How the Party works (1) - Local Parties

As promised, here is the first of a series of pieces which examine how the Party should work (I'm not saying that it does, mind you) and, inspired by Aaron Trevena, I thought that I should start with the basic building block, Local Parties.

Local Parties actually have remarkable autonomy for the most part, with the right to select their Parliamentary candidate(s), delegates to their Regional Conference and the Federal Conference. However, like every other part of the Party, their freedom to manoeuvre is restricted by the requirement to have a constitution and, more worryingly, by a lack of information about best practice.

As I've said before, constitutions are fascinating things for those of an inquisitive mind. Otherwise, they are as dull as ditchwater but vital to the smooth running of any organisation as they define the framework within which it must operate. Sadly, they aren't often read, and that's where the trouble starts...

The roles of Local Party Officers are pretty obvious;

• Chair - leads the organisation, chairs meetings, has joint responsibility for filing reports required by the Political Parties, Elections and Referenda Act 2000 (PPERA)
• Treasurer - monitors finances, has joint responsibility for filing reports required by the Political Parties, Elections and Referenda Act 2000 (PPERA)
• Secretary - organises and records meetings of the Executive Committee, acts as contact point for other Party bodies
• Membership Secretary - processes new applications for membership, encourages renewals and switches to direct debit

yet there is much more to it. An Officer can do the bare minimum and comply with the requirements but there is so much more that can be done.

I have always believed that active Executive Committees are a good thing, as they can act to inspire a Local Party's membership to participate. So what do I think are the key things that an Executive Committee should do?

1. Inform - a regular Members' Newsletter is core to membership service. Ideally, it gets issued monthly and includes a report back from the Council Group(s), the Chair and your Conference Representatives. This has a cost, I accept, but if you issue it to your members by e-mail where possible (about half of our members have e-mail), your costs are reduced. Regular contact keeps people interested.
2. Entertain - sticking leaflets through doors is what we do, but not all of the time. It must also be accepted that some of our members join as part of their social life and aren't necessarily that political. However, if they are doing something socially, you might encourage them to get involved in the political side of our activity. Alternatively, they might be keen on ideas - and what else is a political party if it isn't about ideas?
3. Include - not everyone can drop everything at short notice, but may be able to join in if they are given the opportunity to slot it in amongst family and work commitments. Are your events accessible to everyone, or are there cultural barriers that might act to exclude?
4. Plan - where do you want to be in three months, a year, five years time? What do you need to get there? Most importantly, who is going to do it and how?
5. Network - there is a world beyond East Bloggshire Liberal Democrats, where policy is written, campaigns are run and things are done differently. Give your members an opportunity to explore that world and you might uncover your Prospective Parliamentary Candidate/Councillor of the future.
   

You'll notice that I haven't touched upon campaigning, something which is rather important... I fully accept that some of my colleagues may not agree with me here, but I take the view that a well run, participatory Local Party can run better campaigns with more success than a weakly run one. In fact, a well run Local Party has less 'bureaucrats' because they're more efficient.

Part of the challenge is to find people who want to take charge of these tasks and do them well. Unfortunately, many Local Party Officers come from that sub-group defined as ‘people willing to do it if you really insist’. They often have other interests and responsibilities, and end up performing their duties if they have time to do so, not exactly an optimal situation.

The other problem is that, until recently, there has been very little support for new Local Party Officers, so you end up with individuals ‘reinventing the wheel’ or, worse still, doing it the way it has always been done under the influence of those who have been around for many years. I say ‘until recently’ because there is now a movement to improve training for new Officers, delivered by Regional Parties.

In my next piece, I’ll look at Regional Parties, one of the great mysteries of the Party structure, and consider how you can use them most effectively to help you achieve your goals.