June 12th, 2012 IRC Meeting

Agenda

1. Boston Pride Review

2. Public Policy Question Status

3. National Party News

4. Moving this meeting to Thursdays

Quick Notes / Summaries Re Proposed Bills to be Discussed:

1. Boston Pride Review

• Need to post a blog update with pics.
• Will ask Chris R. to finish the statement he wrote a draft for

4. Moving this meeting to Thursdays

   The poll on moving the date of the IRC meeting (http://www.doodle.com/frx24ndprvqzes7f) indicates that Thursdays work best.

Attending

• jokeefe - James O'Keefe, Somerville
• SplendidSpoon - Lauren Pespisa, Boxboro/Cambridge
• erixoltan - Erik Zoltan, Framingham
• passstab -

Observers:

• [bsod] -
• brandon-cr-48
• illunatic
• [Derek]

Summary

1. Boston Pride Review

Jamie wrote:

First, I want to thank everyone who helped with Pride:

    Jeanne, Lauren, Sevan, a friend of Jeanne's did a great job with the ship and it really made us stand out during the parade. 
    David was a real trooper and manned the table from 9:30am to 2:30pm when the rest of us arrived from the parade.
    For the march we had twelve people including Harry, Steve, Julie, Zo, Nancy, Kit, Sevan, Vijeta, Lauren, Kate, Erik.

The march was incredible.  We had our largest showing of Mass. Pirates at a non-Pirate public event with twelve people in our contingent.  We handed out all the fliers we had during the march and were well received.  The soccer group behind us had a huge soccer ball they threw up in the air that landed on our boat several times snapping the mast's support cables.

Some things we could improve on for next time:

    more fliers - we ran out a bit over halfway through.
    put the ship in the front to get people's attention and then have the banner behind it so people can see who we are
    mount a semi-functional cannon on the ship to occasionally make a big noise
    we didn't have much in the way of chants, but Steve and Erik started a few that were simple
    we might consider using very short skits to tell people about what we stand for.  Lauren, Kate, Erik and I got into mock cutlas fights which the parade goers found amusing

Next year, we might fore go the table and instead setup the pirate ship and run a few skits to promote our ideas.  That or we need to get people to be at the table after the march.

In terms of metrics, we got 39 and 52 people on the site last Sat & Sun, which is over double a usual day, and certainly much higher than most weekends.  We got a few more FB page likes and twitter followers.

All in all, a fun event.  Thanks to everyone who helped!
 

2. Parade Action Items

Erix will write a proposal on how to deal with future parades.

3. Public Policy Question Status

Jamie will contact people in Somerville/Cambridge to help gather sigs for the anti-Citizen's United public pol question.

4. National Party News

They are forming a constitution committee. Erik running for co-chair and will be on the committee.

5. Moving this meeting to Thursdays & to pirateirc.

SplendidSpoon will look into setting up the pirateirc channel.

6. Upcoming events

• Pirate lunch in late June
• Need to schedule:
  • in-person meeting
  • Liquid Feedback Hackathon

