February 3rd, 2024 Conference

Schedule

Time	Session
noon-12:30pm	Meet & Greet
12:30pm – 1:30pm	Open discussion
1:30pm – 2:30pm	Campaign training – Get on the Ballot
2:30pm – 4:00pm	Planning for post-2024 election future

Recordings/Slides

• Open Discussion
• Campaign training – Get on the Ballot
• Planning for post-2024 election future
• Campaign training – Get on the Ballot slides

Notes

Planning for Post-2024 election future

Outside of MA, how to champion getting Roe v Wade rights back? Better privacy laws are one part.

Some states have attempted to criminialize merely talking about abortion. First amendment rights should protect that, provided that courts uphold them.

In coming elections, maybe there will be national candidates to for federal office. Movement in this area will likely have to come from state parties. State parties can also discuss how well non-pirate candidates fit with pirate values.

Lots of people still get their news frm print and major networks. These news sources tend to focus on the two main parties. Consolidation and loss of local newspapers has led to media deserts. Do we need to be our own media? Yes, and we're doing this with YouTube and Social media. Web-based publishing works better in some places than others, depending on the availability of good internet service. This is especially true of rural areas.

There are probably lots of people who are pirates, but don't know it yet.

Push for municipal internet, and expansion of mesh networks. People can't make good decisions if they don't have access to good information.

Social media can be helpful, but at the end of the day, social media companies are interested in making money. They can be more reflexive than reflective.

Physical, in person events and flyering to advertise them can garner attention on the local level. Need to do both physical and virtual stuff.

Need space where we have room for everyone to sit around a table.

Swarm theory. We're all volunteers, but we have our own specialties.

We should start a swarmwise reading group this year.

Having an in-person conference halfway through the election cycle could be beneficial for us. Every six months seems to be the sweet spot. Local pirate chapters can meet more often (e.g., monthly).

The Texas PP has steering committee meetings twice per month. Getting everyone together has been challenging because of distance.

National party could to more to promote state parties. State parties can help promote one another.

Delaware, Maryland, DC pirates use meetup.com to promote in-person meetings.

Craigslist is a good place to post events. Also Facebook, despite the fact that it's a walled garden.

In the event that the next president is very authoritarian, what can we do beside helping with privacy? Heritage foundation's project 2025 lists some of the policies we can expect. A more detailed pdf.

In 2018 congress made a bi-partisan effort to renew Section 702. Privacy should be top of mind, regardless of who is in charge.

Data brokers, mobile providers, and automobile manufacturers are in the business of packing and selling information about individuals. More transparency and accountability for corporations. And less stalkiness.

Firefox profiles are a useful way of "sandboxing" sites you frequently visit. See https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/containers for more background.

Attending

• James
• Joe
• Joanie
• Steve
• V - Observer from TX
• John