March 26th, 2022 Community Organizing Discussion

Agenda

Attending: Steve, Joe, James

Summary

Nomination signatures due for validation by city/town clerks for state offices by May 3rd and federal offices by August 3rd. [ https://www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elepdf/Candidates-Guide-22.pdf State election guide (pdf)]. Nomination papers are free and can be acquired at one of these government offices.

Discussion of running for office, especially for US House of Rep. Looked at the 2020 general election statistics. More competition than in the past, but mostly only the incumbent and a single challenger, often a Republican. Neal (1st) and Trahan (3rd/Lowell) didn't have opponents. While our focus has been on State Rep. elections, US Congress might be good as well if we make sure our candidates can gather the required 2000 validated signatures. Need to focus on starting/expanding local chapters as well.

James will come up with a short how to get on the ballot video. Needs to get copies of the nomination papers.

Upcoming events include XRBoston's Earth Day event on 4/22 which James plans to attend. Looks like we could do protests of the EARN IT Act (and would have support from other groups) or the SMART Copyright Act of 2022.

For outreach we have Pirate News and those should be turned into podcasts. Joe talked about starting a Pirate Radio show and actually broadcasting over the air waves.

A discussion of making a kids (aren't we all) Pirate/Privacy activity book. Besides having privacy related coloring book pages (don't let your kids use their real name online), it could also have Where's Waldo like pages that search for different things such as surveillance cameras and privacy related word searches and crosswords. Will suggest it to USPirates or PPI to see if other pirate parties want to help. Email if you want to help come up with ideas or know artists who may be interested in helping.

Decided to schedule these for the 4th Saturday of every month at https://ca.meet.coop/jam-oqj-zat-ue0.

Meeting Details

3 attended.