Conference Agenda Oct 2021 PRINT - Flipbook - Page 9
debate. It is open to chairs to allow registered members
to participate and due to Covid and other issues such
participation may be requested by a significant number of
members who have been unable to attend Conference in
person.
Both remote voting and remote participation are new
departures for face-to-face conference and they may have
significant time implications for plenaries leading to a
reduction in the business that we can get through, but SOC
do not yet know what the impact will be.
Speaker slips will be taken in advance from those who
hope to participate from a remote location at the chair’s
discretion. Procedural motions will be taken in advance
from remote locations for Reference Back and Taking in
Parts and Minor Textual Amendments to correct typos etc.
Other procedural motions and speeches on them can only
be taken from the Conference floor at physical conference
but they can be voted on remotely.
The timetable has been set to allow for all A motions, all B
motions, all C motions to be taken. In addition we expect to
take on the Conference floor at least one D motion and one
E motion, but this will be dependent on factors such as
(i) fast-tracking of D and E motions
(ii) the additional time required by online voting
processes
(iii) any additional time required by online
participation processes.
Hustings for and elections for the following voluntary posts
each to be held for one year are to be held at Autumn
Conference:
interest which the member did not progress. If you are
interested in assisting the Party and have suitable skills to
act as ERO or DERO with staff support then please email
soc@greenparty.org.uk.
SOC has serious concerns about the state of our
membership records and reminder systems which led to
problems for the ERO and DERO and staff in conducting
the GPEx and leadership elections and meant that some
long term members were unable to vote.
5. THE REPORT OF THE ACTING RETURNING
OFFICER (CLAIRE NASH)
I unexpectedly became Acting ERO early in August. With
little experience and two absences abroad booked for
August it was plain that I needed a more experienced
deputy. Steve Leyland, ERO for the North East region,
stepped into the breach as DERO and has done the bulk
of the work swiftly and very competently, going beyond
the call of duty and receiving many emails of thanks.
Supporting staff members from the membership and
finance team have also had to deal with many emails from
us and from members.
Staff developed a form for members to request their
code online, if not received. Many members reported not
receiving a code. The main reasons why people emailed
ero@ or used the form to request missing voting codes
were:
1)
The person was shown on the Action Network/
Chargebee system as not being a paid up member
on 27th August so no voting code had been issued.
28 new codes were issued during the Leadership
election when this was found to be due to Party data
errors. Others had not renewed or upgraded their
membership fee, had gone into grace and did not
qualify, and claimed that they had not been reminded
to renew or informed of the increase.
2)
Members had changed email address. We verified
changes with the help of staff and re-sent the code to
the new email. Members not notifying email changes
is a significant problem and 422 voting code emails
for the GPEx/PDC ballot bounced. ‘Out of the Office’
responses were sifted for notification of changed
email addresses.
3)
The voting code email was marked on the system as
sent to the email address of the inquirer but did not
arrive in their Inbox. We re-sent the code. Most cases
were in this category.
4)
492 emails came back as reported spam complaints.
Some of these ‘spammed’ members then asked the
ERO for their code. They had unsubscribed in the past
5 members of Campaigns Committee
5 members of Conferences Committee
5 members of Dispute Resolution Committee
5 members of Equality and Diversity Committee
5 members of Green World board
5 members of International Committee
5 members of Standing Orders Committee
The vacancies were notified in advance. Voting will be open
for online voting from end of hustings until 1pm on Sunday
October 24th and for in person voting from 10am to 1pm in
the Conference venue. We hope to announce the results
at the end of the Sunday plenary. For more information on
voting please contact ero@greenparty.org.uk.
The position of ERO is a vital one for the national party and
is again vacant. Knowing it would become vacant from
October 1st we advertised the vacancy in August with a
closing date of 7th September. We had one expression of
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