2019 GLD AGM will be ONLINE and at York from 7:45pm on Saturday 14th March 2020

GREEN LIBERAL DEMOCRATS ELECTION

STOP PRESS, March 12th 2020

The possibly cursed 2019 AGM will be at York AND ONLINE from 7:45pm on Saturday 14th March 2020
as a result of the Federal Conference Committee cancelling the Spring Conference to protect members from Covid-19.

There will be a minimal presence at the original venue, and we do not recommend that you attend in person. Instead, we ask that you connect with us online via our Zoom meeting portal. Instructions for how to do this are below. As always, sending apologies to me or any officer will have them minuted.

The two elections for the Chair and for the six ordinary exec member roles are continuing with online voting still open. The candidate manifestos can be found here: http://grn.lib.dm/ChairElection and here: http://grn.lib.dm/OrdinaryElection

There is a voter verification process, and voting more than once or putting your details in incorrectly may invalidate your vote. If you cannot make the form work, please email your preferences (place the candidates in order of preference) to the returning officer before 2pm on the day to allow time for verification and counting. Include your full name and libdem membership number. The online form will cease to accept new votes from 8pm on Saturday. Email the returning officer at ro@greenlibdems.org.uk

If you do not have access to a computer or email account, you can connect to the meeting via any phone, but regrettably we have no time or leeway under the constitutional restrictions to re-open postal voting applications.

Zoom Meeting Instructions

You can join the meeting at any time from 7pm (and I strongly urge people unfamiliar with the interface to do so to resolve any technical issues). In addition I will be hosting an informal "how to" drop in seminar using the same connection details between 1pm and 4pm on Saturday afternoon.

The link to the Zoom meeting is in an email which was sent to all members:
Subject: GLD ELECTION 2020 STOP PRESS
Date: 21:45 12/03/2020

This is for members only so we're not publishing it here.

However it is now on GLD Members facebook group

You will need the meeting ID to connect to the correct meeting. If you need a number in a different country, please let us know asap

When you connect, your video and sound will be muted, and we ask that you keep them that way. However, you should ensure that you can hear sound and that your camera and microphone are working before the meeting begins.

The Chair and host can and will mute everyone and turn off videos to keep order and prevent signal loss for those with poor internet connections. Online meetings with multiple sound sources are hard to manage and require a certain amount of restraint and discipline from everyone to allow everyone to participate effectively.

When you wish to speak there is a "raise hand" option in the Participants list, which the Chair will use to activate microphones (and, if needed, video) for people to contribute. There is also a chat feature which can be used to make comments or attract attention if you cannot find the raise hand option.

Please note that people connecting by ordinary phone, and those in the room at York, will not have these options. The Chair will make allowance for this and ask if either of these two groups wish to comment. Speak your name clearly if and when this happens and the Chair will call on individuals to speak.

Because this is our first attempt at using this technology on a wide scale, there may well be some hiccups and it won't go as smoothly as an in-person meeting (even). We ask you to be patient and understanding. If it works we will be able to save much more carbon emissions in the future with similar meetings.

To avoid a possibly painful process dragging on too long, we will be asking the President to call for a suspension of standing orders at the start of the meeting to permit some items to be dropped from the agenda. First among these will be the constitutional changes. The essential elements of the AGM - the elections and accounts - will remain.

If you need any assistance with any of this, please text me, or call if you cannot text, on 07989 711782 and I will get back to you when I can. The members facebook group will be live during the AGM and you will find help getting zoom to work there also https://www.facebook.com/groups/GLDMem/ .

Regards

Simon Oliver, GLD Honorary Treasurer

We have followed the GDPR guidance at https://www.libdems.org.uk/gdpr