Conference Agenda Oct 2021 PRINT - Flipbook - Page 7
at https://spaces.greenparty.org.uk/s/late-motionsforum-autumn-2021/ for items that could not have been
submitted by 27 July because they related to events taking
place since then. Late Motions are not required to be part
of the Final Agenda.
Emergency Motions (EMs)
The Emergency Motions Forum was opened on 27
September, but EMs are not part of the Final Agenda.
Summaries and synopses
SOCC states that all motions must have a synopsis of not
more than 50 words, or 300 for a policy paper. In practice
we do not reject motions without a synopsis although we
reserve the right to do so. We cut overlong synopses at 50
words and note that this has happened.
Background Information
Where provided, this is linked to below the motion. SOCC
requires background information to be in notes, not in the
motion itself. Where background information is given in the
submitted motion, SOC may remove it to a note.
2. A NOTIFICATION OF HOW MANY MOTIONS
AND AMENDMENTS HAVE BEEN RULED OUT OF
ORDER AND WHERE THESE ARE PUBLISHED
Two motions were found to be out of order at First Agenda
stage. They were published in the First Agenda. Under the
new Standing Orders, if not amended back in order they
do not appear in the Final Agenda and cannot be voted
back into order at Conference. This is to improve the flow
of Conference and speed up taking of the SOC Report. No
amendments to the motions were received so they have
been deleted. One Amendment was out of order and is in
the section on Motions and Amendments Out of Order.
3. A REPORT ON SOC’S PARTICIPATION IN THE
AGENDA PROCESS INCLUDING ANY MOTIONS
OR AMENDMENTS THAT SOC IS SUBMITTING
TO CONFERENCE
The Agenda Forum was opened in good time by SOC and
staff in Greenspaces at https://spaces.greenparty.org.uk/s/
autumn-conference-2021-agenda-forum/ and a calendar
of deadlines was posted there. An email was sent to all
Party members to say that it had opened.
Once again, members had trouble using the members’
website. Unlike on the former website, all motions and
comments are in one stream, making it difficult to use. We
worked out how to list the motions using Wiki, but with so
many ideas for motions coming forward, this was still very
clunky and it adds entries to the Stream.
A reminder email sent out just before the Pre-Agenda
deadline triggered a rush of new ideas for motions onto
the Agenda Forum at the last minute. By the Pre-Agenda
deadline ideas for 83 possible motions had been entered
on the Stream and were indexed by SOC using the
Wiki. Most of these did not result in submitted motions.
Members are advised to place items on the Agenda Forum
at an early stage so that they can consult, revise wording,
obtain supporting co-proposers or support from a local
party or working group, and for policy motions obtain
accreditation from Policy Development Committee. The
Agenda Forum for Spring Conference 2022 will be opened
before the start of Conference.
The submission form was placed onto the Agenda Forum
late, on 5th August not 27th July. We therefore accepted
submissions by email although this creates additional work
for SOC.
SOC placed several items on the Pre-Agenda but in the end
due to other work had insufficient time to bring motions
on these to conference. These were on international
members, minimum service break following maximum
terms in office, and validating the number of local parties
in existence.
First Agenda preparation requires a large time commitment
which is aggravated by members of the Party submitting
reports and motions with complex Word formatting. The
use of a webform instead of email reduces the amount of
reformatting needed. The Chair of GPEx (the Executive)
also did not collate the reports of GPEx co-ordinators into
a single report. SOC has to remove existing formatting,
reformat and collate. Ideally staff would take on this
collating and reformatting work in future.
The First Agenda meeting of SOC was held on 14th and
15th August. A motion on Gypsy Roma Traveller policy was
split into two separate motions (an enabling motion and
a policy statement). Motions were ordered ready for the
Prioritisation Ballot according to the rules given in Standing
Orders for the Conduct of Conference (SOCC).
The Amendment Forum and the Late Motions Forum were
opened by SOC in good time in Greenspaces at https://
spaces.greenparty.org.uk/s/amendment-forum-autumnconference-2021/ and https://spaces.greenparty.org.uk/s/
late-motions-forum-autumn-2021/ with links placed in the
Agenda Forum.
The Prioritisation Ballot.
SOC went into Autumn Conference 2020 with a clear
strategy for raising participation in the Prioritisation
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