[Item 14 not listed]
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Minutes:
6th
July 2013, Bridgend
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Minutes: WALES
GREEN PARTY COUNCIL MEETING
6th
July 2013, Bridgend
Present:
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Ann Were:
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General Secretary
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Chris Simpson:
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Treasurer/GPRC Rep
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John Matthews:
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Fundraiser
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Paul Atkins:
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Media Officer/Elections Coordinator
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Jane Cooke:
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Radnor GP/ GPRC Rep
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Pippa Bartolotti:
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Leader
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Chris Were:
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Deputy Leader/Website Manager
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John Evans:
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Electoral Returning Officer
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Trish Evans:
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Bridgend GP
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Owen Clarke:
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LP Development Officer
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Dorothy Wilson:
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Membership Secretary
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In Attendance: Anthony Slaughter, Andy Chyba, Neil Rogers, Chris von
Ruhland
Max Wallis, Tony
Young, Sam Coates
1) Apologies: Paul & Stella Westmacott
2) Minutes of the WGPC Meeting, 11th
May 2013: accepted.
3) Matters arising:
a)
Mailbox:
JM has arranged to be the contact person in Cardiff. During discussion, it
emerged that the address was not in use on our literature, nor on the website.
It was agreed that we needed to make sure the address was publicised in all our
literature – that was the reason why we had set up this permanent address in
the first place. (The address is: Wales Green Party, The Gate, Keppoch Street, Roath,
CARDIFF, CF24 3JW.) Action: everybody
b)
Mythbusters:
now printed. PB had copies in her car for distribution.
c)
Pontypridd
Election: in the event, nobody stood.
d)
Population
Matters: AW had written to David Murray – no reply yet received.
4)
Minutes of the
telephone conference meeting, 23rd May 2013: accepted with one
minor amendment. MW wanted the wording in the second sentence of point 5) to be
changed to read: “The General Secretary
alleged that Max Wallis also pointed out that it is not written down anywhere
that e-mails are confidential.” This amendment was accepted.
5)
Matters arising:
none.
6)
Officers’
Reports:
a)
Treasurer:
accepted. CS reported that he had set up a cash float for DW along with a
system to record spending for the annual accounts.
b)
ERO:
accepted. The meeting
thanked John Evans for his handling of a difficult situation. There was
a clear need for a detailed set of rules. The constitution states that areas
will lay down their own electoral rules. JE will draw up a set of rules to
cover all future elections. (PB pointed out that when she had stood for party
leader, the ERO had provided all the candidates with a four page rule-book
which ensured that the contest was conducted fairly and impartially.)
Action: JE
There was a question about the absence of any candidate
information for Rosemary Cutler on the recent Euro-list ballot. JE replied that
the candidate had made it plain that she only wanted to be a paper candidate;
and had chosen not to submit any information.
c)
Website
Manager: accepted.
d)
Membership
Secretary: accepted. CS pointed out that Anne Greagsby’s monthly payment is
a donation from which her membership had been deducted. He had already e-mailed
her to point out that she was still paying a standing order – it was her choice
to continue. JM proposed that her donation be returned and the standing order
cancelled – nobody seconded this proposal.
e)
Elections
Coordinator: PA read out a short report that he had submitted on the
morning of the meeting. It was dealt with under item 11) below.
f)
General
Secretary: accepted.
g)
Fundraiser:
JM reported that he had not submitted a report because he had not been able to
do anything, due to a combination of work and family commitments; and that he
would be standing down at the AGM.
h)
LP
Development Officer: nothing to report.
i)
Leader:
accepted. PB reported on progress with the Peoples
Assembly and circulated a paper about it. She also commended a report: New Industrial Strategy for Wales,
commissioned by the Wales TUC from the New Economics Foundation.
j)
Campaigns
Coordinator: MW had circulated a report to council members before the
meeting. As MW is suspended from his post (see
item 4 above), this was not discussed.
