Quorum

We have finally got to the issue of Quora. The rule is in Chapter 15and so applies to meetings. Rule 15.I.D.i says,

The quorum for business meetings of (this body) shall be 25 per cent of those members entitled to vote in attendance {or a fixed number to be agreed with the regional office of the Party}.

I understand that the NEC have agreed that for all member meetings, a quorum of 25 members can be agreed but delegated the decision as to whether the latter quorum can be used to the Regional Directors, some of whose decisions may seem capricious at times.

Here is the document, allegedly, no logo, no imprint, and no chain of custody, NEC Quorums guidance 17 January 2017

  …

Term Limits

Appendix 7.IV.6 states that elected delegates to a General Committee only serve for a year.

The term of office of a delegate shall commence with the opening of the annual meeting of this CLP following their appointment or the date of their appointment if after the annual meeting. Unless terminated by their resignation, death or for any other reason by the affiliated organisation or Party unit which appointed them, the term of office of a delegate shall extend to the conclusion of the next following annual meeting of this CLP but they shall not be entitled to attend except as members of the Executive Committee of this CLP to tender reports to that meeting but not to vote unless reappointed as delegates for the appropriate year. All delegates who qualify under these conditions may be reappointed.It shall be the duty of the secretary of this CLP to invite affiliated organisations and Party units to elect their delegates prior to and in time to be called to the annual meeting and to assist this the Executive Committee may set a reasonable deadline for the appointment of delegates for that meeting.

 …

Shenanigans

Three branches of the local Labour Party elected their GC delegation by placing gender quotas on classes of delegate, Secretary, Open Place & Youth and thus elected a valid delegation under the rules as stated in Chapter 8.

The  training on AGMs issued by the Party makes it clear that meeting the branch gender quotas is a matter for the branch.

There is a Chapter 15 rule that states that efforts should be made to ensure the delegation is gender balanced, but because it’s Chapter 15, this remains a matter for the branch. (These are rules for a meeting.)

The Secretary thus has no standing in determining if the delegation is valid. Nor any authority to order a recount. To attempt by decree to rule that last year’s delegation should be reinstated is arbitrary, capricious, perverse and irrational. It is these things even when backed by Region’s advice. It is also in complete contradiction to Rule Appendix 7.IV.6 which states that a delegates term lasts until the beginning of the next AGM. …

At Orgcon 17

I am just back from orgcon17, and here are my notes; this was a two day conference, with many sessions on issues of concern to digital liberty campaigners on regulation of the use personal data. It took place over two days, consisting of lectures & panels and workshops. On the first day, at Friends House, where we had the use of the amazing central meeting room it looked at the coming legislation on investigatory powers, the use of the law to make political advances (it’s slow & uncertain), an interview with Caroline Criada Perez, the campaigner who got the first woman on British bank notes and a women’s statue in Parliament Sq.. It looked at e-voting systems in Taiwan where the government used a consensus building software product to engage the population in traffic management solutions design. Jamie Bartlett spoke about privacy vs. security. There was a session on Digital Liberty & regulation in Nigeria. There was also a session on the privacy vulnerability to the coming “age verification for porn users” regulations. Much of these lectures are available on the ORG’s Video channel.

The second day consisted mainly of workshops focused on campaigning. There was a workshop that reviewed the technical architecture of the investigatory powers bill (as they then were i.e. the architecture and legislative stage). There was a workshop in using the Freedom of Information Laws to enhance campaigning, and also about the likely campaigning tools to be offered by the coming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) i.e. enhanced subject access requests, the right to be forgotten, of remediation and to object and stop processing.

There were sessions on building local Open Rights Group groups, how to perform IT security effectively for campaigners and a review of the ORG’s Blocked tool.

I chaired a session on building a Charter of Digital Rights, with Richard Barbrook and Mara Leverkuhn. Richard announced his initiative to put some more detail behind the Jeremy Corbyn’s Digital Manifesto which they created to support his 2016 Leadership Campaign. I documented/advertised this session on my blog https://davelevy.info/digital-liberties/

ooOOOoo

The relevance of this conference to CISSP certification is in the Regulation & Compliance domain. One of the critical to IT organisations is failing to keep up with laws and regulations. The ORG focuses on the law as it relates to privacy, censorship & intellectual property. Businesses need to keep these laws in mind when designing their risk taxonomy and control catalogue.

This was written in Oct 2018, nearly 12 months after the event; I did it to claim CISSP CPD Credits. I have as normal, for me, in these circumstances backdated the article to the time of occurrence. …

Affiliates

On affiliates in the Labour Party,

Ch 7.IX.C New affiliations accepted at least 60 days prior to the AGM in the current year shall have all rights associated with attendance at the AGM

my emphasis, because we are missing the documentation

App 7.1X.3 an organisation during the year in which it is affiliated or a Party unit during the year in which it is established shall be entitled to appoint delegates to attend and participate in meetings of the General Meeting subsequent to the annual meeting, the number of delegates being calculated on the basis of the affiliation fee or membership fees paid in the said year. …

Digital Liberties

I am just about to set of for ORGcon 2017. It’s a two day conference and I am chairing a panel tomorrow at 15:00

How to make a People’s Charter of Digital Liberties

Help Labour to make a People’s Charter of Digital Liberties

 

A small panel discussion led by Richard Barbrook, on how Parliament and the people could build a People’s Charter of Digital Liberties. The panel will be chaired by Dave Levy, a Labour Party member of the ORG Supporters Council, the second panellist will be Mara Leverkuhn, a Labour Party digital rights activist.

In his 2016 leadership campaign, Jeremy Corbyn’s Digital Democracy Manifesto promised that Labour would introduce a People’s Charter of Digital Liberties when elected to power.

This panel and discussion is designed to focus on how this digital bill of rights could be developed, how one might use the networked society’s tools to synthesis opinion, crowd source the clauses of the Charter and make an actionable development plan. The panel will be small, and maximum time will be given for attendee contributions. …