[pp.int.general] PPI Member fees

[Justus Römeth]

Dear Pirates

Today we were aware of the Budget of the federal German pirate party for
2012 (1). Under the point 'Piraten Partei International (sic, should be
Parteien) you can see that, additionally to the 5000 € for support
organizing international events (and the 3000 € to support German
delegations in travelling costs) there are 12 000€ set aside to pay for
membership fees. There were some discussions about that with some members
of PPI and the PPDE treasurer, and PPI can only benefit from this money if
it decides to organize member fees for all members.

So far PPI has always decided not to ask for member fees. Expect, however,
that there should be at least a short discussion on this topic, as the lack
of funds does hamper PPI's development. We are aware of the fact that for
newly formed parties, parties that don't have members but just
sympathizers, parties that don't ask a member fee or parties that don't
have members because it could harm the members to be associated with the
party this can be hampering. However, as far as this money for 2012 is
concerned, a membership fee is the only way for PPI to get more money than
the amount for event planning from PPDE. Since Sweden is not a member of
PPI (yet) the amount for most pirate parties involved would be relatively
modest (PPDE suggested 0.50 € per member per year, but it really is just a
suggestion).

Of course this also concerns the question in how far observer members
should be concerned by this (should a young pirate from Bavaria pay PPI
thrice, via PPDE, PPBY and YPDE's fees?)

The budget for PPI would probably mainly be for the running of
infrastructure, and for helping delegates from places that are further away
to travel to PPI GAs, as well as the organization of the yearly GAs (and
possibly other events). The final decision on a budget (or how much leeway
the board would have concerning budget) would rest solely with the PPI GA,
of course.

In case the GA is against this: Another idea (by me and me alone) is that
PPEU could have the financial setup that PPDE wants concerning member fees,
and then in turn help PPI out where necessary, as to not put off members
from committing to PPI. This would be impossible to achieve for 2012
obviously, but should be kept in mind for the upcoming discussions on PPEU.

Please speak to the rest of your party about this topic before the GA in
Prague in 6 weeks and try to find a consensus within your party, so the
delegates can represent their parties adequately.

Kind regards

-J
(Simple member PPDE, taking tasks off the PPI board's shoulders ;-) )

1=
http://wiki.piratenpartei.de/wiki/images/1/1b/Bund_Budget_2012_Stand_20120301.pdf
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