Minutes

Labour Youth National Executive The Brew Dock, 1 Amiens Street 19 May 2012
Present: Conor Ryan, Chairperson Luke Field, Vice-Chair & Campaigns Deirdre Hosford, Policy & Education Aideen Carberry, Recruitment Colm Maguire, Communications Cian Moran, International 18:41 Conor Ryan (CR) commenced the meeting. In absence of Noel Cullen, it was agreed that Luke Field (LF) would record the majority of minutes for the meeting, with the exception of his own speaking time under the Campaigns heading, which would be recorded by Colm Maguire (CoM). Minutes and Matters Arising CR distributed print copies of the minutes from the two previous meetings of the NYE. After four minutes of perusal by the officers, it was determined that no matters arose from the minutes that would not be better addressed during the officers own speaking time. CoM begins taking minutes. Campaigns LF: Campaigning operations have been poor enough so far this year. Currently trying to straighten out campaigning mandates that are impossible to carry out due to overspecificity problems such as referring to bodies that dont exist. Expect rescue package to be in place at the end of the month. Absent, with apologies received: Noel Cullen, Secretary Rory Geraghty, Youth & Development

Two campaigns planned for launch in summer period: parental leave and a consolidated international campaign addressing mandates for Belarus and North Korea, and a campaign of opportunity on the European Youth Guarantee. Seems that the general members of LY dont want to campaign anymore; members are not taking materials for specific campaigns when offered, etc.culture emerging of bring up an issue and the NYE will do it and thats the end of it. Deirdre Hosford (DH): This suggests a communication issue. Do members know about what campaigns were doing? How to do campaigns through LY? CoM: The change in structure from National Councils to National Meetings may have led to these communicative difficulties. CR: Reintroduction of officer training may alleviate these difficulties in future. Aideen Carberry (AC): The LY Chairs and Secretaries group on Facebook needs to be used more. [General agreement and noting of lack of use from other officers.] CR: Again, suggest officer training may alleviate difficulties. DH: Suggest planning one or two campaigns without taking initial input from members, go to them with created plan and give specific direction on actions, what happened with Say No to Sexism and Homophobia (SNTSAH) campaign? LF: SNTSAH essentially failed because it was framed as a pan-European plan with LY playing a part in a larger game run by European partners, a game that never materialised. Could still work with a unilateral redesign and relaunch from LY. AC: To clarify, there was a general lack of direction. DH: What about actions or structure? What can members do with regard to campaigns on general campaigns? LF: General awareness-raising through social and traditional media, letter-writing campaigns as popular lobbying action (tips hat to Amnesty), campus actions e.g. demos or public lectures. [Importance of follow up and organisation stressed by all officers during this conversation.] LF: Suggest launching three campaigns over summer period: Parental Leave and Consolidated International Affairs campaigns following DHs suggestion of executive planning and direction, and revitalised SNTSAH campaign following CoMs suggestion of planning and role demarcation as part of a National Meeting. Will use as experiments to see what models work best in current LY climate and set agenda for future Campaigns Officers.

Membership Training1 AC: Training for LY members should have three different phases: New Members, Women of LY, and Chairpersons. DH: Officer training should be held in the summer. AC: New Members Training should be held before the New Members Evening. Also a young PLP member should be invited to attend the evening rather than Gilmore. [This was generally agreed by the meeting; Ciara Conway mentioned as a potential invitee.] CoM finishes taking minutes, LF resumes recording minutes. Communications CoM said that he is unsure of what exactly is happening with the website at present. Issues have arisen regarding the partys ownership of the domain name www.labouryouth.ie. CR said that much of this problem can be related to General Secretary Ita McAuliffe being currently on sick leave and having her role temporarily filled by David Leach, who is not enthusiastic about LY generally. CoM remarked that Head Office wants to maintain control over the website and any content contained therein. CR intends to meet with David Leach next week to reach an agreement with regard to the website. DH asked which member of Head Office staff would be responsible for managing the website, and was informed by CR that it is part of the YDOs role. CoM explained the main problem with allowing Head Office sole control over the website as being that LY already has very few independent outlets at its disposal; suggested a middle way between sole Head Office control and sole LY control: a News feed on the site that would be controlled by both parties and a Left Tribune blog controlled solely by the NYE. CR clarified that the problem here does not lie with the YDO, but with the orders likely to be issued to the YDO by David Leach regarding moderation of website content.

Not on agenda, but given own heading and time due to CRs suggestion in previous section.

