Bye, bye...

Don't forget, The CF News is relaunching... stay tuned.

Welcome to readers of the ever popular Recess Monkey

Whilst recording an interview with he and Guido for CF Radio, it became apparent that the Monkey has been well fed. I left my reply on his site for your reference.

Sad to say that the campaign, which had started from a good natured banter point of view went sour very quickly. Pity really - if there was a bright spot in all of last year it was the lack of cliquiness in CF. I hope this campaign doesn't mark the start of a fratricidal Y.C-style 'win at all costs' mentality. After all, we're all on the same side, as the Gipper (pictured above) said, "Never speak ill of a fellow Conservative"

This year has been tough in places, but from all the problems we have started projects that can continue till next year - an e-library, CF TV, CF Net and a revamped CF.com website and Copywriters team. I'm proud of the volunteers on those teams, from all over the country, of all ages and walks of life. They continue to amaze me with their dedication to making CF work better.

Guys - it's been nice working with you....

Coming soon...

The CF News...

The Change Agenda: Training

If there is a gap in our current organisation it's training.

At some level we are able to do every other aspect of the work we are supposed to, yet, strangely for the biggest youth politics organisation we provide little in the way of training for our activists and future candidates.

This year the Copywriters have held as many training days as the NME, Reigate managed to do the same - yet only one of these relied on a huge injection of funding. Which begs the question - have we got it right?

The annual training weekend was hugely well provided for, yet the number of attendees matched that of the less well funded student conference. Overall, National CF provided training for roughly 120 people this year, 120 of a few thousand eligible people. This needs to change.

Regionalisation will allow each region to attain a 'critical mass' of members at its larger events. I propose that each region should host a series of training days throughout its year. As well as the basics - on campaigning, canvassing etc. - more detailed training can be attempted, on public speaking and media skills.

Training not only provides skills, it also provides motivation and inspires people to greater efforts. A successful exec would take the initiative in getting a coherent programme of training out to its members, fulfilling its role as an enabling body and providing for a stronger future in the party.

Putting in place a coherent training programme this year can also set the stage for a year-on-year improvement, hopefully CF can reach a future point where we fulfil the role of providing candidates not just for council, but also for Parliament as well.

The Hustings Speech that never was...

With less than five days to go the election is effectively over - with this in mind, and surrounded by old faces at the London hustings I decided to can the phoney theatrics and pomposity. Someone said lats week that I'm not a great self-publicist, and to tell the truth they're right. The disingenuousness of the campaigning doesn't sit easily with me, and the re-emergence of the YC-style shenanigans has been a stark contrast to the faction-free past year. Here is the speech that never was.

"It’s hard to believe a year has gone by, but in a way I’m glad.

I decided that putting my life on hold for another year, putting up with the constant deadlines, the problems, the lack of support from anybody is not the way to go.

For all its potential, CF is a failing organisation and will continue to be so until it makes a fundamental change in how it works.

The good thing about being a candidate for Chairman is that for a month and a half I get a captive audience. And so, at the risk of losing my place as the chairman candidate who is least ‘up themselves’ here is the solution to all our problems.

We must fundamentally change the balance between the regions and the centre, and in these vital nine months, the next chairman must regionalise this organisation.

The NME must stop acting as a super branch and become a service provider to the regions and regional coordinators must be appointed to bring area chairmen and the senior party together to plan the revival of CF across the country.

Long-term success will only come about by building up our grassroots, and regionalisation is the only way to do it.

There has been a lot of talk about experience, so here’s my experience –the record of the youngest candidate.

I’ve set up two teams of writers to allow us to update our website twice daily, created a national network of regional websites, redesigned and secured funding for a new CF website, started an e-library of best practise that can be improved on year-on-year, fought to hire our first long term intern Richard ‘Action’ Jackson and started an internet TV station – CF TV. All done for free.

120 volunteers, trained and working hard in a simple system that encourages them to just get on with it.

With every one of the 240 volunteers I have worked with over the past few years there comes a point when they stop asking “What do I do?” and start saying “Here’s what I’m going to do!” Imagine we had eleven regions with volunteers saying the same. At the moment our branch and area successes are lonely outposts, unsupported and unconnected. Hopefully with my work in the past few years I have shown what can be achieved by bringing people together.

The common thread that links all this work, is that in 2009, the date of the next general election, CF members will be using the tools I have helped put in place in 2006.

Imagine all seven people on the national exec had done the same this year?

Don’t get me wrong, the exec have worked hard. But those campaign days, those great events in trendy London bars will count for nothing in the long run, because for every event organised centrally our volunteers, our grassroots, lose the opportunity to learn how to do it for themselves.

Lots of central funding sounds great, but at the centre we are brilliantly funded. Teaching our branches and Areas how they can better raise funds is the key.

