Loomio
Sat 23 Aug 2014 3:21AM

Message from the Chairman

AR Andrew Reitemeyer Public Seen by 25

First of all thank you for electing me to this position. I hope, with the help of the others on the executive committee, to meet the hopes and expectations you have of me and the committee.

As I have said before, I see the board as a steering body - its primary function is to see the aspirations of the Party, as defined by the Party, fulfilled.

To enable this we need to change or replace the constitution. We can either look at each statute and make changes where necessary, start from scratch or look at adapting an existing English language constitution from an existing Pirate Party. Let me know what you think.

That is my priority but I want to hear from you and what you want. Reply here or start a new discussion and add my name so I am sure to be aware of it.

I am looking forward to working with all of you.

DU

Andrew McPherson Sat 23 Aug 2014 8:03AM

@andrewreitemeyer I think that adapting some of the existing English language constitutions would be ideal, along with making changes where necessary.
First that stands in mind is the membership fees and terms, as that is currently a bit of an issue.

I look forward to working with you and the rest of the committee.

HM

Hubat McJuhes Sat 23 Aug 2014 9:08AM

@andrewreitemeyer I think that the review of the constitution is clearly the single most important achievement that this board can possibly reach for. It is a big, ambitious task and nothing that we can quickly tick off. I believe we have to tackle it in stages: firstly outlining the most basic requirements in accordance to the already communicated direction and addressing the currently most urgent problems; secondly broadly discussing the draft throughout the membership. Then iterating through this cycle until the provisional constitution reaches 'production-readiness' hopefully before this board's period ends in 12 months time so that we then can strive for registering as a society.
With this in mind I obviously advocate for a completely new constitution, developed from scratch - without hurry but with determination and persistence.
I think, we should start this process immediately - but we cannot expect our most urgent and pressing problems to be resolved through this 'channel'.

Right now we have to cope with our immediate financial collapse if we don't intervene now(ish). So what we also need to discuss immediately is a road map how we want to escape the rough waters we are in and reach consistently calmer climate without loosing the bigger picture and momentum.

DP

David Peterson Sun 24 Aug 2014 2:17PM

Well, I have already sorted out our hosting to be on a cheaper plan instead.

What is wrong with the existing plan for the membership to be $2 and 3yrs?

HM

Hubat McJuhes Sun 24 Aug 2014 2:34PM

Can you elaborate on the new hosting arrangements, please? When has that happened?

With the numbers i have heard from, some quick calculations look like follows:

27 members * $2 / 36 months = $1.50 per month party funds. No such cheap hosting plan, I believe.

Or the other way around:
$50 per month / 27 months = $1.85 monthly hosting cost per member = $22 minimal membership fee per year.

HM

Hubat McJuhes Sun 24 Aug 2014 9:21PM

@andrewreitemeyer Thank you for announcing the new board at PirateTimes.
http://piratetimes.net/the-pirates-of-new-zealand-elect-a-new-board/

But this: 'The new constitution will be copied and adapted from an early, never used draft of the Australian Pirate Party' is a typo and should read: 'The old constitution was copied...', right?

AR

Andrew Reitemeyer Mon 25 Aug 2014 1:01AM

Thanks Daniel - My proof reader must have changed it and I missed the change :(. I have corrected it.