The future of Spring Conference is in question: the Federal Executive is seriously considering whether it should be scaled down or even abandoned, mainly to cut costs.
Neither of these are attractive options, and they appear to be deeply unpopular with activists.
However, the party has to contend with Spring Conference’s high fixed costs (bad for delicate party finances) and relatively poor attendance (bad for both party finances and party democracy).
At the moment, Spring Conference takes place in early March, during the Easter parliamentary recess. That’s under 2 months before the May elections (except in European Parliament election years), when many activists consider that they have more urgent matters to attend to. It’s also uncomfortably close to the State Conferences, which hits the attendance from Scottish and Welsh members.
But does it have to?
What if Spring Conference were moved to mid-February (the February recess) or late May (the Whitsun recess)?
Moving Spring Conference from early March to mid February (the February parliamentary recess) removes the conflict with State Conferences, and reduces the conflict with campaigning for May elections.
Moving Conference from early March to late May (the first weekend of the Whitsun recess), except in June election years, removes entirely both the conflict with State Conferences and with campaigning for the May elections.
Both options could significantly improve attendance.
Of course, neither of these options is ideal:
- the February and Whitsun parliamentary recess are, at 10 days and 12 days, much shorter than the 17-day Easter recess, so parliamentarians would lose a much larger chunk of the relevant recess.
- mid-February may be a particularly cold, dark and uninviting time for tripping off to Conference;
- the first weekend of the Whitsun recess (late May) would leave a little less than 4 months between the Spring and Autumn conferences.
However, I think they’re both worth serious consideration, and particularly the late May option. A shorter gap between a Spring and Autumn conferences may be a price worth paying if it achieves a larger attendance, and therefore a reduction in both the democratic and the financial deficit.
If the other options are the scaling down or complete abandonment of Spring Conference, I know where I stand.
* Toby Keynes is Chair of Humanist & Secularist Liberal Democrats and an activist in Croydon. He is not a blogger.
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19 Comments
Beyond the issues about the Spring conference a LOT of people are frustrated at the Autumn conference being once more in Glasgow.. If the party wants to maximise attendance (and lower the travel costs for attendees) it would move this event to a location that is more convenient.
For consistency, it should be changed to an English party conference, concentrating on devolved policy matters.
I do agree though that the travel distances/costs need to be addressed. Regions should be considering laying on coaches to take delegates to conference, saving money and CO2 emissions, and providing a pre- and post- conference venue for regional ‘fringe’ events.
The idea of an English Party Conference was tried 15 – 20 years ago, and was deemed unsuccessful. Perhaps you should put it to those then on FCC and in the English Party who deemed it so?
I wasn’t a party member 15-20 years ago, and so have no particular views on the merits or otherwise of an English conference, but surely given that devolution hadn’t happened 20 years ago the situation is somewhat different?
@Chris Ecclestone – we are supposed to be a national party. If you have a look at travel patterns, Glasgow is a lot more convenient for most members than Brighton or some other south coast resort. And in any case, most years members in Scotland and the North of England have to spend the best part of a day travelling to get to conference – why, once in a blue moon, should we not be able to have conference on our doorstep?
On the original topic, as I recall when the party was set up the Spring conference was supposed to rotate between Scotland and Wales, and not go to the usual venues. Somewhere around 2000 or so this stopped. Perhaps it could return to this, allowing (for example) the Scottish conference and the Spring Federal conference to combine (Federal on Friday and Saturday AM, Scotland on Saturday PM and Sunday.) There would be plenty venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Swansea which I’m sure could accomodate the conference.
Indeed – coming from the North, Glasgow’s much easier to reach, with better quality and cheaper accommodation, than Brighton.
Personally, I’m a big fan of Birmingham – the ICC venue is central to the city so there’s lots of places to go for refreshments (which means the venue can’t gouge on food and drink to a captive audience), it’s easy to get to and has plenty of accommodation. I’m sure FCC have their reasons but I’d be happy to go there over and over again.
The Labour Party seem to be in Manchester almost every year, and the Tories fill in the gaps when they’re not – I’d also happily see Conference back in my home city 🙂
My understanding is that a significant fraction of the cost of conference is security; why not have Spring Conference during parliamentary term, exclude the MPs and make arrangements for them to attend remotely (ie speak from the big screen via Skype or something similar)?
