Tag Archives: #lyelects

Liberal Youth Elections 2015 are go! #lyelects

It’s that time of year again – Federal Liberal Youth and the Welsh organisation IR Cymru are electing the teams which will lead them through the next year. The new executives will take office on 1st November.

I am Returning Officer for the third year. Any member of the party who is under 26 or is in full-time education is eligible to vote. Everyone the party thinks fits those categories should have had an email on Sunday evening. If you haven’t, please check your Spam folder. If it’s not there, get in touch with membership department here and ask them to mark you as a Youth member.

Details of all the positions and how to apply can be found here. If you want to apply, you should provide me with the required information and an A5 sized manifesto in PDF or Word format by 8pm on Sunday 6th September. One of the first things I changed about these elections was to ensure that nominations closed at a sociable hour. The first year, they closed at midnight on a Friday night, and, given the number of places available, there were a fair few last minute nominations and queries that I had to deal with.  I am pretty pathetic at the staying up late thing, so I decided on the earlier time for future elections. 

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Liberal Youth Elections 2014… Policy Officer: Ryan Mercer

liberalyouthLiberal Youth policy matters. It’s how we, as young Liberal Democrats, can make a clear and credible case for change on the issues we care about. The disengagement from politics by so many young people has made it easy for the views of our generation to be overlooked. Despite this, the Liberal Democrats have long been the strongest advocates in both tackling the challenges young people face and building the future society in which we want to live. The unique perspective Liberal Youth provides can help to ensure the party will continue to listen to young people and be that advocate for our generation.

In May, I stood as the Liberal Democrat candidate in a Norwich City Council Ward formerly held by Norman Lamb MP. The ward has a young population and standing gave me a real insight into how big a challenge we face showing other young people what we stand for and that we’re on their side.

I’m standing as a candidate for Liberal Youth Policy Officer partly because I believe in the essential role that Liberal Youth policy needs to play, but also because I believe more has to be done to engage our members in our policy making. With more young members adding their voices our policies will be better informed and have the support behind them to be taken seriously.

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Liberal Youth Elections 2014… Membership Development Officer: Naomi Farhi

liberalyouthVoter apathy has never been higher  among students and young people.

Liberal Youth should be a clear voice in a political wilderness.

To the disillusioned youth, politics appears to be a static and increasingly wearisome battlefield, with each side wasting a lot of time and gaining very little ground. Many cannot see the progress that is being made by groups just like Liberal Youth.

It is my vision to make this progress clear.

I joined the Liberal Democrats in 2013 because I was fed up of entrusting the way my country is run to ‘people who knew better than me.’ Young people are the future and Liberal Youth is the voice of a future where equality and fair treatment is achievable for all. I am willing to invest my time and energy in ensuring this will happen – but we need others to do this too.

That is why I am running for Membership Development Officer. As a previously politically apathetic young person, I understand why so many are feeling left out of the picture and I believe I know how to make them feel included. I am now Press and Publicity Officer for the Cambridge Student Liberal Democrats and currently organising our representation at the Freshers’ Fair, which means appealing to over 15,000 students. As such, I am accustomed to dealing with a wide pool of potential members.

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Finance Officer: Rory Roberson

Writing this in the wake of running an election campaign in Worcestershire I can say with little doubt that money is absolutely vital for the smooth running of a campaigning force and Liberal Youth desperately needs to become a better campaigning force.

But first a little about myself, I have been involved in politics for a number of years now and have been involved in a full campaign a year since joining the party at Aberystwyth University in 2009, a trend that looks as if it will not finish anytime soon. As well as this I have …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… England Convenor: Stuart Wheatcroft

I have been a member of the Liberal Democrats since the end of 2005. Despite this, I had no serious involvement with Liberal Youth until early 2012. Liberal Youth was not an effective organisation nationally, and in my area it was non-existent.

A huge amount of progress has been made. Liberal Youth’s contribution to the campaign in Eastleigh has been widely recognised. The momentum has been continued through the Gold Guard project, with action days in key seats around the country and a huge membership engagement push at every level of the organisation. More must be done, but there has been …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013…England Convenor: Rich Clare

Rich ClareIt’s that time of year again – time for the young Liberals to choose their executive. I’m standing for Convenor of LY England and I have two main aims: to protect and expand Liberal Youth’s resources by promoting us within the Federal and English parties, and to turn us into more of a campaigning force across the country. Although I have two years’ experience as branch chair in Sheffield Hallam, I am not part of the LY ‘clique’ – if I become the new Convenor, I will be a fresh …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Chair: Callum Leslie

Callum Leslie reclaim the nightFor the past 18 months, I’ve been wrestling with the possibility of leaving the party. As the party leadership continues to ignore party policy and members’ wishes, we have to sit through the bedroom tax, secret courts, the NHS debacle, shares for rights, tuition fees and more. The position of conference as the sovereign body of the party by which all are bound is all but extinguished.

