GPRC Work in 2015 After the Report to Conference

GPRC work in 2015 after the report to conference.

House of Lords selection group:

A HoL Selection Group has been formed to call for nominations to a new list of potential members should the Party be asked to put names forward, and also to put in place the selection panel. The group is:Mike Shone, Jon Nott, who was involved in the last round of HoL selections and will advise on this round. A third member was appointed but stood down, so someone is now needed to replace her.John Hardy the Chair of the Northern Ireland Green Party will also take part. The Green Party in Scotland are too busy to do so.

Candidate Selection Working Group

This group is working on the Parliamentary Selection procedures. Group members are: Mike Shipley - convenor, Freda Davis, Tom Harris – internal ERO, Judy Maciejowska – Elections Coordinator, and Jon Nott.

Strategy Working Group

In the summer a weekend was held at Aston University with GPEx, GPRC and PolComm members and others who have worked on strategy. It was a facilitated gathering, and did not get as far as we would have wished. Mike Shipley and Miriam Kennet gathered up the extensive summary of the weekend and produced a document which went to GPEx for comment, who passed it to CamComm- their Campaigns and Communications sub committee. They have shaped it into something more like a strategy document, which will come back to GPRC in January.

The aim is to formulate a five year strategy for the party, that all agree on, (to 2020 elections) with GPEx in conjunction with the CEO then creating a more detailed annual strategy and business plan.

Review of Code of Conduct

The party Code of Conduct has been available for some years in the ‘Party-in-a-Box’ for local parties but at Spring Conference 2015 it became part of the new Disciplinary Policy, with serious breaches acting as grounds for a disciplinary complaint.

It was written by Dispute Resolution Committee originally, so Bernard Ekbery who now convenes DRC has been revising it. The result will come to GPRC meeting in January for approval (amendment, discussion etc.)

Review of GPRC Standing Orders and Councillors Handbook.

Sue Ledger is leading this review. She has co-opted a member of Derbyshire Green Party, who is a technical author, to work with her.Members of GPRC should all have a copy of this handbook. If you do not have it handy please ask Lyuba.

This will also come to the January meeting for approval. When it is agreed it goes to conference for their approval.

GPEX elections, approval of nominees from new members.

Nominees to GPEX need to have been members of the Party for more than two years. Members with less than two years continuous membership but more than one year can stand with the approval of GPRC. Three such members were nominated and were approved in the GPRC teleconference call on June 25th 2015

Friends of GPEx Co-ordinators.

Members of GPRC take on responsibility to contact and get to know one of the GPEx co-ordinators, attend that person’s committees and report to GPRC on issues that arise.

Governance Review

Governance Review:

Conference expressed a preference for the Governance Review Option D and this is being taken forward by the Review Working Group. Conference also instructed the Working Group to include proposals for a limited liability structure for GPEW; that it should not consider further an elected senior staff member [CEO]; that the reformed Executive should include a mix of specialist roles and generalists; that there should be two principle bodies [separation of powers] and that there be greater clarity on the relationships between dispute resolution and the disciplinary process.

The original timetable for reform was to see a new constitution incorporating the changes above to be brought to the Spring Conference 2016 to be followed by a referendum of the membership in the summer and the final proposal to be adopted at the Autumn Conference, after which the new governance bodies would be formed and begin to work according to a transition timetable established by the working group. This timetable has now slipped and it will not be possible to bring the revised constitution to Spring and this will now happen in Autumn to be followed by the referendum. This gives valuable time to take in the consequences of the proposed changes and to ensure that there can be a smooth transition to the new structures.

There is clearly much still to do with respect to clarifying relationships and lines of communication. We should not deceive ourselves in to believing that a change of governance will solve all [or indeed any] of our problems. These are related to communications, workload and a lack of clarity over areas of responsibility. We need to take the opportunity that the pause in the implementation of reforms gives to both thoroughly understand the proposals and to ensure that the real problems that the party faces are addressed in the new structures. The importance of this comes from the fact that the convenor of the Working Group, who is the Convenor of SOC, made clear that the proposals can be amended through amending the constitutional changes that will be brought to Spring Conference as a working paper.

Freda Davis and Mike Shipley have attended these meetings.

Regional Co-ordinators.

Some of the Regional co-ordinators have been in touch with each other directly. This would be a useful channel for sharing information. .

Delegate Conference Working Group.

Spring Conference called for the establishment of a working group to look at the workings of conference. GPRC was not mentioned in the motion so that this is not our direct responsibility. However the matter was raised at our last meeting. Action on the motion was delayed during the election and we have no further information on progress. When a working group is formed, GPRC will ask for representation, possibly through the Friends of Policy and Conferences coordinators.

List and Website Manager

With Vicky Duckworth leaving GPRC, her role as list and GPRC website manager has been split.

David Newman [SE Region] will take on oversight of the open and closed lists. There is a need for someone on GPRC to work with David on the website page for GPRC.

Support to GP peer:

Jenny Jones was selected and became a member of the House of Lords, but a part of the constitution about this process has been ignored. This is the requirement to set up a group to support the peer in her work. GPRC have this responsibility.

7.POST-SELECTIONMANAGEMENT

FollowingthenominationofaGreenPartyPeer,alltheUKGreenPartiesrulingbodies willdevelopamechanismforinputandmanagementofthePeer’sworkplan,campaigns andpublicpositiononissuestoensureconsistencyofmessagesonaUKwidebasis.

We propose that a group should be formed with two from GPRC, two from Political Committee and two from GPEx to support Jenny in her work and receive regular reports from her. Jenny is very keen to get this group established.

Oldham By-election:

Contrary to established practice, the announcement of the date of this by-election was brought forward and made before the funeral of former MP Michael Meacher, leaving the local party with insufficient time to complete its selection procedure. We agreed an emergency selection procedure with the local party and the General Election candidate was selected at a properly called local party selection meeting. He is Simeon Hart who stood there in the General Election. Simeon worked hard in the election which was won by Labour with an increased majority.

Disciplinary Committee

GPEx appointed the remaining members of this committee according to the wishes of the Regional committees, but London Region has not put anyone forward, so GPEx have advertised for someone.

The situation in Wales is not clear as someone was appointed but stepped down. The Eastern Region had an election but the outcome is not clear there either. The committee has a meeting arranged in January.

Chief Executive

Tom Beckett left at the end of November, and Nick Martin is now the full time CEO of the Party.

AFCOM

This is the sub committee of GPEx which deals with finance, and it will also be dealing with staffing matters now. GPRC have a voting place on all GPEx sub committees.

FD 1-1-2016