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. We have already seen the introduction of campaign training for activists and management training for Association Officers at our conferences and this should be developed further.
Online Campaigning
The Party has made massive strides in online campaigning. I was pleased to have been involved in the roll out of MyConservatives.com, and hope that you will see a reviatlised new version shortly. The Conservative Councillors Association YourCllr.com is a great new initiative.
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.
