Showing posts with label democratic party. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democratic party. Show all posts
Burnout, campaign funds, and facebook - Some interesting web links (without mentioning Christmas)
I have long been inspired to tackle the challenge of activist burnout, and have tweeted this resource on the subject which I highly recommend you print and read if you are spending a lot of unstructured time saving the world. The subject was top of the agenda amongst London Green Party movers and shakers especially after Ryan resigned from the party citing "risk" of burnout. I bumped into him recently and thanked him for putting it on the agenda. Many have pointed to how inspirational he is and his internal official work in the regional Green Party is also worth a mention.
At freshers week in UCL I cought up with Tom Youngman. It turns out that his mom knows my mom! Anyway Tom and our friend Greg recommend that if we need money for anything campaign related, go to O2 think big. I have yet to check out this opportunity. This month I was the key organiser of 2 events which raised about £300 for the Green Party (technical point: small donations add up!).
An other event, also involving my mom has been the fact that my family hosted a wedding feast! Most people there had attended the wedding feast the day before. The link above shows you the sort of event it was, quite fancy. I played some of my favorite music on my laptop and used what apple call hot corners to make nice colours on the screen. I also had the (male only) honour of saying one of the seven blessings, number 5, which I sung beautifully. There was some controversy over Nelson Mandela, whether he was good for the Jews. I think it was Clare Filder who proposed a toast to him "a friend of the South African Jewish Community". There was some food waste at the do, but not as much at our house and most of the waste went in the new recycling bins we have. My mom did a great veggie option and chicken soup, salmon to eat for weeks. (which reminds me to invite Adina over to help finish it off).
A word on "the left". I've been following Jim Jepps' facebook and such on the subject as well as a lot of active groups. However I am wary of committing as "a Green" to concepts such as socialism, which I recently deleted from my twitter bio, because as much as I enjoy the left's backing, the Green Vision is about casting aside the old fashioned politics and becoming, as Natalie put it, Post-Watermelon. I have invited the Green Party where I organise to commit to a strong anti-austerity platform for the next local elections.
I have been spending some time using facebook. It brings together a lot of things, such as news feeds, making them quite easy to use. Also I occasionally get a message on there and I guess my profile comes up quite high on Google. Recently I attended twitter (cops off campus) and facebook training with the London Young Greens, which was attended by the very people who don't really need to sort out their online skills. Sadly not everyone has the same native facebook skills as me and one of my challenges is laboriously helping when things go wrong with non native facebook users. I have put the link to my blog to twitter, so less frequent, historical, and more wordy contributions will be available.
At freshers week in UCL I cought up with Tom Youngman. It turns out that his mom knows my mom! Anyway Tom and our friend Greg recommend that if we need money for anything campaign related, go to O2 think big. I have yet to check out this opportunity. This month I was the key organiser of 2 events which raised about £300 for the Green Party (technical point: small donations add up!).
An other event, also involving my mom has been the fact that my family hosted a wedding feast! Most people there had attended the wedding feast the day before. The link above shows you the sort of event it was, quite fancy. I played some of my favorite music on my laptop and used what apple call hot corners to make nice colours on the screen. I also had the (male only) honour of saying one of the seven blessings, number 5, which I sung beautifully. There was some controversy over Nelson Mandela, whether he was good for the Jews. I think it was Clare Filder who proposed a toast to him "a friend of the South African Jewish Community". There was some food waste at the do, but not as much at our house and most of the waste went in the new recycling bins we have. My mom did a great veggie option and chicken soup, salmon to eat for weeks. (which reminds me to invite Adina over to help finish it off).
A word on "the left". I've been following Jim Jepps' facebook and such on the subject as well as a lot of active groups. However I am wary of committing as "a Green" to concepts such as socialism, which I recently deleted from my twitter bio, because as much as I enjoy the left's backing, the Green Vision is about casting aside the old fashioned politics and becoming, as Natalie put it, Post-Watermelon. I have invited the Green Party where I organise to commit to a strong anti-austerity platform for the next local elections.
I have been spending some time using facebook. It brings together a lot of things, such as news feeds, making them quite easy to use. Also I occasionally get a message on there and I guess my profile comes up quite high on Google. Recently I attended twitter (cops off campus) and facebook training with the London Young Greens, which was attended by the very people who don't really need to sort out their online skills. Sadly not everyone has the same native facebook skills as me and one of my challenges is laboriously helping when things go wrong with non native facebook users. I have put the link to my blog to twitter, so less frequent, historical, and more wordy contributions will be available.
