As a member of the FCC, I attended the meeting held last Saturday (14th July). My comments follow the more informative article by Zoe.
The main purpose of the meeting was to go through all the motions that had been selected for FCC to review for possible inclusion at the Autumn conference. Subject area split the motions (54 in all): Business Innovation and Skills, Communities and Local Government through to Work, Social Security and Pensions (14 different policy areas, in all).
Each member of the committee was given a policy area(s) with internal party contacts (mine was, for example, a member of the House of Lords) to get feedback on the motions. One by one we all presented our final findings and recommended whether the motion should be accepted or not. The initial 54 motions were reduced to 15 possible motions and for each motion, times were allocated to discuss the proposed motion. The total time available to discuss the motions was just under 3 hours more than could be allocated to discuss the motions.
Round two, we revisited the motions and further reduced them down to 13. We found extra time elsewhere, and that allowed us not to reduce the number of motions further. I believe we now have a good balance of motions to discuss at the conference (including time to discuss Brexit). Members of FCC were asked to contact those who forwarded motions to notify them if their motion had been accepted or not and if not why not.
This was followed by a discussion on who the main speakers would be during the conference. They will be 6 in all (although I am not at liberty to say who they are at the moment). FCC took into account the feedback they received about the previous Rally when deciding who would be participating in the Rally at the Autumn conference.
We also agreed on the timing for the business motions and the broad agenda, timetable and activities for the conference (no one threw their toys out of their pram, or had a hissy fit – a bit disappointing really!!!) the process was smooth and well managed.
I believe that training for the conference has now been agreed and scheduled. Although, details of fringe meetings are still being finalised. Maybe I am biased but judging by the agreed agenda the Autumn conference will be exciting and worth coming along too.
* Cllr. Tahir Maher is a member of the LDV editorial team