Tag Archives: ears

Mark Pack

Free casework software coming for ALDC members

By Mark Pack | Mon 24th October 2011 - 8:53 am

A great new benefit is on the way for members of ALDC, the Liberal Democrat body for councillors and campaigners – access to the CONNECT database’s casework system.

Starting early in 2012, all ALDC members will get access to CONNECT’s casework facilities for free (or rather, for no extra charge beyond their ALDC membership subscription). It is a logical extension of ALDC’s similar free provision of its MyCouncillor blogging system and will make a good system available to thousands of councillors.

One of the nice touches of …

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Posted in Local government and News | Also tagged , , and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Interviewing Mark Sullivan, the founder of the party’s new electoral database supplier

By Mark Pack | Thu 29th September 2011 - 10:25 am

During the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, I had the chance to quiz Mark Sullivan (the founder of VAN, which is becoming the party’s new electoral database software under the name CONNECT).

I’m (like others) excited about the possibilities CONNECT will bring, partly because I’ve worked with EARS for just about two decades now. It has helped produce some stupendous election results and people involved with it have worked tremendously hard. But it also has some major limitations, particularly the number of bugs (including more than once data being lost on polling day), the haphazard record of delivering new …

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Posted in Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged , , and | 15 Comments
Iain Roberts

Thank you EARS, but the VAN is coming

By Iain Roberts | Sun 19th June 2011 - 3:20 pm

Back in March, Mark Pack reported on a momentous move in the Lib Dems: from the EARS election software to Voter Activation Network, or VAN, which is used by Democrats in the US and the Canadian Liberal Party, amongst others.

EARS has done sterling service for the party over the years. I first used the DOS version of the software in the mid-nineties, when it had already been around for a few years. Younger readers may not have encountered the joys of the paper “Shuttleworths” that were used before EARS: sheet after sheet of knock-up lists, laboriously …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 54 Comments
Mark Pack

Party looks to the US for new election database software

By Mark Pack | Wed 30th March 2011 - 10:26 am

Excellent news from the Federal Executive this week with the decision to appoint a preferred supplier for a new election fighting computer database. Voter Activation Network, the US firm which services many Democrat Party candidates, has been selected with a view to signing a multi-year contract shortly.

Amongst the other bidders were the party’s long-running suppliers EARS (though they may still have a role to play as data suppliers, especially given the team’s expertise and experience in dealing with different electoral register formats).

EARS has provided a valuable service to the party for many years, but the old model of individual databases …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Alex Foster

Campaigning in the snow

By Alex Foster | Fri 8th January 2010 - 4:34 pm

It’s snowing. It’s cold. Much of Britain is housebound.

Here are some top tips to keep your constituency campaigning in the snow.

  1. Telephone canvass!
  2. Get your photos for next year’s Christmas card now!
  3. Use time trapped indoors to review your plans.  Have you ordered your ink, sourced your suppliers and got a name next to every action point?
  4. How’s that to-do list looking?
  5. Are you practicing Inbox Zero?  What better time to start!
  6. How snowy are your neighbours’ roofs?  If some houses in your street / ward / constituency have the snow and ice melting faster than others, then it’s a clear indication they don’t

…

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
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