London Young Greens Meeting
I might ask Elliot to contribute some arguments to this blog about the May Referendum. He's planning on speaking at a local party meeting in Enfield, in a debate on the Alternative Vote.
My position on this is fairly clear, that through my work with Elliot I've discovered that you don't need to understand the technicalities of how it works. The point is that there are problems with the First Past the Post system that we must overcome. In order to have "balance" you can read the argument for at http://www.yestofairervotes.org.uk and the no campaign at http://www.no2av.org/why-vote-no/
There's also a spoil-your-ballot contingient.
We're planning a party. Elliot's written some alternative lyrics to Red Flag.
Elliot Folan kicks off the Youth Parliament Campaign
Today is the big launch meeting with, er, me and Elliot strategising how to win the Green Party's first MYP. You can hear the voices of young people on www.bbc.co.uk/parliament and then find Youth Parliament.
Some good discussions have been going on. We already have the support of Alex Clayman who made a successful student demo happen here in Finchley, where I'm going to be going to this big launch meeting. I hope Elliot shows up and signs my nomination paper. So far I have many celebrities signing including Jonathan Bartley, the new head of the Yes 2 fairer votes campaign. Since there are in the Green Party more former committee members than current ones, I've obtained the signature of almost retired former treasurer of Lambeth Green Party, Stephen Norman of SW2. In the meeting we resolved to jointly appoint a returning officer for a postal or electronic ballot of both Lambeth & Southwark for the joint constituency, which formally starts selecting its candidates after the mayoral count on the 19th March, all things permitting. Noel advised me not to worry about who signs the paper, but as I see it, it's vital to have Elliot's support, as it's vital that I currently have the support of Young Greens based in Colindale, Tower Hamlets, Richmond + Twickenham, Southwark, Hammersmith, Ladywell, and East Finchley. I used to be on the Young Greens National Committee and this regional dimension is a really good way to keep that political base alive. So far I have a really representative list of my contacts in the Young Greens, minus Elliot, Marek, and Charlotte's. Admittedly 8 of the 10+ Young Green members who've nominated me are male, but I could actually end up actually representing Young Greens alongside Marek and Charlotte.
Today we heard that a politician was shot in the head and is unconscious. I hope we will find time to send our prayers which go out across the Atlantic, that this violent act is does not result in the death of one of the most Democratic parties I know...
Back to the subject of the Youth Parliament: Elliot plans to address a number of assemblies about it. I must dig out my CRB so I can go in and take a stand for renewed democracy.
Some good discussions have been going on. We already have the support of Alex Clayman who made a successful student demo happen here in Finchley, where I'm going to be going to this big launch meeting. I hope Elliot shows up and signs my nomination paper. So far I have many celebrities signing including Jonathan Bartley, the new head of the Yes 2 fairer votes campaign. Since there are in the Green Party more former committee members than current ones, I've obtained the signature of almost retired former treasurer of Lambeth Green Party, Stephen Norman of SW2. In the meeting we resolved to jointly appoint a returning officer for a postal or electronic ballot of both Lambeth & Southwark for the joint constituency, which formally starts selecting its candidates after the mayoral count on the 19th March, all things permitting. Noel advised me not to worry about who signs the paper, but as I see it, it's vital to have Elliot's support, as it's vital that I currently have the support of Young Greens based in Colindale, Tower Hamlets, Richmond + Twickenham, Southwark, Hammersmith, Ladywell, and East Finchley. I used to be on the Young Greens National Committee and this regional dimension is a really good way to keep that political base alive. So far I have a really representative list of my contacts in the Young Greens, minus Elliot, Marek, and Charlotte's. Admittedly 8 of the 10+ Young Green members who've nominated me are male, but I could actually end up actually representing Young Greens alongside Marek and Charlotte.
Today we heard that a politician was shot in the head and is unconscious. I hope we will find time to send our prayers which go out across the Atlantic, that this violent act is does not result in the death of one of the most Democratic parties I know...
Back to the subject of the Youth Parliament: Elliot plans to address a number of assemblies about it. I must dig out my CRB so I can go in and take a stand for renewed democracy.
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