Many of you will have noticed that I’ve been a bit busy this year, what with getting married, playing a discreet but time-consuming role in a campaign for the Party Presidency and travelling around the country with Ros.
Unsurprisingly, this has had an impact on my other responsibilities, some of which I wanted, some of which were accepted out of a sense of duty. One of the latter roles was that of Regional Conference Chair, which I was persuaded to take on and, in a moment of weakness, accepted. Now I freely admit that I haven’t been fully engaged, and likewise would confess that I probably needed a nudge to get down to work.
However, in the usual wonderful way that the Party tends to work, I was confronted at Monday’s Executive Committee meeting with the phrase, “a few of us have been worried about the lack of apparent progress and have been talking about it”. Or, in other words, “we don’t believe that Mark is doing anything about it and we’ll slag him off behind his back”. My dear colleagues, wouldn’t it have been easier to get in touch with me? After all, I was notionally directly elected to the position (alright, I was unopposed but that was hardly my fault)…
- date – Saturday, November 15th
- venue – Haverstock School, Chalk Farm – booked and paid for
- star speaker – Chris Huhne – confirmed, with a time slot, awaiting speech topic
- ALDC training – confirmed, although they haven’t told me what it is yet
- AGM – boring, but necessary, will include an opportunity to hold the Executive Officers accountable (they won’t like it, I’m not sure that I care)
- Parliamentary report – concept decided upon, invitations awaiting issue
- London Councils strand, agreed in principle, details to be determined
- Conference guide design – graphic designer engaged in exchange for an advert
- Fringe meetings – sessions by the English and Regional Candidates Committees confirmed, two bids for further sessions received and awaiting consideration by Conference Committee
- Policy debate – I’ve sought submissions, let’s see what comes in…
I don’t think that it’s going too badly, but I’m sure that my colleagues will find something to kibitz about…
2 comments:
Mark, dear Mark. After all the years you have been a bureaucrat you still haven't worked out how to climb the greasy pole and deal with these committees have you? The job isn't to DO things. It is to tell people how you are doing lots of things, even if you aren't. A good machiavellian streak also helps.
My personal favourite when I haven't done things is to start by explaning how difficult the task is and asking for volunteers. This stops any questions instantly, because your reply is always "Well, ... perhaps you could take that on?"
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