General Election
I know your focus, and mine, for the coming days will be the General Election. I will not allow any other matters to interfere in our campaign and will continue my support for Target seats up and down the country.
Representation
I am committed to representing the Voluntary Party at the heart of our Conservative Party – the Party Board. I know that at times a strong voice needs to speak out for the grass roots members of our Party, and ensure that their voice is heard. I am however not going to preserve tradition for tradition’s sake – I believe we must be a modern campaigning organisation at all levels, and the role of the Party centrally is to provide those tools.
Conference
Conference is currently a great media opportunity for the Party, but it can and should be more. The Voluntary Party has started to to reclaim our conference; I want to see a return to debate at conference to develop policy ideas and utilise the massive expertise in our Party. I hope that we can introduce member only Policy Forum sessions to run parallel to the main Conference sessions. As part of my current role I am already working on the introduction of campaign training for activists and management training for Association Officers at our Spring Convention and will use this to develop further modules for our Autumn Conference.
I also firmly believe that our Conference should NOT be held over 4 week days, and have lobbied that for 2010 we must return to a part weekend / part weekday Conference.
Online Campaigning
Since last year we have seen the Party make massive strides in online campaigning. I have been pleased to be involved in the roll out of MyConservatives.com and think the Conservative Councillors Association YourCllr.com is a great new initiative.
Last year I campaigned for paypal giving on Conservatives.com and you can do it now, so why not make a donation.
We still need to improve on giving guidance on hosting, advertsing, best practice and ensuring the massive collective knowledge of our Party is fully utilised.
These are my thoughts on priorities, but what are yours? I want to hear from you about these priorities, and others. Please submit your comments and ideas below.
So glad you wish to bring debate back to Conference. Currently it looks so stage managed it is as though Central Office does not trust the Voluntary side of the Party. True debate – on the issues which concern all of us – and a reply by the relevant ( at present)shadow will make the Conference meaningful, not just to the attendees but to those who watch the proceedings at home.