February 13th, 2019 IRC Meeting

Decisions/Endorsements

Officer/Pirate Council Elections

We set the date for elections to close on 4/23. Need to decide when nominations have to be in by and when voting begins.

Last time we announced on March 16 that nominations were available until April 28th before our party conference for that year. Since we did not elect anyone at our party conference, on May 9th we announced that we would close nominations on May 23rd with ballots due a week later on the 30th. See thes blog posts. Here was our nomination form for that year.

Suggest:

• Nominations open when we announce and post the form (before 2/20).
• Nominations due by 4/8
• Ballots sent out by 4/12
• Ballot due by 4/23

Bills to make the Film Credit Permanent

The Boston Globe reported that there is an effort to make the film tax credit permanent. It should expire in January 2023. This effort has happened in the past 2013, 2017. The current house bill has 100+ signatures this time around. There isn't a hearing date for it yet, but suggest that we be active in opposing this bill.

Projects

Goals for Q1:

• Organize meetups
• Organize Fundraiser(s)
• Organize candidate trainings
• Revise platform

Tech/Outreach

• find discussion/voting system
• update blog theme
• update civicrm software
• set up torrents for PirateCon videos (creynolds)
• post remaining audio for PirateCon talks (srevilak)

Other To Dos

These have been on our agenda for a long time. How do we make them a reality?

Computer Donations

On hold - https://piratenpad.de/p/MassPiratesComputerDonations

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.

Upcoming Events

• 2/19, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting, Industry Lab, 288 Norfolk St, Cambridge
• 2/26, 7-9pm, Mass MeshNet Tech Meeting, Industry Lab, 288 Norfolk St, Cambridge
• early March?, morning, Boston-area Pirate Meetup, Boston
• late March?, Lowell-area Pirate Meetup, Lowell
• early April?, Worcester-area Pirate Meetup, Worcester

Participants

Observers

• ChanServ
• hvxgr_
• davidd
• Mikaela_Suomalainen
• bonelesspepsi[m]
• igel[m]

Minutes

 


