Congratulations to Peter Liddell and John Barron who were elected to be the new Party Treasurer and Nominating Officer respectively.  The detailed numbers on the votes cast can be seen at http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/vote/result/5/ and http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/vote/result/6/

Due to a glitch the polls closed earlier than planned.  However, I'm minded to call the results as they stood when the polls closed because both candidates won by comfortable margins.

One surprise was that the voting turnout was well down on the vote to ratify new appointments that occurred just a week ago.  The total number of votes cast in these internal elections was approximately half of the number cast for the ratification vote, although this was still sufficient to surpass a 10% threshold for a quorum of members.  It also took significantly longer for people to cast their votes; most of the ratification votes were cast within a day of those polls opening, but the voting in these elections was more spread out, with a more gradual tailing off in the number of votes cast each day.  One inference is that running two votes back-to-back provoked voter apathy.  This implies all-member votes should be rationed and synchronized to encourage active participation and a good turnout every time.

I'll be standing down now as Election Overseer, as well as Treasurer.  The next elections, for all the officers, is planned for January.  Well done to Peter and John, and I hope all members will get behind them and give them all the support they can.

The poll to get your feedback on the party unconference is still open for a few more days.  We need to know what kind of party you think this is: do we hold national meetings like ordinary political parties, or do we exist only on the internet?  Let us know whether you want to attend the unconference by responding to the forum poll: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1083

Fellow Pirates, we are moving immediately to the first genuine internal elections for the party’s officers.  This follows the successful completion of the vote to ratify appointments to second-tier positions of responsibility (more on that below).  The vacant officer positions are Treasurer and Nominating Officer.  For the role of Treasurer, we have one nominee: Peter Liddell.  For Nominating Officer, there are two nominees: John Barron and Jeremy Morton.  As well as voting for the nominees, members also have the option to call for the reopening of nominations, or to abstain.  If any of the candidates gets a simple majority, they will be appointed.  If reopening of nominations gets the most votes in either election, there will be a fresh call for nominees and a re-run of that election.  Abstentions do not influence the result, but give members the opportunity to register their participation without expressing a preference.

As with last week’s ratification vote, all current members can vote by logging on to the website and visiting http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/vote/ where they will see two votes, one for Treasurer, and one for Nominating Officer.  The vote is now open, and votes can be cast up to midnight Monday 7th December.

The nominees have been encouraged to promote themselves using the existing communication channels, particularly the forums and IRC.  You can read about the candidates and ask them questions at the following forum threads:

Peter Liddell for Treasurer: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1082

John Barron for Nominating Officer: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=985

Jeremy Morton for Nominating Officer: http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1048

To further aid the members in making their decision, Gavin Meredith has volunteered to collate questions from members and ask them to all of the nominees.  Please keep an eye on the forums for news of this.

We are moving ahead with the internal election following the very successful first ‘trial’ of the voting system as used to ratify four new appointments to positions of responsibility.  All four appointments were overwhelmingly endorsed by the party membership.  The results were as follows.

Tom Lilley for Head of the Web Team: 157 to approve, 7 to reject
Peter Liddell for Deputy Treasurer (Members & Donations): 149 to approve, 4 to reject
John Prescott for Deputy Treasurer (Costs & Budgets): 143 to approve, 7 to reject
Eric Priezkalns for Election Overseer: 153 to approve, 4 to reject

This ratification vote showed not only that the voting system works, but also that a large number of members are happy to use it.  The virtual turnout exceeded a quarter of all members.  With that in mind, my first decision as Election Overseer ...

Thanks to the hard work of Rob Howson, we are in a position to share some plans for the party’s unconference.  It is an unconference, not a conference, because we are that kind of party – unconventional, undaunted, and, erm... un-ique.  Now all we need is some feedback to say if the plans are on the right lines.

The planned date is Saturday January 16th.  January is a good month because we need to avoid the Christmas season but we want to hold it before the general election.  Holding the unconference in January also allows us to use the unconference as an opportunity to hold hustings for the internal elections taking place at that time, as well as meeting and cross-examining the people who want to stand as prospective candidates in the general election.  The goal is hence to have every would-be parliamentary candidate and every would-be officer in attendance so they all get to know the team of people they will be working with in the general election.

Sheffield was picked as the location.  The city is relatively equidistant for people travelling from the North or South.  The planned venue is the Showroom: http://www.showroom.org.uk/ which is conveniently located very near to the train station.  Rob has pulled together a really useful map highlighting places to stay, car parks etc nearby: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=111239977294925887619.0004790d3e4722fd47d79

The conference itself would last one day, to avoid the cost of overnight stays.  It would run from 10.30am to 6pm, giving most of the country a fair chance to get there in the morning, attend the whole event, and return home that evening.  For those interested, there would be a social event on the Saturday evening.

The planned cost is to charge a flat fee of £20 to every member who wants to attend.  The venue can accommodate up to 60 people, which is approximately 1 for every 10 current members.  Tickets would be sold on a strict first come, first served basis.  The fee includes both entry to the unconference, lunch and refreshments during the day.  It does not cover other costs like an evening meal, travel, parking or hotel.  With a fee of £20, the party could break-even without selling out the event, but a sell-out would mean we made a small profit that would go towards the funds needed to fight the election.  If the initial response is really strong, we will of course look at ...

The good news is that the first ‘trial’ of our members voting system already looks to have been a success. That trial is the current ratification vote to approve or reject the appointment of four second-tier positions of administrative responsibility, like Deputy Treasurer or Head of the Web Team. The voting system appears to be working correctly, and just as important, our members have been using it. A quarter of members have voted already, within just two days of the vote commencing. Many thanks to Tom and the team that implemented the system, and many thanks to those of you who have voted already. For those who have not voted already, the vote will remain open until the end of Sunday 29th November.

Given my confidence that the ‘trial’ will be a complete success, my mind turns to what comes next: the first genuine internal election where members will select Officers of the party. Two positions are up for election. Those are for the party’s Treasurer and Nominating Officer. Assuming no last-minute glitches, we will start the elections as soon as the result is called on the current ratification vote. That means we need to determine the deadline for nominations now.

Candidates for the role of Nominating Officer or Treasurer need to put themselves forward by midnight on Sunday 29th November. The call for candidates was announced on the forum weeks ago, and was reiterated in the blog and email informing members of the current ratification vote. I hope that by announcing the deadline, we encourage prospective candidates to make themselves known immediately, instead of delaying to see who else will be in the race. In short, if you want to stand for either role, nominate yourself now. To stand, let me know at eric.priezkalns{at}pirateparty.org.uk.

Two candidates have already put themselves forward for Nominating Officer: John Barron and Jeremy Morton. I have just received a first nomination for the role of Treasurer, from Peter Liddell; you may have noticed that Pete was one of my picks for Deputy Treasurer so I am pleased to see someone like him stepping up and offering to take on the role I am vacating.  If you want to stand for the role of Treasurer or Nominating Officer, do your fellow members a favour by letting them know sooner rather than later. By doing so, you give members the ...