DH raised the question of branch websites and how they are able to operate outside of Head Office control when an official LY website could not. CR explained that this is because the branch websites are not hosted on official party servers. CoM clarified that LY does actually have ownership of the domain name www.labouryouth.ie but a hosting option would still be needed and the party could ban the use of official materials on a particular server. DH pointed out that the recently-launched Labour DCU website is covered in Labour materials and this should undermine any threats from David Leach regarding content control. CR said that it would be better to win this particular battle sooner rather than later and suggested that threatening a self-launch might force Head Offices hand. CoM raised the issue that self-launching would create two concurrent official LY websites. CR reminded the meeting that he will be meeting with David Leach next week and is hopeful that it will bring a successful conclusion to the issue. DH raised the issue of a politically dubious video on the Labour DCU website regarding the Fiscal Compact, which appears to present low tax systems in a positive light despite this being against the grain of LY positions. CoM explained that the NYE does not have the authority to whip local branches with regard to policy and pronouncement. CoM suggested that once the website is secured, it would present an opportunity to only print two copies of the Left Tribune per year and issue the other editions as digital copies via the website. CR said that this should be fine as the LY constitution only stipulates a minimum number of Left Tribunes to appear within a year, not the medium in which they should be published, and also said that the two printed editions should be available and used for Party Conference and the National Recruitment Campaign. Survey of LY women, part I AC suggested holding a training day for LY women as the survey results indicated support for such a move. Kirsi Hanifin has invited AC and DH to attend a Women for Election training day and a training day for LY women would be an opportunity for AC and DH to communicate their learning outcomes to the general women membership in LY. AC raised the issue of survey results describing NYE elections as a closed shop and how best to tackle this problem. The two main routes suggested were to hold

a training event for all members explaining the roles of each NYE position and the election mechanism, and also to call for a moratorium on candidates declaring officially for positions before a certain date. LF questioned the moratorium on the basis that it would effectively create unofficial and official campaigning periods, and that candidates from regions with a higher density of LY membershipespecially from Dublin brancheswould have an advantage over more remotely-located candidates in the unofficial phase. CoM said this was unlikely as the general closeness within LY and the wide use of social media meant that potential candidates could have unofficial conversations about election with a wide number of LY members regardless of geography. Cian Moran (CiM) said that the joint hustings for Dublin branches this year was very helpful in terms of opening up election to nonDublin candidates. CR raised the issue of current NYE members seeking further election being able to dominate proceedings, however it was generally acknowledged that there is probably no way to successfully mitigate against the advantage of incumbency. CoM also cited the non-competitive attitude in some NYE elections and suggested a centralized declarations procedure as a double-blind might help change this as well as possibly mitigate against incumbency to some extent. AC asked if the meeting would agree to call an unofficial moratorium for members announcing NYE candidacy until the start of September, and to hold NYE election training at the next National Meeting; this was generally agreed. Further to making LY culture more welcoming to women, AC raised the issue of potential equality and/or sensitivity training, and also of adjusting the optics of two men running a meeting from the top table2. CoM reminded the meeting that the use of a top table at a National Meeting is a relatively recent development and that abandoning its use would alleviate this problem as well as having other benefits. CR announced his plan to table a constitutional amendment at Youth Conference that would decouple the Vice-Chair role from the Campaigns Officer role; the Vice-Chair role could then be taken by any sitting officer in addition to their own role as long as they were of different gender to the Chairperson. DH asked if, in the event that an NYE was entirely made up of the same gender, a by-election would be held for a

It was pointed out here that this issue has nothing intrinsically to do with the Vice-Chair and Chairperson both being men; the Vice-Chair does not sit at the top table unless filling in for the National Secretary. However, as the current National Secretary is also a man, this would not influence the optics cited.

Vice-Chair of different gender. CR said that in this instance a Gender Equality Officer would be elected at the next National Meeting, with candidacy only open to unrepresented genders and, and the Gender Equality Officer would automatically assume the role of Vice-Chair as well. CM suggested as an alternative that a Gender Equality Co-ordinator should be created, and that in instances where all NYE officers were of the same gender, this Co-ordinator would then be promoted to a full officer position for that year. LF pointed out that the work involved in the Vice-Chair role is typically greatly underestimated and already impinges greatly on the Campaigns role; if any given NYE was entirely of one gender, then the Gender Equality Officer would have their work cut out filling the Gender Equality mandate and this would be impeded by the Vice-Chair role. DH responded that the Vice-Chair role would likely complement the Gender Equality mandate through the sheer optical advantage of having someone of different gender in the Vice-Chair position. International Affairs CiM reported that the LY trip to Germany was deemed a great success. However, it was also reported that one person on the trip said that they did not enjoy the trip as much as some others as the group was very insular and, as someone without the same LY tenure as other members, they found it difficult to integrate. It was then generally agreed that in advance of all future trips, delegates must be warned about the danger of a group being too insular and exclusive due to the negative effect it could have on newer membersan effect that no-one in LY would want or deliberately cause. At this point, CiM offered his resignation as International Officer to CR due to his work and education plans for the remainder of this NYE term making it impossible for him to adequately fulfil the role. CR accepted the resignation in principle, and invited CiM to remain as International Officer in an acting capacity until such time as a replacement for the role is elected, and CiM accepted this invitation. CiM was thanked for his work to date by the NYE and wished the best of luck with his future endeavours. CiM is now to liaise with Rory regarding his formal public resignation in terms of when best to hold the National Meeting that his resignation will trigger; the 16th of June was identified as the current most likely date. CiM reminded the meeting that the ECOSY Summer Camp and the Brussels trip remain on the International agenda for the year, and that he will assist with these

