Federal Executive report 9 December 2013

This week's meeting of the Federal Executive could have been a fractious affair as we were discussing both the future of Spring Conference and the future of the interim peers' panel. In the end, it was very consensual and amicable. We also passed next year's Federal Party budget, talked about membership (growing) and the S/AO Group, of which I'm a member, reported on its work. We are trying to develop a tool kit to help S/AOs along the lines that they've been feeding back to us that they would like to see. We're also wanting to be more proactive about communicating with S/AOs and keeping in touch with what they are doing.

Obviously, there are limits to what I can say on a public blog about FE's deliberations, but if you are a party member and you have questions, please contact me privately on Facebook, Twitter (@caronmlindsay) or by email caronsmusingsATgooglemailDOTcom.

Even those who had initially advocated a big change to the format of Spring conference noted that the consensus in the party was opposed. Both Federal Policy Committee and Federal Conference Committee had rejected the idea of reducing the event to one day as had the majority of the responses to the consultation. We decided in the end to look at ways of encouraging digital engagement to allow more people to take part and at ways of reducing costs without altering the format.

I had been very keen that no changes should be made without Conference's say so. It would have been ludicrous for us as FE to have made a decision about Conference in 2016 when there was plenty time to take that to Conference. The point was made, though, that those who couldn't go to Conference wouldn't have a say in that. In all the years I couldn't go to Federal Conference, I never once thought it shouldn't happen. Affordability wasn't the major issue for me, although it was certainly part of the story.

On the interim peers panel, a motion from the FE will be brought to Spring Conference in York. I can't tell you the wording because it's going to be redrafted taking into account the views expressed at the meeting. I think that Sue Doughty's committee have done some excellent work on this, balancing all the views they've had from across the party. They've come up with something that should make the system more democratic and that the leader is more likely to use. I spoke in favour of wording that gave the leader slightly less wiggle room. However, Nick has shown more willing on this than any leader before him and I'm sure that he will embrace the new system once it's up and running. I just wanted to make sure that any future leader would get the message that the party values this method of choosing our peers.I also feel that there is a very strong case for appointing a much greater proportion of women to help redress the appalling imbalances elsewhere.

Anyway, here are mine and others' tweets from the occasion, collected in a nice Storify thingy.

Lib Dem Federal Executive report - 28 October 2013

Last night's Federal Executive meeting was a little strange. It must have been even stranger for Tim Farron who had to chair a meeting of 30 or so people when some were in the room, some were on the phone and a few more were on the internet, their webcams being projected onto the screen in Liberal Democrat HQ. Which was fine until I put my iPad down for a minute and it slipped down the back of the sofa amid, no doubt, all sorts of rubbish. I hope nobody was watching too closely.

Last night's agenda was busy. We talked about membership - increasing, in some areas exponentially, diversity engagement, the coming year's budget. Don Foster, the new chief whip, came in and gave the political update, telling us that Liberal Democrat MPs and peers are working hard to deliver Lib Dem priorities on the Immigration and Lobbying bills. We also fed back to him that we felt more needed to be done for people on low incomes who were really struggling and he took that on board.

One good thing to come out of a Twitter conversation we were having on engaging membership is a plan to do a skills audit of our members in the first part of next year. We have some very talented people in our party and we maybe need to invite them to share their knowledge and experience with us. For example, I know someone who has experience in video production, something that could be very useful to us in the months ahead.

I created a Storify thingy of (mainly) mine and Daisy Cooper's tweets. If you have any questions, ask away.

Federal Executive meeting next week - what do you party members think our priorities should be over the next two years?

Next week, the new Liberal Democrat Federal Executive is being whisked to a secret and highly unglamorous location for a special meeting. It's a sensible step to take some time out at the start of our term to set our goals for the next two years. You don't have the space to do that in a normal agenda, so I'm looking forward to a more focussed discussion about our priorities.

