table of contents · 2020. 11. 16. · teams and inspire and support them to build effective...

Green Party Local and Regional Development – Annual Report 2020 | 2

Table of contents

Table of contents ________________________________________ 2

Section 1 – Introduction and Context ___________________________ 3

Section 2 – Outcomes and progress during 2019 and 2020 _____________ 52.1 Local Elections – increasing the number of elected Councillors _______________________ 52.2 2019 European and General Elections __________________________________________ 7

Section 3 – Current priorities: local elections 2020 and 2021 __________ 83.1 Regional Priority and Development Ward Schemes ________________________________ 83.2 Supporting local parties through COVID _________________________________________ 93.3 Campaign School 4 _________________________________________________________ 93.4 Online training ____________________________________________________________ 103.5 Regional training, events and schemes ________________________________________ 113.6 Regional conferences ______________________________________________________ 123.7 Support for the roll-out of Action Network - ______________________________________ 123.8 Resource review __________________________________________________________ 133.9 Campaign Academy _______________________________________________________ 13

Section 4 – Up-skilling and developing the Field Team _______________ 14

Section 5 – Looking ahead to 2021 and beyond ____________________ 15

Section 6 – Challenges and Opportunities _______________________ 16

Section 7 – Case Studies ___________________________________ 187.1 Darlington Council gain first Green Councillors in May 2019 ________________________ 187.2 A New vibrant Green team contesting for representation on the new Northamptonshire North Unitary Authority _____________________________________________________________ 19

Appendix _____________________________________________ 20Appendix 1 – Field Organiser objectives ___________________________________________ 20Appendix 2 – List of Field Staff and Regional/Wales Coordinators, October 2020 ___________ 21


This annual report aims to update Green Party members of the progress that has been made during 2019 and 2020 to support regional and local parties to achieve our collective aims.

Section 1 – Introduction and Context In recent years, the Green Party has been increasingly focussed on supporting and developing local parties with a view to improving the degree of local party organisation and achieving greater electoral success so that elected politicians can deliver on our policies.

During the summer and autumn of 2014, the Green Party Executive (GPEx) funded a significant formalised expansion of professional staff support in most of the English regions. After the first year of this new model operating, GPEx and the CEO carried out a review of the effectiveness of the support for local parties, identified some good practice and a number of changes were made to strengthen the effectiveness of the support. These included creating a common, streamlined job description and giving most support staff the job title of Field Organiser (FO), to emphasise on the organisation required at the local and regional level.

After the first two years of the Field Team performing in its new structure, and with funding for the team being ring-fenced until the end of 2018, a review of team performance was led by the former CEO in consultation with GPEx, GPRC, regional committees, Wales Council and Field staff. Responses were very enthusiastic about the added value of the Field team with an unequivocal message that the Field team’s work needs to continue. Since then, demand from the regions and local parties for Field team staffing support has continued to increase. Subsequently, the team has expanded, seeing an increased number of staff hours in the West Midlands, North East, East Midlands, South West and Eastern Regions. These include additional Field Organiser hours, and the creation of several local staff members. We also continue to receive requests (including current requests from the North West, North East, South West, Yorkshire and Humber and London) for more staff capacity, paid for by their own fundraising efforts. With the expansion of the Field Team, the management structure has developed. At present, the Head of Elections & Field Operations, Activism Manager and Senior Field Organiser share responsibility for the line management of 17 members of Field staff and also work closely with some additional contractors.


Chart showing Field Team structure Please note that pink boxes refer to request for additional staff.


Section 2 – Outcomes and progress during 2019 and 2020 2.1 Local Elections – increasing the number of elected Councillors

For each election cycle, Field Organisers, usually working with their regional committee, lead a ‘priority ward scheme’ to identify winnable wards (and divisions) for the local elections and prioritise them for staff support. As part of the ward scheme, Field Organisers coach, mentor and train local teams and inspire and support them to build effective election campaigns.

