October 18th, 2016 IRC Meeting

Projects

Aaron James Campaign

Going door-to-door

Need help:

• calling volunteers
• calling donors
• going door-to-door

November Run for local office conference

The objective is to teach people to run for local office. To Do:

• Blog post
• Email to potential candidates
• Call potential candidates
• Email to all supporters
• Act-ma
• Social media
• Reach out to other political organizations
  • Greens
  • Libertarians
  • Socialists
• Agenda for event

Blog Posts

• Ballot Questions
• Aaron James door-to-door
• BPL Cryptoparty
• Somerville Cryptoparty
• Running for local office conference

National

Will live blog the Prez. debate tomorrow. If you want to comment, email jokeefe.

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

Aaron James campaign. 20 days left. Still doing door-to-door outreach.

Minutes

 
21:03 < jokeefe> Agenda -
        https://masspirates.org/wiki/October_18th,_2016_IRC_Meeting
21:03 < papegaai> Title: October 18th, 2016 IRC Meeting - Mass Pirate Wiki
        (at masspirates.org)
21:04 < jokeefe> Anything to add?
21:04 < srevilak> looks good to me
21:05 < jokeefe> Projects
21:05 < jokeefe> Aaron James Campaign
21:06 < jokeefe> 20 days left.  Going door to door
21:09 < srevilak> I hope we get a good showing next year
21:10 < srevilak> I hope we get a good showing this year
21:10 < jokeefe> Aye!
21:10 < jokeefe> Sorry. Phone call. Someone from Missouri wanted to know
        how to contact the Green Party.  No clue how they got my phone number.
21:10 < srevilak> interesting
21:10 < srevilak> Am planning to go door knocking this weekend
21:12 < jokeefe> thanks
21:12 < jokeefe> will be helping this weekend as well
21:13 < jokeefe> posted a number of tasks for the November Run for local
        office conference
21:13 < srevilak> looks reasonable.  "Develop agenda" is the only think
        I can think to add
21:14 < srevilak> I'm meeting with the Democracy center folks at 8am on
        Friday, to get a tour/orientation
21:14 < jokeefe> good suggestion
21:15 < jokeefe> would you be able to do any of them?
21:15 < srevilak> I can start with a blog post
21:16 < jokeefe> thanks
21:18 < jokeefe> Bunch of blog posts that need doing
21:18 < jokeefe> And national will live blog the debate
21:18 < srevilak> nice
21:18 < jokeefe> if you want to be amused
21:19 < srevilak> Arlington has a special town meeting on Wed, so I'll
        have to read it afterwards
21:19 < srevilak> (11 warrant articles, so I'm assuming a two-day affair)
21:19 < jokeefe> what are they about?
21:20 < srevilak> a few re: school capital investments.
21:20 < srevilak> Adopting pieces of the Municipal modernization act
        (at least those that pertain to speed limits)
21:21 < srevilak> A couple of CPA acts
21:21 < jokeefe> take it it is not about building the most expensive
        school in Mass.
21:21 < srevilak> There are two school articles.  One is for adding
        permanent addition to Thompson elementary school
21:22 < srevilak> which is the most crowded elementary school in arlington
21:22 < srevilak> the second is a no-action article.  School board had
        anticipated the need for modular units at our middle school,
21:22 < srevilak> but ended up withdrawing the request.
21:22 < srevilak> So, the second school issue is simple
21:23 < srevilak> The MMA stuff would allow the town to set 25 MPH
        speed limits in portions of town, without having to go through a state
        review process
21:23 < srevilak> That one seems pretty straightforward
21:24 < srevilak> And there's also medical marijuana dispensary citing.
21:24 < srevilak> That could go long, or quick
21:24 < srevilak> Basically mass DPH had a position regarding community
        buffer zones and a state "default" buffer zone.
21:24 < srevilak> Two months ago, they more or less reversed their
        decisions.
21:25 < srevilak> So, instead of state default 500 foot buffer around
        dispensaries
21:25 < srevilak> which applies in absense of town regulations
21:25 < srevilak> DPH is more or less requiring every town to have buffer
