What would I do if elected to GPEX as Equalities & Diversity Co-ordinator?

As part of my election campaign for the Green Party Executive (GPEX) Equalities and Diversity Co-ordinator, I wanted to share a number of the key activities I would hope to to take forward if I was elected to serve by the membership:

Organisational change:

• Act as an advocate for equalities and diversity across our activities and bring that perspective explicitly to GPEX deliberations.
• Improve transparency in the role by providing regular reports to members, including using the Members website to communicate.
• Ensure that all activities and achievements are publicised regularly to the membership and demonstrate clear ways to get involved.
• Undertake an assessment of our membership application process to ensure we are collecting useful information on our members.
• Conduct regular analysis of our monitoring data and report progress to the membership.
• Consult with key stakeholders across the party and integrate these perspectives into a formal E&D strategy for the next two years.
• Build a robust network of activists across our local parties who will champion equalities and diversity work and feed ideas back to me.
• Investigate potential funding opportunities to support this programme of work, both from within and external to the Green Party.

Working with members:

• Meet regularly with the self-organised groups such as Green Women, Young Greens and LGBT Greens to ensure that their priorities are being communicated to GPEX.
• Build knowledge and capacity amongst self-organised groups to ensure that they are able to integrate their issues into the policy-making process.
• Work with self-organised groups to assist in making their activities and decision-making processes are transparent and accessible to members.
• Facilitate the creation of self-organisation for those groups of members currently under-represented in the Green Party.
• Facilitate working links between the various self-0rganised groups across the party, so that their outputs complement each other.
• Organise fringe events at the Green Party Conference to share best practice and raise the priority of equality and diversity within the membership.
• Work with Green Party Conference organisers to build upon recent improvements in accessibility and engagement for disabled members.

Outreach beyond the Green Party:

• Follow up on the excellent report undertaken by members into BME engagement with the Green Party and try to roll out some of their findings more widely.
• Make links with national organisations campaigning on equalities issues and build formal partnerships around key policy issues.
• Encourage external organisations to attend Green Party Conference and participate in fringe events.
• Support members conducting outreach work to under-represented groups, such as ethnic minority and disabled communities.

I hope this is a representative example of the work I hope to take forward over the next two years. I'm keen that this isn't a one-man band, so hope that some of this programme of action excites you into getting involved. If you think I've missed something fundamental out, please get in touch (stephen_a_wood@yahoo.co.uk).

Announcing my candidacy for the Green Party Executive elections

After taking some time to discuss it with trusted friends within the Green Party, I have decided to stand for election in this year’s Green Party Executive (GPEX) elections. I am hoping to contest the Equalities and Diversity Co-ordinator role, which regular readers will realise is an area passionately close to my heart and a position where I think I have the professional skills to offer something new.

I’ve thought very carefully about what I might be able to achieve in the role. I believe that if we are to truly break through as a mainstream party, we need to broaden our appeal to all parts of society. This means building a party that is open, accessible and representative. It means giving voice to fresh perspectives and bringing them to the heart of our policy making. We need someone to make this role more visible than it has been recently, to argue the case (as I wrote earlier this month) for why equality and diversity remain important values for the Greens and seriously set about improving and measuring our performance in this area.

Once my nomination is formally accepted, I intend to use this blog to talk in detail about my policy plans for office and respond to any questions that members may have for me. I will make myself available by telephone, by email and in person, if local parties would like the opportunity to hear from me. I also intend to use the Members website to post my responses to questions there too. I’m hoping this election campaign will give me the chance to talk to many of the members whose ideas I want to draw into this work over the next two years. If you want to assist in my campaign, please drop me a line at (stephen_a_wood@yahoo.co.uk). I'd love to hear from you!

I really hope that those of you who are Green Party members will consider voting for me in the coming weeks. I want the opportunity to bring my constructive, forward-looking and inclusive outlook to the Executive, at a time when listening to the membership is as essential as ever for the future of this party. Watch this space for further news!