NEC/Minutes/5th December 2011
From Pirate Party UK Wiki
Contents |
Attending
Jack Allnutt (JA)
Loz Kaye (LK)
Andy Halsall (AH)
Phil Cooke (PC)
Gavin Meredith (GM)
Ed Geraghty (PC)
Harley Faggater (HF)
Apologies
None.
Minutes
Minutes from the 28th November Approved after a correction relating to GM's vote on the PPI referendum.
Matters arising
GM has not yet been able to sort out his mail encryption due to technical issues.
JA has not yet moved forward with the NextGen report.
LK has moved somewhat further on the Cyber Security policy response, the process is ongoing with the next step being discussion with the wider public.
AH has not yet issued the working group guidance to the NEC.
AH has not yet issued an email or blog post to the membership.
Both of those actions are subject to additional preparatory work that has taken longer than expected
LK contacted Justin with regard to him involving himself in the environmental aspect of the policy process with a positive response.
NEC has identified where addresses need to be changed in light of the party address change
GM will change the party address subject to the change in the banking arrangements, he has an appointment with HSBC in that regard in the week.
LK did respond to the PPI referendum and further explained the situation with PPI to the NEC.
HF had not yet sent the ICO forms and fee.
IT
IN DISPUTE
The following section has been edited to correctly reflect the intent and content of the discussion (AH) - See the *Minutes from the 12th December 2011 for an explanation
EG explained that he had run into an issue in the last week regarding permissions on PPUK IT systems. EG made clear that he had not until recently been in a position to administrate the press mailing list as he didn't have the relevant access and that Will Tovey, who had previously played a role in administrating it had had access that EG hadn't been aware of. EG further explained that he had only recently become aware of certain other aspects of the press mailing list.
PC stated that in his view all access to all systems should be removed and re-implemented to ensure correct permissions were applied. AH asked for clarification as he was under the impression that this process had already been carried out. EG stated that the issue was with systems he wasn't aware of not core party systems. AH further asked about the audit that the NEC had requested from July 2011. EG stated that a technical audit had been carried out and that broadly IT systems had been secured and access obtained. He made clear that the issues that he now faced only applied to systems he hadn't been made aware of and that PPUK IT systems were secure.
LK discussed the utility vs security issues with PPUK internal IT systems. He stated that didn't want to be involved in this issues at this level of detail and asked the NEC to get to the point where it wouldn't be required at the NEC level. EG stated that there was still an issue with specifications of elements of the new website, he had spoken to GM and AH regarding their core elemtns, but still needed to speak to PC with regard to voting systems. PC and EG arranged to meet in the week, to deal with that requirement.
AH asked about web team resources. Making clear that at present he felt that there was a lack of direct support for the production of public facing pages and content. EG stated that the situation was still as it was previously with few volunteers available on the web side.
PC asked about the responsibility of the IT team leader to the Party Secretary. GM asked if such a set up was necessary and EG asked whether adding such complexity was required. AH mentioned that having an elected NEC member with responsibility would add some level of democratic responsibility.
EG stated that he wanted it made clear what his role and responsibilities were. AH made the point that the NEC had already affirmed the web team leaders responsibilities and role and had issued a statement to allow him any access to PPUK IT resources.
After discussion on the 12th December 2011 the NEC regards following resolution as potentially incorrect in terms of phrasing and voting, a correction has been issued and voted upon in the NEC meeting *on the 12th December 2011
The NEC resolved unanimously that:
For the duration of this NEC session, NEC reaffirms IT team leaders absolute control, subject to NEC oversight, of PPUK IT systems and securty.
2012 Conference
GM stepped out.
HF stated that the responses from those venues the conference committee had approached, specifically The British Library and Imperial Collage Union had both now been received. ICU security reportedly had reservations regarding PPUK as an organisation and so would not offer a venue to the party. The British Library on the other hand felt that there were no security issues and were broadly positive. ICU would be contacted to see if there were any ways of addressing the grievances.
HF stated that he had a specific concern with the British Library in that the costs would be higher than hoped, HF asked whether the Party would consider subsidising delegates attending the conference. AH stated that the NEC had discussed this previously and that the view had been that the party would happily spend money if the result in terms of exposure increased awareness, as well as attendance was worth it, but would not to subsidise a small concern.
HF made clear that there were other venues in consideration and that they included the Union Jack Club and Fairfield Halls in Croyden. HF would follow up with the latter, the former had not been contacted. HF felt that Croydon was not a suitable location for the conference. EG was asked to contact the Union Jack Club and email the conference committee with any developments.
