18pm] jokeefe: Thanks. Will write a statement to send to the committee
[9:18pm] jokeefe: Statements In Process
[9:18pm] jokeefe: We need a statement on MA Bill H.3641: An Act relative to electronic tolling since we oppose it
[9:19pm] jokeefe: will put a piratepad up and solicit suggestions
[9:19pm] jokeefe: any update on US S.1241?
[9:19pm] Squee: Not since I wrote on it last.
[9:20pm] Squee: It's still shelved on the Judiciary committee and is likely to stay there for quite some time.
[9:21pm] jokeefe: ok, though things can move fast when they want them, so would be good to have it done when we can.
[9:22pm] Squee: Well, it's well sponsored so I expected it to move faster too.
[9:22pm] jokeefe: in other news, the Monthly Video Magazine Meeting went well. posted the text for equihax and cryptoparty info
[9:22pm] Squee: This is, if it goes through that would mean a large bump in spending
[9:23pm] jokeefe: we shall see
[9:23pm] Squee: We shall!
[9:23pm] jokeefe: That is all have.
[9:23pm] jokeefe: Ross, would you like to add anything?
[9:24pm] Squee: Actually, I have some questions
[9:24pm] jokeefe: fire when ready
[9:25pm] Squee: Did we ever network with the local grow projects?
[9:25pm] Squee: For the farmers and such?
[9:25pm] Ross: I was just observing, I haven't seen any of these before. maybe next time ill contribute more.Thanks for asking though I appreciate it.
[9:26pm] jokeefe: Malt was working on that. I think it may be related to the repair clinic
[9:27pm] Squee: Ok, thank you.
[9:27pm] jokeefe: Glad you could join us Ross
[9:27pm] Squee: Ross please feel free to share as you please.
[9:28pm] jokeefe: one other thing
[9:28pm] Squee: Aye?
[9:28pm] jokeefe: looked further at mattermost as a slack alternative
[9:29pm] jokeefe: it lacks a block/mute feature. ideally we don’t need those, but with harassment always a possibility, it seems a vital feature
[9:30pm] jokeefe: rocket chat which the CA pirates use, does seem to have it.
[9:30pm] jokeefe: so still looking for a good solution
[9:30pm] jokeefe: that is all
[9:30pm] Squee: I <3 discord, British Pirates do too.
[9:30pm] Squee: For what I understand
[9:30pm] Squee: from, lol
[9:31pm] jokeefe: I know. I would like something self- hosted, personally
[9:31pm] jokeefe: But I did provide a link to it in the last email on the video magazine section
[9:31pm] Squee: Maybe that could work if we get a good fund raising project going, but I'm a slacker. >8-(
[9:32pm] jokeefe: priorities. only so many hours in a day
[9:32pm] Squee: Yeah, true.
[9:32pm] jokeefe: speaking of hours … if there is nothing else, we could adjourn early.
[9:32pm] Squee: Ok, I second.
[9:33pm] jokeefe: all in favor?
[9:33pm] Squee: Aye
[9:33pm] hvxgr: Third (Tom Rodman / Milwaukee - came a bit late. )
[9:33pm] jokeefe: ahoy hvxgr
[9:33pm] Squee: Ahoy hvxgr and good night all.
[9:34pm] jokeefe: aye
[9:34pm] hvxgr: Ahoy all/good night all.
[9:34pm] jokeefe: thanks for attending. will post the minutes.
[9:34pm] Squee: lol