[Int-koordination] WG: [pp-leaders] CoA complaint: motions relating to affiliation fees

["Thomas Gaul" <thomas.gaul AT piratenpartei.de>]

FYI

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: pp-leaders [mailto:pp-leaders-bounces AT lists.pp-international.net] Im 
Auftrag von Brendan Molloy
Gesendet: Freitag, 19. Dezember 2014 02:07
An: Court of Arbitration
Cc: pp-leaders AT lists.pp-international.net
Betreff: [pp-leaders] CoA complaint: motions relating to affiliation fees

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Dear Court of Arbitration,

Please accept our following complaint for consideration.

An HTML version of the complaint is available here:

https://gist.github.com/bbqsrc/fc7a05121272a23804f1/730b5ae96e1912ea52bbb3697084e27cc0157a26

Please acknowledge receipt of this email as soon as possible.

Thanks!

## Complaint

PPAU requests that the Court of Arbitration hears a challenge against motions 
relating to affiliation fees at the 2014 General Assembly, specifically due 
to recent minutes of the PPI Board indicating that they are likely to move 
ahead with attempts to acquire fees from members.

PPAU consents to abide by the decision of the Court of Arbitration.

## Challenge

This challenge relates to CoA powers [XIVa(3)(a), (b), and (e)][XIVa], and 
relates to the functioning of the General Assembly and PPI Board.

### Validity of affiliation fee-related motions

The minutes in question can be found here:
http://wiki.pp-international.net/Minutes_of_GA_2014

As there are no titles in the minutes, we cannot link to the relevant section.

Please search for the following to find it:

> delay or not 9.5 in favour, 12 opposed, 2 abstentions Result: we 
> discuss the hight of the fees now

As the minutes are a complete mess, we have attempted to decipher as best as 
possible what the actual proposals were to begin with, and what the 
conclusion is.

PPAU would like to note for posterity that these minutes are not of the 
quality expected of an international organisation and the members should 
seriously consider ensuring that the quality of the minutes is significantly 
improved in the future.

Based on our analysis we believe the events to be as follows:

* "Board MOP for Membership fees at PPI" begins
* Discussion occurs.
* A vote to delay voting and discussion does not carry.
* A vote on whether or not to discuss Gregory Engels' proposed
  HDI-based fees or a "1/10 proposal", which seems to mean 10% of the
  original HDI-based proposal.
* That vote results in a discussion of the 1/10 proposal.
* A motion by PPEE that parties with less than 500 members will choose
  their own fees, seems to have carried but is not noted in the
  minutes.
* A motion to have voluntary fees for all seem to not carry, not noted.
* A motion whether fees are wanted at all, based on the tenuous phrase
  in brackets "based on what we decided for so far" carries with 55.8%
  support (not including abstentions).
* The minutes then assert that what had been agreed to is as follows:

> There will be membership fees, 1/10th of the original proposal, 
> parties with less than 500 members can pay as much as they want (but  
> a minimum of more than 0€), there are no penalties for not paying, 
> observer membership is also not associated with any costs, the first  
> fees are due for the next financial year (which begins tomorrow)

PPAU fails to see how such a result could be derived as:

* No conclusive vote as to the mechanism for determining the fees was
  carried, specifically no motion carried that meets the requirements
  of [XVI(1) or (2)][XVI];
* A feelings-based motion on whether fees are wanted carries, but it
  is a tenuous, meaningless motion, that is also not valid as per the
  statutes due to [XI(2)][XI], which stipulates that annual affiliation
  fee motions must meet a two-thirds threshold;
* PPEE's motion does not specify that the fees must be greater than 0,
  and therefore the assertion is again false;
* Notwithstanding the above, due to no fee as per [XVI(1)][XVI] being
  determined, PPEE's motion is therefore irrelevant for the time being;
* "No penalties" was not agreed to nor discussed, and is also false due
  to [XI(5)][XI], which stipulates that failure to pay fees can result
  in voting rights being suspended;
* No discussion or vote was taken regarding fees for observer members,
  and therefore the tenuous assertion is without purpose or merit as
  it bears no relevance to the discussion at hand; and
* No vote affirming the complex assertion being questioned here is
  recorded within the minutes.