That would lower the cost of conference considerably, and allow many people who are kept away by the security arrangements to come back.
Keith Legg – once in a blue moon, of course. Twice, though, in succession?
I’m not sure that the comments so far address the question ‘ What is the function of the Spring Conference?’ As a local activist I saw it as a springboard for the local elections in May. For others it is another chance to try to hold the party hierarchy to account and so on. Once we have answered that question, we can then address whether to continue or whether to change and if so how and where.
As for Glasgow two years running I rather uncharitably see it as payback for having to travel to the south coast from the North year after year!
I think the Working Paper from Conference Committee suggested that Spring Conference ‘lost’ £20,000 (or was that £60,000). Democracy, however, is not a cost-free option. Apart from our Green credentials, our Party democracy is our sole permanent USP. Our Conferences are already in danger of becoming like the party rallies that Tories and Labour pretend are their conferences. We have been becoming far too centralised and London dominated already. Downgrading Spring Conference would make it even more so.
Spring conference is an option for people who can’t afford best part of a week away with expensive accommodation on top of travel and registration fees.
Maybe the timing is an issue, but another potential issue is how seriously the party leadership (by which I do not mean one person) views the decisions made and whether the agenda covers the issues people most want to debate or is laundered to avoid embarrassment. Just asking.
Spring conference should continue. It is a good pre-election platform, and a useful preparatory stage for policy coming to Autumn conference – but to economise is essential. FCC should seek to rotate the Fed conference around all the Regions/States, and work with them to co-locate their spring meetings. This would have the effect of reducing the total number of meetings we all try to attend, and would also, in turn, encourage the members of the given region to attend a Fed conference when perhaps they would not otherwise.
Agreed, we should avoid the South coast resorts until they realise that their filthy, high-priced hotels are just not acceptable.
I can’t tell if this is being seriously proposed or if it’s idle musing. Conf registration has been announced. I’ve registered, paid for lodging and transport. It’s simply not on to move it now.
Any move would be after the next general election, Debby.
@David – I suspect that’s more by accident than planning. Remember, the party had to move the 2014 conference because it clashed with the Scottish Referendum, which would certainly be taking up the efforts of most activists and all the parliamentarians. It was originally scheduled for Liverpool, as I recall, and I suspect Glasgow was probably the only option for the revised date (and a chance for us Scots to celebrate too!)
@Richard – I like that idea. While all the MPs and senior politicians are stuck in Westminster, we could get on with some real policy making. Just think what we could do – while the cat’s away, and all that!
I agree with Peter Chivall. Once we have lost our internal party democracy, the ability of ordinary party members to set policy, we are just like the other two major parties. So what’s the point. We should be looking to increase the amount of involvement in decision making. What would stop us from linking several regional conferences electronically with a central location, so that far more representatives could vote on policy decisions ? Speakers could either attend the central location (Birmingham perhaps ?) or be projected onto a large screen for their contribution. It would stop conference attendees being self selected by geography, or the ability to pay to attend.
Another reason to move the Spring Conference from March is that it has often coincided with Mothers’ Day, which may not be important to all potential attendees, but has certainly put me off attending in some of the non election years!
When I have attended, it has been good to have the opportunity to visit some smaller cities in other parts of the UK – Nottingham and Harrogate spring to mind. Even as a Sussex resident, I don’t like the South Coast locations – and economising and travelling down daily doesn’t work, because you miss so much!
It’s really good to see more ideas coming up that haven’t been addressed by the consultation.
James Gurling has just flagged up that the Consultation has been extended (https://www.libdemvoice.org/the-future-of-lib-dem-spring-conference-how-to-have-your-say-by-29th-november-37289.html), so I really hope you’ll take the chance to bang in some of these ideas (by 29th November!).
Just to reassure you, Debby: no, I’m not suggesting that the party rearranges Spring Conference 2014 for a new date. The party can’t afford to have its conference office suffering a collective nervous breakdown, I would certainly not wish to cause unnecessary suffering to these hard-working souls to whom we owe so much – and I’ve already booked my b&b.
Early March is nowhere near Easter. Spring Conference has nothing to do with the Easter recess. Easter is always after the Spring Equinox, which is on 21 March IIRC, and certainly not near the beginning of the month. Easter generally affects dates in the local election calendar, as there are a couple of days that don’t count.