Notes of Meon Valley CLP Meeting – 16^th January 2020

Welcome and introductions – 18 members attended. It was great to welcome some new members and colleagues who were new to the CLP meetings. Apologies were received from Alison, Dennis and Nick.

Vote of thanks were expressed to Matt Bunday (our electoral candidate) for his hard work and commitment during the general election and to David Picton-Jones (our electoral agent) who provided invaluable support and guidance throughout the election process.

Analysis of stats from general election results – David shared his breakdown of key stats, local and national.

Members discussed their reflections about the election results and ideas for the way forward both locally in Meon Valley and nationally for the party.

• Local campaign reflections – members noted that the Lib Dems leaflets had been misleading particularly in relation to their advice on tactical voting and that only the Lib Dems could pose a challenged to the Conservatives, as usual tactical voting was damaging to Labour locally, it was agreed that the local party need to have greater visibility through the year as well as at election times,
• National campaign reflections – members felt that the Brexit message given by the party nationally needed to be simpler, and that it was essential for the Party to listen to what the wider public were saying they wanted, there were questions about how realistic some of the Labour Party manifesto promises were, and need for a clearer core message, there was acknowledgement of the work of Jeremey Corbyn and what he has achieved but also recognition that he did not appeal to all, concerns about how the party had been portrayed by the media were raised and the need for us to challenge fake news and misleading media coverage.

Details of our 2020 AGM were shared – will be held on Thursday February 13^th 7:30 -9:00pm at the Wickham Community Centre, Mill Lane, Wickham. June outlined the opportunities for members to get involved in the running of the CLP locally. Please reply to this email if you would like to find out more and a member of the committee will be in contact with you.

A quick update on CLP post-election funds was provided by our Treasurer Paul who will also be providing a formal report of the accounts at the AGM in February.

It was agreed that a Nominations Meeting  to decide which Party Leadership candidate will be endorsed by the CLP will be held 9:00 – 9:30pm on Thursday 13th February. This will be a separate meeting immediately following the AGM.

Early campaign planning for the May 2020 Local Elections – June encouraged members to consider whether they might like to stand as candidates in local wards. We did not manage to provide a candidate for all wards at the last local elections and are keen to improve on that. Interest was expressed by a number of members present (Steve, Hannah, Dan and Sue).  Please can other members reply to this email if they are interested and would like to find out more about what this might involve or other ways that they can support our forthcoming local election campaign.

Members feedback and ideas for future meetings – members enjoyed the discussion and suggested that it would eb good to have a social get together at a pub and also to meet at a pub for a chat after a CLP meeting.

Dates 2020 for your diary: (Meetings are held on the second Thursday each month)

Supplementary Information for the Meon Valley AGM (Feb 2020)

The AGM process and the structure of the committee follows the guidance and requirements of the Labour Party Rule Book 2018 (chapter 7, clauses VIII and IX).

• All the committee roles are available for all members to put themselves forward for. There is a requirement that at least half of the officer posts are held by women.
• There are 6 core committee roles (all with voting rights). We meet on a monthly basis to work on CLP business and plan future meetings. Please find a summary of the roles below. If you would like to discuss what the different roles involve, please contact June Kershaw or Alison Ridley.

The Chair facilitates CLP meetings and ensures the CLP operates fairly. The Chair leads and helps to build the strategic direction of the CLP with support from the committee.

The Secretary writes and circulates the notes of the CLP and committee meetings each month, and works with other officers to put together the 12 month CLP development plan.

The Treasurer ensures compliance with funding laws, keeps records up to date and is a signatory on the CLP bank account.

The Vice Chair (membership) has access to the CLP membership database, and encourages new members to attend events and activities.

The Policy Officer leads on policy work or organising campaigning work, encouraging local party members to play an active part in policy making at a national, regional and local level.

The Women’s Officer works to ensure that women are fully involved in the work of the CLP and makes sure that our campaigning work reaches out to women voters.

Additional key officer roles with voting rights:

– Social Media Officer

– Youth Officer

– Political Education Officer

– Disability Officer

– Trade Union Liaison Officer

– BAME Officer

– LGBT+ Officer

• Areas of key CLP work you might like to contribute to – social media team, website and blog team, election campaign team, membership team.