Freshers' Campaign 2010 -- volunteers needed

I think in some cases attempting to start up new standalone pirate movements in universities accross the country is too ambitious. I think strategies for encouraging members of film / music / anime clubs to work with the pirate agenda, creating informal pirate parties and ultimately spin offs would be more of an 'in'.

I speak from experience at uni in my sci fi club, where most weeks was watching some downloaded anime, or sci fi show that had aired in the US but not the UK, or old fashioned legal DVDs.

Engagement needs to be done diplomatically of course.

borgs8472 wrote: I think in some cases attempting to start up new standalone pirate movements in universities accross the country is too ambitious. I think strategies for encouraging members of film / music / anime clubs to work with the pirate agenda, creating informal pirate parties and ultimately spin offs would be more of an 'in'.

I speak from experience at uni in my sci fi club, where most weeks was watching some downloaded anime, or sci fi show that had aired in the US but not the UK, or old fashioned legal DVDs.

Engagement needs to be done diplomatically of course.

Attempting to get people elected is pretty ambitious that doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. The three main parites have student groups, as do the SNP up here and the dozen or so various socialist parties, why shouldn't we?

I don't think "standalone" is a fair description of what I hope to achieve. These groups can be the first point of call for new student members. Rather than occasionally trolling the forums there would be a way to get actively involved in the party, and meet socialise with fellow pirates too

I see your point about members of other clubs getting along with the pirate agenda. This sounds like what is happening in Birmingham Uni and a student group called INSOC, INformation SOCiety (at first I though it was called INGSOC and some ironic refence to 1984). They basically have the same aims as us, and are the defacto Pirate student group there.

Still, I think official Pirate groups are the way to go. Firstly it helps raise our profile (explicitly). Secondly what about pirate-minded students who aren't already in another club or society? A pirate group gives them a chance to meet other pirates, talk about pirate politics and build pirate communities (offline!). Another point to make is that not everyone in such groups would necessarily agree with us, and if they did would go as far as to support us. Finally, it's a good way to actually do stuff. We have so many inactive members, simply because there are few ways to get involved (trolling forums aside). We have a way to solve this at least for students. And these groups can be useful in campaigning (I'm thinking constituencies with large student populations), raising awareness of pirate issues, things like holding debates (I know Andy R has one on filesharing at Durham, and there was the Cambridge one that I went to see, they invited Rick Falkvinge).

I also think they could be very popular. After this freshers campaign I hope to make strathclyde's pirate group the biggest party political student group here by membership. We're already bigger than the SNP

I don't want to dodge the issue so I won't. Our supporters at universities will want to turn up to watch pirated media amoung other things. Simply discussing the politics of it every week, is this something with legs? I don't think so.

Since the pirate party can't be overtly seen to be meeting place for people to watch or exchange pirated media, hence my suggestion with engagement with organisations who already do this as cover.

borgs8472 wrote: I don't want to dodge the issue so I won't. Our supporters at universities will want to turn up to watch pirated media amoung other things. Simply discussing the politics of it every week, is this something with legs? I don't think so.

Since the pirate party can't be overtly seen to be meeting place for people to watch or exchange pirated media, hence my suggestion with engagement with organisations who already do this as cover.

People will watch media because they enjoy that particular show/film/whatever, not simply for the sake of watching something that's pirated. As for weekly meeting (I prefer fortnightly but to each their own) these don't have to be spent sitting in a cold dark room pedantically discussing every detail software patents and net neutrality. I would hope that they be more social, a good laugh, do whatever you like, have a movie night, games night, go out, or organise events like Shaun Dyer's gig, or a debate, or attend talks, there's plenty to do.

I don't appeciate the tone either, it's as though you think we should be "undercover", or "covert", and not do things openly, or even exist openly, but rather in the shadows of other groups. I want everyone to know who we are and what we stand for. We are a political party and that's kind of, you know, our job. If we want the party to grow to a level where we can change things we need to do things like this.

I agree with everything Finlay said.

finlay_a wrote: People will watch media because they enjoy that particular show/film/whatever, not simply for the sake of watching something that's pirated.

As I said, I did this at lot a university. I watched videos (sometimes actual video tapes!) people had posted from the US on occasion where the show had not yet aired over here. The 'exclusive' factor was a big draw as we were watching videos that no one would have seen already. Take this away, I'm concerned the draw will be less.

I would hope that they be more social, a good laugh, do whatever you like, have a movie night, games night, go out, or organise events like Shaun Dyer's gig, or a debate, or attend talks, there's plenty to do.

I hope so too. But this is a LOT more work to organise than pirated movie nights.

I don't appeciate the tone either, it's as though you think we should be "undercover", or "covert", and not do things openly, or even exist openly, but rather in the shadows of other groups. I want everyone to know who we are and what we stand for. We are a political party and that's kind of, you know, our job. If we want the party to grow to a level where we can change things we need to do things like this.

I'm just keen that the groups be interesting and successful. I'm sure where you get involved you will succeed in creating a fairly successful standalone group. But as advice for pirates starting out where they are the only members which is the norm, I'm suggesting an alternative approach.

borgs8472 wrote: But as advice for pirates starting out where they are the only members which is the norm, I'm suggesting an alternative approach.

The whole point of the freshers campaign is to find the future members who will create/join these groups, so no-one feels all lonely as the only pirate in their university. That said one person could realistically set up a pirate student group by themselves, it's just a case of finding other pirates. Going round CompSci with a signup form and puting up posters like this worked for us

I think we're on the same wavelength here. For freshers you want to start a concerted pirate society formation drive, I agree with this of course.

I think my suggestions mostly apply later, when that window has passed, in the middle and end of the academic year.

I'm up for this, but knowing me I'll end up doing it my way, I haven't even registered as a party member for heavens sake. I think it's time that I at least tried.

Good to see you're still here, I'm joining soon, honestly!

Edited: spellcheck

I could help in Leicester. I'm a part time student at DMU itbwould be good to link in with the Leicester pirate party gig.

More than happy to help in Glasgow of course :3

If anyone is attending UWE in Bristol, I'd be more than happy to team up for some Pirate related stuff.