Meeting Minutes

<nowiki>

[11:58] == jokeefe [401c5302@gateway/web/freenode/ip.64.28.83.2] has joined #masspirates [11:58] <jokeefe> hi all [12:00] <passstab> yo [12:07] <jokeefe> Agenda at http://masspirates.org/wiki/index.php?title=June_12th,_2012_IRC_Meeting [12:09] == SplendidSpoon [~lpespisa@38.111.20.226] has joined #masspirates [12:10] <jokeefe> hi Splendid! [12:10] <SplendidSpoon> Hey [12:11] <jokeefe> Agenda at http://masspirates.org/wiki/index.php?title=June_12th,_2012_IRC_Meeting [12:12] <jokeefe> not seeing erik and not much on the agenda, so I am moving on [12:12] <jokeefe> Item 1. Boston Pride Review [12:13] <SplendidSpoon> fun! [12:13] <SplendidSpoon> Yay! [12:14] <jokeefe> I posted my recap to the wiki page [12:15] <jokeefe> how are your feet? [12:20] <SplendidSpoon> alright now [12:20] <jokeefe> good [12:21] <jokeefe> On Item 2. Public Policy Question Status, I got no objections to having someone at our table getting people to sign to get the anti-citizen's union ballot question on. [12:22] <jokeefe> Personally, I am just going to focus on organizing Pirates in Somerville/Cambridge to help over the next two-three weeks and see where that gets us. [12:23] <jokeefe> On Item 3. National Party News [12:23] <jokeefe> I attended the meeting and most of it focused on setting up a committee to create a new national consitution. [12:23] <SplendidSpoon> cool [12:24] <jokeefe> and electing new co-chairs for this committee. I know Erik was put up as a possible candidate. [12:24] <jokeefe> not sure if he accepted. [12:25] <jokeefe> I tried to get the votes to be public since I think states should know how their reps voted, but was out voted. [12:25] <jokeefe> the vote is using a ranked ballot. [12:25] <jokeefe> I suggest leaving the vote up to Erik since he has a better knowledge of the folks involved. [12:26] <jokeefe> does that make sense? [12:27] <SplendidSpoon> yea [12:27] <SplendidSpoon> sorry being distracted by coworkers [12:27] <SplendidSpoon> but yea that's fine [12:28] <jokeefe> ok, someone txt'd that they are running late to the meeting. not sure who though [12:30] <SplendidSpoon> OK [12:31] <jokeefe> Reminder: the pirate lunch poll is still open - http://www.doodle.com/m4hepdwkeu2zftib [12:31] <SplendidSpoon> Did we ever decide if we were gonna switch irc server? [12:32] <jokeefe> formally, maybe. seems like the right thing to do. [12:33] <SplendidSpoon> Yea [12:33] <jokeefe> pirateirc? [12:33] <SplendidSpoon> Yea that seems like a good idea [12:33] <jokeefe> all pirates in one basket [12:33] <jokeefe> :-) [12:33] <SplendidSpoon> yea [12:34] <jokeefe> would you set it up? i guess you me and Erik as admins [12:34] <SplendidSpoon> I have no idea how.... [12:34] <SplendidSpoon> I mean I'm pretty sure anyone can create a room on the fly and then they are OP but I never do that [12:34] == erixoltan [47aee4da@gateway/web/freenode/ip.71.174.228.218] has joined #masspirates [12:35] <SplendidSpoon> Don't know all the IRC commands [12:35] <erixoltan> hi, sorry to be so late. [12:35] <erixoltan> had to rush back from dr. appt. [12:35] <jokeefe> no problem [12:36] <jokeefe> agenda & transcript at http://masspirates.org/wiki/index.php?title=June_12th,_2012_IRC_Meeting [12:36] <jokeefe> we are pretty much through it [12:37] <erixoltan> k [12:37] <jokeefe> did amanda contact you? [12:37] <erixoltan> about what? [12:37] <jokeefe> about whether you wanted to be co-chair of the nat part constiution committee? [12:38] <erixoltan> yes I did get an email about that. [12:38] <erixoltan> I definitely want to be on that committee, as it's the only one I signed up for. [12:40] <jokeefe> Would you be able to make the PNC meeting this week? [12:40] <erixoltan> yes [12:41] <erixoltan> I thought you did a great job of giving the MA state update, and would love to get any details I can use for the update though. [12:41] <erixoltan> You were very thorough. [12:42] <jokeefe> thanks [12:42] <jokeefe> I don't see any minutes posted [12:43] <jokeefe> to email at least [12:43] <erixoltan> They had an email with a link to the wiki page that contains minutes and a full transcript. [12:46] <jokeefe> good [12:46] <erixoltan> Sorry I can't find it now for some reason. [12:47] <jokeefe> no problem, it took longer than all of us probably wanted, but I felt the point of transparency was important. [12:48] <jokeefe> they were concerned that the winners would be biased if they saw who voted against them. [12:48] <erixoltan> I think there is a good argument both ways. [12:49] <erixoltan> it's a tough question. [12:49] <jokeefe> yes. at least the ballot is ranked [12:49] <erixoltan> But I agree with you that we should model the