NEC/Minutes/18th July 2011
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Contents |
Apologies
John Barron (JB) Miah Gregory (MG)
Minutes
Minutes of the meeting 10th July approved (GM, AH, LK)
Actions from this meeting
AH to speak to EG with regard to membership information and regional Pirate numbers
AH action to contact SO JB, DH, conference comittee.
AH To begin a dissection of web process once the new site is up
LK contact candidates, refer them to the Mark Pack article on politics. Launching the policy process.
GM Obtain Addresses for candidates.
GM Send letter to board on the issue of electing someone to a post that will change
GM To follow up with BOS
Matters arising
AH contacted Stephen Ogden with regard to the NO post extension.
LK to managed the press team closely this week.
LK got back to the Manchester City Councillor with regard to Digital Exclusion.
AH spoke to EG regarding external policy process.
AH spoke to JB with regard to membership information and Lincoln Pirate numbers, would follow up as advised with EG
LK put party conference and merchandising on the agenda for the next NEC.
Internships
GM wanted to raise, something he has been thinking about for a while, and it has been discussed without movement. Wants to know if we are at the point where we can look at it in more detail. LK feels we should be able to attract someone, but not in position with org structure. feels it isn't pressing. Good idea, useful, but still off in the distance. The NEC agreed to revisit the issue in 2 months.
London ’12 Conference
LK stated that as far as he is aware, London will host the conference. GM believed that ED and GM were not to be involved in planning of the Conference.
AH asked if any planning had been done so far, GM informed AH that Stephen Ogden had done some brain storming,and that JB, and Dan Hertz had also been involved.
AH said that he aimed for this this conference to be closer to that of a normal political party conference, GM aimed to have Dan Bull to help out. AH and LK stated that the most important thing was to ensure that the party was clear what it's for, what is going to be achieved early in the process. LK felt he didnt know what last conference was *for* need to be clear in this one.
LK felt that the main point was to be to firm up the politics of the party and ensure that members learn about the political element of the party. AH was asked to contact SO JB, DH to form a 'conference comittee'.
The NEC also agreed that EG and GM can help with any conference planning if they wish.
Web update
AH stated that he was now aware of an implementation plan and regression plan, he felt that this meant that we can go ahead with the new site once it was complete. AH and GM felt that the bariers in place had now been overcome.
GM asked for specifics of what had gone wrong to cause targets to be missed. AH stated that GM and Steve Wilson had worked hard to ensure that the process was professional, that the party now had development and staging servers, that svn versioning was now in place for the code base and that backups were in place and tested for the entire web presence of the party. AH also stated that this had taken time and that a number of other issues, ranging from personal (AH's absence due to a family matter), a number of minor, yet time consuming technical issues and some slow progress had been contributed to the late delivery. AH stated that he would provide a more complete dissection of process after the launch as he felt this would help the party and the IT team going forward.
Candidates
AH outlined some of the changes that had been put together from a candidates perspective:
LK had taken on responsibility for matterss relating to Justice, Tim Dobson had done the same for Education, JB had taken on Business, Rob Harris had taken on innovation and skills (science/tech..), Andrew Robinson would take on Culture Media and Sport and that Finlay Archibald had agreed to cover Scotland.
LK stated that he wanted to focus on Policy as soon as possible.
AH agreed and stated that he would continue that process.
LK - ACTION contact candidates, refer them to the Mark Pack article on politics and would take a lead in launching the policy process.
GM would obtain and pass the addresses for candidates to AH.
Merchandising
AH had contacted PB for access to the Spreadhshirt account. AH reported that the party has £170 in commission/donations with spreadshirt. He noted that the party had a volume of around 145 sales in 2 years. GM and AH now had access to the account and sales data which was progress.
AH stated that he had been in contact with suppliers, was liaising with GM and was looking to move away from spreadshirt if possible. AH also noted that Keyrings had been mentioned as a desired item.
AOB
GM wanted to discuss the Party Secretary role. He noted that the schedule is to open nominations for Data controller and that the role can only be announced as that. - LK stated that on reflection he wondered if the constitutional amendment was necessary. AH, LK and GM agreed that they would like to ask the board of their opinion. The NEC was also worried about electing someone to a post that will change. GM would send letter to board on this issue.
LK stated he would place the issue of the Party secretary on the agenda for the next NEC meeting.
AH raised the issue of membership info. AH felt that there needed to be greater access to data especially at the sub-regional level for use operationally. GM sees this as something positive moving forward and that it would help in dealing with the issue of people not getting in touch historically with people interested to help.
AH reported that he had been informed by Finlay Archibald that the Recepits from Scotland were on their way to him again, but that he would take precautionary measures.
AH asked about the state of the Bank Account and HMRC. GM reported that he had no bank account access as yet. GM was to follow up with BOS and send a letter to get an exemption HMRC.