January 23rd, 2018 IRC Meeting

Projects

2018 Elections

1. Trainings
   1. Videos
   2. February 24?: Worcester
   3. March: Boston

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.

Organizing Local Chapters

Comments on the Organizing Guide?

Digital Right of Repair

Details.

Computer Donations

https://piratenpad.de/p/MassPiratesComputerDonations

Net Neutrality/Community Meshnets

• Wednesday January 31, 2018 6pm Monthly Digital Security 101 and meshnets Sprout: 339R Summer Street, Somerville
• Saturday February 10, 2018 1-4pm Creating a (greater) Boston Meshnet Somerville public library 79 Highland Ave Facebook Event

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

• 1/31, 6-9pm, Somerville Cryptoparty, The Sprouts, 339R Summer Street, Somerville

Participants

• jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
• Malt: sam capradae, worcester
• Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
• hvxgr: ( late - Tom Rodman / Milwaukee [mostly observing] )

Observers

• ChanServ
• igel

Minutes

 


[9:01pm] jokeefe: Agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/January_23rd,_2018_IRC_Meeting
[9:01pm] Malt: hi everyone
[9:01pm] jokeefe: ids
[9:01pm] jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
[9:01pm] Malt: sam capradae, worcester
[9:02pm] Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
[9:02pm] jokeefe: Anything to add?
[9:03pm] Joe: It's pretty full, so no
[9:03pm] Joe: l
[9:04pm] Malt: still haven't heard from the library
[9:04pm] Malt: just gonna reapply tomorrow, might have to choose a later week
[9:05pm] jokeefe: ok
[9:05pm] jokeefe: Amazon HQ2
[9:05pm] jokeefe: Boston made the top 20.
[9:06pm] Malt: shin ra's moving close to home
[9:06pm] Joe: FF7?
[9:07pm] jokeefe: shin ra?
[9:07pm] Joe: Game ref
[9:07pm] jokeefe: ok
[9:08pm] Joe: It's about an evil corp that is killing the plant for power.
[9:08pm] Joe: Well, Shin Ra is the corp.
[9:08pm] jokeefe: IC
[9:08pm] hvxgr: ( late - Tom Rodman / Milwaukee [mostly observing] )
[9:08pm] Malt: Omnicorp might have been more recognizeable
[9:08pm] Joe: Prob
[9:08pm] Malt: anyway, i heard they bought land near the harbor?
[9:08pm] Joe: Hey hvxgr
[9:08pm] Malt: welcome friendo
[9:09pm] hvxgr: thx
[9:09pm] jokeefe: Weyland Yutani
[9:09pm] Joe: Montsanto
[9:09pm] jokeefe: aye
[9:10pm] jokeefe: ahoy hvxgr
[9:10pm] hvxgr: ahoy
[9:13pm] jokeefe: Suggestions for resisting it?
[9:14pm] Joe: I have no problem with them setting up business here so long as we don't have to pay for it. If they bought the land proper, it would be no different than if you or I did so. Still, I am sure there is a tax break or something that is BS.
[9:15pm] Joe: The business man in me does see this as opportunities for the communities. Even if it's not the best job; half a loaf is better than no loaf at all.
[9:16pm] Malt: theres gonna be a looooooot of municipal giveaways
[9:16pm] jokeefe: Boston has already pledged $75 million to help house Amazon employees
[9:16pm] Joe: But from what I understand, Boston would be giving them a huge tax break and that is BS. Amazon will not give back as much as it's going to get for this and we the people are going to take a huge loss.
[9:17pm] jokeefe: Agreed
[9:17pm] Joe: lol, yeah, what you said.
[9:18pm] Joe: Plus, look at what Walmart's have done to small communities. There is a possibility that this will be the same.
[9:18pm] jokeefe: https://stratechery.com/2018/amazons-go-and-the-future/
[9:19pm] Malt: there was a line out the door
[9:20pm] Malt: people waiting to shop at the store whose main point is. . . not waiting
[9:21pm] jokeefe: Was thinking more about replacing labor with capital
[9:23pm] jokeefe: increasing barriers to entry and decreasing competition