In 2019, the scheme delivered dramatic results, seeing around 90% of our priority and development wards winning, and taking us from 178 Council seats on 69 councils to 362 seats on 122 Councils – the best set of local election results in the party’s 47-year history.

These elections were hugely significant for us as a party, seeing us almost double our representation on principal authorities, and building our credibility as an electoral force. Following on from this election, Greens are in a position of power – i.e. running the administration or having a say in running the administration – on 17 councils in England and hold balance of power on more still. Greens are creating positive change, not only by convincing others but in many places by having decision making authority or by holding the balance of power.

Green Councillors are part of the ruling administration on the following 17 principal authority councils in England and Wales:

• Lancaster City Council • Brighton and Hove Unitary • Folkestone and Hythe District • Lewes District • Rother District


• South Oxfordshire District • Swale Borough • Waverley Borough • East Devon District • Forest of Dean District • North Somerset Unitary • Stroud District • Herefordshire Unitary • Malvern Hills District • Worcester City • Wyre Forest District • York City (Unitary)

As well as the clear, tangible impact of sole Green Councillors and groups of Councillors in their communities, there are broader impacts from election results such as those we saw in 2019. Following the 2019 local and European elections, the party’s membership grew by 27%. The election success led to a substantial increase in income, with the 2019 local and European elections combined seeing us increase GPEW’s annual income by £310,000 – a legacy that remains with us in 2020 and through to 2021 and subsequent years. Party staff are aware that election success helps increase income, which helps increase capacity, which helps increase electoral success.


2.2 2019 European and General Elections

2019 was a big year, with multiple elections taking place in the space of seven months, and testing the Field Team’s capacity to the max. Local elections are the main focus of the Field Team’s work, but staff also played a pivotal role in delivering an organised response to the early General Election, where we increased our vote share and mobilised thousands of volunteers to our target seats. The Field Team also contributed to our fantastic result in the European Election, where we increased our MEP numbers from three to seven.


Section 3 – Current priorities: local elections 2020 and 2021 In advance of the May 2020 elections, the Field Team were anticipating strong results and further significant growth in councillor numbers. At the London Assembly election, early pre-election polling put Sian Berry at some of the highest ever levels of support for London Mayor and with the highest level of support for Green Assembly Members since the first ever London Assembly elections, when Ken Livingstone had asked his supporters to vote Green.

With lockdown and the postponement of the elections, the Field Team has been focussing on several challenges. In particular, it has been a priority to ensure that the huge amount of work done to build those elections planned for 2020 is not lost. Furthermore, to ensure that those areas with County Council elections planned for 2021 are building solid campaigns, and not losing momentum or confidence because of the challenges of campaigning in person during a pandemic. The team has invested significant amounts of time to reassure activists so that they understand how to campaign safely, and to adapt to ongoing changes handed down by Government restrictions, which of course changes regularly.

We now face a bumper set of elections in 2021, with staff focussing support in particular to local and Mayoral elections (including the London Assembly and Mayor election)

The support package, aimed at delivering our strongest set of results yet includes:

3.1 Regional Priority and Development Ward Schemes

Running a target to win campaign is no small feat. The regional priority ward schemes aim to provide a comprehensive package of support to local parties, to ensure they have the organisational structure and skills to win. The regional priority ward schemes form a major component of the Field Team’s work. These schemes include the following areas of support to local teams:

• Campaign planning workshops to support local teams in agreeing a detailed campaign plan

• Regular support and advice calls to ward teams • Training and coaching in all elements of our election-winning strategy • Ongoing support to write, design and deliver effective election literature • Phone-banking support and training in volunteer recruitment • Reactive help and advice • Assistance with fundraising

Following on from our dramatic election wins in 2019, we’ve seen many more teams signing up to our Priority Ward Scheme and committing to run a target to win campaign; we are currently supporting more than 150 wards and divisions across England and Wales. The increase in teams who are part of our schemes, combined with the condensed number and type of elections in 2021 means that this is the biggest ever local electoral challenge and opportunity the party has ever


faced. We need to respond to this by ensuring we deliver the best support for our campaigns in the history of the party.

