[pp.int.general] The conference - what went wrong, and why we NEED to do better! (Andrew Norton)

[Partidul Piratilor]

Andrew, you have put the dot on the I.

A few short proposals to the board:
1. Rebuild the PPI site, making it a realtime information point fot the
pirates and press
2. Make a data repository with editable formats of all materials used by
PP's in their campaigns (editable graphics, texts, video), so the others can
use them.
3. Consider the eventuality to work with smaller regions on a more frequent
schedule. Something like organising regular meetings between northeuropean
pirates and sharing the experience with all the others. Its simpler that
organizing a worldwide conference and it might be done with fewer resources.
4. Take one step at a time. Do not aim to change the world tomorrow...aim
for next year. :)

This alone will not solve the problems but will help on the way to that.






Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:20:16 -0400
> From: Andrew Norton <ktetch at gmail.com>
>
>
> I think the swedish losses are overstated. It's only to be expected
> given their membership model. Instead of looking at the negative
> numbers, look at the positive - how many, of their own will, have renewed?
>
> As for other parties, the Dutch party has a chance (0.67% is all they
> need for a national seat, I believe) and the UK party, while a seat is
> unlikely, has strong potential to grow some more in these last two weeks
> before the election.
>
> That reminds me, I'm not speaking officially for anyone but myself,
> however, one thing PPI should be doing is supporting parties during
> elections. The UK party is 2 weeks away from an elcetion. The Dutch
> party is a day under 7 weeks away from theirs. Sweden has an election in
> September, and I believe there's another one that I can't remembre
> offhand. The success of these parties, directly affects our own parties.
> The better the election results, the more credible we are as a political
> position.
>
> Additionally, I'm sure we're all shorter on experience (direct, hands on
> experience) than we'd like. So, why not get some. If you have free time,
> ask a party with a looming election if they need help. Mostly they'll
> need creative people, working on flyers, videos etc (because it's not
> feasible for someone in Spain, Sweden or Serbia to be helping trudge the
> streets of Bury handshaking and doorknocking). Maybe share, adapt and
> remix material you already have, and save some time, or free someone
> else up to do another job.
>
> THIS sort of thing, helping parties start and then helping them to work
> at their best, is what I envisaged as the whole reason for PPI. Not to
> set rules and policies or control who says and does what. We've been
> talking about who votes, and at the same time we say the PPI has no
> power to compel, so whats the votes for? As far as conferences go, we've
> had 5 over 3 years and almost everything agreed on at them has yet to
> happen. So let's take them back to their original purpose, as a social
> event, where we can put faces to (screen)names, and we can talk and
> learn from each other and from outside, invited speakers. Even the
> simple suggestion I made almost 18 months ago, that parties send PPI a
> copy of their press releases (or at last their important ones, including
> to the list) has gone mostly ignored in favour of vastly increasing
> bureaucracy.
>
> PPI isn't the UN and it's not the EP. Right now, we have a load of
> statutes, but it's all legal mumblings, it gives structure to an
> organisation that has no teeth, no ability for anything it decides to
> actually be carried out. The only purpose it has ever actually worked,
> has been as a central contact for new parties, and that can be better
> handled by a regional council, say a member per continent, and a
> president of same (giving 6 members and a tiebreaker voting president,
> since Antarctica won't have a party)
>
> In short, the job of PPI is, and always has been, supporting the
> formation of new parties, and supporting existing ones as and when
> needed, through increasing and facilitating communication. We're
> straying from that. I just had a quick look back through some of the
> coreteam meetings, and the vast majority of the topics over the last few
> months, have been about the conference, the statutes, and the bank
> account. I doubt there's been more than half a dozen issues over the
> last 4 months not related to the conference/establishment of PPI. Were
> Douglas Adams still alive, this could be the basis for "Bureaucracy 2"
> (Bureaucracy was a game he co-wrote in 87 about the difficulties with
> changing your address at a bank). Hmm, I guess not so short after all.
>
> Perhaps a metaphor would be best. To build a house, you need builders,
> they're essential for the house to be constructed. It requires plans,
> and organisation to build it, and hard work from the builders. We're at
> a situation now, though, where the builders are in a permanent state of
> work, even though the house is built, and they're not needed. Once it's
> biult, it needs a minimum of maintaince, the scaffolding can come down
> and be removed, and it needs only minor work done occasionally. We don't
> need the rules, we don't really need 'the board' as there is now nothing
> for them to do, since the original purpose was abandoned at some point,
> for the purpose of justifying its own existence. What does it do now,
> and more importantly, how do we get back on track?
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
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