NEC/Minutes/19th June 2011
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Contents |
Attendees
Loz Kaye (LK)
Andy Halsall (AH)
Gavin Meredith (GM)
Miah Gregory (MG)
Peter Brett (PB)
John Barron (JB)
Actions from this meeting
JB to write resignation and statement to membership.
LK to contact the other candidate for the press officer role.
LK to get in touch with TD, Rob Harris, Andrew Robinson and Harry Percival(HP) with regard to the functioning of the press office.
GM to send return to HMRC on Monday 20th June
GM to complete and send EC returns as per the timetable agreed on the 12th June.
PB to send free membership spreadsheet to GM in a secure manner
EG to assist in ensuring that GM can add the free membership to members accounts.
Apologies
None
Minutes
Previous minutes were approved.
Matters Arising
AH to upload previous meeting minutes to wiki. - AH is awaiting approval for the minutes.
- Minutes approved by those present.
PB has uploaded previous minutes from May
AH has sent the board the proposed amendments to change DC to Party Secretary.
AH has sent the board the proposed amendment to remove RAOs.
JB to recruit deputy nominating officers, This is in progress.
AH has chased Finlay Archibald (FA), this would be covered later in the meeting
GM was to file HMRC forms by 17th May, these would now be posted Monday.
The NEC issued an authorisation letter to GM for access to the BoS account
AH has sent an e-mail to the NEC list with the current campaign strategy overview.
AH initiated the candidate recruitment drive on 13th May, that recruitment effort continues.
AH initiated the policy review process on 17th May.
EG gave AH any necessary Press Team access.
AH spoke to Will Tovey (WT) with regard to the Press Team
AH to reported back to NEC on state of Press Team (See press section of these minutes)
AH provided additional press contact list to LK via the team.pirateparty.org.uk instance.
LK/EG audited the press-output mailing list, would now merge the new contacts.
AH initiated the press team leader recruitment 13th May with two candidates contacted. That process is moving forward.
AH has not set up a VOIP system. The matter was discussed briefly with the IT team that they will take it over. There is a costs query on outbound calls to mobiles, who will accept calls and a dependency on resolving press team issues.
LK/AH have "made press good" in the short term, but there is a lot more that needs to be done.
GM e-mailed contact details to MG.
MG has started the process to put GM on bank account.
MG has started the process to take Pete Liddell off bank account.
PB e-mailed AH with regard to the conference shenanigans.
AH e-mailed the NEC with a draft report on on Pete Liddell situation and would email the board during the meeting.
Nominating officers
JB stated that over the next 10 days he would write a resignation blog. JB Also stated that he was happy to see progress within the party. JB Also expressed his wish to next stand for the board and as a party candidate and that he was happy to be able to do that.
There was a discussion about the use of the blog for internal communication and AH suggested an email to the membership might be preferable JB Disagreed. It was stated that the most important point was that JB be in a position to says what wanted to say and that the message gets out to the membership. JB agreed that until such time as a replacement Nominating Officer is in post he is in place happy to continue in a caretaker role. JB Also stated that he would cease to have an active role on the NEC effective immediately.
LK Thanked JB for all his hard work work and effort with the party over the years
Press
LK Introduced the issue and outlined the current situation. AH outlined what had been done in contacting existing volunteers involved within the press team and that he had had a limited number of responses. LK Also stated that LK and AH had audited what was happening, that there had been issues with press releases and the maintenance of press relationships.
LK further stated that the new collaboration suite was useful in dealing with these issues. He also intended to arrange a meeting with Tim Dobson(TD) to share contacts.
LK Also endeavoured to contact the other candidate for the press officer role David Neil.
LK would also get in touch with TD, Rob Harris, Andrew Robinson and HP with regard to the functioning of the press office.
Press Officer
AH outlined what had happened with the selection of a new Press Officer. AH stated that the Party had had two responses initially, and contact with one of those, HP. AH explained that AH and LK had carried out a bried phone interview with him and determined that he seemed a good candidate for the role at this point. AH also explained that HP would be able to offer limited in hours cover and more significant cover out of hours.
LK Reiterated his requirement for an integrated strategy comprising the campaig team and press and that that the press office was central to that. LK also stated that the Party had had a good press response with EMD 1913, stating that we had our 'Thumbprints all over it'. It was also the first instance in which we had had press impact without directly soliciting it.
LK also reported that he would have a meeting with Jim Killock from ORG on Wednesday on the matter, pointing out that at this point the Party had 'outflanked' ORG on this matter. JK also stated he would have a meeting with Erik Joyce on Thursday.
Communication Channels
LK Stated that the use and control over various communications channels was an ongoing issue. At present the Party is only putting out content out on limited number of channels due to lack of capacity, specifically via Twitter, e-mail and Reddit. LK also stated that an initial target based on klout score had been met well in advance.
LK further suggested that an audit of the quality of material in various channels must be carried out. AH agreed that there needed to be consistency and quality and that removal of material not of the required quality was required. However, AH pointed out that there were still potential control issues over some 3rd party media accounts and at present there was no new material to put out on them.
A list of channels would be put together by Thursday, but a time frame of gaining control over those lost could not be put in place as they were not under AH's control.
Candidates
AH reported that the recruitment campaign had so far raised 14 potential candidates 7 of whom had been confirmed so far and that the process would continue to move forward.
LK raised a concern that he didn't feel that the candidate pool was diverse enough to be representative of the party. The NEC broadly agreed that it was important to ensure that the candidate pool was representative of the constituency we wished to represent.
Campaigns
AH explained that the National campaign, focused on civil liberties/digital rights had been pre-emptively initiated by the 'Axe the Act' initiative. This had been spurred on by EDM 1913. LK and AH were happy with the Initial output on this issue, stating that the party had 'beaten everyone else to the punch'. AH explained that the party had put out a blog post outlining the issue with a template for people to contact their MP. This initiative had been met with broad public support.
Axe the Act
Moving forward AH and LK explained that the party would have contact with various groups including ORG, attempt to provide more multi-channel output. Next steps would include contacting all sponsoring MP's and a press release to go mid week or at a low point to keep pressure on. It was important that the Party maintain steady involvement in this issue and keep it 'bubbling'
Finance update
GM reported that the requirements to remove Peter Liddell and add GM to the bank account had been received from MG and that this process was moving forward.
GM also reported that the return to HMRC would be sent tomorrow.
EC returns were also in track to be completed in the coming period.
GM stated that he was largely happy happy and that things were progressing in a positive manner. GM Then noted that he had had an enquiry into Free membership from a member, but that at present there was no process to fulfil that requirement.
PB stated that he would send a spreadsheet detailing those who required free membership details to GM.
EG would assist in ensuring that GM could add the free membership to members accounts.
AOB
PB Gave his apologies that due to outside commitments he would be unavailable for two weeks.
AH Stated that he had been in contact with Finlay Archibald and that the receipts for the RP11 Relating to Scotland 2011 would be posted on Monday.
AH also informed the NEC that there was an issue with the number of spare email addresses available to him for use with candidates. EG would investigate that further and find a solution.
EG briefly discussed email migration relating to the number of email accounts available and urged the NEC to examine the mail addresses currently used.
AH stated that he had discussed IT requirements with EG and PB and LK requested that they be kept informed. AH stated that the REQ document was available on team.pirateparty