However, the current pandemic and the political operating environment remain challenging. With such a large number of seats being targeted, many more regions and local parties are hoping to increase staff support to their region, which puts additional demand on the team’s three-line managers. There is a likelihood that five-figure funding offered by regional parties to fund staff will need to be turned away during 2021 if all the proposed staff-linked donations come through.

3.2 Supporting local parties through COVID

A key priority during the pandemic has been to ensure that local parties have felt supported and informed on how to campaign safely. The team has worked hard to support and guide parties, to ensure their confidence to campaign safely is restored. As part of this, the team has produced a risk assessment template, guidance on how to leaflet and door knock, and have run training sessions for local parties.

3.3 Campaign School 4

Campaign School 4 Cohort – August 2019, Leicester

Campaign School 4 began in August 2019, with a particularly high number of women attending and a large contingent representing the Yorkshire and Humber region, as well people from Gateshead down to Canterbury and South Somerset to Suffolk. We’ve seen this cohort build some fantastic campaigns in spite of the timing of a snap General Election, and the Field Team’s focus is on continuing to support them with their campaigns given the postponement of many of these campaigns to 2021.


3.4 Online training

Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Field Team has launched a comprehensive Online Training Programme for Activists, which has received an excellent response from volunteers on the ground.

A key aim as a team is to remove barriers so that every volunteer, regardless of their background, has access to the information they need in order to participate fully in getting Greens elected and building their local party. The Online Training Programme has played an important part towards this goal. The scheme is ongoing and has created a large set of recordings and guidance documents which are available to all members. So far, the scheme has delivered training in the following areas:

Elections Training: we have delivered training in all elements of the Target to Win strategy from ‘how to select a target ward’ to ‘how to use PowerPoint and InDesign to edit your newsletter’ to ‘how to door knock safely during COVID’.

Candidate support: it’s a priority for us as a party to ensure that we remove barriers to involvement, and this particularly includes those who come forward as candidates. In the Field Team we regularly discuss the importance of ensuring that we reach out to volunteers and ask them to deepen their participation. In addition, the online training programme has delivered a series of workshops with Councillors from a range of backgrounds, to talk about what it’s like to be a Green Party Councillor, and to inspire others, particularly from underrepresented backgrounds, to come forward.

Local Party organisational support: In order to have an impact as an organisation, it’s important that the basics are in place, including support and guidance to local party officers. The scheme has included training on how to be an effective chair, membership officer and agent. And there’s more to come.

Comms support: Our local parties have been able to benefit from the knowledge and support of the wider staff team during this period, including through press and social media training for officers and candidates.

Masterclasses: As more and more volunteer teams are building their success at electing Green Councillors, it’s key that our training and development continues to support this group of activists to help them reach even higher levels of excellence. So far this year, we’ve run a literature masterclass for experienced election teams and a specialist session on campaigning in the face of tough opposition from other parties.


At the time of writing, we estimate that well over 2000 members have joined our training sessions so far this year. Here’s a sample of feedback from volunteers attending the sessions: How to facilitate meetings, 5th May

“The trainer was consistently engaging! She was very good at effectively demonstrating how a meeting can be facilitated well through her own leadership.”

How to campaign safely during COVID, 30th June

“Clear, knowledgeable trainer, went at right speed, info was relevant to my local party.”

Setting up your elections database, 9th July

“Clear, concise, relevant training – pitched to all levels of knowledge.”

How to be a campaign manager, 16th July

“I most liked listening to the honest experiences of women who had gone through the process of getting involved and elected in different ways and are now doing great work.”

How to be a councillor, 4th August

“Fabulous first-hand advice. Made lots of notes!”

Key steps to recruit volunteers for your campaign, 10th September

“I liked the clear templates and models to follow. I can now pick up the suggested schedule of member engagement and adapt and build on it to suit our needs, instead of re-inventing the wheel.”

How to write emails that inspire volunteers to get involved, 21st September

“I really enjoyed the training. A very good and enthusiastic presenter – you've certainly inspired me to act!”