7)
Local Party
Reports
a)
Cardiff
GP: they are developing and implementing a ward strategy as per the
Election Strategy document.
b)
Gwent GP:
recent activity is documented in PB’s leader report.
c)
Bridgend
GP: continuing with their local campaigning activities, and will dovetail
their future activities into the agreed election strategy.
d)
Penarth:
there is a keen volunteer base, but not many want to attend formal Green Party
meetings.
e)
Radnor
GP: they have held three meetings, have agreed a constitution, and are in
the process of setting up a bank account.
f)
Ceredigion
GP: the party has started to hold telephone conference meetings; but to
date, there has not been any noticeable increase in participation. CS reported
that they have recently had a member living in Liverpool who has joined
Ceredigion GP, rather than Liverpool GP, apparently because he has local
connections Wales.
g)
Swansea
GP: some long-time members have lapsed, but there have been some new
student members. They are setting up a new website.
8)
Recycle4charity:
PB introduced this idea. We link with the charity and send out envelopes with
our logo on them to be used to recycle printer cartridges and similar items.
GPEW and several other regions already do this. There is a small donation given
to WGP for each envelope received by the charity. The meeting agreed to proceed
with this. CS will give them the bank details. CW will organise the logo.
Action: CS; CW; PB
9)
Co-option of
Deputy Treasurer: the post had been agreed previously and had been
advertised in the members’ newsletter. Chris von Ruhland has volunteered to be
co-opted. The meeting agreed to co-opt him. He will work with CS on the
necessary paperwork. Action:
CS, CvR
10) WGP AGM: it was agreed that we would
hold the meeting in Llandrindod Wells. We originally agreed that we would hold
the meeting on 2nd November; but later, CS thought that perhaps GPRC
will be meeting that weekend. If so, we agreed to hold it on the 9th
November instead. JC will organise the meeting. She asked about a budget. CS
replied that there was no set budget. We had paid £87.50 in 2012 & £96 in
2011. He thought anything up to £120-130 for the day would be acceptable.
Action: JC
There was a discussion about speakers. We would like to
have either Natalie Bennett or Will Duckworth. The main author of the Industrial Strategy for Wales was also
mentioned. AW will organise nearer the time. Suggestions for other speakers are
welcome. Action: AW; everybody
11) Election Strategy: the meeting welcomed
Sam Coates, who had travelled from Oxford to help with this discussion. The
meeting also congratulated him on his recent electoral success. We started off
by splitting into LP groups and writing down the main points about our recent
campaigns, particularly how we had chosen and worked the target wards. Then we
reconvened and went through them, learning lessons and drawing out themes. (We
accepted that there was a general need to increase our membership and supporter
base in order to implement Target to Win
effectively. We also noted that in the West Midlands, they had a different
electoral system with significant elections nearly every year – therefore they
did not lose momentum between elections in the way we have tended to do in
Wales.)
Bridgend: they had chosen their target ward because the incumbent
was old and unpopular, and the other parties had not worked that ward. They
worked the ward over several months and got 24% in a two-horse race with the
sitting councillor which they initially thought was good. Then after a few
weeks, the councillor suddenly died and there was a by-election. All the
parties fielded candidates, and the green vote collapsed. An independent
candidate got around 24%, and had clearly picked up all the anti-labour votes
which had previously gone to the Green Party.
Swansea: Keith Ross had stood several times in the ward where he
lives – a 4 seat ward. He worked it very hard in the months prior to the
election; but his vote did not increase, mainly because there was a general
trend for votes to shift from the sitting LibDem councillors to Labour.
Tony stood in a 3-seat ward
where he was well known because of his work with Communities First. He worked the ward hard with a survey &
door-knocking, but his vote was essentially the same as in previous elections.
He was the only non-Labour candidate and should have benefitted from picking up
all the anti-Labour votes. Therefore, he feels that it is pointless continuing
in that ward.
