Crew

This page founds the base structure and the procedures of the Pirate Party Belgium. This is the foundation of the Pirate Party as a “Grass roots” movement, the principles are simple and can be repeated perpetually. The “Three pirate rule” is explained in this document, together with some financial rules.

Three Pirate Rule

The Three Pirate Rule is a fundamental principle of the Pirate movement. The idea behind the Three Pirate Rule is to guarantee the freedom of initiative, vision and opinion for everyone. The Three Pirate Rule tells us that only three pirates are necessary to execute an idea. They don't need any further “Permission” to continue and run this idea as an “official” Pirate Party activity. There are three exceptions to the Three Pirate Rule:

• 1 Don't do anything illegal
• 2 Don't do anything that can damage the good name or the reputation of the party.
• 3 Don't use any funds of the party. You may ask for funds.

What's a Crew?

Brought back to the mere essence, the concept of a Pirate Crew works as follows:

• A Crew is a self-organizing local entity of the Pirate Party. The Crew serves mainly as to build a network, to reach consensus and to bring knowledge to new pirates.
• Crews are local entities which work from a geographic point of view. A Crew exists of three to eleven pirates. Seven pirates is considered the optimum and we seriously advice to aim for and keep at this number. With this number of pirates you can sit around a table and have a meaningful conversation. If the Crew exceeds the maximum number of eleven members, then it splits into two new Crews. This can also happen earlier. If the Crew diminishes under three active members, then it dissolves or merges with another Crew.
• Every member picks an anchoring spot to hold regularly meetings. An anchoring spot is a public place (bar, library, public center, …). The Crew assembles whenever it wants, but at least once a month. If not, the Crew is first considered sleeping, and later dissolved by the party. The Crew writes a report on the meetings and publishes it.
• Crew members live by preference as close as possible to the anchoring spot. This makes regular meetings easier. Exceptions are accepted.
• Every Crew picks a specific name. This makes the Crew easier to recognize and evades confusion with other pirate Crews.
• Decisions are taken by consensus. The best decisions are the ones with which everyone agrees. If that doesn't work, decisions are made by a normal majority. The minority then either accepts the decision of the majority or starts a new Crew.
• Every Crew maintains its own Wiki Page. This page contains at least the name of the Crew, the names of its members, the location of the anchoring point, the date of the Crew meetings and the reports of these meetings.
• Every Crew assigns a Captain and a Navigator. The position of Captain and Navigator changes every three months. They don't have any additional votes or right on decisions. The Captain presides the meetings and represents the Crew to the outside world. The Navigator coordinates the meetings, helps new members and is responsible for the updates of the wiki page. Captain and Navigator can be forced to resign by voting at any time.
• If a Crew makes a banking account, it also needs to appoint a treasurer and a vice-treasurer. The funds of the Crew need to be maintained in an open and transparent way, as mentioned at the end of this document. The PPBe can also open an internal account for the Crew, contact the treasurer.
• New pirates are invited to participate at Crew meetings of the Crews in its area.
• Crews can cooperate for the coordination in its larger areas. Usually the Captains and Navigators will raise a new Crew for this. These Crew rules also apply in this situation.
• Crews can apply for a new mailing list at the secretary of the party. The party secretary passes this on to the IT workgroup. You can find the contact information at the end of this document.

If you think this is a good idea and you know other Pirates with which you can form a Crew, then you don't need any further cheers or permission.