Since its the beginning of a new year (for which, of course, we wish you only the best), we, the Pirates Without Borders Board, also thought it fit to think a little bit about last year as well as the coming one.
What was 2014?
For us, the board, 2014 was the first year of our two-year term. Elected in March, we did not merely take over leading positions, but a complete relaunch of the organisation. Apart from the fact that the board changed completely, with none of the former members applying again, we also used the general assembly in Munich this year to replace the statutes with a completely new Code.
This year brought a lot of work with it. A great deal of it was the administrative part of the complete relaunch: Pirates Without Borders are proud to announce that we now have a complete infrastructure of our own, including LaTex servers (https://latex.pirates-without-borders.org/login, ) also free for public use, of course), as well as an own webserver, and other necessities for running the organisation smoothly.
We also created our own corporate design in order to distinguish ourselves from the PPI and the Pirate Parties of the different countries we’re coming from, but also express our connection to the global Pirate movement.
Apart from that intern work, we were present as an Organisation at the PPI General Assembly in Paris, the General Assembly of the Pirate Party Germany and the Marina Kassel 14.2 (A report of the latter has recently been uploaded here). In addition to that, we supported the PPI’s first Think Twice Conference in Frankfurt a.M., Germany, this Year
The definite hightlight of the year, however, was the International Orga Weekend, an event which took place at the end of November in Frankfurt a.M., Germany. The International Orga Weekend was a border-crossing workshop for the awesome pirates who tirelessly work in the second row to keep the movement going. It created a space to discuss all the details of administrative work as well as controversial issues like the precise way of designing online participation or how to cope with people who deliberately disturb the work of others. We’d like to thank everybody who contributed to make the IOWE such a great success and hope to repeat it soon!
What brings the future?
Now, lets have a peek towards the next: Save the date, the first big event in 2015 is on January 24th. The alternative Munich Security Conference (http://pirate-secon.org/), organised by the German Pirate Party, will provide an extraordinary array of speakers, some of which have a reputation widely extending the borders of Germany or even Europe. Pirates Without Borders are proud to back this glamerous event.
Also in 2015, and not so far away as well, there will be this year’s general assembly of the PWB. This year it will take place in Prague on February 28th, as already announced to the members. Official invitations will follow soon. Although the Board only has seen half of their elected Term, there will doubtlessly be reason to talk.
Later in 2015, other events will follow. There will be support for greater events as well as completely „PWB-owned“ ones, like the international Orga weekend, so stay tuned!
Sebastian/Joffrey
In the end, I would like to personally thank my fellow board members, for the great work they did in rebuilding and running PWB. My special personal thanks, however, have to go out to my administration, Moira, for the last year. She undoubtedly has been the one working the hardest and most over the past months, and Pirates Without Borders owes her a lot. A great lot. Thank you very much, for everything in the past months, and especially for the things you did for me personally. Im glad to be in this board with you and Pat, and im glad to have you as a friend.
