F10 is passed overwhelmingly. Now the work begins…

I have made my position clear on the proposal to change who manages the candidate pipeline. And, whilst the speeches in favour were impassioned, and the problems outlined all too genuine, I remain unconvinced that “moving the deckchairs” actually does anything to address the complex issues that make approving and selecting candidates so challenging.

I did, and still do, support the espoused goals of the movers. All of the issues they raised in terms of diversity, democracy and career development are entirely valid and should be the focus of all of us involved in the “candidate pipeline”.

But the status quo offered a pretty poor defence, and the constitutional amendment was overwhelmingly carried. That’s democracy. And so we move on. I’m not entirely sure who takes on that mantle but, having won, I presume that more detail will emerge.

There is the small matter of State Party approval, and I would hope that English Council will simply acknowledge events and not put obstacles in the way, which "might" delay the transition. In the meantime, as a member of a Regional Candidates Committee, we’ll have to sit down and work out what we do whilst that transition happens.

It’s clear what our campaigners want, and we need to think about how we deliver that in the near term.

My gut feeling, and this is only a first instinctual draft, is to

• thrash out a provisional timetable which includes as many seats as possible, in accordance with the plan that Campaigns presumably either has or soon will have

• advise the Local Parties where they fit into that schedule (although hopefully, the Campaigns Team will have had those conversations already)

• tell everybody what that timetable is

• arrange some approval days to handle potential applicants and schedule them

• appoint some Returning Officers for those seats on the early part of the schedule

We’ll have to assume that the Selection Rules recently passed by the English Party are effective until or unless someone tells us they aren’t, but that’s a (potential) problem for another day.

There was talk of a different role for Regional Candidates Committees, of pastoral care and support. Traditionally, we saw our role, and indeed, it was defined, as process focused, so some of us, myself included, might not have the skill set for that. Training and support were delivered by others, whereas we were rather more neutral arbiters of an occasionally challenging HR process. Indeed, I used my skills as a Returning Officer as a springboard to apply for, and get, a job running high volume internal recruitment schemes for my employer.

I was damned good at running systems and ensuring that they respected vacancy holders and applicants alike, but I wasn’t much good at dealing with the personal issues of colleagues.

But we’ll see. Ultimately, I’d like to see what emerges from this process, so that I can determine where, or if, I have a useful role to play.