#### Relevant statutes:

> XI Voting
> 
> [~snip~]
> 
> (2) Decisions concerning the admission of new Members (section III. 
> paragraph 4), the exclusion of Members (section VII, paragraph 2), the 
> determination of the annual affiliation fee (section XVI, paragraph 1) 
> and the amendment of this[sic] Statutes (section XX), shall be passed 
> by a two thirds majority of the votes cast.
> 
> [~snip~]
> 
> XV. Funding
> 
> Pirate Parties International expenditure shall be covered by:
> 
> a) affiliation fees from the Ordinary Members parties and those with  
> Observer status,
> 
> [~snip~]
> 
> XVI. Affiliation Fees
> 
> (1) The amount of the fee is determined annually by the General 
> Assembly.
> 
> (2) The affiliation fees and contributions shall be fixed in relation 
> to the finances and membership of parties.

[XI(2)][XI] clearly stipulates that motions relating to [XVI(1)][XVI] must 
carry with a two-thirds majority of votes cast.

[XV(a)][XV] implies that observer members should be included in any 
calculation of affiliation fees in [XVI][XVI].

[XVI][XVI] as a whole seems to imply that (1) should be a fixed number, and 
that (2) should apply a formula to that number consistently in relation to 
size and finances of a party, without exception.

### Suitability of PPI board accepting affiliation fees at this time

Recent minutes of the PPI board state that the board intends to soon begin 
requesting membership fees, but these very same minutes put into question 
whether or not the banking situation has been resolved sufficiently to begin 
taking large amounts of money from around the world.

Relevant URLs:

* http://wiki.pp-international.net/PPI_Minutes_2014-11-29#3_Short_Reports
* http://wiki.pp-international.net/PPI_Minutes_2014-12-09#3_Short_Reports
*
http://wiki.pp-international.net/PPI_Minutes_2014-12-09#7_Financial_Situation
*
http://wiki.pp-international.net/PPI_Minutes_2014-12-09#8_AOB_.28being_urgent.29

#### Relevant Statutes:

> XVII. Treasurer
> 
> [~snip~]
> 
> (3) The Board is responsible for the sound financial management of 
> Pirate Parties International.

[XVII][XVII] is an odd place to put a requirement of the PPI board to be 
sure, but it is a requirement of the statutes that the board soundly manages 
the finances of PPI, and this has been put into question.

## Requests

We request that the Court of Arbitration does the following:

1. Immediately introduces an injunction against the PPI board regarding
   requesting or accepting membership fees until this case is
   concluded, as per the powers of [XIVa(1) and (3)(a)][XIVa]; 2. Makes a 
determination that "fixed in relation to the finances and
   membership of parties" should be interpreted to mean a consistently
   applied formula for determining fees based on that criteria, without
   exception;
3. Makes a determination that the General Assembly did not approve any
   affiliation fee that would meet the requirements of [XVI(1)][XVI],
   either due to lack of a motion meeting those requirements, or a
   motion failing to carry due to the requirements of [XI(2)][XI]; 4. Makes a 
determination that motions relating to affiliation fees must
   meet all of the requirements of [XI(2)][XI],
   [XVI(1) and XVI(2)][XVI];
5. Makes a determination as to whether or not [XVI][XVI] applies to
   observer members, as [XV(a)][XV] seems to imply; 6. Makes a determination 
as to whether or not the current PPI board is
   meeting the requirements of [XVII(3)][XVII], which is necessary for
   the purpose of knowing whether it is safe to send affiliation fees
   to the PPI board. Should the board be found to not be meeting these
   requirements, they should be required to apply to the CoA for a
   determination on whether they meet [XVII(3)][XVII] prior to
   requesting any affiliation fees in the future, and; 7. Makes a 
determination that any attempt by the PPI board to accrue
   affiliation fees to be without authority or basis until a future
   General Assembly resolves otherwise.

[XI]: http://wiki.pp-international.net/Statutes#XI._Voting
[XIVa]: http://wiki.pp-international.net/Statutes#XIVa._Court_of_Arbitration
[XV]: http://wiki.pp-international.net/Statutes#XV._Funding
[XVI]: http://wiki.pp-international.net/Statutes#XVI._Affiliation_Fees
[XVII]: http://wiki.pp-international.net/Statutes#XVII._Treasurer

- --
Regards,

Brendan Molloy
President
Pirate Party Australia

M: +61 449 617 246
W: http://www.pirateparty.org.au
E: brendan.molloy AT pirateparty.org.au
T: @piecritic
PGP: 5721 8A69 1828 21E6

- --
Pirate Party Australia is a political party based around the core tenets of 
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