Gwent: one ward had little more than a paper candidate. It had been
picked because there were political tensions between the existing councillors;
and it was flat – therefore easy to work.
AW worked the ward she
represents as a Town Councillor. She door-knocked all the ward. The sitting
councillor was unpopular with many voters; but AW found that people were not
complaining about any specific local issues – there was nothing she could pick
on as a useful campaigning tool. The sitting Conservative councillor got back
in. AW got only 4 votes more than her previous paper campaign, even though she
had worked the ward quite hard. She thought that this was largely due to the
fact that Labour had also put a lot of effort into that ward, which cancelled
out her work. AW said that when she steps down as general secretary in
November, she will be able to work the ward long-term.
PB had looked at MOSAIC scores –
but all the wards in Newport scored badly. She picked Malpas because that is
where she lives, and because the two sitting Labour Councillors were due to
retire. She has canvassed in the ward for the last 4 year. This time, she had 12
helpers. She had done canvassing training with her helpers. They did the full
target to win with a questionnaire and two following leaflets. They had a full
slate of 3. The first leaflet was one leaflet to cover all three candidates.
This was a mistake. The second leaflets were individual to the candidates.
Aftwerwards, they realised that they should have done two different leaflets –
one for the more Tory part of the ward, and one for the more Labour part of the
ward. They also did regular stalls on Saturdays. In the event, Labour had two
well-prepared candidates to step in and the Green Party got only 12.5%. PB did
get contact details for 80 sympathisers. She has now registered with the Data
Protection Agency, so she has been able to utilise this contact information
which will be helpful in the future. (She has also been able to write to 29
ex-members now that she is registered.)
OC had been a community
councillor for 5 years. His leaflet concentrated on global issues, and his vote
halved from the previous time.
Cardiff: AS reported on the St Augustines ward. He is chair of the
Transition Town group and has a high local profile. He stood in the
parliamentary by-election as well as for the Unitary Authority. He also got
very good coverage in the local paper, and did a lot of work on social media.
(There are a lot of elderly voters in the ward, so this was not necessarily
helpful.) He had 10-15 helpers – but none of them was keen on door-knocking. He got 15% in the
council election. Labour took both seats from the Tories. Many of the ballot
papers for him were split: Lab/Green, Tory/Green, PC/Green. In the by-election,
20% of his votes came from the St Augustines Ward.
In Canton, we had not put much
effort in on the ground. It was a Labour landslide.
In Cathays we had 630 votes. We
needed >800 to get in. Turnout was 17%.The ward is approx 80% students, and
20% long-term residents. They had door-knocked the ward three times in the
previous 8 months. Looking back on the campaign, the following problems were
recognised.
Ø
They had door-knocked the whole ward equally.
Should they have concentrated more on the long-term residents? (If there was a
50% turnout from the 20% of the population who are long-term residents –
similar to other parts of Wales – then the turnout from the 80% of students
would have been <10%.)
Ø
They will get the marked rolls from the Council
to see who actually voted. This information will be used for future targeting.
Ø
Their data was not good enough to maximise info
gained from the three canvasses. They did not record which person actually
answered the door and spoke to the canvasser. On repeat visits to HMOs, they
did not know if it was the same person or another occupant. This also meant
that they could not knock up sympathisers on polling day.
Ø
Perhaps it would be better to get those people
who express a willingness to vote green on the doorstep to fill in the form for
a postal vote.
Ceredigion: there had been a Ceredigion Council by-election in
Rheidol ward in 2011. In a hotly contested campaign, we got 10.6%. Therefore it
was decided to make this the target ward. Some more work was done in the ward
over the next year. Unfortunately, the candidate had personal problems in the
week prior to nomination and did not submit a nomination paper for the 2012
election.
Oxford: Sam Coates gave some feedback on his successful campaign in
Oxford. The county council ward is made up of parts of three city wards, and
has mostly students. There was little opposition activity in the ward because
of the LibDem collapse and the fact that the Labour candidate had a poor
campaign with no big message.