How local parties can support their councillors, 13th Oct

“I most enjoyed finding out how to support Councillors and have now connected with my Green Councillor.” “I liked the practical suggestions about how the local party can support the councillor – will help when persuading people to stand to be able to describe the way we provide continued support.”

3.5 Regional training, events and schemes

Running effective campaigns is no small undertaking for any local party, so a key focus for the Field Team is how we bring volunteers on board to participate fully in the vital work of electing Greens. As well as our regular training work and the online training programme, the team has trialled some new schemes this year, including a mass volunteer recruitment event, borrowed from the Bernie Sanders campaign, known as a ‘barnstorm’. These events have played an important part in recruiting the volunteers needed to deliver our campaigns. Sian Berry’s London barnstorm saw over 100 volunteers turn out to sign up to help, and the West Midlands is currently running a series of barnstorms, with very promising results so far.

In addition, several regional training courses have been trialled this year, including two ‘Activist Academy’ events and ‘Press School’, inspired by the national Campaign School scheme. Schemes


run in London have played a pivotal role in building local party capacity, have contributed to key milestones being reached, including the organisation and delivery of over 1 million leaflets so far for Sian Berry’s campaign.

Several Field Organisers have also been working to build new networks in their regions, to ensure that teams are learning from one another. In the West Midlands, staff have supported the roll out of a women’s network, which has focused on training and mentoring to build confidence, skills and mutual support to identify opportunities for involvement. Another region has recently launched an elections book club which brings teams together to discuss and reflect on how they can maximize electoral success and support one another in doing that.

3.6 Regional conferences

Conferences play an important part in the year-round calendar of many of our regions, often helping to create and continue building a sense of regional identity, and a key chance for members to come together, share ideas, learn new skills and socialise. Many Field Organisers play a key role in organising these conferences, and in particular, delivering training in order to inspire and upskill volunteers to play a key role in delivering more Green voices in our region. Given the public health situation, many Field Organisers have played a key role in supporting regions to adapt their conferences to an online setting.

3.7 Support for the roll-out of Action Network -

With the party’s transition to Action Network, it’s been vital to ensure that local parties have felt supported and equipped to use the new system. Towards this goal, a part-time member of staff was contracted to act as a link between the Digital and Field teams to manage the roll out. This work was predominantly focussed on delivering online training as part of the wider Online Training Scheme.

Five training sessions were delivered during August and September, with 500 individual officers attending an average of two sessions each.

Here’s a few examples of feedback from the sessions:

Session 1: Introduction to Action Network

“Exactly what was expected, a brilliant introduction.”

Session 2: Getting your local party ready for Action Network:

“The session made me feel that I want to engage with Action Network and find out more.”

Session 3: Emails

“I really am looking forward to cracking on with AN.”

Session 4 – Getting answers from Action Network

“I now feel more confident in Action Network than I ever did in Civi!”

Session 5 – Getting clever with Action Network

“Honestly, it's been a great menu of training, I'm only sad that I now have to return to juggling it all with working full time!” “I'm still really excited for this. I am now in contact with my field organiser to get fully set up. It's great that the videos have been shared & can be looked back on. Thank you so much.”


3.8 Resource review

Another area of work for the Field Team is a refresh of the party’s guidance documents on all elements of operating an effective local party and an effective local election campaign. This work will see local party officers having access to short, simple and engaging guidance and template documents to support their vital work on the ground.

3.9 Campaign Academy

Building on our successful Campaign School model, we are currently organising an adapted, online course, in light of the pandemic. ‘Campaign Academy’, will take place from 3rd – 6th December. While it won’t be possible to fully emulate the residential aspect of Campaign School this intensive scheme will act as a ‘replacement’ for this year, bringing together a team of 30 dedicated volunteers from across England and Wales who will go on to deliver more elected Greens for our communities.


