Campaigns Team meeting - 2nd February 2011
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Contents |
Agenda
A campaigns team meeting will be held in the PPUK IRC channel at 20:00 on 2nd February 2011.
- Attendance / apologies
- Minutes of previous meeting
- Matters arising
- Local candidates & campaigns
- Central stocks of campaign materials?
- Scotland 2011 status update
- Web campaigning brainstorm
- AOB
Minutes
Attendance
Present:
- Peter Brett (PB)
- Finlay Archibald
- Stephen Ogden (SO)
- Phil Hunt (PH)
- Gavin Meredith
- Andrew Norton (AN)
- "Andyvtx"
Actions
- PB Take campaigns budget to NEC for approval.
- PB E-mail local candidates in regions without RAO.
- PB Get notice in next e-mail newsletter
- SO Determine SE England local candidates' plans for campaigning.
- SO Check whether central resources would count towards local election campaign finance.
- PB Contact Andy Robinson to find out about PPUK banner design/supplier.
- PB Contact Tim Dobson to find out about PPUK rosettes etc.
Minutes of previous meeting & matters arising
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
PB said that he now had a list of local candidates from John Barron, and would send them an e-mail.
Local candidates & campaigns
Nine local election candidates in England for this year. In Scotland, local elections will take place next year.
SO explained that he needed to investigate how much effort the SE England candidates want to put in, as some of them wanted to run a very minimal campaign (i.e. "doing nothing or nearly nothing"). He also aims to contact members near candidates to encourage them to support.
Some discussion of subsidising members' travel to support nearby local candidates. PB clarified that this meant the odd £5. General agreement that this seems like a sensible idea.
PH stressed importance of finding a baseline of support, and finding a way to gauge effectiveness of various campaigning techniques.
Proposed budget for local candidates from central funds: £100 to spend on e.g. leaflets, and an additional £50 to be spent at RAO discretion (e.g. for subsidising member travel). After some discussion, suggest limit of £2000 in total in case any extra candidates come forward between now and the election.
Leaflets: some discussion of whether "minimal campaign" candidates would want to pool their resources to produce generic leaflets. RAOs to discuss this with their candidates. PB pointed out that "minimal campaign" candidates wouldn't need many leaflets anyway, since they were unlikely to spend much time on door-to-door or street leafleting.
Central stocks of campaign materials?
PB proposed purchasing 10 banners and 30 rosettes and loaning them out to local election candidates for the duration of their campaign.
SO liked the idea, wondered how the cost would get reported for Electoral Commission purposes. Andyvtx suggested that, based on his experience of his dad's campaigns, if they weren't depleted, they wouldn't count as campaign finance.
Scotland 2011 status update
Scottish Pirates are keen to campaign in 4 regions (Lothians, West Scotland, Glasgow and North East Scotland).
5 Scottish candidates up for ratification (two would stand on Glasgow list). Each ratified candidate would choose lower list candidates for their region. The Scottish Pirates have no current timeframe for the selection of these list candidates. PB emphasised the importance of being able to announce region lists at the party conference.
There were no numbers yet from Scottish Pirates on how much money needed for Scotland 2011 campaign (£2000 needed just for deposits), or how many current activists were available in each region.
PB estimated £3000 budget for the campaign from existing central funds. AN enquired as to Scottish fundraising plans, and suggested some possibilities. PH was not aware of any plans to do fundraising.
It was pointed out that fundraising and campaign planning etc. are not solely the responsibility of the RAO, so blaming the RAO (or deputy RAO) for problems is unhelpful.
PB: "I'm sick of cataloguing the reasons why we can't run a Scotland2011 campaign effectively."
Web campaigning brainstorm
A brainstorming session for ideas for using the Internet more effectively.
- Weekly e-mailed newsletter for everyone, not just party members / registered supporters.
- Each region should get its own section of the website.
- Re-invigorate social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, etc)
- Mobile apps
- Mobile-optimised version of website (e.g. http://m.pirateparty.org.uk/)
- App for Pirate media bingo