Sal Brinton’s Action Plan for the party presidency

Continuing my series of guest posts from candidates for Lib Dem President, today it’s Sal Brinton with her plans:

Sal’s Action Plan from 1 January to 1 July  2015

Going into any new post in an organisation where there are problems, identified or not, it is important to break down activity from the start. These are my initial Action Points, saying what I want to see, and how it will be done, and when that work will start.

First ten days:

1. I want to change the rules so someone cannot walk away from a complaints procedure and then re-join quietly some months later. It is clear that the current process is not working. I will ask for urgent report on recent, and outstanding or delayed complaints or disciplinary cases to come to first new Federal Executive (FE) meeting, (anonymised to keep confidentiality) but identifying problems, lessons learned and good practice, with proposals for improvement.
2. I will change the disciplinary procedures to make sure that they cannot be used to bully or harass members, candidates or members of staff. I will check that the Morissey Report and other legal constitutional changes approved by FE and Federal Conference have been fully implemented.
3. I will make sure that the party leaders are all clear on strategy and message in the run up to the General Election I will meet the Leader,  Welsh and Scottish Leaders, the three State Chairs/Convenor,  Chairs of Federal Committees, SAOs  and staff  to ask  for their actions & key priorities & how this fits in with FE strategy and work plan.
4. I want to see decisions passed by Conference and FE implemented, not just allowed to drift. I will insist on timetables for any outstanding or delayed issues to ensure things do not drift into the long grass, by setting clear monitoring deadlines, and I will hold people responsible for them to account.
5. I want to see ALDC lead on rebuilding our local government base, and I will propose a realistic increase of funding for them to do this. I want to see them able to work with states/regions and local parties to build our ability to fight local elections, especially in areas where we have few or no councillors, developing on their track record with council groups.

First 30 days:

6. I want to see real transparency in our party. I will get formal agreement from Federal Committees about publishing summaries of their meetings on the members website. As part of general reporting back, FE will see whether summaries are published by the deadline.
7. I will get out and around to meet and listen to members views about the party, and hear what they are doing locally. I will set up first 6 months surgeries, visits and roadshows as part of my General Election campaigning.

First 180 days: (usually I would do 100 days, but we must all focus on the General Election, so have to be realistic)

8. I want to set a new direction for the party after the May elections, regardless of the result. The June FE meeting to focus on both parliamentary and local government results, including written reports from each state, ALDC, and Diversity about action plans for immediate re-invigoration over the summer.
9. I want to see more women/BAME/disabled MPs at Westminster. If we have made no progress on more women MPs and any BAME/disabled MPs, I want FE to consider motion to conference on quotas for under-represented groups, and include discussion in the consultations in (7) above.

Together we must rebuild trust in the party and it will be my job as president to make that happen. Inevitably other issues need to be tackled as they arise. What is vital is that our party is able to respond confidently as they are identified, deal with them, and report back to the members to show things have changed.