Comments on: Liberal Youth: a successful Bootcamp weekend

By: Geoffrey Payne

Geoffrey Payne — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:36:57 +0000

Good to see a bit of army discipline being introduced to the Liberal Youth.
I hope you all came away with perfectly polished boots.

By: KL

KL — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:49:27 +0000

The key issue for Liberal Youth is ensuring that there’s always a “next generation” coming through, given that the very nature of the organisation means that the activists tend to turn over every four years or so. It’s where we in Scotland fell down in the mid 1990s, and Liberal Youth Scotland are well aware of these pitfalls!

It’s great to see the youth organisations north and south of the border becoming active again, and as long as they keep asking the usual awkward questions of the party as well as playing a vital role in campaigning they should go from strength to strength.

By: Richard Huzzey

Richard Huzzey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:58:51 +0000

I echo Hywel’s sentiments about a well-developed Liberal Youth paying massive dividends over time… although I don’t know who that “Neil Fawcett” chap is.

By: Hywel

Hywel — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:36:53 +0000

After a few years of going “Oh god what are that bunch of useless disorganised gits doing to a once proud organisation” its great to see some good news from LY.

And looking at your freshers recruitment for once it’s nice to say “it wasn’t like that in my day”

“The event is only value-for-money if it produces ore activism than the money it costs to run this thing.”

Yes but you need to measure that over a very long term. The first Activate probably cost about £2,000 (plus staff time). I doubt it produced that much activism in the first year afterwards – though it did meet its main objective in that 75% of the people attending went to some subsequent party or LDYS event. However it got Jo Swinson (among others but that’s the headline) involved in the party.

If we look at training as demanding a short term return we’d never invest in it – particularly at providing training that is accessible (The first activate covered transport costs as well so the only cost of attending was the £5 we charged – AFAIK the only party training scheme to do that.)

Over the years LDYS/Liberal Youth has been responsible for starting the party careers of myself, Neil Fawcett, Rob Banks, Richard Grayson and countless others so I think the investment has produced sufficient returns

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:06:31 +0000

It’s nice to see Liberal Youth finally doing something. Now keep in touch with these new activists and give them the tools and continual support so that they start campaigning on their own. The event is only value-for-money if it produces ore activism than the money it costs to run this thing.

By: James Harrison

James Harrison — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:18:38 +0000

This was indeed a fantastic weekend. We in Glasgow took down 5 society members (including myself) all the way to Worcester. We learnt so much about canvassing, using page plus, how to communicate with members and in campaigning and using the internet. One of our members is now putting herself forward to stand for the Liberal Youth executive! The 12 hour travel time via coach was hellish, but worth it!

James Harrison
President – Glasgow Uni Lib Dems