Minutes/National Council/2017-10-04

Start: 8:41 PM AEDT

End: 11:43 PM AEDT

Attendance

 * Emily Sievers
 * Simon Gnieslaw
 * Miles Whiticker
 * Tom Randle
 * Simon Frew
 * John Jeffery
 * Alex Jago
 * Mark Gibbons

Apologies
John August

Previous meeting minutes
https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Minutes/National_Council/2017-09-20

Audit
Discussion of the Audit topic:


 * Tom has implemented a basic ranking system to determine which members are likely to be the highest quality to include in the AEC audit export.
 * 460 active members, Target for 90+ more active to reach 550.
 * Renewals are essentially complete, 1 email every 5 days for those who haven't renewed.
 * Alex & SimonG: possible spam folder issues with that frequency.
 * Tom: there is no evidence of that.
 * Mini Membership Drive - Topic to continue on discuss: https://discuss.pirateparty.org.au/t/mini-recuitment-drive/1553, including
 * Facebook, Twitter & Paid Ads
 * Mark offers to pay for a some ads as a donation to the party.
 * Family & Friends
 * Online Communities (OzBargain, reddit, Whirlpool, OCAU, etc.)
 * "free membership" as a selling point, most critical to stay registered rather than prove a "commitment"
 * Suggestion for Newspaper/Radio?
 * Tom: probably not enough time
 * AEC usually sample out of 500-550 and don't keep asking if it fails from the subset, the process is weighted towards de-registering parties.
 * No authority / approval needed to post about PPAU in a personal capacity.

Emergency National Congress

 * Pad started: https://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/extraordinary-national-congress-2017
 * Tom working on proposal and wording:
 * The changes have been committed to GitHub version control
 * SimonG and John J find the GitHub format confusing
 * ACTION ITEM: Tom: "I'll CFV later this week on the proposal to get the tick of 'The National Council recommends the members of the Party adopt CAP-0.'"
 * There will be a full PDF + 2016 to 2017 changeset + Web version
 * Constitution is natively in LaTeX format and maintained using GitHub.

Resolution 2013-5 repeal (Tom)

 * Motion to repeal https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/National_Council_Resolutions#Resolution_2013-5_.E2.80.94_Promotional_materials
 * Justification: Tom: We have other processes which cover the purpose of this resolution.
 * Miles thought it was already repealed with Bureau
 * Frew says it's been ignored for years already

John August's copyright submission

 * John A has (over email) offered the submission he wrote to be sent on behalf of the Party to a recent inquiry, Party can use it if wanted, otherwise he will send it as his own private submission.
 * John A has sent in apologies for not attending this meeting
 * Transferred to Pad: https://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/john_a_copreg_edits for editing before submission
 * ACTION ITEM: Alex will get it authorised and sent off on Friday
 * Due 6 October
 * There is a draft "motion", however not needed as there is an approval process for submissions.

Strategy (Frew)

 * Is a structure settled on? (Simon G)
 * Frew: "I think we are closer to having a strategy, if there aren't any objections, I think we should use the swarm as strategy thread and Adam's organisational diagram as the basis for a final strategy meeting to lock in the details"
 * Miles: 'Tom and I have an alternate structure to Adam's'
 * Next Steps (Frew)
 * SimonG Question: "Is it possible to start with Adams and then switch to Tom+Miles if we want to later?" Miles Answer: "no"
 * ACTION ITEM from Tom: "Frew and MilesW could both have models to present next monday that would be great" (And on Discuss)
 * ACTION ITEM for Miles: Post his structure onto Discuss too
 * https://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/2017-strategy-development-long-term-goals
 * ACTION ITEM (all): Structure to be decided on Monday strategy meeting, 8.30PM AEST Monday.

