National Congress 2020!

Announcement
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National Congress 2020 – Isolation edition

G’day Pirates,

I hereby invite you to the 2020 Pirate Party Annual National Congress!

The National Congress is an opportunity for members to propose and debate new policies and constitutional amendments, hear nominations for Party Officials, and meet Pirates from around Australia.

It is held annually and is the paramount decision making body of Pirate Party Australia.

Date: Saturday 25th July and Sunday 26th July.

This year, owing to COVID-19 isolation, our Congress will be held entirely online! Every year, we strive to make remote participation at Congress as easy and as well-supported as possible – so we are well prepared for this.

Book your ticket today!

Watch parties are a distinct possibility! If you’d like to meet up with your local pirates, drop me an email at secretary@pirateparty.org.au. With any luck, I’ll be able to put you and a mate or two in touch!

I urge everyone to consider running for National Council. This year, we’ve had only five out of nine positions filled. This isn’t sustainable, so please step up and help out! As always - we’re a party for everyone and we want people from all walks of life in our leadership team.

Details of the National Congress, including the agenda, new policies, nominations, constitutional amendments and details on how to participate online will be available on the Wiki:
https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_Congress_2020

The National Congress is followed by a seven day voting period, which is open to all members. All members will be emailed ballot information at the opening of this voting period.

There are a number of dates and deadlines and procedures to follow if you wish to submit items to the National Congress or declare candidacy for positions.

Constitutional Amendments:

Policies and Policy Amendments:

  • It would be appreciated if policy proposals could be submitted at least 10 days before National Congress so that they can be allowed for in the agenda.
  • Email your proposals to secretary@pirateparty.org.au.

Nominations:

  • Positions up for election are all nine Councillors, the Policy Development Officer, and two positions on the Dispute Resolution Committee.
  • Nominations can be accepted up until the relevant agenda item at National Congress.
  • Nominations for electable positions can be made by following the instructions here: https://pirateparty.org.au/wiki/Pirate_Congress_2020/Nominations

We thank you for your continued support!

Please feel free to discuss National Congress or any other matters in our discussion forums at https://discuss.pirateparty.org.au/

Yours sincerely,

@alexjago
Secretary
Pirate Party Australia

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National Congress — this weekend!

Hi Pirates -

National Congress is this weekend, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of July, from 10am to 4pm (Sydney time) each day.

Congress is our Annual General Meeting. It’s where we decide on new policy and elect our next leadership team. Congress will be held entirely online this year. Video of presenters will be live-streamed on YouTube and discussion will occur via chat.

We’re a democratic party, so your presence is vital! There are four things you should do in preparation:

Step one: register to attend.

Step two: check your membership status. We like people to stay involved, so if your membership is merely expired, you will still get these announcement emails and you’re welcome to observe Congress! However, only current members get to vote. You can make sure your membership is up to date (and renew it if necessary) at https://members.pirateparty.org.au/

Step three: read through the proposals. The Constitutional Amendment Proposals for this year were published back on June 27th, but Policy Motions have been coming in much more recently. Both are on the party wiki: CAPs here, and Policy Motions here.

Step four: consider nominating for a position. We’ve been a bit short on numbers this past year for several reasons, and we need new ideas and fresh faces. This coming term, we will have the task of growing the party in preparation for the next election. You can nominate by adding yourself on the wiki, or by emailing me.

For more information, please refer to the party wiki, or ask a question on the party forums.

I hope to hear from you soon, be that at Congress or before it!

Kind Regards,

Alex Jago

Secretary

Pirate Party Australia

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Participating in the administration of a political party is a highly rewarding experience, it’s a way to feel like you’re genuinely participating in and contributing to society at a level above other forms of public service. Participating in the electoral process is also genuine intellectual challenge in exploring and understanding effective applications of politics and philosophy.

Good luck to everyone nominating and I hope to meet lots of you online this weekend!

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Tonight we’re doing the final stress test for the video conferencing software in use this weekend, please join us at around 7pm AEST https://discordapp.com/channels/358404180215332875/580694411260854272/626001594340737044 to help us break stuff

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Secretary’s Report 2019-2020

It’s been an interesting year, for several reasons. Perhaps it is always an interesting year…

Internal Organisation

First of all I want to thank everyone who’s helped out this year.

The Party’s primary challenge in previous years, this year and next year remains the same as far as I’m concerned: growing the membership base. I say this with my Registered Officer hat as much as my Secretary hat; passing the AEC membership audits are always a substantial hurdle.

Further, Pirate Party Australia is meant to be a member-driven organisation. Without higher rates of active participation it just can’t work that way.

With respect, our organisational approach at the moment is prioritising member privacy over basically everything else. The Secretariat is, by design, a communications bottleneck between coordinators and ordinary members.

This is a problem, because the party’s single best tool for communicating with members is the mass mailout. And people don’t seem to be particularly responsive to that.

I wrote the exact same previous four paragraphs in my report last year. I have a further point to add to that: people are outright missing our renewal emails and I suspect that’s behind a decent chunk of our membership falloff. I know for a fact it’s happened to a number of people, including some who are relatively strongly engaged.

This year’s specific issues

This year has had a rather particular problem. The root cause is that our voting system got bus-factored. With no system, no voting occurred after the 2019 Congress and hence the National Council had a legitimacy question, even after the contested positions were resolved by a resignation. Consequently the party has been largely in maintenance mode this past year (we usually have a bit of a post election lull anyway). This Congress will provide renewed legitimacy to the new National Council. I acknowledge that this could’ve been handled better, and I suggest that any blame should be directed at me.

Alex Jago

Secretary, 2018—

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Treasury Report 2019-2020

Report for FY 2019-2020.pdf (53.6 KB)

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Reminder - Ballots and By-elections

Hi Pirates -

Just two quick reminders:

Post-Congress voting closes tomorrow (Friday) night at 23:59 AEST. All Full Members as at last Tuesday should have received several emails about it: the announcement email like this one, and the credential and username/password emails from the voting system.

The by-election meeting for our vacant Deputy Secretary and Deputy Treasurer positions will be held online this Sunday 16th at 16:00 AEST. Nominations close at the start of the meeting and can be made either by emailing the National Council, or by directly adding yourself to the wiki.

I hope to see you online on Sunday!