[pp.int.general] Amendment proposals

Fri Feb 18 02:01:06 CET 2011

Under the authority of his ego Brendan, duh!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna go see if I can propose that McDonald's
brings back the McRib by handing them my pseudo-legal tone of a proposition
via a local franchise in my vicinity.

I said GOOD DAY, SIR!

Jay Emerson
Administrative Officer
Pirate Party of New York
On Feb 17, 2011 6:47 PM, "Brendan Molloy" <brendanmolloy at pirateparty.org.au>
wrote:
> 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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>> ____________________________________________________
>> Pirate Parties International - General Talk
>> pp.international.general at lists.pirateweb.net
>> http://lists.pirateweb.net/mailman/listinfo/pp.international.general
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Brendan Molloy
> Pirate Party Australia
>
> M: +61 434 069 776
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