Working Group on Pirate Governance Codex :
Presentation of the motion :
As our organization develops and matures, the need for more detailed governance guidelines arises. A lot of questions are currently not addressed by the current Rules of Procedures and other Bylaws. Like the question, what is our travel reimbursement policy? What to do if someone thinks that some board member might have a conflict of interest? Should we always be transparent in all business matters? What kind of funding sources are acceptable?
The proposing party had first thought to prepare a complete proposal for a code of good governance by copy/pasting it from some other NGO, but as we have spent time discussing it, we discovered, that it would be much more impactful to create such document nearly from scratch by discussing the overall direction and provision of such document - to create some living culture and not a dead peace of paper.
There are good guidelines and research papers about good governance in NGO available. One notable example is The Handbook of NGO Governance (published 2004 by European Center of Non-Profit Law) - but it lacks a lot of “pirate specific” topics like digital transparency and overall it does not incorporate recent research on this topic. We should also survey what works best in other organisations and adopt those practices.
The proposing delegation believe that we have a chance to create something that could be high value not only to PPI but to all its members and also to all new pirate parties around the world.
Body of the motion :
The General Assembly of the Pirate Parties International calls the board to organize a working group to create a proposal for a Pirate Governance Codex. The working group should be open to all pirates and also invite external subject matter experts. The working group should present this proposal at the next GA.
Support : PPDE
Rapporteur : Gregory