The decisions the party makes over the next two years and four months will affect our fortunes for a long time to come. To me it's clear that we need to make sure that there are lots of lovely Liberal Democrats on the green benches come 7 May 2015. To do that, we need to run a fantastic County campaign this Summer, hold on to our MEPs and have our messaging sorted out. There also needs to be recognition on the part of those in the Westminster Bubble that they need to work with the Party not treat it with contempt - and a real willingness on behalf of the party to understand the pressures of government. We're a team and all parts of the party need to work much more effectively together. There needs to be better and much more positive communication on both sides and between the party and its members. Note I say between - which implies that both sides take part in it, not one lot being told something and it being expected that they will get on with it without further discussion.

But this isn't all about me. Party members and activists, should have a voice in this, too. You may well have ideas on this and I'd like to invite you to tell me what they are so I can feed in key themes to this process. What do you want from us as FE members?

Now, I'm perfectly sure that some of the stuff you may want to talk about should not be done so on a public blog in full view of our opponents, so if you could send me your brief thoughts by email at caronsmusingsATgooglemailDOTcom, I'd really appreciate it. Tell me what's working on your patch and what's not. Tell me what you need from the party and what ideas you have.

UPDATED: There are some Lib Dem internal elections this month - do you fancy standing?

Later this month, the Liberal Democrat Federal Executive, which I am now officially on, will choose a number of party positions. These include:

The Chair and five members of the Federal Finance and Administration Committee - this is the Committee that does the budget and supervises the organisation of HQ and makes sure we comply with health and safety, PPERA, employment law, that kind of thing.

Chair of the International Relations Comittee

Representatives on ELDR and Liberal International

Members of the Diversity Engagement Panel.

Also up for grabs, I think, will be posts like the Chair of the Campaigns and Communications Committee and Party Treasurer. These are the posts that are alluded to in the advertisement in Ad Lib but not directly mentioned. If there are any others that I haven't mentioned, maybe more experienced hands would add them in the comments.

Now, you don't need to be a member of FE to stand for any of these positions. They are open to any member of the Party, but if you want to stand, you need to be proposed by two voting members of the incoming our outgoing Federal Executive by the deadline of 5pm on 18th January along with artwork. David Allworthy is the Returning Officer and he can be contacted on returning.officer@libdems.org.uk.

The advert in Ad Lib directs you to the members' section of the Party website. This needs a bit of a Spring clean, but, as always, too few people are doing too many jobs in LDHQ. The information you need about all of the positions up for grabs is there, but you have to hunt for it and I can't find any advertisement about these elections at all. Go and have a look anyway.

So, if you feel that you want to go for any of these positions, you know what to do....

UPDATE: As if by magic - well, no, it's not by magic, it's sheer hard work by the lovely Rachael Clarke, the members' section of the website now has all the details about these elections, including all the posts up for grabs, right here.

In which I get on the Lib Dem Federal Executive....Thank you so much

Well, I'm truly gobsmacked!

Along with all other candidates for the Federal Committees, I received an email yesterday evening from the Returning Officer telling me that the results would be published on the party website at 9am today. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't get on. There were so many good candidates who were better known than I am.

So, it was an enormous surprise to find that I had, in fact, been elected. I am truly grateful to everyone who voted for me. I really want to play my part in getting this party ready to fight the European and Westminster elections and am looking forward to the challenges of the next two years. All of the results are available here with the detailed breakdowns over at the wonderful Colin Rosenstiel's site.

What I need from all of you who are party members is to talk to me. Tell me what you think the FE's priorities should be. Tell me what's happening on your patch and how the Liberal Democrat world looks to you. Tell me what's working and what isn't. If you aren't getting enough information on things, ask me. If you want to email, do so on caronsmusingsATgooglemailDOTcom, If you want to talk to me, I will give you my phone number, but I don't really want to put it on here just in case some drunken cybernats fancy having some middle-of-the-night prank calling fun.

