[pp.int.general] Amendment proposals

Fri Feb 18 00:47:29 CET 2011

I'd just like to ask under what authority you are proposing such amendments.
Are you proposing them as a proxy through a member of PPI? Because as far as
I understand, no American Pirate Party is a member of PPI, and unless my
understand of organisations in general is unclear, non-members of an
organisation can't propose amendments to their statutes.

No USA here: http://int.piratenpartei.de/Members_of_the_PPI
No American representative's signature on the statutes here:
http://int.piratenpartei.de/wiki/images/a/a6/Statutes_of_the_Pirate_Parties_International.pdf

That said, there's nothing wrong with most of what you're proposing, it's
just a shame that you couldn't propose them as a member of PPI.

On 18 February 2011 07:36, Andrew Norton <ktetch at gmail.com> wrote:

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> I realize that, under the strict interpretation of the statutes of PPI,
> the deadline for this was Saturday, but since the INTENT was that
> amendments be known in advance, so we don't have the farce of them being
> presented for the first time AT the event (like last time), and this
> more than fulfills that. Also, the actual letters of the statutes have
> not exactly been followed with any sort of dogged determination (and
> besides, I'm sure most people aren't even aware of what the proposed
> amendments are -
>
> https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/pp-international.net/ccc?key=0AnZcn8ossPs2dHBPTVp5UVh1R21EZ2RsN3Z3VVJfMnc&hl=en&ndplr=1#gid=0
> so far
>
> Ok, amendments. (the * marks some commentary and reasons for it)
>
> To section IX,
> - -modify
> (4) Member Organizations are represented at any meeting of the
> General Assembly by a delegate or delegates not exceeding two from
> any one Member Organization.
> *This is changed from six to two. Six gives extraordinary weight to
> parties local to the event's location (especially those representing the
> host country), who can steer the actions to methods more preferential to
> them, rather than to the organisation and movement as a whole. An
> international body should represent the whole membership, not be biased
> by the local groups.
>
> add
> (8) The location of the General shall be held in preference in a country
> that has not hosted before. In addition, no more that two consecutive
> General Assembly's may be held on the same continent.
> * This codifies what has been the general rule for these events back to
> 2007, when the first one was held. The second part also ensures that it
> does NOT remain held in Europe, or indeed any other continent should
> another regional group control the board. In other words, it reaffirms
> the internationalism of a group that deems itself 'international'.
>
> To Section XII
> - -add to end
> (1) To that end, any and all positions in member organizations (except
> for that of 'ordinary member') must be terminated before taking office
> * This is just plain self-evident. An officer of PPI can not represent
> PPI _and_ a member party. The potential for conflicts of interest are
> too high. (for a real life example, look at Ban Ki-Moon, who resigned
> his post in the South Korean Govt. after being elected UN Sectary General.
>
> - -modify
> (7) The meetings are public unless one third of the members of the
> Board vote in favor of a non-public meeting. The decision to hold a
> secret meeting must be motivated. Minutes of public meetings have
> to be published, in written form, not less than two weeks after the
> meeting. The Board has to inform the General Assembly on its next
> meeting on the fact of non-public meetings.
> * While voice chats seem to be the rage, the problem is they're not very
> good as records. We have one audio file for the meeting, consisting of
> voices which may be muffled, and comprise people that are often speaking
> English as a second language. It's INCREDIBLY difficult to understand
> for some people. It's also not searchable/indexable. Finally, it's quite
> discriminative against the deaf. Thus a written log. It's much easier to
> see what happens, to follow the conversation, to accurately quote the
> actions of the board. It's also just good practice for access for the
> handicapped. Really, this is a no-brainer.
>
> - -add
> (9) Board members may be removed by a special vote of no confidence by
> the General Assembly members. Said vote requires 72 hours notice. The
> vote will be open to all member organizations, one vote per
> organization, and the results will be published on the . Should the vote
> pass by 50%+1, the Board member will be removed from the position
> immediately, and be prohibited from running for election to the board
> for a period of 12 months.
> * For a political movement where so many members have 'accountability'
> as a key principle, or underlying message, there is a clear and obvious
> lack of any sort of accountability for the board. At present, the _only_
> way to remove a board member is to hold a general assembly meeting
> (either the regular one, or an emergency one) which requires a 5 week
> lead-time. That's a long time to leave someone who is thought to be
> acting 'badly' in place, PLUS it requires the entire board to be
> re-elected. The barrier is also higher than the extrodinary meeting
> route, as reflects the abbreviated timescale.
>
> XVII
> - -modify
> (2) The Treasurer supervises the Pirate Parties International budget and
> reports to the Board, and the representatives of the General Assembly
> every three months.
> * This just adds in the mater of informing the GA of the budget, as it
> is, after all, them that are contributing.
>
> END
>
> Most of my suggestions are fairly clear, and are nothing more than
> applying Pirate Party principles, to the structure of PPI. In effect,
> showing that we will work by the rules and ideals we champion.
>
> As I said, they're 5 days 'late', but they're still in plenty of time
> for the actual event. As I said, it's not like I'm proposing them the
> morning of the event, as was the case with the statutes themselves.
>
> Andrew  Norton
>
>
> - --
> Andrew Norton
> http://ktetch.blogspot.com
> Tel: (352)6-KTETCH [352-658-3824]
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-- 
Regards,
Brendan Molloy
Pirate Party Australia

M: +61 434 069 776
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