May EC Minutes

[Bijou Drains]

MINUTES OF THE 5th MEETING OF THE 117TH EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN
HEAD OFFICE, SUNDAY 3rd (May)2020
(Online meeting)
Present: S.Kennedy, M.Foster, J.Cohen, P.Shannon, T.Hart
Apologies: L.Stevens, M.Browne, J.Shodeke
Chair: J.Cohen
Meeting opened at 1:27pm
1. Election of Chair: J.Cohen
Hart/Shannon – Agreed
2. Amendment and adoption of the previous meeting minutes (p. 5)
(a) Re §2(a) (“Noted, and amended to North East”), note from the Assistant Secretary (27 April): “The minutes should be amended here to indicate that the word ‘NL’ is what is being ‘amended to North East’.”)Amended
(b) Re §3(b)iii, (“That Comrade Moss be appointed as Party Trustee”), note from the Assistant Secretary
(27 April): “The minutes should be amended here to indicate that Cde Moss was appointed Trustee because he had accepted a nomination from South Wales.” Amended
(c) Re §3(b)iv, (“Tristan Miller and Adam Buick have accepted the roles of collating the necessary information to be presented at Conference”), note from the Assistant Secretary (27 April): “The minutes
should be amended here to remove my name, since I had regretfully withdrawn my acceptance in an email to the General Secretary on 17 March.”Amended
(d) Re §4(a) (adoption of Report of the Treasurer to Conference 2020), note from the Assistant Secretary
(27 April): “The minutes should be amended here to change ‘Adopted’ to ‘Noted’. Party Officers do not report to the EC and their reports are provided to the EC only as a courtesy. Unlike Subcommittee reports,
the EC does not adopt them as its own.”Amended
RESOLUTION: Hart/Shannon- “That the minutes be adopted as amended.”
(Agreed)
3. Matters arising from previous minutes
(a) Matters arising from the March 2019 meeting minutes
i. Re §2(c)vi (“That the EC clearly redefines the terms of reference of each committee and appoints an EC member to each committee to encourage and assist each in progressing their mission. And that the EC investigates a reformatting of EC agendas so as to encourage committees to take on more matters pertaining to their own remit, so that the EC can focus on more pressing issues.”), the General Secretary draws attention to the necessity of dealing with the first part of this resolution.
RESOLUTION: Kennedy/Hart- “That the EC liaisons and General Secretary speak with their sub committees to redefine their terms of reference, so as to encourage greater levels of activity and encourage committees
to take on more matters pertaining to their own remit, so that the EC can focus on more pressing issues.”
(Carried 5-0-0)
RESOLUTION: Hart/Foster- “That a call out be made to fill the two EC vacancies, with a deadline of Saturday 6th of June.”
(Agreed)
(b) Matters arising from the March 2020 meeting minutes
i. Re §3(c)iii (“That a call out be made for all sub committees”), accepted nominations by Kent & Sussex of Cdes Stafford, Johnstone, and Culbert to the Blog Committee; Cde Finch to the Education Committee; and
Cde McCullough to the Advertising and Enquiries Committee. Paul Edwards to Central Branch Secretary.
No voting figures provided.
RESOLUTION: Hart/Shannon – “That the nominations be accepted and appointed to their post.”
(Carried 5-0-0)
(c) Matters arising from the April 2020 meeting minutes SS dispatch is now being undertaken by the printers themselves, at a cost of £200.
4. Report of the Treasurer
Meeting adjourned for break at 2:58pm
Meeting resumed at 3:15pm
5. Reports of and new matters relating to Party Officers, Party Appointees, and Subcommittees
(a) Advertising and Enquiries
(b) Assistant Secretary
(c) Audio Visual
(d) Auditors
(e) Ballot
(f) Blog
(g) Campaigns and Media
(h) Central Branch Secretary
(i) Central Organiser
(j) Education
(k) Election
(l) General Secretary
(m) Head Office Organiser
(n) Internet
(o) Investment
(p) Library and Archives
(q) Membership Applications
i. Form A for Peter Higgins (via Membership Applications Committee) – Accepted
ii. Form A for Paula McEwan (former member applying to rejoin, via Membership Applications
Committee) – Accepted
iii. Form F for Cde Fred Hallows (West London; deceased) – Accepted with regret.
(r) Premises
i. E-mail from Cde Browne (16 March): Comrades, REPORT ON head office. Last week when I was there working on the conference items, I noticed that the upstairs toilet was gushing water when flushed. It
wasn’t a small amount but a lot. It may be that it had been doing so for weeks if not months. This leak would explain the massive saturation of the walls underneath it as the water went down the gap between wall and floor very quickly. (within seconds.) There is a hell of a lot of fungus growing on the walls of the small toilet by the back door and I think that that this fungus is a health hazard to members, especially those elderly members with respiratory medical problems. Most members who keep head
office running are over 70. The matter, once the leak is stopped, will need some expert advice and treatment. Please no volunteer untrained members trying to solve this. We agreed at the last meeting to have someone to check the cracks, can we get someone to offer expert advice on clearing up this? The email below was the one sent early last Thursday to members that use ho so as to inform them of the problem.
Deferred until HO opens.
(s) Publications i. E-mail from Cde Shannon (2 March): I’ve just received the draft of this pamphlet from Publications so I thought I’d circulate it. It’s fairly short, so if we can all get round to reading it by next weekend that would be awesome, and Publications would no doubt be pleased. I can also offer a verbal update from Publications on other matters in hand, and one from the Internet Cttee as well.
Comrade Shannon and Foster to liaise with publications committee with suggestions for alterations to pamphlet.
ii. E-mail from Cde Bruce (1 March): Please find attached a pdf. File listing the Party’s current literature and prices for approval. [See p. 9.] KSRB is hoping to distribute this document to independant bookshops
in the South East to try and expand circulation. Could we clarify the commercial selling arrangements that we can offer?
(t) Socialist Standard
(u) Standing Orders
(v) Trustees
6. Correspondence
(a) Matters of urgency
(b) Correspondence from or concerning Branches, the Party in general, and members
(c) Correspondence from Companion Parties and Groups
i. Socialist Party of Canada Secretary’s Report, 1 April 2020 (p. 16) – Noted
(d) All other correspondence
7. Notices of Motion
8. Notices of Business
9. Any other business
Conference – RESOLUTION: Kennedy/Shannon: – “The EC to call a General Meeting of the 30th of May on Discord to decide as to whether to hold a Party Conference on Discord.”
(Carried 5-0-0)
RESOLUTION: Kennedy/Foster: – “That the EC make a call out for nominations to fill a Discord Sub Committee to oversee the use of Discord, with at least three members, and that Paddy Shannon and the General Secretary be co opted onto said committee and draft its terms of reference. The deadline is open ended.”
(Carried 5-0-0)
10. Nomination of Chair for the next meeting
Meeting adjourned at 4:33pm

[Anonymous]

“Last week when I was there working on the conference items, I noticed that the upstairs toilet was gushing water when flushed. It wasn’t a small amount but a lot. It may be that it had been doing so for weeks if not months. This leak would explain the massive saturation of the walls underneath it as the water went down the gap between wall and floor very quickly. (within seconds.)” 

Clearly the Party doesn’t have a functioning or competent Premises Committee at the moment if its members can’t even sort out what appears to be a simple plumbing issue.

[Bijou Drains]

I believe we used to have a very competent plumber who was a party member, I wonder if we could persuade him to rejoin the party?

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Bijou Drains.

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