        zones and citing requirements
21:26 < srevilak> The DPH reversal seems like BS on their part
21:27 < jokeefe> perhaps you should suggest that they add buffer zones
        for anyone who sells alcohol or tobacco
21:28 < srevilak> Or pharmacies, for that matter
21:28 < srevilak> The purpose of the buffer zone is to prevent "secondary
        markets".  So, you can't site too close to a school
21:28 < srevilak> because the concern is that a patient might purchase
        product from a dispensary, and sell it to (say) high school students
21:29 < srevilak> Which makes no sense.  As I understand, black market
        product is significantly cheaper than dispensary product
21:29 < srevilak> I more suspect someone in the state house is having
        a case of reefer madness
21:29 < jokeefe> right, because there is so many people selling loose
        cigaretts and bottles of alcohol near high school students
21:30 < jokeefe> aye
21:31 < jokeefe> do you want to crowd source comments on the warrant
        articles?
21:32 < srevilak> Probably not time for that, seeing as the meeting
        is tomorrow
21:32 < jokeefe> true
21:32 < srevilak> And at least one will involve drama.  Not the
        dispensary done
21:32 < srevilak> And at least one will involve drama.  Not the
        dispensary one
21:32 < jokeefe> oh?
21:33 < srevilak> The drama will be around a zoning law to regulate
        quarrying.  It was thrown together by a citizens group at the last minute
21:33 < srevilak> And you can really tell it was a rush job
21:33 < srevilak> There will be some amount of "oh, but the children..."
21:34 < jokeefe> quarrying?
21:34 < jokeefe> as in stones?
21:34 < srevilak> Yes.
21:34 < srevilak> Someone on Irving street removed part of a rock ledge,
        to make room for a house
21:35 < srevilak> Removing rock ledges is noisy.  And it took about
        six weeks
21:35 < srevilak> The abutters weren't happy about this, and I can't
        blame them
21:35 < srevilak> Arlington has a noise abatement bylaw
21:35 < srevilak> Althoug noisy, the quarrying wasn't loud enough to
        trigger it
21:36 < srevilak> So, instead of trying to improve noise laws, the
        proponents are turning to zoning
21:36 < jokeefe> lower the noise level?
21:36 < srevilak> Well, they want to require ZBA permitting for
        excavation, regardless of whether a building permit has been issued.
21:37 < srevilak> That's outside the scope of what the ZBA can
        statutorily do
21:37 < srevilak> And their article is is based on "enjoying the peace
        and comfort of one's personal property"
21:37 < srevilak> with no elaboration of what "peace and comfort of
        one's personal property is"
21:37 < srevilak> And nothing to differntiate that from our noise laws
21:38 < jokeefe> sigh
21:38 < jokeefe> hopefully cooler heads will prevail
21:39 < jokeefe> anything I can help with on the articles?
21:39 < srevilak> Yes, hopefully we'll eventually get something that's
        less ambiguous, and perhaps even enforcable
21:39 < srevilak> Hoping that cooler heads prevail wouldn't hurt
21:39 < jokeefe> :-)
21:40 < jokeefe> anything else to discuss?
21:40 < srevilak> Nothing off hand
21:40 < srevilak> After my meeting with democracy center, I'll send a
        follow up
21:40 < jokeefe> thank you
21:41 < jokeefe> shall we adjourn then?
21:41 < srevilak> comet_crowbar is doing work on an event
21:41 < srevilak>
        http://www.uhurusolidarity.org/event/usm-boston-a-day-in-solidarity-with-african-people/
21:41 < papegaai> Title: Upcoming Events | Day in Solidarity with African
        People~ Boston! | Uhuru Solidarity Movement (at www.uhurusolidarity.org)
21:41 < srevilak> she's organizing; asked if I could send a few tweets
        about it.  I agreed to
21:42 < srevilak> And, crossing fingers on the MAAPL side of things
21:42 < jokeefe> good
21:42 < srevilak> That may be a sprint down to the wire
21:42 < jokeefe> thanks for working on MAAPL
21:42 < srevilak> that's all I got
21:44 < jokeefe> motion to adjourn, then
21:45 < srevilak> second
21:45 < srevilak> will post transcript