Campaigning in national Action days was fun, but each region must take ownership for its success at the polls.

Setting up individual branches is great, but CF is failing because we have no system to support the ones we already have. Being an area chairman is such a bad job that only 18 of 44 places have been filled –we can’t even give it away.

We need to stamp a regional identity on each CF branch and area, and within those regions coordinate events, training, fundraising and yes, targeted campaigning.

It won’t work any other way. Seven people based in and around London can work really hard, but lasting success only comes when people take ownership of their own success.

I am hoping that maybe, just maybe, the thunderbolt will strike – and that that idea will start to take hold, because if I’ve learnt anything from working with over 240 volunteers over the years, it’s that young people have such huge reserves of potential.

I need to use this opportunity to thank the volunteers who have been so generous with their time and energy. They are an inspiration to me and have kept me going in what has at times been a pretty crappy job.

And to you guys, the CF members who we’ll rely on next year – it’s been nice working with you."

Hustings Tonight

Hustings tonight in CCHQ.

Sadly, you'll never know how I got on unless you're there, and a video even of my bit is not in the offing

7pm, don't be late...

The Change Agenda: Women 2 Win?

Women work half as hard as men - They get it right the first time!!!

A weird situation at a recent planning meeting for a London branch. A discussion about how to hold a membership event aimed at attracting that vital group of young career women who we need to change the face of the party.

Weird in that all but one of those present were men, but that's the current situation we find ourselves faced with. This needs to change..

Labour fixed the problem by introducing all-women short lists. It worked in making their party more electable, but discrimination runs against Conservative instincts, so the A-List is plugging the gap. However, as James Cleverly pointed out, stretching a minority of the candidates so thinly is not a sustainable solution.

If CF was wondering what innovative useful function it could fill in the next decade, recruiting and retaining talented female candidates must be up there.

Not that CF is to blame. I predict that Karen Allen, a virtual unknown, will finish in the top three of the NME elections. CF members already recognise the need to change the membership for the better, witness the success of talented young women in reaching responsible positions within branches, despite being a much smaller proportion of the membership.

However, recruitment is too slow, and retaining talent, as with all things CF, is a chronic failing.

Recruitment: Targetted events in conjunction with Women 2 Win. Held on a regional basis. The aim is to get a critical mass of women attending the event and being enthused by the number of other young women in their position. The social aspect is a key part of CF and acts as an informal, but very powerful mentoring system.

Retainment: To maintain interest in involvement, CF must (as with all its members - more tomorrow) provide a logical path for career progression within politics. This is partly achieved by regionalisation and binding CF-age members to the senior party's planning at a local and regional level.

More importantly, CF must start offering a serious improvement in its training. One central conference per year is a shockingly poor track record. Regional one-day training events can help inspire our volunteers as well as equipping them with real skills. With so few opportunities to hone these skills, the ability of CF to provide them is a big plus which could effect a permanent change in attracting and developing our membership.

The Change Agenda: Digging In

What are the problems of CF? Why do we seem to change only very slowly? Why can we not make more rapid gains as a youth organisation?

A CF member was chatting to me after the Manchester hustings and he blamed the CF elections. 'If only we didn't have elections every year we wouldn't lose so many talented people'

Well almost.

This year has certainly shown how weak we are nationally, as the Area Chairmen are unable to find successors. 18 of 44 places for Area Chairmen filled has to be an all-time low, and with the (sad) loss of Chris Wales from the NME candidates list there are fewer candidates than last year.

Part of the regionalisation plan is to force the issue and agressively recruit in empty spots, but I'm not keen on the idea of 'picking winners'. True success will be when CF starts replicating its success naturally, otherwise each election will mark the departure point for ever more ACs.

To start this process of rebuilding we'll have to start getting CF members dug in. For students this will involve getting student sabbatical officers elected, but more commonly, this will involve CF-age councillors.

The trick will be to engage the senior party, CF shouldn't act as a seperate organisation. Rather, the senior party needs to be provided with that capability to recruit and retain younger members. Working to compliment the senior party at every stage will help in that.

Importantly, I don't see CF's role as being a narrowly defined one. Yes we should do the envelope licking and leaflet dropping, but if that's all we can aspire to then it's a bit dissapointing.

CF has a social side that shouldn't be overlooked, but still far too few events. This is due to a lack of infastructure.

Same too with training, we should be able to hold training events in each region aimed at directly improving our activists skills and also finding the politicians of the future. Sadly, outside of London this is currently not the case - something we could change by implementing a regional structure.

Targetted campaigning - the vital project for all three candidates - will not take off simply through funding or sending the seven members of the NME to help out. A strong regional identity and simple system of management in each region could help to deliver this. We need to appoint the regional coordinators and have them bring together the senior party and Area Chairmen to help rebuild those grassroots.