GM stepped in.
HF further pointed out that Stephen Ogden was awaiting a specification from Chris as to what to put on the conference website.
HF Stepped out
EG stated that he had managed to arrange speakers from the music industry to speak at conference. AH stated that there may be one other speaker available, but that the venue needed to be sorted out at the earliest opportunity.
Regularly scheduled elections
HF Stepped in
LK gave the NEC an overview of the situation with the NEC regularly scheduled elections.
LK brought back the subject of job specifications, specifically mentioning the earlier attempt in June to deal with the issue - http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/wiki/NEC/Minutes/12th_June_2011#What_is_the_role_of_the_NEC_at_the_moment.3F
LK pointed out that it was important to ensure that there were no issues with the technical aspects of the election. GM stated that he believed that the board had responsibility for running the elections with some elements relevant to Nominating Officer being handled by PC. PC stated that it would be run by the Nominating Officer in any case.
PC suggested that the election should open on the 14/15 January.
The NEC agreed with the date unanimously.
JA was asked to pass on this decision to the board. LK stated that he felt it was important that the NEC resolve any issues as soon as possible and to ensure that this election didn't derail other party operations.
May 2012 Elections
EG stepped out
PC stated that the EC had made available the timetables for the elections in early 2012 -. http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance/resources-for-those-we-regulate/candidates-and-agents/local-elections-in-england-and-wales#Timetable. That gave all the relevant information for the party.
PC stated that he was putting together a potential candidates pack. PC asked about the kinds of election that we would be taking part in. AH explained the candidates process that had been in place previously and that the discussions up until now had been with regard to local elections and the police commissioners elections later on. AH further stated that there had been a fair amount of work done on identifying candidates.
PC was asked to find out costing for the police commissioner elections coming up and any other elections. AH and PC were also asked to get in touch with each other to fully bring each other up to speed on what had already been done and what was to be done, as well as any candidate ratification requirements.
PC stated he felt LK to stand for police commissioner but suggested he wouldn't. AH felt that he might.
LK stated that elections were on the top of his pile in terms of priorities. LK stated that the formations of groups on the ground would be the ideal situation and that it was time to pull together the pirate crews. AH explained the general situation as it had been. AH pointed out that there had been issues in the past in failing to fully have candidates in place and ready and that this needed to be avoided in this election run.
AH and PC discussed Candidates.
LK stated that he didn't want to go into another election on the skin of his teeth. AH agreed. LK further suggested that almost regardless, the party would go into the coming election process better prepared than it had any other.
AH asked about membership data on the regional data, EG was unavailable to answer.
Policy
EG returned.
LK stated that the party had been looking through the issued documentation.
AH informed the NEC that he was a little behind, in part due to the scale of the process and in part due to more recent additions to it. He also pointed out some minor issues regarding technical aspects of the process. AH and EG briefly discussed availability for the implementation of the web aspects of the process and concluded that at present the work would be complete on an as soon as possible basis.
AOB
GM Reported to the NEC that he had now dealt with the Flattr response and based on what he had been told it would be fine for the party to use on the website.
JA brought up the issue of NHS patient data sales, GM added the passing of Nuclear related documentation.
LK - None
HF informed the NEC about the structure of the British Libraries pricing.
AH - None
EG - None
PC asked the NEC to accept his apologies as he would be unable to attend the meeting of the NEC on Monday the 19th December. PC aslo asked the NEC to be aware of http://www.reghardware.com/2011/12/05/swiss_insist_piracy_is_no_harm_to_copyright_owners/
Actions
PC is to establish the cost of those elections coming up in the near future.
AH and PC is to get in touch with each other regarding candidates.
JA is to pass on this decision to the board that the NEC elections will be opened on teh 14/15th January.
EG is to contact Union Jack Club and email conference on any developments regarding using that as a conference venue.
GM is asked to sort out his mail encryption and make his public key available.
JA is to move forward with the NextGen report as per last week.
LK is to continue the Cyber Security response and broaden the discussion into the wider public.
LK & AH to put together an FOI request to the Cabinet Office with regard to spending on Cyber Secruty policy elements already in place.
AH will work with EG to sort out the remaining policy elements on the web side.
GM is to deal with changing the party address subject to the banking being corrected (meeting in the week).
HF was tasked to send the ICO forms and fee.