NEC/Minutes/15th September 2010
From Pirate Party UK Wiki
NEC meeting minutes 15th September 2010
Attendees
Andrew Tindall, Andrew Robinson, Miah Gregory, Peter Brett, Finlay Archibald
Apologies
Peter Liddell, John Barron
Approval of minutes
Minutes of emergency meeting approved on Saturday.
Merchandising
Peter Brett has been talking to someone about taking this on, and will report back on this.
Forthcoming elections
Election in Edinburgh has now concluded, with a promising increase in percentage of the vote from the general election. The lessons learned from this election will be invaluable in future elections around the country.
Bank account access
It is believed that Eric Priezkalns, John Mckeown and Philip Hunt all have had some level of access to the bank account, however only Eric Priezkalns has phone banking access. The other two were allowed to countersign cheques, however only Eric Priezkalns ever had a cheque book.
Miah Gregory proposed that the best thing to do at this stage would be to take a two pronged approach with dealing with the bank account problem.
The first is to open a new bank account. Miah Gregory and Peter Liddell delivered the form and proof of id to the bank on Saturday 11th September following the emergency NEC meeting on Friday, and were advised at the time that we should hear back in around two weeks.
The second is to complete the change of address and change of signatories forms for the existing bank account. Eric Priezkalns has offered to handle the transfer of money and closure of the account, however Miah Gregory feels that it is better for all involved that the NEC regain full control of the account in the short term and handle this process within the Party. We may end up closing this account in the longer term.
Action: Andrew Robinson will post the copies of the forms to Miah Gregory who will endeavour to get this process concluded as soon as possible.
Paypal
Miah has changed all of the security details on the PayPal account. The remaining issue is to change the name of the account holder, which currently is Eric Priezkalns. This requires a proof of id process, which is waiting on the new bank account being opened.
Action: Miah Gregory will push forward the change of id process once the new bank account has been opened. Peter Liddell should go through the paypal account and confirm that all transactions match up with the accounts, except for the one refund transaction.
Disciplinary sub-committee
Nothing to report at this stage in the process. Miah Gregory has been primarily focusing on resolving the data protection concerns.
Freshers
Finlay Archibald is looking to get leaflets printed, although the problems with the bank account are impacting this. The deadline for shipping really begins next week for Strathclyde University in Glasgow, other freshers fairs are coming up soon too. Proposal is to use the printer we have used for project postcard (1-2-print.co.uk) as they take PayPal and have a 5 day turnaround, allowing us to meet the deadline for fairs after next week. We are looking to order 5000 flyers.
Action: Finlay Archibald will get in touch with Peter Liddell to get these ordered and paid for.
Badges
Finlay Archibald will talk to Peter Liddell about getting funds to pay for these.
Pirate Students
http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2641 This seems like a good idea, and the NEC encourages this to go ahead.
Membership Renewal Issues
http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2648 Category of ‘registered supporter’ vs. a ‘normal user' - has this been set up? Are the follow up renewal notices being sent correctly? Are members being converted to ‘registered supporters’ if they don’t renew? Action: Miah Gregory will talk to Tom Lilley about this.
Volunteers
People volunteering but not knowing what they can do. http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2623
Peter Brett has created a page on the wiki to list areas in which help is needed: Help Needed. Andrew Tindall is planning to add a volunteering/vacancies page to the Party tab soon.
Membership pack contents
Designs - Andrew Robinson is a little behind on this but will try to get some designs over to Peter Brett tomorrow.
Regional membership targets
Someone suggested that RAO’s should have targets for recruiting new members. It was felt that there aren’t any workable incentives, or disincentives (given the voluntary nature) that could be effectively used to encourage this.
Member recruitment incentives
Proposal that any new member would get a month free. NEC agreed to keep this on the agenda for now, as we wish to keep the web team focus.
Other business
Finlay Archibald asked if Andrew Tindall could send out an email to the Scottish members about the upcoming meeting on Wednesday next week. It was suggested that it would help if Finlay Archibald could organise the text for this.
Andrew Robinson has seen a marked increase in people asking for interviews over the course of the last week. The Digital Economy Act seems to be one catalyst in this.