And so it begins...
TB has been looking at the survey results that are coming in and it is no surprise that the much talked about reforms play a big role in shaping members' opinions of those in charge of Conservative Future. TB will do the number crunching tomorrow and release the results over the next few days, but in the mean time this letter could well be the beginning of an onslaught of opposition to not necessarily the reforms, but they way in which they are being put through...
This was received late last night and is reproduced in full with the authors permission:
Dear Christian/Tory Bear,
I am writing to you about the blog post you wrote/published on the tory bear blog on the 22nd of August 2008.
You started your article by saying that the NME have been watching lots of comments and conjecture from Conservative Future members flying around recently about big changes to the structure of our organisation. Changes you acknowledge are in your plans later in your article i.e. the introduction of Regional Coordinators and the abolition of the NME and Area Chairmen. You go on to ask members to provide feedback on these ideas to the NME (a request fellow NME member Patrick Sullivan repeats in the same blog post in the comments section).
I am interested to hear your full proposals and would like to ask when you intend to publish them so that the members you represent and are requesting feedback from can see all the plans in full and gain a true understanding of what you are proposing? You appear to criticise those who are speculating about the full details of your plans but you do not seem to appreciate that you have greatly added to this speculation by your blog post and failing to publish your proposals in full. Publishing your proposals in full would very quickly kill off this speculation you seem to find unwelcome. Not only would this end the speculation you talk about but it is necessary if you are to carry the majority of the membership. It has been a little while (13 days) since you began this speculation and brought your proposed changes to a wider audience by your blog post but yet the members are still waiting to see your full plans. When do you intend to publish them? My understanding is that you do not have long (a few days) to do this if you are to do so and allow time for the members to digest and provide the feedback you requested before the next NME meeting.
After reading your blog post and despite the fact that it is the NME who are making these proposals I felt it unfair to expect the NME to do all the work to communicate these changes and reach out to every member to explain your plans. So to do my bit and make it as easy as possible to allow this flow of information I contacted another NME member who I will not name (the NME member who I felt most comfortable with discussing these plans). She refused point blank to discuss the matter with me when I raised the topic and told me that this was due to the NME making a group decision not to discuss the matter or talk to the members they profess to represent about these changes. As I am sure you will agree this is unacceptable, the NME are there to represent the organisations members who elected them, in fact many of the current NME members promised to do just that while seeking election to the NME not that long ago. However now it would appear (if my friend on the NME is correct) they are now involved in actively withholding information and are not interested in representing the members who elected them while trying to bring about large organisational changes. It also seems a crazy position that my friend on the NME cannot talk to me about this matter but you can publicly write blog posts contributing to the speculation.
As for the substance to your proposals I have not yet come to form an opinion (How can I? You have yet to publish your proposals) but the way this matter has been handled has already put me off before I have even seen the details. I will be interested to see your thought on my criticisms of how this matter has been handled, the behaviour of the NME in actively and deliberately withholding information from its members & refusing to discuss this matter with them and look forward to seeing your proposals in full.
Many thanks,
Alex Agius.
Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire Conservative Future Area Chairman.
Posts
3 comments:
Regardless of whether the reforms are right or wrong it has become clear that the NME were intending to consult the membership once they had discussed exactly what it was they were proposing. However, seeing as the reforms were leaked, I think a statement should have been issued weeks ago when this actually happened rather than leaving it hanging weeks later after huge amounts of rumours and speculation. Whatever the NME are planning wouldn't it be better for them to lay out their plans so far for the membership to see?
Personally, if the matter had been kept at "The NME can't disclose anything until it's been past the party board, but there could be a shake-up devolving more power to areas, it's just that at present we're not 100% certain in which form it will follow." I think that the matter could/would have been held off until such a time that whatever it was/may be could be announced.
With the notion of regional coordinators, I like it - to a point. Having a regional rep on the NME would work - as long as branches could form their own area committee as a sub-region.
Why the hell is this addressed to me as well as you?