[9:23pm] Joe: On that regard, Amazon is just doing what I see all stores doing in the future. Replacing cashiers with machines.
[9:27pm] jokeefe: Budget
[9:27pm] jokeefe: We haven’t had one in a while
[9:28pm] Malt: yeah?
[9:28pm] jokeefe: Joe would you be able to break down our spending for 2017 so we can use that as a basis for the 2018 budget?
[9:29pm] Joe: I saw that on the list and was curious how you wanted to approach it. That seems straight forward enough and I would be happy to get it done though I will not have a time frame to give you quite yet.
[9:29pm] Joe: I figure a monthly breakdown should do the trick.
[9:30pm] jokeefe: sure, and by category. Does early February work?
[9:31pm] Joe: May I use the Pirate gmail's cloud to store it on?
[9:31pm] jokeefe: sure
[9:32pm] Joe: Right now I would not be able to give you a time frame as to when I can get this back to you, but I will make it a priority to get it done as soon as I can.  I have a bit much on the plate again.
[9:32pm] jokeefe: ok. will create a spreadsheet and invite you to it
[9:32pm] jokeefe: Video Newsletter
[9:32pm] Joe: I would not bother sir
[9:33pm] jokeefe: ok
[9:33pm] Joe: I was just going to upload it when I am done.
[9:33pm] Joe: That ok?
[9:34pm] jokeefe: sure
[9:34pm] Joe: It would be easy for you to view or share from there.
[9:35pm] jokeefe: yes
[9:36pm] jokeefe: Will email Dan on his status
[9:37pm] Joe: This Sunday Steve said he would also join us. I have it scheduled to prepare a list of topics to discuss on Sunday that are matters most pressing.
[9:38pm] jokeefe: So are we going to roll the net neutrality discussion into the Sunday recording?
[9:39pm] Joe: I will be composing this list on Friday, so any ideas you would like us to address would be helpful.
[9:39pm] Joe: Yes, that is at the very top of the list.
[9:39pm] jokeefe: Sunday would be better than tomorrow
[9:39pm] jokeefe: What time?
[9:40pm] Malt: and, in the lowell office?
[9:40pm] Joe: 7:00pm to meet up. Recording starts at 7:30. Hope to wrap up by 8:30
[9:40pm] Joe: No, we are not meeting in person Malt.
[9:40pm] Joe: We are doing a google Hangout
[9:41pm] Malt: gotcha
[9:41pm] Joe: I will be recording it and then sending it directly to youtube.
[9:41pm] jokeefe: works for me
[9:42pm] Joe: Yeah, to me the point is for us to discuss current issues with the pirate lens. It will help people get to know us and why we fight so hard for them.
[9:44pm] jokeefe: great
[9:44pm] jokeefe: 2018 Elections
[9:45pm] jokeefe: Posted some locations for the Boston training
[9:46pm] jokeefe: thoughts?
[9:46pm] Joe: Nay
[9:47pm] jokeefe: Will forward the email out for more comments
[9:47pm] Joe: Did we ever get in contact with the other group that is doing them?
[9:48pm] jokeefe: Malt, thanks for the update on the Worcester location. Hope you get a confirmation soon.
[9:49pm] jokeefe: Organizing Local Chapters - Anyone get a chance to review the organizing guide - https://masspirates.org/wiki/Organizing_Guide ?
[9:51pm] Joe: I have not. sorry
[9:52pm] jokeefe: Malt?
[9:53pm] hvxgr: I've looked over about 6 bullets.  In general, looks good, is valuable.
[9:54pm] jokeefe: thanks
[9:55pm] Malt: i didn't have anything to add
[9:55pm] Malt: seemed worthwhile
[9:55pm] jokeefe: thanks
[9:55pm] jokeefe: Net Neutrality/Community Meshnets - working on the post about the meetings. Will get it up by tomorrow morning.
[9:57pm] jokeefe: That is all I have.
[9:59pm] Joe: We are at time
[10:01pm] jokeefe: aye
[10:01pm] jokeefe: motion to adjourn
[10:01pm] Malt: 2nded
[10:01pm] jokeefe: all in favor
[10:01pm] jokeefe: ?
[10:01pm] hvxgr: Aye/Thx/good night all.
[10:01pm] Joe: aye
[10:01pm] Malt: night
[10:01pm] Joe: good night!