Local Crews

 * Alex & Miles are making a how to "Local Crews - How to run a meeting" guide
 * https://pad.pirateparty.org.au/p/Local-meetup-howto-2017
 * Trial & Error process of what works and what doesn't

Email unsubscription policy
SimonG provides his thoughts on emails to members
 * We should still send emails to members even if they unsubscribed, unless they resign (put this notice explicitly at the bottom).
 * Having members unsubscribing from important emails leads them to feel disengaged even though they unsubscribed (quite a few queries came in during members area rollout because they didn't even remember us) and bad for Quorum for internal elections.
 * Important Announcements should not be opt-out-able, despite spam blacklist concerns (use a throwaway domain/3rd party mailer) as it effectively disengages them from participation.
 * No legal requirement for us to even offer "unsubscribe" for 3 reasons:
 * 1. Political Parties are exempt from the Spam Act
 * 2. Putting a note on how to resign would count as clear instructions on "how to unsubscribe" if it were required under the Spam Act
 * https://www.acma.gov.au/Industry/Marketers/Anti-Spam/Ensuring-you-dont-spam/spam-exemptions-ensuring-you-dont-spam-i-acma
 * 3. Account messages are "Purely factual messages", not advertising (i.e. like a password reset email)
 * Still a good idea to make it clear how to unsubscribe (by resigning in the case of an account message) to avoid upsetting people (eg: "YesEquality" SMS campaign did this) and to avoid being marked as spam.
 * No clear consensus.
 * Tom: "The way our email communications work now is better than it has ever been by orders of magnitude", "this is something to revisit probably early next year".

General business

 * Basic Income numbers update (Mark G)
 * The basic income policy is several years old and needs to be updated for inflation.
 * Alex is working on a basic income video so we need to do it now.
 * The PDC has worked out a new Tax Threshold but the NC has to vote on it as it is technically a change to a policy.
 * The amount worked out is around $39,000
 * Simon Frew suggests rounding up to $40,000, nice round amount.
 * Mark says that it would add $6 billion to the hypothetical cost to set the level at $40,000 instead of $39,000, it doesn't really make much difference as it's a hypothetical amount.
 * Main point is to update for inflation.
 * $40,000 "Future Proofs" the amount for likely continued inflation.
 * Motion made to update Basic Income Tax Threshold to $40,000


 * Annual National Congress 2018 Brisbane
 * Comments from SimonG requesting
 * QLD people, please get planning/logistics started, at least want a date set so I can book plane tickets
 * Approve position statement opposing in principle Brisbane train facial recognition (Miles):
 * "PPAU calls for a halt to the plans to roll out facial recognition technology on Brisbane public transport until a consultation process and privacy assessment can be carried out."
 * Approved by Tom Randle, Simon Frew, Emily Sievers, Simon Gnieslaw


 * Advertising (Miles/Emily)
 * Tom: ACTION ITEM (all): Everyone work on AEC Audit comms and advertising for more members tomorrow night.

Motions

 * MOTION: accept the minutes of 20 September 2017 National Council meeting as presented
 * Put by: Emily Sievers
 * Ayes: 7 (Simon Frew, Simon Gnieslaw, Miles Whiticker, Emily Sievers, Tom Randle, Mark Gibbons, John Jeffery; Nays: 0 ; Abstains: 1 (Alex Jago)
 * Motion carries.


 * MOTION: Repeal National Council Resolution 2013-5, as promotional materials authorisation is covered by https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Authorisation_processes
 * Put by: Tom Randle
 * Ayes: 8 (Tom Randle, Miles Whiticker, Simon Gnieslaw, Mark Gibbons, Alex Jago, Simon Frew, John Jeffery, Emily Sievers); Nays: 0 ; Abstains: 0
 * Motion carries.


 * MOTION: Raise the tax threshold in the basic income policy to $40,000 and adjust the basic income accordingly.
 * Put by: Mark Gibbons
 * Ayes: 7 (Miles Whiticker, Tom Randle, Simon Frew, Mark Gibbons, Simon Gnieslaw, Emily Sievers, Alex Jago); Nays: 0 ; Abstains: 0
 * Motion carries.

CFV Motions

 * MOTION: Approve expenditure of $76.00 for AEC audit related expenses payable to NSW Fair Trading.
 * Put by: Tom Randle
 * Ayes: 8 (Tom Randle, Alex Jago, Simon Frew, Simon Gnieslaw, Miles Whiticker, Emily Sievers, John Jeffery, John August, Mark Gibbons); Nays: 0 ; Abstains: 0
 * Motion carries.