SE England minutes - Portsmouth 2010-06-27
From Pirate Party UK Wiki
The South East England region's next will be held in Portsmouth.
- Date: 27th June 2010
- Time: 2pm
- Venue: The Kraken Wakes Pub, Portsmouth
- Event listing
- Forum Thread
- Calendar ics subscription: South East Regional Events
Attendees
- Azrael / Stephen (chair)
- Bones / Rebecca
- Gwynna / Amy
- Rancidpunk / John
- VJ / Vijay
Total: 5
Agenda
Welcome and introductions
Those present introduced themselves and due to the pub having renamed itself from The Registry to The Kraken Wakes the start of the meeting was significantly delayed in order to accommodate late arrivals due to any venue name confusion. By 2:45 with no late arrivals on the horizon the meeting agreed to adjourn and relocate for the duration of the football match.
There was plenty of opportunity for non-party chatting and socialising and it was good to have an opportunity to get to know previously (outside of the forum) unknown members.
Minutes of the last meeting
On the agenda as a matter of form. Chair very briefly summarised the last Guildford meeting he attended, notes of which can be found on the wiki.
Matters arising
No matters arising.
Chair’s communications
Chair recognised the work of the previous SE admins.
With a smaller than hoped turn-out the meeting took a less formal structure and following notes are placed into the sections most appropriate.
Roles and duties within the region
- what members want from the RAO
- deputies
The members present were clearly eager to participate in further meetings. It was pointed out that organising events at which members could actively publicise the party would be very welcomed.
Current party issues
- what’s going on in the forum, irc, etc
Forum conversations regarding the Scottish region were also discussed in the context of what falls within a region to take charge of and organise. This issue crossed-over with the previous point, in terms of roles and duties within a region, and the idea that the SE could create a regional bank account and conduct regional fund raising was strongly supported.
Mobilising existing membership - Brainstorming ideas
This is a tricky issue, and should perhaps always be on the agenda as we should never lose sight of the potential of under utilised members. It was clear from such a low turn out that members could be better mobilised. Chair took responsibility for over-estimating the England football team when planning the meeting for the Sunday rather than the Saturday - a decision which may have had some part in the low turn-out.
Expanding membership, publicity - More brainstorming
This issue crossed-over with that of publicising the party better at organised events.
Regional administration - data collation/analysis (db?), candidate ratification, etc.
- data collation/analysis (db?)
- candidate ratification
Members present were all clearly in favour of running candidates in local elections. There is currently insufficient data about exactly when there will be elections in places where we have suitable candidates. Chair believes we need some organised data collection (crowd sourced from members) to help.
It was noted that the subscribe-able ics link (to a gmail calendar) to track SE events was a good idea.
Post meeting idea: As Chair now has a ppuk email address (run using google apps) this is something that could be run from the calendar associated with that account. Chair suggests that other party events could be organised through public shared calendars (if they aren't already). After testing this isn't possible with the current calendar options - don't know if this is something the party can change or not.
Organising and planning future meetings
Chair suggested (thanks to Peter Brett for the idea) that a member in a particular area stepping forward and hosting a meeting would be a good way to organise future meetings. Chair is also very keen to be able to pinpoint and identify members in the same city and send them targeting communications in an attempt to organise small localised meetings to mobilise as yet inactive members, and to provide several strong bases for both regular meeting venues as well as electoral campaigning.
Any other business
Chair voiced dissatisfaction with not only the current lack of being able to directly contact regional members, but also the worry that such an ability when granted will not be with the level of detail desired. Chair wishes to clearly state that he wishes a spreadsheet of SE members which contains names, email addresses, and city of residence.
Chair is concerned that in coming months, as membership renewal comes about, many members will vanish and the party will shrink. Chair wants to be able to target and mobile members now to try and keep members involved and interested.