Want to be a Liberal Democrat candidate for the 2019 European election? Not on the approved candidates list yet? You need to move fast!

It is hard to believe that, if all goes well, the advert seeking applications for consideration as a Liberal Democrat candidate for 2019 will go live in less than eleven weeks. Yes, less than eleven weeks. How do I know this? Because I've got the schedule, and I'm one of the Returning Officers (London, for those who didn't read yesterday's post - and it disappoints me how many of you don't hang on my every word...).

Given that so many of our members only joined the Party in the month after the May 2015 disaster, they are only now becoming eligible to attend a candidate development day and gain approval (strictly, if I recall correctly, you need to have renewed your membership to be eligible to attend such a development day, although you can submit the paperwork before then). So, for all of those keen, probably young, people, time is of the essence.

However, regardless of your age, or length of membership, if you want to be a European candidate in 2019, you perhaps ought to start thinking about it now. Yes, I know that there are Police and Crime Commissioner elections, Assembly elections in London and Wales, and Parliamentary elections in Scotland, plus local elections in scattered locations across the English counties, and I would be the last to suggest that anyone should lose focus on those, or even the European referendum that follows but, if you do want to be a contender, a small investment of time spent coming up with a strategy that will guide your moves over the months to come might help you achieve a good result.

If you aren't on the approved list, the earlier you get your application form in, the better. Regional and State Candidates Chairs will need to organize development days, and the more notice they have of likely demand, the better, for you, and for them. Remember, a development day is not that easy to organize, or prepare for, and you may only get one shot at it to meet the deadline for this selection (you can, of course, have another go in time for the Westminster selections that will follow).

So, contact Candidates Office at Party HQ, ask them to send you the forms and make sure that you fill them in and return them promptly. My fellow Returning Officers and I look forward to welcoming you to the wonderful world of European candidate selections...

Goodnight, Regional Executive, and God bless...

I've served four years on the London Regional Executive, all of them as an Officer. The first two years were fun, the third not so much, and this year the least fun of all.

In many ways, I never really recovered from the sense of being undermined by the laughably incompetent attempt to remove me from office last January. It all began to seem like hard work and I began to feel increasingly unwelcome. Fortunately, Ros came along to restore me to my normal, cheery self...

In the usual way that things work on London Region (Flick talent spots and finds people that can be relied upon), I had my arm twisted to step in as our new Regional Conference Chair for 2008. I was still emerging from three years of doing things because people wanted them done, so I said yes. Not the greatest move...

And yet, if I say so myself, I produced a pretty good Spring Conference. People seemed to enjoy themselves, and with grateful thanks to Flick, Pete Dollimore and a number of others, attendance was very good.

I had a vision for the Autumn and, between campaign gigs, spoke to a number of people about ideas for sessions and fringe meetings. I had a plan. I didn't have a Conference Committee - well, I did but I don't delegate well. What I did have was a peanut gallery. There were mutterings of concern - "a few of us have been talking about Conference" - and Executive meetings where reports were given without any reference to me whatsoever - "hello, I'm in the room...".

However, I have reached the point where we have a final agenda, virtually everything is in place, and I can relax into the final preparation phase. So far, so good.

In the midst of all this though, it was time to run for re-election. I completed the nomination form, got two people to sign it, and then put it in my briefcase so that I could post it. Strange, really, because I was sitting in Cowley Street at the time and could have simply walked upstairs and put it on Flick's desk. But I didn't... and never actually got around to sending it in at all.

Strangely, I mentioned this to Sally Hamwee last week, and she suggested that there was a hint of the Freudian about it all. Smart woman, that Baroness...

And so, unless something unexpected happens, my time on the Regional Executive, and with it the Regional Candidates Committee, is at an end. Yet there is so much else to be done...

Real democracy is about information and participation

I've been Regional Secretary for nearly two years now and it has been, to some extent, a little frustrating. I've enjoyed the role, especially the people I've met across London. I even flatter myself that, in some small way, I've helped some people to achieve their goals, be they political or organisational.

But if there has been a weakness, it has been in my responsibility for communication with other parts of the Party. In a troubling way, I wonder why I haven't come under pressure to do better. At least, I hadn't until now, but that's a story for another time.

The relationship between the Regional Party and its constituent Local Parties is a bit like that between the Executive Committee of a Local Party and the 'ordinary' members. And yet the sense of that has perhaps been lost. As Regional Secretary, I am responsible to members across the city and, whilst most armchair members wouldn't know, or frankly care, what I do in that capacity, if we were communicating properly, the local leadership would know if I wasn't doing it well.

And so I intend to put myself in a slightly precarious position. I will spend the next three months trying to create a means of proper communication with Local Party Officers, to encourage them to communicate with the Regional Executive, and to provide them with information that will enable them to hold us to account properly.

This might not prove to be that popular with all of my colleagues, although I hope to be proved wrong in that respect, but it seems like the right thing to do to me...

As the nights draw in...

... the prospect of the Regional Conference draws ever closer. Luckily, the Regional Conference Committee, chaired by the ever patient Alison Sanderson, is on the case, drawing up the agenda, organising guest speakers, stewarding, session chairs and all of the other minutiae that tend to go unnoticed unless they aren't actually done.

Alison also tolerates my presence and so, in return, I've offered to chair a session and look generally useful (this normally consists of wandering around looking worried but not actually doing very much). And so, if all goes according to schedule, I should be chairing the report back sessions from the MPs, MEP and Assembly Members. It's quite clever really, as I get to be prominent yet invisible at the same time (the attention will be on the elected ones, I presume).

Of course, the most important element of the Autumn Conference is that it also doubles as our Annual General Meeting and thus is the opportunity for Regional Conference delegates to decide whether or not to give those of us running again another chance to steer the Regional Party through the choppy seas of administration. Which in turn means more manifestos to write, should I choose to run for re-election...

So, for those of you eligible to come, mark Saturday, 18th November in your diary, and let us know that you're coming in advance (for registration details call the Regional Party office), and don't miss, amongst other things, an excellent fish and chip lunch. Oh yes, there'll be debates, a guest speaker, training sessions, a report back from the Regional Executive (and that'll be thrill a minute, I'm sure), plus a guest appearance from our illustrious Party President, Simon Hughes MP and a cast of hundreds. I'm not expecting a chorus line or a murder mystery, but you never know...

Paper, paper everywhere and not a drop to drink...

It has been a week of meetings, meetings and more meetings. And with that comes paper, reports, accounts, briefing notes, minutes, all of which really ought to be read, digested and responded to. There are never enough minutes in the day to do so and you end up skimming through them in the naive hope that you've gleaned enough detail to be able to comment intelligently if called upon to do so.

And yet, this is better than the alternative, turning up at a meeting where you are inundated with verbal reports which, for the most part, tend towards a rambling discourse on whatever is on the mind of the speaker at the time, and not necessarily the things you need, or want, to hear about.

So I was quite pleased that, for the first time since I became Regional Secretary eighteen months ago, every Officer actually wrote, and circulated, a written report for the Executive to consider. It wasn't the easiest of meetings, as a number of fairly controversial issues had arisen, but I did feel that we were able to have a meaningful debate of the aspects of the problems and, compared to some of our past meetings, which have run much longer to far less effect, it was quite enjoyable.

So, I now have minutes to write, plus action points and a diary to update. Just another weekend in the life of a bureaucrat...