Agenda:

Apologies: Don, Isabel, Jenny, Hardev, Mia, Mohammad

In Attendance: Mike, Paul, Andrea, Cade Stephen

Minutes: Agreed

ODicer Reports (by those in attendance):

Coordinator:
Discussed Bilston North Campaign (See below).

Treasurer:
Bank Account Discussed: Treasurer will work on this over the next few months. Accounts Presented. We have £675.34 in account after lost deposits paid to candidates.

Bilston By Election Up-Date:
Hardev was congratulated on his exception work: leafleting, door knocking and Street Events (with additional thanks to Jenny and Stephen for their support.
Note of Result (after Meeting): Green Party 3rd just behind Labour. Reform won the seat.

Resignations: Stephen Petter has resigned as Fundraiser

3 Motions Proposed by Stephen Petter:

All 3 motions 2nded by members in attendance.
Motion amendments were Proposed by Cade which were all 2nded and passed.

Motion 1 (Text of Motion Added Below)

Amendments Proposed by Cade were:

Amendment One

Motion One Section – The Plan

1. RunalongandshortcampaignwithsupportandguidanceofourFieldteamsta]inlinewith their guidance and the guidance in “how to win local elections”.

Renumber the following points.

Reasoning – Without reference to the Field team, or the short/long campaign structure of the wider region, we will not be able to utilise things like: national action days, regional action days, regional support (especially relevant as how close Ellie is!) and more.

Amendment Two

Motion One

8 b. Get at least one leaflet to each home quarter
C. Get at least one leaflet per week to each home in the six weeks leading up to the election, also called the short campaign.

Reasoning – With the current proposed numbers of leaflets, we will not achieve our short term goals. I spoke to Doug Rouxel, the regional elections o]icer elected this summer. He proposed the numbers in this amendment.

Motion 2 (Text of Motion Added Below) Motion 3 ( Text of Motion Added Below)
All Motions, with the amendments, accepted.

The motions, and amendments, were passed as aspirational subject to budgetary realities (each motion would need to be fully costed and budgets made available or exist) and no appeal to members would be made until middle / late in 2025 after a fully functioning new Bank Account is up and running.

Any Other Business:

Cade said, via email, that they would like to o]er their services for leaflets having made at least one before and happy to continue designing stu] if that would be helpful.

Date of Next Meeting: Monday 27th January 2025 Where: ONLINE – ZOOM – Info sent out prior to meeting.

MOTION 1 – Campaigning

That WGP accepts the following strategy and outline plan as a basis for campaigning:

Strategy in the short term: to get one GP Councillor, in the medium term to get at least three GP councillors;
The long-term strategy is to have the Council dominated by the GP and to have three GP MPs.
The method should be first to get human and financial resources and to target a ward then later more than one ward.

Whether to target one of our constituencies would be a decision of the national GP.

The Plan (not necessarily in chronological order)
1. Persuade all members to donate additional funds an Elections Fighting Fund;
2. Persuade all members to o]er at least a small amount of time to election campaigning;
3. Recruit Supporters (?Associate members?) to pledge time to WGP.
4. Seek funds from other sources
5. Select one target ward, then concentrate maximum resources to it.
6. Have paper candidates in all other wards
7. Accept that the national GP wants us to have a candidate in every constituency at each general election or bye-election. This implies depositing £500 per constituency.

8. In the Target Ward:

a. Canvass every home at least once each year, and also in the 3 months prior to a local election. The aim of canvassing is 1. to ask people what are their concerns, 2. to ascertain and record who may vote for us, 3 to recruit members and supporters, 4 to identify who will display posters at election time.
b. Get at least one leaflet to each home each year

c. Get at least two leaflets to each home during a local election campaign. (An “election campaign” is usually the six weeks prior to an election.)

d. Get as many posters as possible displayed during each election campaign.
e. On election days have tellers at each polling station, initially only to be a friendly, helpful presence, eventually to support “knocking up”.
f. To support this plan with social media and general advertising, social events, fund-raising events, and regular monthly members’ meetings.

9. General Elections
Select a target constituency. Select candidate for each constituency
Devote resources to the target constituency (including the required deposit) but not to endanger resources needed for local elections.
Make use of the free postage to get a leaflet to every home in each constituency.
Otherwise devote minimal resources for the non-target constituencies.

MOTION 2 – WGP Motion re Election Fighting Fund

We agree:
1. we need an elections fighting fund (EFF) 2. its income shall be:

(I) donations from members and others,
(ii) returned general election deposits including the recent one, and (iii) if necessary from WGP general funds;

3. members and others should be encouraged to use monthly bankers’ standing orders
4. the EFF shall be used only for election expenses including general election deposits;
5. its income, out payments and current balance shall be included in our Treasurer’s regular reports.

6. We agree that our Fundraising o]icer drafts and issues an appeal message to: (i) all members

(ii) all known supporters;
7. We ask our Communications O]icer together with our Membership O]icer to distribute the appeal. 8. We ask our Treasurer to provide a suitable Standing Order form to the above o]icers.
9. We agree that our current Building Society account be used by the EFF until a better facility is available.