Section 4 – Up-skilling and developing the Field Team As we’ve progressed through election cycles, and considerably increased the number of councils where we have one or more Councillors, our Field staff have gained considerable experience and further confidence in supporting local parties. We’ve also had numerous staff join us in the last 18 months, and a key part of our focus as a team is building a continued culture of learning and peer-to-peer support so that knowledge and skills are shared, and in turn passed on to local parties.

Most training for the team takes place at our weekly team meeting, in the form of a skill share, as well as additional training provided by managers, colleagues and external trainers. Once per month, the Field Team participates in ‘learning hub’, which focuses on identifying further areas of learning that the team, and in turn local parties, can benefit from. This usually takes the form of a staff member looking outside the party to learn from a book or research article to bring the learning back to the team to reflect on our existing practice. In addition, many of the Field staff members have a ‘buddy’ who they work with on areas for development and support. Collaborative working plays a key role in the team’s work, particularly on the design of training for local parties. The culture of the team is very strongly one of continued learning and of mutual support.


Section 5 – Looking ahead to 2021 and beyond It goes without saying that 2020 has been a challenging year, and the election work of our local parties is no exception. The Field Team’s initial focus during lockdown was on minimising disruption to campaigns across England and Wales and is now focussed particularly on building and maintaining strong campaigns ahead of the elections in May 2021.

Against the odds, we have real opportunities to change the political landscape in this election. We are working to break on to new councils in the eight regions of England with council elections in 2021. We also have a serious chance to increase the number of local authorities where we hold the balance of power or are in administration. The Mayor and Assembly elections in London hold real promise for us with latest polling suggesting we can win three seats for the first time in 20 years.

The specific aims for the remainder of 2020 and 2021 include, but will not be limited to:

a) Maximising election wins in May by having a rigid focus on campaign outcomes in the first four months of the year.

b) Working with Wales and London to ensure they are building their local election campaigns for 2022 – an absolutely critical year for Wales and London.

c) As part of the above, continue to work creatively to respond and adapt to the changing environment

d) Launching a brand-new set of resources and guidelines for local parties on all areas of their work.

e) Continuation of the Online Training Programme and consolidating a new training strategy for 2021

f) The launch of a new online training ‘residential’ – Campaign Academy – in early December 2020

g) Continue to support regional parties to run effective regional events with a focus on training and local party development

h) Deliver training at GPEW, regional and Wales conferences

i) Work closely with regional committees, including at the Regional Development Conference in June, to continue to build working relationships

j) Continue to liaise closely with the Association of Green Councillors Coordinator to assist with setting up mentoring and training for the many newly elected Councillors expected in 2021.


Section 6 – Challenges and Opportunities As the number of elected Greens grows and the number of councils where our numbers allow us larger levels of influence expands, there are increasing requests from our local parties for support. Unfortunately, many of these requests and expectations cannot be delivered – or can only be delivered in a limited way – by the Field Team in its current form. With further capacity, the following areas of work could be considered in future:

a) Comprehensive development programme for smaller parties:

Our local election successes in recent years are owed to the focussed approach of the regional priority ward schemes. These schemes focus a considerable amount of staff support and expertise on those ward teams that are ready to campaign to win. While we are seeing an increase in the number of teams joining these schemes with each election cycle, we know that there are many local parties who need support with getting infrastructure in place before they can move on to run election campaigns. Field staff do what they can to support these parties, and the new set of resources and online training will offer further support, but there are huge possibilities that could be explored with more capacity. When the Field team was initially set up there was capacity to provide much more support to these ‘less developed’ local parties but this is now minimal in most regions.

b) Revamp and expand the range of literature templates

Following the local elections in 2018, feedback from local teams was that literature templates played a pivotal role in enabling them to win their campaigns. A lot of Green Party literature could be said to be of higher quality than much of that produced by other parties in fact. With more capacity, we would aim to revamp these templates to make them even more accessible and user-friendly and we would extend the range of templates available to ensure that those teams that have run multiple election campaigns remain competitive.

c) Build a strong internal narrative to showcase the impact of our elected Greens

