Nominations still open

Nominations for a number of internal positions have been open for just over a week now. Campaigns officer and Regional Administrator nominations close in just under a week, Monday May 31st, and Governor nominations close in just over three weeks, Thursday 17 June.

Responses so far have been fairly brisk, with a number of Pirates stepping forward and being seconded. If we can get more in the next week and for governor positions, especially from people who already have a record of involvement and activity with the party, that would mean we might have some competition and some real choices for members to make when the votes open. For details of the process and how to put yourself forward, you can find full details in Andrew Tindall's blog post here.

The current volunteers who have come forward and been seconded are as follows:

Campaigns Officer

Peter Brett has volunteered and been seconded for this position.

A contested election is always healthy; will we have any further offers? Admittedly Peter has had considerable support from members for his efforts as Deputy and Acting Campaigns officer, it could only be positive however to have a contested election if we did have anyone else come forward.

Edit: Nominations for this position have now closed 2010-05-31.

Regional Administrative Officer

We have had six people offer to become regional administrator, covering five regions:

London: Chris Monteiro has volunteered and been seconded for this position.

North West England: Jack Allnutt has volunteered and been seconded for this position.

Scotland: Two candidates so far:
Philip Hunt has volunteered and been seconded for this position.
Andrew Paliwoda has volunteered and been seconded for this position.

South East England: Stephen Ogden has volunteered and been seconded for this position.

West Midlands: Daniel Newman has volunteered and been seconded for this position.

Once again, to have more applications and contested elections can only be healthy for us. Also, we have not yet had volunteers come forward for the following regions:

East Midlands; East of England; North East England; South West England; Yorkshire and Humberside

and Wales (where there will be devolved elections next year, like Scotland).

At this point I'm minded to take direct responsibility myself for nominating candidates for any area where no regional administrator is chosen, and to set a policy that I would nominate any Pirate in good standing who wants to stand in local elections (which has been our intention in the past), however that if people would like to have a candidate at other levels then having enough members and interest to bring forward a regional administrator is a necessary prerequisite. Depending what the NEC and members tell me, that can be decided once RAOs are in place and we know where we stand.

Equally, for all areas we encourage all members to put themselves forward as Pirate candidates for local elections wherever these come up, and you will normally be approved unless there is some reason otherwise (e.g. another Pirate wants to stand in the same ward, or the potential candidate is no longer a member in good standing).

For anyone considering standing as a Pirate candidate, standing as a local candidate and gaining experience in that way can only be advantageous to your selection in future at any level of election we may fight...

Edit: Nominations for this position have now closed 2010-05-31. Updates will follow regarding the final confirmed applicants.

Board of Governors

So far we have nine candidates who have volunteered and been seconded to become governors. They are:

Peter Brett, Andrew Tindall, Will Tovey, Vijay Chopra, Stephen Ogden, Martin Evans, Daniel Hertz, Shaun Dyer, and Laurence Kaye.

That is enough to set up an initial Board, if all were elected, however not yet enough to make a complete Board of 12 governors. So we still need some more applications for governor, and if we received for example another 6 to 9 nominations that would make this a well-contested election which again can only be a good thing.

So if you believe you could serve in this, or any of the above, roles, and could persuade the members to vote you in, please do apply before the deadlines close!