Proof, if it were needed, came in the form of another conversation at the hustings. I met a former regional coordinator of the old YCs, who was, to say the least, passionate about CFs failing in the regions. She asked why we couldn't organise regionally? Then, a person in her position in the senior party could start thinking about funding CF activity on a regional basis.

All politics is local, CF should recognise that.

The Change Agenda: Policy

Conservative Future doesn't have much input into policy for a few reasons.

For a start as a national organisation we barely exist, so whilst in some areas where CF is contributing they are a valuable part of the local organisation, in most parts of the country CF either doesn't or barely exists (the need for regionalisation to build up the grassroots all over the country couldn't be clearer).

Also, our communciations structure has, before this year, been to basic in the extreme. Hopefully CF Net and CF TV's linkage with the Tory blogosphere will help to plug that gap, but direct communication with the senior party is the other huge area for improvement.

However, young people should have some input into the debate about policy and there exists a huge opportunity to exploit new technologies to address this.

ConservativeHome has shown that policy debate can be conducted in a reasoned and dynamic way. Importantly, the Internet allows a fractured national organisation to collaborate more easily - and so, using the full plethora of communications tools (CF.com, CF TV, CF Net with help from CF Diary and Tory Radio) we can introduce those issues relevant to young people and have some debate on them before engaging directly with the senior party.

I am a great believer in the potential of young people - working with almost 120 volunteers has taught me the sheer potential they possess - and this also is a great way to allow CF to engage its more mature members.

Andy Stephenson

I've known Andy since my time at GMCF. He has been a hard working member of the CF exec as well as a popular local activist and successful councillor. I wasn't at all surprised when he was selected for the A-List.

I don't know a single person with a bad word to say about him and it was obvious why he was chosen to chair the hustings as no-one else has as much respect as he does.

There is a vote on Thursday in Pendle where Andy will be in a closed primary. I know that quite a few members of the senior party read this blog, if you are able, or you have friends who would be able to vote, you will not find a more able and talented candidate.

Vote for Andrew Stephenson.

Manchester Hustings

A great night, catching up with the GMCF guys. The turnout wasn't huge, which is why next year it would be great to hold the hustings earlier in the election, film it for CF TV and let everyone see it.

Below is a video of my speech, rushed, because as always, there's too much content. The camerawork suffered a little from what media professionals call 'inebriation', but I thought I'd let you see it anyway. The basic points for the full speech were:

• We must radically change the relationship of the Regions and the NME making the NME a service provider to its regions.
• I have a proven track record of setting up lasting volunteer led projects, to a long-term strategy.
• To succeed in future elections we must enable our grassroots, this does not involve chasing short-term schemes for short term gains.
  

Campaign video removed

Endorsement: Anna Appleton, Secretary West Wirral

I first met Andrew at the spring forum in Manchester and was struck by his enthusiastic and encouraging manner. He made sure that people were introduced to others from neighbouring areas so that they could form useful contacts and thereby organise regional events.

Andrew’s promotion of regionalisation will ensure CF’s increasing effectiveness and appeal to those outside London. Andrew has shown those of us not living in the capital that he is capable of achieving much through his work on CF TV and radio.

He is clearly an experienced officer in CF and has many personal attributes that will make him a successful leader for this organisation. He has identified changes that need to be made to guarantee that CF becomes a professional and impressive body and I feel confident that my vote will be going to the right candidate.

Anna Appleton

Bye Bye Dave

This just in from Bigze's website

Labour's attack machine set up the 'Dave the Chameleon' website to bash D.C.

Labour's focus groups showed that David Cameron would be vulnerable to attack over his modernisation agenda. Bad idea - the website has now stopped being updated.

R.I.P Labour's Spin Department.....

CF Support

A busy few days, so apologies for not keeping the blog up to date. Off to Havering tonight and hustings in Manchester on Saturday - if you're going to either, I'll see you there.

CF Support is the name for the four teams of volunteers who are helping to contribute to CF. Based all over the country but collaborating over the Internet to deliver services for the benefit of all our members.

Copywriters Teams - Two teams of writers who allow CF.com to update its website twice a day. Before it was two articles per month, now 700 articles later the teams are larger than ever before and able to take on other tasks, like script writing for CF TV

CF TV - A multimedia website run by volunteers aimed at using new technologies to capture an emerging market in online broadcasting. All run for free, and a great way of raising the profile of the organisation.

CF Net - The final big project. To bridge the gap in communication at a local level, CF Net will allow branches to advertise their events on a regional site, maintained by a team of tech savvy volunteers. Unlike our exisiting sites the regional sites can be modified on a weekly basis, providing a greater flexibility.

These projects comprise almost 120 volunteers working to improve CF. I'm standing in this election to make the point that the future success of CF relies not on a fractured system where each small part pursues short-term gain, but on bringing together the seperate elements into a dynamic organisation that works.