NEC/Minutes/23rd November 2011
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Contents |
Attending
Jack Allnutt (JA)
Gavin Meredith (GM)
Loz Kaye (LK)
Phil Cooke (PC)
Andy Halsall (AH)
Apologies
Harley Faggetter (HF) - Attending later
Minutes
Minutes from the 14th November Approved.
Matters arising
LK did contact Harry for the NEC but the meeting was postponed NEC
AH has added HF to team.ppuk
AH would deal with the banking this week, he appologises for the unacceptable and entirely avoidable delay on his part.
LK would place a party address change on the agenda for next week
JA forwarded an email regarding policy to LK/PC
LK & AH have and will continue with ongoing policy and contacts work.
GM was ready to responded to Peter Ross wrt Flattr and has a letter ready to send.
LK dealt with press as much as he could although the agenda was over taken by OWS and other issues.
JA has opened dialogue with Ad Creatives and informed the NEC that the party should take them up on the offer to meet, will get back to them once we had more concrete policy position.
// HF - Joined the meeting. - 20:30
PC is still to contact PH with regard to the nominations process & time-scale.
Policy
AH explained where the party was with the policy process and the next steps. The current, extended policy document had been issued to the NEC for initial discussion prior to the break down for the working groups in the next stages. The NEC broadly discussed progress on this.
AH asked the NEC to consider points made in the forward (sect 2.2) relating to the broadening of the policy platform and the parties intentions. LK agreed with this stance, the rest of the NEC would consider the document before the next meeting.
LK asked about weighting from Reddit and whether it was being taken into consideration at this point. The NEC discussed this at length concluding that whilst it was a useful indication it wasn't enough for the basis of policy selection at this point and that there was a lot of additional work to do with regard to deciding on policy proposals to move forward with. It would of course be taken into consideration
HF made some salient points regarding weighting and the way popularity indications would tie into campaigns run on the basis of the final policies.
LK suggested that the party aim to obtain expert advice. AH stated that it was his intention, once the working groups were formed to ensure that they sought advice from anyone deemed an expert who would be willing to contribute. He made the point that it would be worth approaching both experts in the field and independent think tanks to see if they would be willing to give us some time. AH had started making a list of think tanks and individuals but had then decided that it would make more sense for the more focused working groups to move forward with that approach
LK stated that he felt that it was important to get the policy process moving rapidly and that the NEC needed to ensure that where there was consensus we worked to provide a good explanation and with anything else we would go back to the party membership, especially with anything that was internally divisive.
LK and AH made clear that the party needs to get policy broadened as soon as possible, LK reiterated that it would put the party in a better position and that in turn would make everything else easier and would allow us to attract members.
Action for the whole NEC was to complete the policy spreadsheets issued by AH by Friday if possible. AH was to work to establish the working groups by Monday.
The NEC asked about whether this document and the details of the process could be released to the public or members, AH made very clear that at this point he felt it wouldn't be overly helpful and that he didn't intend to start responding to particular policy suggestions at this point as we hadn't dealt with them internally yet, but that there was no issue with putting the document out to someone who wanted it. The main issue was that at present it included policies from the public that the party was likely not going to support and it should be clear they came from the public not the party. AH stated that the party should be as transparent as possible, but that in releasing material we should also aim for it to be useful, the best solution would be to put the policy document out once the NEC had done it's first pruning, albeit including the excluded policies. The working groups should also be as open as possible and their output should be distributed as widely as possible. The NEC agreed. LK reiterated the requirement for transparency but the balance that had to be struck in terms of usefulness and that whilst everything would be open it made sense to put out work that was in some form readable and useful. The NEC agreed.
AH stated that the current timetable was 2 weeks from Monday, assuming all went well with the working groups.
Member Communications
LK stated that There is a lack of the communications. The NEC agreed. AH stated that fortnightly communication through a single person or group with material passed to them had been his aim, although it hadn't come to fruit yet. AH also noted that he didn't want to start things and have them stop as it would make the party look pretty poor and that when that had happened in the past it had led to some consternation from members. The NEC agreed that whatever we did had to be done well and regularly.
AH suggested dealing with this next week.
LK would put a leaders statement out on Friday
AH further suggested that the party go with a newsletter format for member communications in future.
AOB
GM - Agreed that the party address issue was urgent and that the banking, whilst almost sorted needed to be dealt with as a matter of urgency too.
JA - Pointed out that there was still a need for a report on the conference from SO and that the minutes from 7th were not yet on the wiki.
AH - Nil - an apology to GM on the banking paperwork.
LK - Nil
PC - NEC Apologies for Monday (possible).
HF - HF stated that he had the notification for the ICO sent through and intended to send it off but would need to pay £35 for the notification.
Actions
PC to contact PH with regard to the nominations process & time-scale.
LK would place a party address change on the agenda for next week
AH would deal with the banking this week, he appologises for the unacceptable and entirely avoidable delay on his part.
Whole NEC was to complete the policy spreadsheets issued by AH by Friday if possible.
AH was to work to establish the working groups by Monday.
LK would put a leaders statement out on Friday - //ACTION