value of open government and transparency that we are advocating. [12:50] <jokeefe> though if they are doing it, then the threshold is only 1/3 for each of the two winners and not two majorities. [12:50] <jokeefe> STV-PR is like that [12:50] <jokeefe> ++ erix [12:50] <erixoltan> What's STV-PR? [12:50] <jokeefe> Single Transferable Vote - Proportional Representation [12:51] <erixoltan> aah [12:51] <jokeefe> Cambridge uses it for local elections. [12:51] <jokeefe> Ireland and Northern Ireland also uses it as does New Zealand for many local elections [12:51] <jokeefe> Malta too, i think [12:51] <erixoltan> So if you have two chairs, it's the top 2 vote getters and each person only votes for 1 candidate? [12:52] <jokeefe> no you rank the candidates and then count the number of first preference votes [12:53] <jokeefe> If anyone has the 1/3 threshold [ 1/(num cands + 1) ], then they are in. [12:53] <erixoltan> ok, and if not then do you factor in second-preference rankings? [12:53] <jokeefe> over votes for a successful candidate get randomly assigned to their 2nd place. votes with out a candidate, get assigned to their 2nd place, and the process repeats [12:54] <jokeefe> http://www.eoni.org.uk/index/faqs/pr-stv-voting-system-faqs.htm [12:54] <erixoltan> hopefully there is a computer program to figure it out. [12:54] <jokeefe> http://www.environ.ie/en/Publications/LocalGovernment/Voting/FileDownLoad,1895,en.pdf [12:54] <jokeefe> oh there is [12:54] <jokeefe> free too [12:54] <jokeefe> let me find it [12:55] <jokeefe> fairvote.org is also a good site for this [12:56] <jokeefe> as is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote [12:57] <erixoltan> OK so the PNC decided to use this last week? [12:57] <jokeefe> yes. [12:57] <jokeefe> see http://www.openstv.org/ for an open version [12:58] <erixoltan> awesome thanks [12:59] <jokeefe> so two other party events to plan for besides the lunch: a sunday meeting, a hackathon to get liquid feedback up [12:59] <jokeefe> which do you all think is more important? [13:00] <erixoltan> both [13:00] <erixoltan> what kind of resources do we have for a hackathon? [13:00] <erixoltan> actually liquid feedback is more impt. [13:01] <erixoltan> if we can be successful [13:02] <jokeefe> we have a server, the sourcecode and people [13:02] <erixoltan> Do we have PostgresSQL? I hear you need that. [13:03] <erixoltan> I think a site administrator type of person would be very useful to have, more than developers etc. [13:04] <erixoltan> Personally I would probably have an easier time rewriting liquid feedback for a new platform than installing it... [13:07] <jokeefe> yes we have access to postgres [13:07] <jokeefe> Sean is a sysadmin and said he is interested in the hackathon [13:08] <jokeefe> version 2.0 is coming out in late june so if we get 1.0 installed before then upgrading should hopefully not be that much of an ordeal [13:09] <erixoltan> great. I think that would be a great priority to have. I also think we should keep track of exactly what we do, because all the other state parties want this too as does the USPP. [13:09] <jokeefe> aye [13:09] <jokeefe> do sundays work for you? [13:10] <jokeefe> week nights would be difficult I would think [13:10] <erixoltan> I can make an effort to be available whenever it is, because it's important. Sundays are no worse than anything else. [13:11] <erixoltan> Actually during normal business hours is easiest but don't post that on the chat transcript......... [13:11] <jokeefe> Was thinking about doing it in person [13:12] <erixoltan> sure we should at least get started in person. [13:12] <jokeefe> great [13:13] <jokeefe> also, do you have the list of the films you added at the film fest. i think what we last had is out of date and it would be good to finally post the links to what we showed. [13:15] <erixoltan> yes I do have a list. [13:15] <erixoltan> Let me email it to you. [13:15] <jokeefe> thanks! [13:15] <erixoltan> np [13:16] <jokeefe> That is all I have for now. [13:16] <jokeefe> anything else folks want to discuss? [13:17] <erixoltan> I will come up with a proposal about how to handle any future parades but that's for another time. [13:17] <erixoltan> Nothing else. [13:18] <jokeefe> we were invited to the Puerto Rican Parade, which is in July. [13:18] <jokeefe> no details [13:19] <jokeefe> thanks on running with a parade doc [13:22] <jokeefe> motion to adjourne until Thursday, June 21st [13:23] <erixoltan> second lol [13:24] <jokeefe> all in favor [13:24] <jokeefe> aye [13:24] <erixoltan> aye [13:24] <erixoltan> and [13:24] <erixoltan> adios :) [13:25] <jokeefe> motion passes. talk with you all later. [13:25] <erixoltan> thanks