Minutes for the Equal Parenting Alliance AGM , 7th March 2010, Manchester

PRESENT
Ray Barry – Party Leader
Steve Gouldstone – Treasurer
Mark Leishman – Scottish Co-ordinator
Mike Wiffen – Party Member
Paul Rubert – Nominating Officer
Tracey Wilkinson – Party Secretary

APOLOGIES
Brian McNair – Party Chairman

MINUTES

1 Membership
Membership has grown steadily over the last year, bringing about a 6.3% rise in the number of Party members.

Discussions took place over how best to improve membership figures. It was decided to link a membership drive into the Party’s publicity for the General Election. Further details in point (3).

2 Treasurer’s Report
The balance of cash in the Party’s bank account stands at £446. See point (3) for fundraising initiative.

3 Party activities during the past year
Over the past year the Party, represented by Keith Collett, stood in local council elections, gaining 5% of the vote in Runnymede, an excellent achievement. Ray Barry has appeared twice on the BBC’s Sunday morning political programme ‘The Big Question’ and both Ray and Steve, the Party’s Treasurer have appeared on national radio programmes. Political lobbying has continued and a number of newspaper articles have been written and responded to. Work has also continued on the Family Law survey which continues to be publicised and used by ‘Families Need Father’s’.

4 General Election
Focus for the Party now switches to this year’s compulsory General Election. The most likely date for this to happen is 6th May, however, theoretically it could occur anytime between early April and June.

Over the past few months Ray has been sounding out Party members in respect to standing as candidates for the Equal Parenting Alliance in the General Election and at this point 8 persons, including Ray himself, have expressed an interest in this. Ray has begun the vetting process on prospective candidates.

A minimum of £1200 would be required to field each candidate, this would cover the deposit and leaflets which would be posted by Royal Mail into the homes of every member of the constituencies where candidates are fielded.

Approximately £10,000 must be raised in order to field all 8 candidates.

In order to raise as much money as possible a joint membership/fundraising drive was suggested which would be incorporated in raising awareness of the Party and its aims.

Currently the Party’s official website contains a small notice of our intention to stand in the General Election and also features a ‘donate’ button which will allow people to donate to the election fund. The home page is to be redesigned to concentrate on the election.

Steve will send an email direct to all Party members informing them of the Party’s intention to stand in the General Election and the fact that 8 people have expressed interest in becoming candidates. Donations will be requested either as individual donations or from events such as car boot sales, bingo nights etc. Candidates may need to raise some of their own money, however the Party will assist as much as they can depending on the funds raised.

The email will then be sent to all those who have responded to the Family Law survey along with requests that they join the Party.

These measures are aimed to reach those people who have already joined or aware of the Party. In order to spread the Party’s message further and to hopefully raise more money towards the election campaign, wider advertising of the Party must be undertaken.

To this end Steve will start up a Facebook page for the Party which will link directly to its official website. Members will then be encouraged to post the link to their social networking sites and attach a message to their status about the Party. Even something as simple as, we are trying to put up candidates for the EPA but desperately need funds to do this, please link to the site. The URL can then be pasted into the link box. It is hoped that some of the individual’s friends will pass the link/information on to their friends in order to pass the message further. The link will lead directly to the Election homepage which is to incorporate a donate button and a join now link if possible. Given the success of many Facebook campaigns started in this way it is hoped that the Party will achieve enhanced coverage and raise election funding in this way.

Mark is to record a track written by two of his songwriter friends which Steve and Tracey will then incorporate song into a PowerPoint presentation showing the Party’s aims and policies and then set up a You Tube account for the Party which will then feature the presentation.

Ray will then record a video of himself introducing the Party which Mark will then upload to the You Tube page.

The links are to be advertised on the election page and party members will be asked to view the You Tube page and share the individual uploads with their social networking sites eg Facebook/My Space. This will advertise the Party further and hopefully in this way more people will join/donate or even just learn more about the reasons for our campaign.

Candidates can choose whether to stand in their local constituency where they may have support or gain votes by having few candidates to oppose the main Party’s which may improve the % of the vote gained by the Party, or whether to stand in high profile constituencies which may increase publicity for the candidate/party but gain a lower % of the vote if the number of alternative candidates is high.

Once fundraising is established potential candidates will be asked to write a few paragraphs informing people of the reasons for their joining the Party/standing as a candidate and the local issues faced by voters in their chosen constituency.

This information, along with a photograph of each candidate will form one side of the leaflets for the election campaign, the second side will be identical for each candidate and highlight the Parties aims/objectives etc. The leaflet used for the Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley campaign may form the basis for this. The £500 required to field each candidate in the election includes the posting of a leaflet to each member of the chosen constituency.

Black and white leaflets will need to be produced for candidates and supporters to give out when canvassing in their chosen constituency. These would be best designed by the committee to ensure the high standard of the leaflet.

It is hoped that the leaflets can be ready prior to the campaign beginning or at least ready to go to print as soon as funding is achieved.

Requests for support when canvassing are to be made via the website and email to Party members.

Once candidates are confirmed they are to be asked to record a short video about themselves and their reasons for standing, their story etc which Mark can then upload to You Tube to once again be linked to members Facebook/My Space or other social networking sites. These can then be uploaded and linked individually to keep up the advertising of the Party.

An email has apparently been sent to Bob Geldof requesting assistance with the campaign and it was suggested that requests be made to other celebrities who may be receptive to the Party. Suggestions were made to approach Brian McFadden, Andy Kershaw and Ray Parlour. Members could also be canvassed for suggestions in this respect.

Notice of our intention to stand and the link to the Election homepage with donation/membership requests should also be sent to groups such as Fathers for Justice, New Fathers for Justice, RFFJ, Dad’s UK, and anywhere members feel may be responsive to us.

In order to maintain interest in the website more articles/blogs will be required. One avenue for this could perhaps be information on the Early Intervention Project which highlights a way in which the family law system could be overhauled without cost or a change in legislation.

Any Other Business
No issues were raised at this point.

Meeting closed at 6:30 pm.

Next meeting to be arranged.