Skip to main content

National Secretary - first thoughts

By zsstevens
We have just had a very successful SNP National Conference. Technology fought us from time to time, in an entirely non-discriminatory way as far as I could see, but we largely fought back pretty effectively.

The big success, and the greatest enjoyment that comes from our conferences has always been gossip. Bumping into people you haven't seen for a year. Questions about matters which one has given no previous consideration to.

The Hopin technology platform that has replaced a physical conference centre this year has, it seems to be me, attracted its greatest plaudits for its Blether function. Randomly pairing people for 5 minutes chat; people you have probably never listened to before. And I certainly heard some comments on matters where I have limited knowledge. Good stuff.

The debates were further away from our traditional structures and decision-making processes. But we did debate, We did vote, We did decide. But for future conferences we need to make sure that our Members, Branches, Associations and Affiliates know how their proposals will be dealt with. That way they can prepare appropriately.

The re-activation of National Assembly as a tool to develop and test our present and future policies started before the pandemic. But is now a critical way in which a wider range of our members can directly contribute, and it can work in the online world. Every member can attend. They can just register and turn up.

Having a range of policy "in the bank" is not an abstract idea. When I became a Minister in 2007 almost my first thought was, "What should I be doing?". I read nearly ten years of Conference and National Council decisions and extracted those that related to my Ministerial portfolio. That ended up as about 60 pages and when I left office my personal "exit review" of my activity suggested I had done all but a couple of things on the list. So policy making must be a key part of what engages us in all parts of the Party.

So after four days as National Secretary what have I been up to?

Top of the list was thinking about the first National Executive Committee meeting post-conference. The first paragraph in the rules for NEC says, "Ordinary meetings of the Committee shall normally be held on the second Saturday of the month and shall terminate at 1pm." That means a meeting on 12th December although one may note the word "normally". The rules also require that the agenda is issued a week in advance. And drawing up the Agenda lies with National Secretary.

But holding meetings, any meeting, is a means to an end, not an end in itself. So immediate decisions at our first meeting include, getting the selection and ranking of regaional list candidates for 2021 completed, checking arrangements for a National Assembly to debate the arrangements for indyref2 as manadated by National Conference.

We also need as a group to act in a - give me another word if you can - "corporate" manner. We should test and debate in our meetings, but when we decide we must know what we have decided and how to ensure delivery of our decisions. And support the decisions, even those we argued against, when we leave the meeting.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Your comments will be read before adding to the blog.

Abuse, illegality or comment at odds with prevailing medical advice will be excluded.

Popular posts from this blog

Discussions at a Distance

By zsstevens
The pace of change seems to be stepping up. This week will see me participate in eleven online video discussions, only one of which is social. Two are international discussions centred around COVID-19 and its potential long-term effects. The remainder are Parliamentary. But I think we have further transitions in our mode of working to make. We shall have legislation to progress. And I am deeply concerned that this key part of our duties excludes those of us unable to be present physically. With social distancing rules also restricting the number who can be present in the Chamber, the scrutiny is potentially reduced while we are accelerating the pace at which we make new, albeit mostly temporary, new laws. The risk of error is rising, although I cannot see any yet. Others may. Two difficulties exist that need our attention. We don't seem to be able to run sessions where some members are physically present while others are "dialled in" from home. And yet even Westmins...
Post a Comment
Read more

Preparation

By zsstevens
Yesterday I wrote about preparing for the week ahead. Now we have just completed the last meeting of the Environment Committee before recess. That too was forward-looking. We have about 25 more weeks sitting before we depart Parliament for the 2021 election which will determine who will serve in Session 6. I have had the privilege and enormous pleasure of serving in the first five sessions since we resumed after being prorogued in 1707. But now my mind turns to reviewing the past and planning for the future. As I will be 75 next year, I will be handing over to a successor. But I also need a short term plan for our much-abbreviated summer recess. We will come back when the schools resume in the week starting 11th August and will have a Parliamentary meeting every week until then. But no Committees. So a wee bit of space to pick up some much neglected personal interests. But no vacation booked. The first of these has to involve my main hobby - family research. There's been qu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Clarity of vision

By zsstevens
I remember standing at a bus stop in Aberdeen when I was a student in the 1960s and realising that I could not quite read the destination on the front of the approaching bus very clearly. I did nothing about it. I was 20 years old and immortal. In 1970 the Commonwealth Games came to Edinburgh for the first time. We got tickets for various events. On one occasion we travelled from Linlithgow, where we had not long bought a house, by train. There was a station adjacent to Meadowbank stadium. But it was a slow journey. So when we later attended some of the badminton competition in an evening, we drove in our elderly car. It may have been that there simply were no trains at the required times. I just don't remember. The drive home predated the building of the motorway between Edinburgh and Linlithgow and was a twisty-turnie local road. It was slightly alarming. I found myself seeing two lines in the middle of the road. Not the normal double white line that prohibits drivers from ...
Post a Comment
Read more