As a small party with huge ambitions, recruitment of volunteers to stand as candidates and run our campaigns in an ongoing challenge. With more capacity, the Field Team could do more to support the work of the AGC and share the story of what elected Greens are achieving. By building an impactful narrative, we would be able to bring more volunteers on board to become candidates and campaigners.

d) Agents manual

Election agents play a vital role and hold serious legal responsibilities. It is important that our election agents fully understand their legal responsibilities to avoid potentially serious slip-ups and are fully equipped to deliver their roles. A ‘how to’ manual would assist in achieving this goal.

e) Refined training videos

Running an election campaign is complex, which is why such a large part of the Field Team’s focus is on providing training to our volunteers. The ‘target to win’ manual, training from Field staff and the online training programme play an important part in upskilling activists, but there is much room for improvement. With more resource, we could build on the programme and produce an ‘asynchronous’ programme of training like the National Democratic Training Committee provides:


These include ‘how to’ videos and activities for volunteers to watch and engage with in their own time. https://traindemocrats.org/course-catalog/

f) Virtual campaign managers service

At present, Field Organisers do what they can to link up organisers across their regions, to ensure sharing of knowledge and ideas. With more capacity, there is more that the team could do to bring together and provide more intensive, tailored support to Campaign Managers across the regions and Wales.

g) Providing more support for metro—mayor and PCC candidates

A big contributor to the Field Team’s impact is the prioritisation of its time, with the successful regional priority ward schemes offering a clear example of how this works in practice. Support to Metro-Mayor and PCC candidates in 2021 is therefore something that receives a limited amount of staff time.

h) Canvassing software system

There is ongoing demand for the creation of a comprehensive and accessible canvassing software system, as other political parties do, but without further dedicated funding, are not able to deliver it.


Section 7 – Case Studies 7.1 Darlington Council gain first Green Councillors in May 2019

Green Councillors Matthew Snedker and Bryony Holroyd

Darlington has a very mixed demographic, and this is reflected by representation by most UK political parties on the Council, and since 2019 by Greens also.

For a number of years, the local Green Party always had active engagement from a good number of members, and in 2017/18 they decided to get serious about campaigning. Jonathan Elmer, our Field Organiser in the region gave training on ward selection which resulted in the selection of College qard then held by complacent Conservative Councillors. Darlington Greens selected Matthew Snedker and Bryony Holroyd as candidates and Jonathan gave the team training in all aspects of campaigning. Bryony attended Campaign School and brought back an enhanced understanding in particular on door knocking to strengthen the campaign. Darlington Greens soon got into the rhythm of communicating effectively with voters, and delivered a strong, year-round campaign, resulting in a resounding victory for Greens!

Since being elected they have now opened up a new target ward and made numerous achievements. They have:

• Implemented a Climate emergency declaration • Coordinated opposition to damaging Draft Local Plan • Highlighted £1.2m/a parking subsidy and received assurances it will end this year • Been elected vice-chair of Children and Young People scrutiny committee • Increased the capacity and ambition of the local party


7.2 A New vibrant Green team contesting for representation on the new Northamptonshire North Unitary Authority

Candidate Dez Dell, featured front right

Northamptonshire is soon to form two new Unitary Councils. Over the last few years, Jonathan, our Field Organiser in the East Midlands has supported Northamptonshire Greens in responding to this restructuring and has helped a local member, Dez Dell form a team and drive an effective campaign to deliver our first Green Councillor. Jonathan has advised, supported and trained Dez and his campaign team members in all aspects of campaigning, and has helped them develop a campaign plan and recruit volunteers. Dez joined Campaign School in 2019, helping to build the focus and momentum of the campaign. The campaign to get Dez elected is now well underway and progressing with necessary intensity. Some highlights of Dez’s campaign include:

• Started running a very short TTW campaign in January with view to election in May 2020 (now delayed to 2021).

• Got two newsletters out in Feb and March and started 60 second surveying before lockdown. Another two newsletters out since July and 30% of the target area door-knocked in the last month with eight volunteers.

