On Saturday 22 December 2012 members of the Belgian Pirate Party met up for an extraordinary general assembly (EGA). This gathering was held in the Wallonian student city of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve. This location was a symbolic choice, during the communal elections of 14 October the party reached 5.16%, its best result ever. Only 14 votes shy of our first city councillor.

The goal of this meeting was to expand the structure of the party. Since it’s founding in 2009, the Belgian Pirate Party only functioned on the basis of some simple principles. The strong growth the party went through since the beginning of 2012, made the current structure unworkable. Over 60 pirates were present. During the two months preceding the EGA, all members and sympathizers had the opportunity to submit proposals and amendments. From all this input no less than 170 items that needed to be voted where distilled out.

The whole meeting proceeded in a good, productive atmosphere without any major disagreements. Nevertheless it proved impossible to complete the very ambitious agenda. However, with about 100 points covered a big step forward was taken.

Some of the things covered were: the membership, the relationship between the party and its future elected representatives and the functioning of the local Crews, the organizational Squads and the national Coreteam. Members of this Coreteam, that will also be called the Admiralty from now on, will no longer be assigned specific functions.

Now a dedicated project squad will go to work to compile all the voted proposals and check the whole for consistency. The remaining points will be handled at the next general assembly planned for March. Maybe even more important than the voted proposal was the opportunity for pirates from the entire country to get to know each other.

Featured image CC-BY by Lionel Dricot and Pirate Party West-Vlaanderen

About Koen De Voegt

I’m a 34 year old electronics engineer from Antwerp, Belgium. I joined the Belgian Pirate Party in October of 2011. Around that time I was one of the first members of the Ghent branch. In January 2012 I founded the local branch of the PP in the city and province of Antwerp. I’m also travelling to international PP meetings, sometimes as delegate. I find the international nature of the pirate movement one of its great strengths to focus more on this I’ve successfully ran for co-chairperson of PPI.

 

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On Saturday 22 December 2012 members of the Belgian Pirate Party met up for an extraordinary general assembly (EGA). This gathering was held in the Wallonian student city of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve….