Building a strong political party

When we sent off our party registration form to the Electoral Commission less than a dozen weeks ago, we were all absolute beginners at running a political party. We elected 4 officers, because there were 4 officer jobs to be filled in on that form. We've come a very, very long way in a few short weeks, with more media coverage than we could have hoped for, and as officers, we've learned a lot about how a political party works. We've had our share of teething troubles, as you might expect from any group of volunteers, but we've learned a lot of lessons too, and we now have a much clearer picture of how much interest there is in the Pirate Party UK, and what needs to be done to turn this large group of  interested people into a fully functioning political party capable of contesting major elections ... and that's what I'm blogging about today.

The 4 officer roles that the Electoral Commission required us to fill in on that form were chosen by the Electoral Commission because they need to know who to send letters to, not because it takes exactly 4 people to run a party. In reality, the role of 'Treasurer' is so large that it requires a team of people. On the other hand the role of Nominating officer is (at it's core) just one of filling in forms when an election comes. The role of Leader is perhaps the most vaguely defined of all. As you might expect from the largest political party on Facebook, we have reached the stage where we need to expand the team of people who have formal roles in the party. The system of elections we used to pick our officers relied on a month-long vote, but the pressing need to expand the structure of the party means we need a faster process for new appointments, because we can't afford to be unprepared for the General Election. We have had some appointments by default, such as Gavin the web hero, but that's not really a grown-up process for a grown-up party.

From now on, our process for handing out non-officer jobs will consist of appointment and ratification by member votes. The leader and officers have the power to appoint people to roles, and these appointments will start immediately, but be subject to a vote of members, who can say no to any appointment, and their decision will be binding. Today, I'm announcing the first few appointments, and forum votes to ratify these appointments will be set up shortly. I'm proud to announce that Peter Liddell has been appointed as deputy treasurer responsible for membership and donations. John Prescott as deputy treasurer responsible for  budgeting, and WilliamFS as manifesto co-ordinator. This last job is a very important one, William will be responsible for the ongoing process taking the results from the policy working groups and turning them into a solid, coherent, well-written manifesto that we can present to voters. This is no simple task, WiIliam will be responsible for the process of organising member votes to ratify all our policies, to ensure that our manifesto will be (perhaps uniquely among major parties) entirely democratically decided by party members. If you are reading this and you are not yet a member, this is your cue to sign up so you can vote! We are a very new party and therefore inevitably very short of funds. Income from membership fees is absolutely vital to pay the £500 deposit per constituency that is required if we are going to give the people of the UK the chance to vote pirate.

We are actively looking to appoint people to several other roles. Gavin is stepping down from his role in charge of the webteam because he doesn't have enough spare time to devote to the job, and we will ratify his replacement soon. There is a strong candidate for the job of running the Youth Pirates, but we need to draw up a job spec before ratifying that appointment. Philip Hunt has been doubling up as Press Officer as well as carrying his registered role as  Campaigns Officer, but the now that burden is too great for one volunteer, so we intend splitting the two jobs. We have had preliminary conversations with candidates with suitable qualifications and experience to perform the roles of Press Officer and Deputy Press Officers, and expect to appoint people very soon.

I realise that this, and the appointment system outlined above, may not be popular with all our members, but I must emphasise that this is my final decision. In the run up to the election, we cannot afford to be torn apart by internal bickering, we cannot afford to lose dedicated supporters of the party, and we cannot afford to be completely idealistic about procedures given the immovable deadline. I intend to get this party ready to fight the election as best I can. This inevitably means making some unpopular decisions, so I have decided to combine the process of picking a new Nominating Officer with a vote on all the Officer positions (including leader), to be held in January.