NEC/Minutes/28th November 2011
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Contents |
Attending
Jack Allnutt (JA)
Loz Kaye (LK)
Andy Halsall (AH)
Harley Faggetter (HF)
Gavin Meredith (GM) (Arrived after matters arising)
Apologies
Phil Cooke (PC)
Minutes
Minutes from the 23rd November Approved unanimously
Matters arising
PC did contact PH with regard to the nominations process & time-scale.
LK has placed the party address change on the agenda for this week.
AH has dealt with the banking this week.
Whole NEC was to complete the policy spreadsheets issued by AH by Friday if possible, sheets were received from AH, LK, HF and JA. GM informed AH that he would get it too him in the week.
AH has been working to establish the working groups.
LK didn't put a leaders statement out on Friday.
Policy
LK stated that the NEC had been digesting and reading the document that had been issued. He stated that as requested he had been liberal on his positions to help drive debate. LK went on to say that it was now time to involve as many other people from this point. GM asked about his contribution AH assured him that his points would be taken on board and merged as the working groups formed.
LK pointed out that Rick Falkvinge had recently discussed the policy broadening concept and that this would be worth feeding in to the working groups and those involved.. AH stated that it looked like there would be 10 or so working groups, assuming that the reduction of policy suggestions happened as he anticipated. AH stated that he had a time frame for the next stage of 2 weeks, but it would likely be 3 weeks realistically. HF asked about the additional external advice, AH informed the NEC that he anticipated the expert advice would come once the working groups had had a chance to clean the final policy elements.
JA stated that the discussion with Ad Creatives would also have to come at a point where the policy elements had been solidified.
AH was tasked to issue the working group guidance to the NEC and then the working groups as they were formed.
AH was tasked to issue an email or blog post to the membership and out via other means to put together the working groups. LK to contact Justin to see if he would be interested in involving himself in the environmental aspect.
Member Communications
The issue of membership communications was brought in from the NEC meeting on the 23rd November. AH asked what the proposed periodic membership communication would be aimed to achieve. LK stated that his view was that the aim of the mailing should be to increase member involvement with the party, to help members become activists. AH made some suggestions as to how to organise the effort and suggested putting out an email to request to the membership to find interested people to run it. The NEC agreed that the issue would be put back for two weeks to allow the policy process to come almost to a conclusion and to allow the NEC to discuss this again then
LK was asked to add membership communication on the agenda again in two weeks.
Party Address
The NEC noted that there was an issue with the current address being LK's house as LK is away from home a fair amount at present, the NEC agreed that an alternative was required. The NEC discussed the issue and then asked GM whether he would be happy to have party correspondence go to his house. GM agreed.
The NEC was asked to identify where addresses need to be changed outside of the EC and banking. GM was asked to change the address once the banking addresses had been updated.
The NEC resolved unanimously to change the registered party address to:
Flat 11
45 Streatham Hill
SW2 4T
Flattr
LK asked whether flattr could be used given the parties responsibilities to the EC. LK stated that he had been talking to flattrs development officer and wanted to move forward with it. GM asked for any correspondence to be passed to him to deal with.
PPI referendum
LK stated that he had had an email regarding a referendum within the PPI. The NEC voiced concerns about PPUK's current relationship with PPI, and raised the point that some of those concerns may have stemmed from the way the party had linked into the board (or rather failed to). GM interrupted at this point to point make clear that there had been an apparent democratic deficit with our relationship with PPI and that even initially the party hadn't agreed Finlay Archibald to initially represent the PPUK on the PPI board. AH agreed noting that most of the external, especially European relationships between parties were as a result of personal contacts, not from the PPI. LK stated that this was problematic, but historic and that the party needed to look forward with regard to its future relationship.
With regard to the referendum, LK suggested that the NEC should consider approving 1a and 2b in their response. GM stated that preferred that the party should abstain from the vote given our relationship and the effectiveness of the PPI. The NEC further discussed the issue.
After further discussion, AH, LK and HF agreed that the NEC should agree to the approval of the two options LK has proposed. LK stated that he would reply with the NEC vote, but that he would ask the PPI to ensure that the party had more time so that PPUK could discuss the matter properly.
Party Secretary
The NEC noted that the requested change to the party constitution relating to the Data Controller post renaming to Party Secretary had been passed. The NEC wished to thank the board for their time and effort in working on this change.
LK asked whether the NEC wanted to deal with is issue in this meeting. The NEC agreed unanimously to do so.
LK asked whether there was a practial need for a re-election now given the change:
NEC discussed this
The NEC agreed that given the role would not change until after elections in January, that no action was required immediately. The NEC would work to put together a job description for the party with HF leading that effort.
AOB
GM – GM noted that from a perspective of transparency, the NEC needed to ensure that minutes of decisions reflected the results and discussion a more formally. AH stated that he felt that the representations were fair, but that ensuring they were noted more formally was important. AH suggested that all votes would be noted, any votes that resulted in anything other than unanimous agreement would include notes on who objected and on what basis.
GM also suggested that the NEC should meet again physically in the near future. LK stated he would be in London on the 17th December, HF, AH stated that they could attend a meeting on that date too GM asked if anyone on the NEC was currently owed money from the party. All NEC members stated that there were no outstanding reimbursements required.
HF – HF stated that he would now send the ICO documentation back to the ICO, he stated that he would pay the relevant fees and then present a claim to the party
HF Gave an update on the issues with conference.
JA - Nil
LK – LK brought up current issues such as the cyber security document. LK made clear that th party needed to formulate a response to the policy. LK also suggested that the party should look for external input as well as input from the membershipt. JA suggested that this could also be worked on by the relevant policy working groups. HF stated that it might be worth getting in touch with other organisations with similar aims in this area, to see if they wanted to put together a joint statement.
LK was asked to move forward on Cyber security response
JA was asked to move forward with the NextGen report
AH – AH asked that any members of the NEC who didn't currently have encryption keys for email obtained them. GM was asked to sort out his mail encryption and make his public key available.
Actions
GM was asked to sort out his mail encryption and make his public key available.
JA is to move forward with the NextGen report
LK is to move forward on Cyber security response
AH was tasked to issue the working group guidance to the NEC and then the working groups as they were formed.
AH was tasked to issue an email or blog post to the membership and out via other means to put together the working groups.
LK to contact Justin to see if he would be interested in involving himself in the environmental aspect.
LK was asked to add membership communications to the agenda again in two weeks.
NEC was asked to identify where addresses need to be changed in light of the party address change and inform GM.
GM was asked to change the party address.
LK was asked to respond to the PPI refferendum.
HF was tasked to send the ICO forms and fee.