Minutes of the 48th meeting
Minutes of the 48th meeting of the Kent & Sussex Regional branch of The Socialist Party of Great Britain held on 8th November, 2015The meeting started at 2.25pm and was held at the Muggleton Inn, High Street, Maidstone, KentPresent: Dave Chesham (Secretary), Marie Chesham, Rob Cox (Treasurer), Dan Fabian, Jacqueline Shodeke (until 4.50pm)Apologies for absence: Mandy Bruce, Les Courtney, Hannah Dutton, Glenn Morris1. Election of ChairMotion 1. Shodeke & M.Chesham “That Fabian be Chair”AGREED2. Minutes of the 47th Meeting held on 11th October 2015 were before the meetingMotion 2. Cox & M.Chesham “That the minutes be adopted”AGREED3. Matters arising from previous minutesi) Street StallsFour members and a supporter ran the street stall in Canterbury on 17th October. Despite the best efforts of the BBC to scare us off with its forecast of heavy rain most of the afternoon, we held another successful stall in Canterbury town centre for nearly five hours today.As soon as the appointed time arrived, the rain stopped for us and, apart from drizzle and occasional showers, held off. Four members and one friend kept the activity going and we had several very interesting and useful conversations with mostly sympathetic by-passers.We handed out about 600 leaflets – most of them by Karl, our newest (and youngest) Branch member, who attended his first Party activity today. Karl said he enjoyed the experience.Six copies of the current Socialist Standard and one of the new pamphlets were sold. Several more back issues were distributed and six new contacts gained for the mailing list.ii) Brighton Discussion Group meeting – 11-11-15Another good talk was given by Howard Pilott, this one entitled 'Labour and the same old story: Corbyn's empty promise'. Eleven present at the meeting with only one coming from outside the Brighton area. Interestingly and quite unusually, the women outnumbered the men by 6 to 5. Three members and eight visitors.A transcript of the talk can be read on the SOYMB blog:http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/the-false-promise-of-jeremy-corbyn.htmlA very on-board discussion with a real feeling of commitment to continued activity in Brighton took place.Another meeting has been arranged for Wednesday, 13 January with a talk on 'The Ecology and Socialism' to be given by guest speaker Brian Morris. Same time and place but different room.iii) Video clipsIt was AGREED to defer this item until the next meeting pending information from Mike Foster.iv) Voluntary contributionsIt was AGREED to defer this item until the next meeting.v) Investment Committee Motion 3. (to the EC) Cox & D.Chesham “Kent and Sussex branch have the following questions:-i) Should party officers be members of this committee?ii) Should it be the decsion of the Investment Committee or the Executive Committee as to where party funds are invested?iii) Will the Committee take steps to ascertain how funds are to be invested and identify the level of risk?iv) How many committee members need to be in agreement when making/recommending a particular investment or disinvestment?"AGREED 5-0-0 (five members present)4. Nominations for 2016 Executive Committee and Party Officersi) Further nominations have been called for the 2016 Executive CommitteeIt was AGREED that the following members be nominated:Christine Bennett, Paul Bennett, Jonathan Cohen, Gary Cornwell, Richard Headicar, Richard Layton, Anton Pruden, Gwynn Thomas, Nick White, Rob Worden.ii) 2016 Party OfficersIt was AGREED that the following member be nominated:Assistant Treasurer – Mike Browne5. Forms 'A' & 'F'NONE6. EC minutes – October meeting – 3-10-15NOTEDRelevant snippets from the November meeting of the EC were provided by EC members present.7. Future propaganda activitiesNONE other than those already mentioned.8. Any other businessNONEMeeting adjourned at 5.15pmCollection taken: £12.00