GM 2014-02-26 minutes

The deferred General Meeting of the Pirate Party of Canada came to order at 20:11 Eastern Time, February 26, 2014 at ca.pirateirc.net irc channel #canada. The President (phillipsjk) was the chair.

phillipsjk MOVED "Approve agenda as amended." NO SECOND.

For Officers reports, RLim presented a Financial update posted on our forum.

phillipsjk MOVED "Approve Political Council results as published." SECONDED by Wilson CARRIED (12 in favor, 0 against)

psema4 noted that (the) 2014 Executive Board Election Discussion could use some love.

chadoh_ Linked the current list

CraigNobbs presented his proposed constitutional ammendment:
 * "Article IV. Officers, excluding IV.1 Election", shall be stricken and replaced with the following:
 * The officers of the party shall be the Leader, the President, the Deputy Leader, the Vice-President,and the Secretary. These officers shall perform the duties given to them by this document, by the Party, or by the parliamentary authority of the Party.
 * Officers of the party are the members of the Executive Council, which comprise of the Leader, Deputy Leader, President, Vice President, and Secretary positions.


 * "Article IV.2 Holding Dual Positions" to be added:
 * A member can be nominated, elected, and hold up to and no more than two positions within the Executive Council; a maximum of one position on the Executive Board and a maximum of one position on the Political Council. To be elected to both the Executive Board and the Political Council, the member must be separately nominated and elected following the rules set out in this Constitution for each respective position.
 * A member who holds a position on both the Executive Board and the Political Council retains all rights, powers, and restrictions afforded both the respective positions as laid out by the Constitution. This is to allow the member to retain all rights of both positions and act independently of the other position held.
 * In all other matters, said member is considered a single entity [member], and is governed by the same rights and restrictions as every other member as the Constitution lays out. This is to ensure that the member is otherwise limited to their normal, single vote and consideration.

psema4 MOVED "to accept the constitutional ammendments" SECONDED by BobJonkman

CraigNobbs Stated: "at this point, we'll open up the floor for discussion. Anyone have anything to ask or say about this amendment? Existing text Amended text

Some discussion ensued about the governance of the party should be structured.

phillipsjk proposed a modified version of the MOTION: "Send CraigNobbs' constitutional amendment to an all-party vote." NO SECOND.

TravisMcCrea Said: "Line 14 (of amended text) is inherently broken due to leader having membership to all executive committees. ... because you are holding multiple positions on the EB"

CraigNobbs Said: "no you're not. It clearly states that you cannot hold more than one position within the EB."

TravisMcCrea Also is "EC" the PC and EB combined?

CraigNobbs as I read it, yes. The EC is the EB and the PC combined

There was some discussion over existing voting rights.

Wilson_ Asked: Why isn't the amendment simply to remove "The positions of President, Vice-President and Secretary shall not be eligible to hold a position on the Political Council."?

psema4 MOVED To table discussion. (Paraphrase, 21:19 Eastern) SECONDED by TravisMcCrea CARRIED (7 in favor, 1 against, 3 abstain)

phillipsjk MOVED "Send all-party ballot asking meeting quorum to be set to 10." SECONDED by Infovorr (after 5 minutes). (12 in favor, 0 against) CARRIED. (Note: 21:34 Eastern)

There was some discussion about holding asynchronous meetings. BobJonkman pointed out that IRC meetings may be inaccessible to some (non-technical) people.

TravisMcCrea Gave NOTICE of bringing (a constitutional) amendment next meeting of "Change the name of the party to "Best Party""

CCitizen said: I'd like to give notice to change the party's name to "The Best Damn Party Ever" :D

BobJonkman said: TravisMcCrea: It is likely that such a name would not be approved by the Returning Officer

phillipsjk said: AFAIK, notices don:(

CraigNobbs MOVED bring back CraigsNobbs' Constitutional amendment for discussion. SECONDED by dysonsphere CARRIED (14 in favor, 1 against) (Note: 21:46 Eastern)

TravisMcCrea Explained that he would rather we merge the PC and EB, rather than amend the constitution to allow one person to sit on both.

It was explained that the problem with Wilson_'s version of the amendment (quoted before first tabling motion above) was that it would be open to abuse. For example, one person would be able to hold 3 or more positions.

The reason for the amendment was questioned. RLim explained: "Last election CraigNobbs was forced to give up his PC position after winning VP at EB. The idea of the amendment was to allow the person to stay on PC." Wilson_ added: "PC and EB handle different things. So it is reasonable to say they might want to contribute in different ways"

TravisMcCrea commented "that it's not good policy making to rush something -- just because it's politically advantagous for someone." phillipsjk replied: "Instead of rushing, the meeting is going long." (note: 22:15 Eastern)

There was some discussion about the lack of EB candidates, making one person holding two positions necessary in some cases.

TravisMcCrea MOVED to table CraingNobbs's constitutional amendment. SECONDED by MHoude CARRIED (8 in favor, 3 against, 1 Abstain). (note: 22:28 Eastern)

The EB nominations were disorgnized. The CHAIR did not figure out the composition of the board until 22:38 Eastern ("...the Leader and Deputy leader positions just have a small candidate pool: PC members")

Meeting lost QUORUM at 22:55 Eastern. It was decided nominations did not require quorum since they only require 2 people.

RLim NOMINATED phillipsjk (for President) SECONDED by chadkoh_

TravisMcCrea declined any nomination.

CCitizen NOMINATED Wilson for Leader SECONDED by Wilson

CraigNobbs NOMINATED CraigNobbs for (President) SECONDED by phillipsjk

CCitizen NOMINATED Ric Lim for Secretary SECONDED by mordecai

TravisMcCrea NOMINATED psema4 for (President) NO SECOND psema4 declined any nomination.

Wilson NOMINATED CraigNobbs for Leader SECONDED by RLim
 * (Note implied by "CraigNobbs: yeah you and Wilson are already nominated", which would also imply the RLim's "second" "times whatever number of second needed." served 3 nominations)

TravisMcCrea NOMINATED CCitizen for president SECONDED by RLim

TravisMcCrea NOMINATED BobJonkman for president SECONDED by RLim

CCitizen NOMINATED Shawn Vulliez for Leader SECONDED by psema4

RLim NOMINATED MononcQc for Leader SECONDED by dysonsphere

RLim NOMINATED chadkoh_ for Leader NO SECOND Chadoh_ declined a Leader nomination

TravisMcCrea NOMINATED mordecai for President SECONDED by dysonsphere

mordecai declined a Presidential nomination.

Wilson declined a Presidential nomination.

phillipsjk declined nomination for President

RLim declined nomination for Secretary


 * Final Presidential Nominations:
 * Craig Nobbs (CraigNobbs)
 * Patrick Fitzgerald (CCitizen)


 * Final Leader Nominations:
 * James Wilson (Wilson)
 * Craig Nobbs (CraigNobbs)
 * Shawn Vulliez (svulliez)
 * Frederic Trottier-Hebert (MonoQC)


 * Final Secretary Nominations:
 * James Phillips (phillipsjk)


 * Errata
 * It appears that BobJonkman was nominated for President, but has not formally declined the nomination, nor appears on the ballot. They did comment that "Seems like we have a good slate of nominations." When the final list was presented.

Nominees from 2014 February 26 General Meeting

CraigNobbs asked that we hold a Special General Meeting next week to deal with his proposed amendment. This requires 3 days notice and a 2/3 vote of the PC or EB. A special General Meeting can also be called if 15 members petition the President.

phillipsjk MOVED to adjourn. SECONDED by Infovorr CARRIED (7 in favor, none opposed)

The Meeting was adjourned at 23:32, Eastern time.