One for Local History Bluffs
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Perhaps you can clarify for me who got contacted and when on the details of the insert and the date of appearance, then, Dave?
Not on Spintcom as far as I could see but I may have missed it. Not here except in passing on this thread.
I still await replies from the respective branch secretaries which may enlighten me
Certainly from past published minutes from both branches, the insert or its content were not featured, AFAIK.
If they were indeed informed then I consider that also another depressing sign of the redundancy of the branch structure in that they deemed such details not worthy of discussion much less even a mention.
As I indicated adverts should be tailored for the audience and local branches consulted on content with some sort of feedback to the branches on the responses and replies.
Perhaps being located so distant means I treat receiving information something of an importance than those who are more in the informal loop than myself.
The “advance notice” appeared in the Executive Committee’s July minutes. Don’t the two branches north of the border read them?
Information as to the actual date of the insert was not available at the time.
i) Insert into the i newspaper
RESOLUTION – Chesham/Foster: “That the party place an insert into the weekend Scottish edition of the i newspaper as soon as convenient costing £432 plus vat and printing.” 7-1-0 (Carried)I’m well aware of that fact that the EC approved the insert but you seem to ignore this part..
“As soon as convenient”
Convenient for who? Certainly not the local members ignorant of this development.
As you say no date was given of when it would be inserted. So who tried to inform them that it was this weekend? Via our online mediums? Nope.
Neither branch were due to hold their meetings since the EC minutes were put online nor before the date of the insert will happen.
So do you think this satisfactory advance notice?
For the record when the July minutes were published online, on the 7th Aug, I circulated an e-mail to the branches
“Has there been any follow up to the design, lay-out and content of the text of this advert proposal approved by the EC in July Is it going to be the one already published in SE England or will it be customized for a Scottish audience? Will Edinburgh and Glasgow have input?”
When your easy-to-miss mention on this forum that it would actually appear this weekend I circulated another e-mail immediately
“I previously asked Matt if the branches had any input and it seems there wasn’t any prior engagement. Can anyone tell me if any local member was informed of the ad appearing other than the EC minutes where I first read of this so to publicise it for members to know about. A member may like to buy a copy of i newspaper just to see the ad.
Anyways, i’d appreciate feedback next week on the presentation of the ad when it appears, how it looks, how it reads and whatnot. If the ad insert can be scanned the Socialist Courier blog would do a post featuring the ad.
But what unsettles me and I may well be wrong but I think there is a problem of letting others speak for Edinburgh and Glasgow branches because of the different political climate in Scotland.”
Dave, it seems obvious to me that being located a mere 400 miles away in Glasgow and Edinburgh leaves a member just as unconnected as someone thousands of miles away.
I have been urging those branches to do their own advertising campaign with no success, and they may well not do so ever if they are under the impression that it will all be done for them remotely by HO committees. Not a way to motivate a branch to be active.
Nor does it encourage attendance to branch meetings when decisions are made for them in their absence and without consultation.
In relation to this thread…another nail in the coffin of local branches.
“Convenient for who? Certainly not the local members ignorant of this development.”
So the handful of comrades working their butts off at ‘the hub’ are now expected to mollycoddle members who can’t be arsed to pick up the phone or email Head Office to elicit further information when it isn’t always presented to them on a platter? Members don’t need to be “ignorant”; communication is a two-way process. Incidentally, and just for the record, the July EC minutes were published on this forum on 19 July, but as we’re all too well aware, very few Party members ever visit this place.
The partner of one of the members of Kent & Sussex branch has a cottage in Whithorn, which as you know, but others possibly don’t, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, about ten miles from Wigtown. A book festival is being held in Wigtown between 27 September and 6 October 2019 and K&S branch have booked a pitch at the festival when 3 or 4 of its members will be running a Party stall during the first few days of the event. Both Scottish branches were informed and invited to attend/participate.
An acknowledgement was received from the secretary of Glasgow branch who said he would circulate their members but thought it unlikely that any of them would be able to attend or assist in any way…
i’m very comfortable with admitting my mistakes…the EC minutes were indeed the 19th July but still not in time to appear on the branch meeting agendas.
Don’t play the victim here, Dave, about some working their butts off – as if others aren’t.
Nor pass the buck that your comrades north of the border should get off their arses (although I personally do strongly sympathise with that)
My complaint is a legitimate one.
There was a lapse in communication from the “hub”. One cause may well have been the absence of the member who had undertaken the insert remit.
But we have Spintcom and we have this forum for party business and they were not used to update members. It was only because I just happened upon your message that I was able to inform some members to be on the look out for the insert this weekend.
However, even if they had been timely notified I would still be questioning what took place.
I do not hold with the one size fit all model. Involving local branches which are now prone to inactivity does mean trying to give them responsibilities of shaping local propaganda and the “molly-coddling” initially happened when they were not invited to engage with this campaign, so i’m not surprise that they happily acquiesced to things being done for them. But I don’t condone it either.
Just like myself, you, yourself, are not the least bit reticent in raising issues which require addressing so that they can be corrected in the future. Nor if they have wider implications to the health of the party and the way it functions. I make no apology for my grumbling and airing grievances. Nor do I ever put down other members for doing the same.
“A book festival is being held in Wigtown between 27 September and 6 October 2019 and K&S branch have booked a pitch at the festival when 3 or 4 of its members will be running a Party stall during the first few days of the event. ”
Dave – What dates are you planning to run the stall on?
It might be possible for me to get across from Newcastle depending upon timing. Just to check it is Wigtown, not Wigton?
Bijou, it’s Wigtown.
https://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/
We’ll be running the stall on the first few days of the festival – I’ll let you know precisely which ones very shortly.
I’ve been many times because my father’s side is from Galloway and every summer holiday was spent thereabouts.
I bought 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade from a shop in Wigtown on my last visit when out of nostalgia I took a drive around the area and that eventually led on to a Socialist Standard article I wrote about him.
I hope everybody’s visit turns out to be a good one. It is a terrific part of the country from the Solway coast to the Glentrool forest
For our comrades heading for Wigtown, a bit of info I never knew of nearby town
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-49523006
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