The whirlwind of politics isn’t going to stop for very long this year, but you might want to take some time over the Summer to think about how you could become more involved in the Liberal Democrats.
One way you could do that is to stand for a role in your local party. This Autumn, every local party will hold its AGM and elect its committee for 2019. Now is the time to think about whether you could take on one of these roles.
You could choose to stand for one of the Officer roles – Chair, Secretary, Membership Secretary, Data Officer, Diversity Officer, Treasurer or take on a role on the Executive. If you are not sure about what these roles involve, why not have a look at the Members’ area of the website?
They have some very handy guides to each of these roles and more in the Training section.
It would be really helpful if people who have done these roles would like to write about them for LDV, too, to encourage people to take them on. Some people can be put off by the idea of being Treasurer, for example. I certainly was when I was asked to be Scottish Party Treasurer. I kind of had to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing it, but I stuck around for six years and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would – and that was with the challenges of two General Elections, a Holyrood election, two referenda and two Council elections. It wasn’t just about numbers, it’s about leading the discussion on how we use our all too scarce resources and making sure we get some more.
And if you are a local party officer, already, why not think about how inclusive your Executive is and look at ways of encouraging people to stand. It’s an idea to get people thinking about it several months in advance rather than when you send out the email advertising your AGM.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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2 Comments
Knowing that I couldn’t do it, I am always impressed by Treasurers who can present a balance sheet and use it to tell a story. However as someone with a longstanding background in writing stuff I am very happy to be a Local Party Secretary. Perhaps my Methodist obsession with accuracy helps with writing minutes. Horses for courses and I suppose part of the trick is spotting new horses – and thank you Caron for encouraging people to wonder if they might be one of them. My understanding is that for all the local officer roles a combination of seriousness and a sense of humour is the right mix!
I stood for chairman once because I was told that if a local party lacked key officers it could be closed down as derelict. A treasurer is also essential, but does not need to be a qualified accountant. Decisions made by the branch committee should, of course, be promulgated promptly and used as the basis for action, before the next meeting or (AGM).