Election results always bring bad news as well as good. Personally, I was absolutely distraught that Candy Piercy was not returned to FE. She is one of the wisest, most practical heads this party has and I hadn't in my wildest nightmares thought she wouldn't be re-elected. I actually cried when I saw Arnie Gibbons wasn't voted back on to Federal Conference Committee. He's pretty much always done the right thing. He, Jon Ball and Jeremy Hargreaves going means that the Committee loses a whole load of experience. It has six new faces who will have a steep learning curve. Of course, Gareth Epps, who led the charge against accreditation, has been on before.

Another surprise was the departure of Linda Jack from both FPC and FCC. It goes to show, I think, that her stance of direct opposition to the Coalition is not widely supported within the party and that Liberal Left doesn't have that much of a fan base.

I have to say that, having heard her passionate speeches on welfare reform and equal citizenship, I am absolutely delighted that Kelly-Marie Blundell has been elected to both FCC and FPC. She'll be a robust and constructive presence on both.

Social liberals, whether within the Social Liberal Forum or not, are going to be well represented, taking a majority of the directly elected places on FPC. There's a gain on FCC, too and 6 SLF candidates that I know of were elected to FE, including me. There will be interesting discussions to be had on exactly what we present to the electorate in 2015 in terms of fiscal policy. Danny Alexander has intimated his view that further deficit reduction measures will be necessary. I can't see many of the new FPC being happy about that.

The Liberal Democrat Voice team did quite well - me on FE, Mark Pack on FPC and Mark Valladares on the ELDR delegation. Although the latter will probably be called the ALDE delegation now that they've changed their name in Dublin today. I have to say, I'm never very keen on the idea of dropping the word reform from anything.

I do think we need to review the way we do these elections though. The electorate is voting reps to Conference, roughly 10% of the membership and even amongst those the turnout is nowhere near as good as it could be. My instinct tells me that all members should have a vote, both at Conference and in internal elections. Some think that if you give all members a vote, it'll actually weaken the party democracy because it makes it vulnerable to infiltration by people with a specific agenda. This was very much an SDP-led inclusion in the make up of the party. They'd seen what the likes of Militant had done to Labour and wanted to put up barriers to stop it happening in the new party. I'm not sure that's enough of a reason to deny such a huge proportion of your members a say in these elections. Certainly, all members choose the leader and President, but we should be looking at extending our internal democracy. The power in this party has to be with its members.

However, the power can only be with members if we engage with them more. We have to be aware that, unless we're very careful, those whose names are known for being Great and Good may have an unfair advantage. That could weaken, rather than strengthen, democracy, concentrating power in the hands of too few people which would be just as bad. That is no excuse not to do it - we have to be innovative. For the first time, candidates have been allowed to campaign in these elections, but I think we need to take it further.

The party needs to create a space where candidates can be questioned. Apart from the sterling work put in by Jennie and Andy Hinton, there's not been a chance to find the candidates' views on anything not in their manifestos. We need to think about how we can use technology, at no cost to candidates so there are no financial barriers to taking part, to engage the electorate.

I don't want us to be having the same conversation in two years' time, so I'd like to see some fast movement on this. We should consult widely within the party during the first few months of next year - have sessions at state, Federal and regional conferences, get local parties involved and  make online submission not just possible but welcome. We then need to listen to what we're told and make changes in time for the next elections in 2014.

Extending the franchise always has a cost implication, but, in my experience, these things pay for themselves if you include an appeal with them. We've now had two all member elections for the Scottish Party Exec and office bearers since we changed our constitution in 2009. We also gave all our members a vote, which I think has helped with attendance at Conference. It's much more of a motivation to go to Conference if you know you have a say. We also need to find some way of allowing people who can't go to Conference to participate in it.

