Minutes/National Council/2023-10-21

National Council Meeting 21st October 2023


 * Start: 19:23 AEDT

Attendees

 * Miles Whiticker (chair)
 * Adam Woodings
 * Alex Jago (minutes)
 * David Kennedy (text-only; until 19:30)

Members

 * mlemt
 * Sam
 * Star_Tube
 * mofosyne
 * milspec (from 19:55)

Agenda

 * Previous meeting minutes https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Minutes/National_Council/2023-10-05
 * Trello review https://trello.com/b/Nf9usuRZ/ppau-general-trello-board
 * Fusion/Pirate member database merger
 * Fusion AGM
 * Executive committee nominations
 * Constitutional amendments
 * Israel-Palestine press release
 * PPI/PPEU, PPAU, Fusion <<< which?
 * Fusion state branch launch

DB merger / change

 * Background: various administrative & practical considerations favour merging the Pirate member DB into the Fusion NationBuilder.
 * Particularly awkward is Pirate members resigning from Fusion; was that meant to also count as a PPAU resignation? Can't be a PPAU full member and not technically a Fusion member.
 * Against: we can't constitutionally do it now, sovereignty argument.
 * There's lots of stuff Fusion can do that hinges on NB which we couldn't do with PirateDB in its current state.
 * General plan:
 * Put a CAP to enable NC to choose to do membership management with either platform
 * Put an FM to update the party's privacy policy (not necessary but good for buy-in)
 * Other option: migrate to another FOSS member DB system like CiviCRM (despite the party not liking it ~7 years ago)
 * Could potentially bring the rest of Fusion along / join forces with Owen's anti-NB effort.


 * Continued question around what to do with non-Full members.
 * Ironically, maintaining MemberDB may be the best option for them
 * Also, y'know, some people (e.g. Star_Tube) straight up don't want Fusion execs to have access to their PII
 * Trouble is, the amount of PII you need to do campaign volunteer organising is almost exactly what you need: name, email, phone, address.
 * Pirates staying out hurts the overall organism.
 * Can we expose limited amounts of data sufficient for cross-branch local organising? Not by column, but we can very closely limit which admins have access to which people.

Fusion AGM

 * November 5th.
 * Please attend!
 * https://www.fusionparty.org.au/20231105agm
 * Alex has it calendarised to verify
 * Miles has a set of proposed amendments
 * Alternative set of proposed amendments suggest removing branches from Fusion, which would seem to contradict Fusion's 'raison d'etre'.
 * So be there!
 * Function of that proposer's original vision for Fusion, which would involve hard merger.
 * Had a read through the two proposed Fusion constitutions.
 * Competing proposal removes "ideological" branches in favour of geographic branches.
 * Miles' proposal renames branches, but also provides for "state branches" whose members may also be in one other non-state branch.

Fusion state branch launch

 * Initial state supporter meeting on Friday
 * Presented roadmap for state branches and a guide for local organisers
 * Role descriptions and step-by-steps, from social meetups on
 * Keen to sign people up to be organisers!
 * "Probably the most important thing we can do"
 * Every Fusion local meetup is also a Pirate meetup when we advertise it
 * mofosyne: we can also cross-promote sub-meetups at other people's events
 * Good idea!

Israel-Palestine press release

 * We had a draft, we may no longer put out the draft
 * mlemt: do we even need to make an official statement on this?
 * PPI and our Victorian friends can take it or leave our existing wording as they wish
 * Happy to leave co-signing PPI's statement to a CFV

Actions

 * Adam volunteers to look at alternative CRMs.
 * Alex to liaise with Owen to ensure Pirate member verification.
 * Internal party comms giving NC's view on the Fusion constitutional amendments
 * Asking people to organise proxies, probably need to CC Alex to validate.

Motions

 * Accept the minutes of the previous meeting on 5th October 2023
 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * Ayes 3 (MW, AW, AJ)
 * Abstain 1 (DK)
 * Carried at 19:26 AEDT


 * Endorse Miles' proposed amendments to the Fusion Constitution over the alternative.
 * Put by: Alex Jago
 * Ayes 3 (MW, AW, AJ)
 * Carried at 20:43 AEDT


 * Close the meeting
 * Put by: Miles Whiticker
 * Ayes 3 (MW, AW, AJ)
 * Meeting closed at 21:23 AEDT