• Have assembled a team of 25-30 reliable and regular delivery volunteers. • Assembled 750 visors for the NHS during lockdown. • Organised monthly litter picks in Kettering (paused during lockdown) with between 40-75

residents attending. • Spearheaded a campaign to save a local woodland, which has increased the candidate’s

profile hugely. Launched a petition which gathered nearly 10k signatures and over 600 council objections.

• Candidate has attended both local authority and future unitary council meetings remotely as a public speaker, with constant emphasis on the climate emergency. The incoming unitary authority has since formed a climate task and finish group due to public pressure and a candidate has been invited to take part in conversations with the chief council officer for climate action.


Appendix Appendix 1 – Field Organiser objectives

Key objectives for Field Organisers include the following:

• Local parties with the best chance of winning/retaining seats in 2021 and 2022 are supported to run effective campaigns

• Priority campaign teams have best practice campaign plan and are supported in implementing it

• Knowledge of how to win elections is increasing across the region, with a focus on priority local parties

• Field Organisers build strong relationships with priority and development campaign teams such that advice is sought on key campaign areas including literature, door knocking scripts, etc

• Well-run door-knocking sessions are taking place every month from no later than September, which involve some element of training/information sharing

• Local parties are trained and supported to recruit a team of volunteers with a clear delineation of responsibilities

• Field Organisers help create a culture of standing candidates in all elections

Each Field Organiser and region does things slightly differently, and workload also varies across full time and part-time staff. Some of the tasks Field Organisers do in order to achieve the above include:

• Rolling out a regional priority ward scheme • Delivering a supportive long campaign planning meeting at the beginning of the campaign

to agree tasks and the timeline (including capacity building) up to the end of February • Delivering a supportive short campaign planning meeting (usually by mid Jan) to agree

tasks and the timeline from March to election day • Developing a programme of training for priority and development parties in region,

according to needs of each • Providing ongoing coaching and mentoring to teams to improve their campaigns, including

their regular literature • Training priority teams in capacity building– this includes recruitment and activation of

activists, as well as building a campaign team with delineated responsibilities • Showcasing best practice volunteer recruitment, e.g. through sending out motivational

regional member emails, organising a regional phone bank etc • Regular check ins with each team throughout the campaign • Contributing to local party training via the online training programme, conference and

regional conferences • Training priority local parties in campaign strategy as needed: ward selection, literature

production, year-round campaigning


Appendix 2 – List of Field Staff and Regional/Wales Coordinators, October 2020

Region/Nation Coordinator Regional Field Staff Local Party Staff

Eastern Daniel Laycock Ed Fraser (interim) Robert Lindsay (Bury St Edmunds)

East Midlands Gerhard Lohmann-Bond Jonathan Elmer

London Colin Boyle Sharron Sumner and Benali Hamdache (Campaign Manager)

North East Tom Stewart & Dawn Furness Jonathan Elmer

North West Gina Dowding Pål Woodruff and Clare Hales

South East Andrew Bradbury & Lilias Cheyne Claudia Fisher

South West Neil Basil & Amy Sparling Guy Poultney

Heather Mack (Bristol)

West Midlands Roxanne Green Peggy Wiseman, Natalie McVey and Julien Pritchard

Helen Heathfield (Herefordshire)

Wales Anne Were & Louise Davies Ian Chandler

Yorkshire & H Janet Russell Andrew Cooper

The three staff not aligned to any region or Wales (and fully funded by GPEW) are:

• Chris Rose, Electoral Administration Officer (10 hours per week) • Emma Leigh, Activism Manager (full time) • Chris Williams, Head of Elections and Field Operations (full time)


Notes

In places, the English regions and not Wales are referenced in this report quite deliberately. This is because a slightly different arrangement is in place for Wales, with regards to staffing, their priorities and their electoral cycle.

Further Questions

To discuss any aspect of this annual report in further detail contact:

Emma Leigh, Activism Manager [email protected] as report author Chris Williams, [email protected] as Head of Elections and Field Operations

table of contents · 2020. 11. 16. · teams and inspire and support them to build effective...

Documents