What I don't want to happen is for us to disappear into our own belly buttons to talk about internal and process to the exclusion of all else. We can't allow ourselves to be distracted from the job of winning elections - County Councils in 2013 alongside other local elections, Euros in 2014 and Westminster in 2015. Every single thing we do between now and then has to have an eye to winning as much as humanly possible in those polls.We need a more engaged, involved party to help us with that and there are things we need to do to enhance the whole experience of being a member, not just change the election procedures.

The next two years starts here. For party members, my door, phone line and inbox are always open so please talk to me. I can't be a good FE member without you.

The post that would have been banned two years ago - vote Caron Lindsay 1 for Federal Executive

As ballot papers land on voting reps' doormats for the Liberal Democrats' internal elections, I thought I'd just do a quick post telling you why I have decided to stand for the Federal Executive. Two years ago, this would have been impossible. In the past, anyone even hinting that they were going to vote for me anywhere online could have had me disqualified. The rule was initially put in place before the internet and it was designed with good intentions: to stop richer candidates outspending those who couldn't afford to run a campaign across the country. It took longer than it should have done for it to be relaxed, and this is the first time candidates are free to use free online resources to give more information about themselves than you can ever put on an A5 leaflet.

By the way, Jennie Rigg has been posing questions to FPC and FCC candidates on her blog. Before you vote, read their answers here.

FE is the body that sets the Party's strategy. It directs, co-ordinates and implements the work of the Federal Party. It makes sure that our operations are well targeted and resourced and it came to national  prominence during the Coalition nominations as it voted on whether we should join the Government.

Why I'd be good on FE

• I have almost 30 years' experience as grassroots activist, campaigner and party office bearer at local, regional and national level;
• I've a good track record of team building and getting people to work well together;
• I'm not afraid to challenge leaders when I think they are getting it wrong, but I think it's important to do so constructively in a way that encourages them to listen and take heed;
• I've been involved in planning and resourcing Scotland wide election campaigns and helped take the party to its highest point as Scottish Campaigns and Candidates Convener in 2005. I think I have the skills and experience to contribute to our recovery.

My priorities

• We need to make sure that activists have the right support and materials to take on the doorsteps so they can confidently answer voters' concerns.
• We can't just dismiss those people who have left us since 2010. Some of them can be persuaded back to us. We need to show them that our ministers are achieving things they like as well as persuading new people that we are worth backing.
• We need to engage more directly with people our policies have directly helped - the flexible parental leave plans championed by Nick Clegg will make such a difference to families. for example.
• Communication within the party has been improving steadily, but we need more, better and quicker rebuttal of opposition messages and relentless promotion of our successes. We also need to make sure that the content of messages is sensitive - that hasn't always been the case. If in doubt, the people who write this stuff should get someone outside the Westminster Bubble to read it. I'm offering.....
• Members are more important to us than they are to the other, richer parties. We need to reverse the fall in membership. We need to inspire activists to recruit and win people back.
• I will be accessible to members and ensure that any concerns that they bring to me as an FE member are dealt with.
• We need to make sure that no part of the country is forgotten - our message needs to be as radical and relevant in Scotland and the north as it is in the south and south west.
• There are signs that the things I warned about in 2010 are causing tensions within the party. It's more important than ever that we bridge the gap between leaders and activists. The webinars help - we need more of them and similar events. We need to restore trust as well by making sure Conference decisions are taken seriously by the party leadership. I would expect, for example, that the wishes of Conference as regards secret courts (sign the petition here) and equal citizenship to be advanced by our ministers.
• It may only be 925 or so days until the General Election, but it's only 28 to by-elections and Police Commissioner elections, 200 ish to local elections and 600 ish until the Euros. We have to get these right, too. I can help see that we do.

If you have any questions for me, my leaflet has my phone number and personal email and you can reach me via Twitter here and Facebook here. 

I really need your first preference to help me stay in the race long enough to get elected. This is the first time I've stood and I don't have the biggest profile in the party. If I get elected at all, it's likely to be under quota at the 48th stage or something. Your first preference could make all the difference.