About two weeks ago, I came to a realisation. Having been a party member since I was 14 and a candidate …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Chair: Sarah Harding

Liberal Youth have worked hard this election. Across the country, young Liberal Democrats have been phoning, delivering and canvassing to ensure as many Lib Dem councillors as possible were elected.

In 2015, our party will face a bigger challenge, and Liberal Youth can make a huge difference.

My candidacy for Chair is based on what we need to do to help win in 2015: plan, recruit and train.

Plan: I will work with the membership to lay out our key goals up to 2015, liaise with the Federal Party and Strategic Seats to plan our on-the-group campaigning and expand the Gold Guard.

Recruit: I will widen recruitment avenues and …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Finance Officer: Tommy Long

Supposedly Liberal Youth’s funding is under threat. I’ve never seen anything official but I’m always being told by one person or another that our donors aren’t overly impressed with our performance and are seriously reconsidering whether to let us manage our own finances any more.

This has to stop. Uncertainty means that we cannot properly plan our spending. Perhaps it’s fair to say that we haven’t always done an incredible job with our money-management in the past but as liberals don’t we accept that people do their best when they’re trusted and supported to make their own decisions?

I strongly believe that …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Finance Officer: James King and Robin McGhee

Neither of us have ever had much to do with Liberal Youth. We are experienced activists and party officers who were impressed by the potential of Liberal Youth next year and thought we’d have a punt at being Finance Officer. We hope our experience and total lack of ambition will mean we can serve the organisation humbly and well, protecting and improving its finances as we have done together in our student branch.

We met at Oxford University where we eventually ascended to the co-chairmancy of the university branch of the party. In those dim and distant years (2011) Oxfordshire didn’t …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Non Portfolio Officer: Daniel Lewis

I am running for NPO because I believe I have the skills to help the rest of the exec out in a wide range of areas. My pitch runs on three themes: commitment, experience and ideas. For full details visit my website.

Commitment

Throughout my time in the party I have shown myself willing to help out at short notice on all manner of tasks. From getting up at 5am one Sunday a month to make sure an entire ward was delivered in a day to upping sticks to Eastleigh for 2 weeks this February I have a record of …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Policy Officer: Will Dyer

Over the last twelve months, as Liberal Youth’s Policy Officer, I served under four different Liberal Youth Chairs, on two Federal Policy Committee terms,  though 3 different sets of Liberal Youth elections and worked with over 20 different executive officers.

It is fair to say that Liberal Youth has been through a turbulent time over the last 12 months but look what we have achieved.

Our increased involvement in major by-elections and the up-coming local elections, (which has not gone unnoticed by our minsters in government), an increased turnout at Liberal Youth elections and for the first time since I have been …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Policy Officer: Morgan Griffith-David

Picture - MorganLiberal Youth can campaign. Liberal Youth can recruit. Liberal Youth can train.

But Liberal Youth cannot forget our crucial Policy portfolio.

Solid policy forms the backbone for all other work we do; our innovative policies attract new members to our cause, our campaigns endeavour to change policy and we get our candidates elected to implement liberal policy. This is why I am utterly committed to making Liberal Youth policy comprehensive, professional, and engaging; to provide us with strong foundations in the run up to 2015.

Liberal Youth’s policy independence from the federal …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013…Non Portfolio Officer: Linden Parker

My main reason for standing to be a Liberal Youth Non Portfolio Officer is that I know I can be a great asset to the rest of the executive. I want to ensure that all members have a big say in the way Liberal Youth is run – something which the current executive have been particularly strong on over the past few months.

As one of Liberal Youth’s two Non Portfolio Officers, I want to help support the rest of the executive in all areas, but particularly with campaigns, communications and events. I am keen to help with the organisation and …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Non Portfolio Officer: Andrew Emmerson

When you get your vote for the Liberal Youth elections, please use it wisely, don’t just vote for friends. Liberal Youth in the past few months has taken some real strides forward. If we want a strong vibrant and attractive youth wing, then there are clear choices. One of those is voting #1 Andrew Emmerson for Non-Portfolio Officer.

For many years I have sat on the side-lines being vaguely critical of Liberal Youth, but not done a whole lot about it. Now is time to change that.  I am the candidate in these elections whose experience is varied and wide. This …

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Liberal Youth Elections 2013… Non Portfolio Officer: Charlotte Curry

I am a caring, thoughtful teenager who has fought against unfairness, bullying and for those who have lacked the confidence to speak up for themselves. This is one of my strengths according to my form teacher.

I am currently on a recruitment drive in Darlington to increase the number of youth members. This will greatly reduce the average age for members in Darlington and hopefully increase the number of active members. This will also give the youth of Darlington a voice that can be heard. In 2013 I plan to set up the first Lib Dem Youth group in Darlington for …

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