in any way possible. A learning journal, as kept by those on the Germany trip and recording any useful learning outcomes, will also emerge in due course. 08:16 CiM left the meeting, with apologies. Survey of LY Women, part II AC suggested that the poll showed strong support for non-alcoholic social events; bowling, quasar, and coffee all met with great enthusiasm from the meeting. AC also mentioned female-specific social and training events as an avenue to pursue. Other Recruitment Topics The issue of working with members of the trans* community was raised as well, as Labour LGBT have expressed an unwillingness to organize events with Labour Youth due to their assumption that we made the Tom Johnson Summer School clash with the Dublin Pride march on purpose. AC suggested that she should organize an event directly with TENI and invite Labour LGBT to attend. DH raised Cork Pride as an event at which to have an LY presence, and LF agreed to look into the details. AC raised the issue of the Connolly Lecture and the difficulties involved in working with the broad left in light of recent tensions, and asked for advice on how we might safely publicise such an event and engage with the further left. CR said it was probably best to work ahead with any plans despite any difficulties with far-left groups, and mentioned the issue of having to hire security for the Tom Johnson Summer School in light of recent threats. Tom Johnson Summer School DH gave the meeting an update regarding the current state of organization for the Summer School. More leaflets still need to be sent out to various groups, and a speaker on the issue of climate justice still needs to be found; it was agreed to reach out (again) to the wider LY membership in search of suggestions. The Summer School will have two different panel discussions on Europe, and a speaking invitation for the second panel (focused on the roles of politicians in Europe) has been sent to the Labour MEP group for the three MEPs to fight over.

Regarding the issue of stalls at the Summer School, it has been confirmed that the hotel does not have space directly outside the speaking venue so the stalls will be located at the back of the hall instead. SIPTU have already agreed to provide a stall for their Fair Hotels campaign and Pavee Point will also have a stall in place. DH suggested that the MRCI also be offered a stall space, as well as NALA who could use it to collect signatures for a petition on Plain English use in Government documents and present it to Brendan Howlin over the course of the Summer School. DH raised the issue of providing entertainment on the Friday night of the school, and CR has promised to confer with his friend in Kilkenny regarding local bands who could take the gig. DH also mentioned that she will be absent from the Summer School on the Saturday morning due to having to sit an exam in Dublin, and it was agreed that she will leave a list of tasks to be completed during the morning session and that CR will direct the carrying-out of these tasks in DHs absence. DH asked about inviting overseas guests to the Summer School; CR said he would pursue invitees from Young Labour and Labour Students (both Britain) and ask Rory Geraghty to follow up with a contact of his own in the AUF (Norway). Other Policy & Education Topics DH attended the Irish Feminist Networks event earlier today, and said that it was an excellent event that provided a good atmosphere for the discussion of feminist issues. DH reminded the meeting that she is still organizing a screening of the documentary Seaview and currently seeking guidance as regards licence fees for a free one-off public screening, as well as engaging with the documentary makers. World Refugee Day is coming up next month (20th of June) and it may be good to hold the screening as part of the events around this day. DH further suggested inviting the womens refugee group AkiDwa to the screening. The MRCI will also be meeting around this time to prepare a submission for the Jobs Committee. The S&D European Parliament Group are holding a two-day conference in early June regarding a European Youth Guarantee and are currently seeking delegates, registration closes on the 31st of May. DH said that she has been asked if Labour Youth could raise the issue of college attendance for children of non-nationals with the Labour Party Central

Council. CR agreed to do so and said that he would seek help from Isobel OConnor on the matter as well. DH and AC met with former LY Vice-Chair Brian OConnor regarding the work of the Integration Centre and to seek suggestions on how to get LY working more closely with migrant groups. One suggestion was to create a focus group specifically for migrants regarding issues directly pertaining to them. AOB There was no other business raised. 20:50 CR adjourned the meeting.