[9:01pm] jokeefe: Agenda: https://masspirates.org/wiki/February_13th,_2019_IRC_Meeting
[9:01pm] jokeefe: ids
[9:01pm] jokeefe: James O’Keefe, Somerville
[9:01pm] Pirate_Joe: That is unfortunate
[9:01pm] Pirate_Joe: Joseph Onoroski, Lowell
[9:02pm] jokeefe: Anything to add?
[9:02pm] Pirate_Joe: Not at this time
[9:02pm] jokeefe: Skipping to Decisions/Endorsements
[9:03pm] jokeefe: Officer/Pirate Council Elections
[9:03pm] jokeefe: Suggest:
[9:03pm] jokeefe: Nominations open when we announce and post the form (before 2/20).
[9:03pm] jokeefe: Nominations due by 4/8
[9:03pm] jokeefe: Ballots sent out by 4/12
[9:03pm] jokeefe: Ballot due by 4/23
[9:04pm] Pirate_Joe: Sounds good to me
[9:04pm] jokeefe: srevilak?, igel[m]?
[9:04pm] Pirate_Joe: The way we ran it last time was perfect, but as I understand it that puts a lot on srevilak
[9:05pm] igel[m]: OK
[9:05pm] jokeefe: This gives us a bit more time.
[9:06pm] srevilak: sounds okay to me
[9:06pm] Pirate_Joe: Is it to early to ask what you will be going for?
[9:06pm] jokeefe: probably
[9:07pm] jokeefe:
[9:07pm] Pirate_Joe: lol
[9:07pm] jokeefe: any objections to this schedule?
[9:07pm] Pirate_Joe: Nay
[9:08pm] Pirate_Joe: Anyone else object?
[9:08pm] srevilak: no objection
[9:08pm] jokeefe: Moving on then…. Bills to make the Film Credit Permanent
[9:09pm] jokeefe: new bill has 100+ cosponsors. haven’t found a senate bill
[9:09pm] jokeefe: no hearings yet, but suggest we gear up to fight it or face Mass. losing a billion dollars over the next decade
[9:09pm] igel[m]: pfft.
[9:10pm] Pirate_Joe: Right? Lets kill any chance to record for fun and profit in MA
[9:10pm] Pirate_Joe: Unless your a creepy "security" company
[9:10pm] jokeefe: well as long as you spend $50,000 you get to profit
[9:10pm] jokeefe: lol
[9:11pm] Pirate_Joe: All that will do is that same thing corporations do, squash the little guy
[9:12pm] jokeefe: yup
[9:12pm] jokeefe: so gear up to fight?
[9:12pm] Pirate_Joe: I'm opposed
[9:12pm] Pirate_Joe: Yeah
[9:13pm] Pirate_Joe: Put it to a vote?
[9:13pm] jokeefe: should we devote effort to fighting this bill?
[9:14pm] igel[m]: 100 million average per year?
[9:14pm] jokeefe: 88.8 million in 2016, and it has gone up the last two years
[9:14pm] Pirate_Joe: It has been a strong source of revenue for the commonwealth
[9:14pm] jokeefe: so possibly
[9:15pm] Pirate_Joe: And our budget is still not balanced
[9:15pm] igel[m]: it has? uhh i thought it said 14 cents per doller
[9:15pm] Pirate_Joe: Well, really scratch tickets are prob more but still, it's just going to be spent not on the trains anyways
[9:16pm] jokeefe: it is a large loss to the commonwealth
[9:17pm] igel[m]: since the Steph Pollack basically explained the state is given up on supporting tranist, and offloading to passengers to (now defunct) Bridge, Uber and Lyft...
[9:18pm] jokeefe: got a link?
[9:18pm] igel[m]: oh, i asked a question ~2017 at a talk
[9:18pm] igel[m]: oh dang, could have been ~2015-16
[9:18pm] jokeefe: ok. Pirate_Joe, do you support opposing this bill?
[9:19pm] Pirate_Joe: I do, no good comes from needless taxes.
[9:20pm] igel[m]: in anycase, State shouldn't buy publicity at 100mn a year. I find that bizzare, especially being Boston.
[9:20pm] jokeefe: this bill would make the Hollywood tax credit permanent. It should expire in 2023
[9:21pm] igel[m]: im not convinced it benifits the commonwealth
[9:22pm] jokeefe: each job costs $100k+ in tax credits
[9:22pm] igel[m]: re: https://blog.mass.gov/governor/transportation/governor-baker-mbta-launch-innovative-program-to-enlist-uber-lyft-to-better-serve-paratransit-customers/
[9:22pm] jokeefe: and as you said igel[m] we only get back 14% in other taxes what we lose in tax credits
[9:23pm] igel[m]: yeah, and the commonwealth projects/advertises itself.. like the olympics heh.. (sorta)
[9:23pm] jokeefe: just want to make sure we are agreeing
[9:24pm] jokeefe: sorry to belabor the point, but so then we oppose this bill and will put effort behind stopping it?
[9:25pm] Pirate_Joe: I'm opposed but.....
[9:25pm] jokeefe: yes?
[9:25pm] igel[m]: i dont know enough, but i think i was opposed last years+ ago when it came up, so i guess the same
[9:25pm] Pirate_Joe: I think we need to continue building support so I am not sure we are in as strong of a place to focus that verse recruitment
[9:26pm] Pirate_Joe: and stuff
[9:26pm] jokeefe: fair point.
[9:26pm] igel[m]: but re: endorsement
[9:26pm] Pirate_Joe: We could table that for a right after the next set of elections
[9:27pm] Pirate_Joe: Motion to write up a reminder statement for email and blog then table until after the elections?
[9:28pm] jokeefe: what I am thinkin: blog posts telling others to call their rep., reach out to other groups that are opposed to it, attend the hearing and speak against it, help with a lobby day
[9:28pm] jokeefe: does that sound like too much?
[9:29pm] igel[m]: no capt
[9:30pm] Pirate_Joe: It seems like something you want to do and I am not opposed.  Just making sure we have the personal to do it.  Still, having active things we are doing will be good.
[9:30pm] igel[m]: more here, you can compare states (i guess this is up to date?) http://www.ncsl.org/Portals/1/Documents/fiscal/2018StateFilmIncentivePrograms_20189.pdf
[9:31pm] jokeefe: I figure saving Mass. from giving Hollywood a billion dollars is worth it 
[9:32pm] jokeefe: But let’s just focus on the blog posts and telling our supporters to oppose it
[9:32pm] jokeefe: I will keep an eye on the bill hearings
[9:32pm] igel[m]: ok
[9:32pm] jokeefe: good?