DRAFT APPEAL MESSAGE

To members and supporters of Wolverhampton Green Party.

To win elections we need a Fighting Fund.
The Tory Party rely on big business and the Wealthy Few, while the Labour Party rely on the Trades Unions. We in the Green Party can rely only on ourselves.
I appeal to everyone who is in work to donate an hour’s pay every month.
I appeal to all others to donate £3 to £5 a month. Or consider donating 1% of your income.
To make donations to Wolverhampton Green Party contact our Treasurer, Mike Jenkins (treasurer@wolverhampton.greenparty.org.uk) who will be able to make the necessary arrangements. It will be helpful if you could let him know:

l Is this a one-o] or recurring donation?
l How you would like to pay?(eg Bank Transfer, Standing Order, Cheque etc) l Is the donation from you as an individual or a business?
l For legal reasons please do not donate anonymously
l The most convenient payment method is by Banker’s Standing Order.

MOTION 3 – WGP Constitution

1. NotingthatthecurrentConstitutionofWGPisinadequate,duetoinconsistenciesandambiguities (I) we agree to adopt the model constitution for local Green Parties which is recommended by the national Green Party.
(ii) We direct that the model be amended as little as possible.

(iii) We ask [member name]
to customise the model constitution and to submit the amended version to to a future Extraordinary General Meeting for acceptance.

2. Noting the model constitution prescribes appointment of an Executive Committee

EITHER
(i) we agree that we do not want to have an executive committee OR
(ii) we agree that the Executive Committee should consist of the Co-ordinator and the Treasurer ex o]icio and (?two?) other other members OR
(iii) we agree that the Executive Committee should consist of all WGP’ s elected o]icers.

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1. 1  Apologies: Mia / Andrea / Jenny / Andrea / Don / Mohammad / Stephen
2. 2  In Attendance:
   Paul Darke / Hardev / Naveen / Kquqoo /Joy Peti-Gittos / Mike Karl – Regional OPicer – On-line
3. 3  The last meeting was inquorate, so there are no minutes.
4. 4  Coordinator’s report: Brief Discussion on Bilston By-Election Process: Election Date is 31st October 2024.

5. Treasurer’s report:
Limited Funds / Pay for One Leaflet for Bilston North / Seeking New Bank Account. GE Candidates – where relevant – refunded.

Amendment at Oct 28 Meet.- Don – said issues using Action Network (not getting through). Needed to individual emails. Issue aPecting ‘appeals’ – referred back to one physical mailout. Please look in Spam Folder – request. Asked Don – Pending.

6. 6  2024 Local Election: Analysis of results – Mike Jenkins (See website).
7. 7  Bilston North by-election planning – Hardev Singh – Leaflets and Dorr Knocking Training Days – Paid for by Party for HS & MN.

8. Digital Media report: No Report due to Illness. Agreed need to Crack Facebook Ads Procedure.

8. Fundraising and Membership: No OPicer in Attendance – No Report Agreed that Stephen Petter request to send letter to all Members was not feasible now as we have no Bank Account. We need a Fundraiser (Since Meeting Stephen Petter has resigned as Fundraiser)
9. Format of future meetings: Winter Meetings On-line as more attend (hopefully)
10. AOB: Joy Peti-Gittos on Winter Fuel Allowance and how it is wrong (all agreed). Felt should use Tax Code on those pensioners on 40% Tax Band. Agreed
11. Date of next meeting: Monday 28th October – On-line (Zoom Link Sent)

Compiled by Paul Darke

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https://wolverhampton.greenparty.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2024/08/GE_2024_Results_Analysis.pdf

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WEBPAGE: The webpage has been rewritten with up-to-date information and some new pages for documents, reports and information needed for meetings. Before the beginning of the current year, the last entry was in 2017, so the page was seriously dated! The visuals now feature current members, and there’s are brief details about officers. The webpage is the only facility that permits attachments and hyperlinks, which is why it is important that members and supporters bookmark the site and refer regularly to it.

ACTION NETWORK: Th emailing facility is used regularly, although it is disappointingly limited through a failure to allow attachments. It is now used to identify new members, although, to date, we don’t have a Membership Secretary to contact new members or prepare a Welcome Pack. 

FACEBOOK: There are now regular posts that draw attention to local, regional and national campaigns. The design of the page doesn’t allow members to post on the main page. Instead they have to post on the ‘messages’ page. Because this is not readily visible it is seriously underused by members and supporters. 

WHATSAPP: There are a regular exchanges on this page, but this is limited to around 15 members. Those wishing to participate in day-to-day discussion should send Paul Darke their mobile number and ask to be admitted (paul@digital-disability.com, 07908 263166). 

OTHER SOCIAL MEDIA: In order to restrict the number of platforms that members should refer to, there is irregular use of other platforms, such as Twitter, Instagram and Tik Tok. We are aware that older members particularly don’t use a wide range of platforms. 

Don Gwinnett

July 2024

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