If I was London’s Regional Chair, I’d…

…well, what exactly would I do?

Before we start, let’s make a few things clear, first, that this isn’t an attack on the current incumbent, nor is it a manifesto for a potential run for 2008.

The role of the Chair is one of leadership and support. If the Officers and Administrator know their jobs, they should be encouraged to get on with it, rather than have the Chair second guess them at every opportunity, so I would focus on developing a regional strategy, nurturing the Executive as a whole and reaching out to our Local Parties.

We’ve clearly not been as good in terms of our medium and long term planning as we might have been in recent times. This Regional Executive accepts that we’ve not necessarily thought things through in terms of co-ordinating our various responsibilities, and I think that if we had had the opportunity to do so, we would have done better.

As we elect new Officers each year, and lose some from the Executive altogether - not always willingly - there is a risk that valuable information and knowledge is lost, especially where the previous post holder has been there for some years. The logical solution is to develop a rolling long-term plan, one that can be reviewed at the beginning of each new year. Such a plan would be a guide for new Executive members and, especially, new Officers, and could be made available to Local Party Chairs and Secretaries, thus allowing Local Parties to organise themselves around the Regional activities that affect them, predominantly regionwide candidate selections. I think that the Chair can, and should, lead on this.

It can be a lonely life, being a Regional Officer, especially if what you do is little understood. As Regional Chair, I would take the time to socialise with my Officers (including their partners and children, if appropriate), and the rest of the Executive, for that matter, to see how they’re getting on and whether they need my support. It would also give me an excuse to throw the odd dinner party - I actually like to cook - or a barbecue, if I wanted to see a group of my colleagues.

Finally, I would attempt to develop a meaningful relationship with the various local parties. Taking the ‘regional party is just a local party with a different type of member’ analogy to its logical outcome, a regular newsletter to local party officers would make us accountable and encourage greater interest and relevancy in the eyes of key local activists. We should also use e-mail to encourage attendance at events and training sessions (we’re already very good at using this means to promote by-elections and other campaign activity - take a bow, Pete Dollimore and his team…).

So, what do you think? Am I being wholly unrealistic?...