They did a survey and picked an
area of cuts (adult social services) which had had a big impact. They then ran
a “values-based campaign” on the idea of having a referendum so the voters
could decide between continuing with the cuts, or having a small increase in
Council tax in order to maintain adult social services.
The meeting thanked Sam for travelling to
Bridgend to help us.
PA will utilise the above information
to finalise the strategy document. Action:
PA
2014 Euros
a)
Freepost:
it was decided not to join in the
GPEW Euro-election Freepost scheme.
b)
Press
blitz: as lead candidate, AC is planning a big media campaign – it will
cost very little and should produce an impact across Wales. The press release
on our list selection will go out this week.
c)
Parliamentary
Election Broadcast: this will be made in London. There will be no Welsh
version unless we pay for it. There was a discussion about possible cheaper
alternatives. Also, we will need to get the manifesto translated into Welsh.
d)
Election
Committee: at present, AW & JM are the Welsh reps on this committee.
They will be stepping down. PA will look into taking on this role. Action:
PA
e)
Election
Agent: CS will take on this role Action:
CS
f)
Political
positioning: there was a fairly lengthy discussion about this. Three yeses
is the GP position: Yes to referendum, Yes to Europe, Yes to reform from
within. We considered three points to campaign on. On-line polling has
highlighted jobs, environment & women’s rights. AC suggested environmental
justice. This will be re-visited at future meetings.
g)
Targetting:
there was another long discussion. The upshot was that WGP will allocate up to
£250 each to Bridgend, Cardiff & Gwent to pay for paper & ink for
Risograph production of campaigning materials. After 9-12 months, these LPs
will be invited to submit bids for further funding as target wards. These bids
will have to include details of what has been accomplished and the name(s) of
the people who will be standing in the 2017 Council elections. Ideally, the
next 3 years door-knocking should identify the likely voters who will support
our candidates – this group will then be targetted during the run-up to the
elections. PA will decide the exact timetable and will incorporate this into
his revamped election strategy document. Action: LPs, PA
12) Job Descriptions: this will be dealt
with by e-mail discussion. MW suggested that we ought to have a section on
disputes resolution. Action:
AW
13) Date of next meeting: there was another
long discussion. It was decided to have just a social meeting at the Brighton
Conference. The next WGPC meeting will be on the day of the AGM. Any urgent
business before the AGM will be dealt with by e-mail.
14) Other Business:
a)
World
Development Movement paper: TY raised this issue and wanted WGP to campaign
on this. (The paper details the financial links between cabinet ministers and
the fossil fuel industries. A copy is being e-mailed round along with these
minutes.) MW pointed out that this issue had already been raised by a Plaid
Cymru MP in prime minister’s questions. The council agreed that we should all
campaign on this. Action:
everybody
b)
CS proposed that WGP should give a £25 donation
to Bridgend GP for the excellent lunch they had provided. This was accepted.
Action: CS
c)
Urgent
WGPC business: AW wanted to raise, in closed session, an item of urgent
business which had cropped up since the meeting agenda had been circulated. She
asked those people not on the Council to leave the meeting. MW refused to
leave. It was agreed that WGPC members would discuss this item by e-mail. Action:
WGPC council members
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end minutes --------------------
Post-script
The AGM
timetable is as follow:
Publication of date
& venue of AGM Conference by SOC in the party newsletter together with
deadlines for motions & amendments and a contact address for submission
of motions & amendments by:
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31st August
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Motions and policy
papers to be submitted to SOC by:
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14th September
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SOC to publish the
first agenda by:
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28th September
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Amendments to be
submitted to SOC convenor by:
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12th October
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Reports by Party
Officers, accounts and nominations to be delivered to SOC convenor by:
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12th October
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Final agenda to be
circulated to arrive by:
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26th October
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Annual General Meeting:
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9th November
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