This is a message for readers who are members of the Alba Party. As you may know, nominations have opened for various internal elections within the party, and I’d like to put myself forward and seek nominations for two positions –
Membership Support Convener (this position is mostly referred to as ‘Member Support Convener’ in the Alba constitution, but is also referred to as ‘Membership Support Convener’ and elsewhere as ‘Membership Convener’ – it’s all the same thing)
and
Ordinary member of the NEC (National Executive Committee)
To stand for the Membership Support Convener position I’d require nominations from twenty individual Alba members (or one Alba LACU). To stand for an ordinary member slot on the NEC, I’d require nominations from ten individual Alba members (or one Alba LACU). So if you do decide to nominate me, I’d be grateful if you could nominate me for both positions – although, of course, that’s at your own discretion, and if you think I’m suitable for one role but not the other, you do also have the option of nominating me for just the one.
If I recall correctly from what happened in 2021, if someone is nominated for both an office bearer role and an ordinary NEC member position, the office bearer election takes place first. If they are successful in that election, their name is then removed from the list of candidates for the ordinary NEC members. But if they are not elected to the office bearer role, they then continue as a candidate for the ordinary NEC member election. So that’s why ideally I’m seeking to be nominated for both positions.
I’ve held off for a few days from putting out this call for nominations, because I had written to Alba asking for clarification on exactly how nominations should be submitted. There hasn’t been a reply yet, so I think the time has now come to get cracking. I’ll just have to give you my best guess on how the nominations process works. It looks like it’s probably the same system that was used in 2021 (but not in 2022), ie. that members should send an email to the Alba conference address with details of the person(s) they wish to nominate and the positions they wish to nominate them for. The email address to send nominations to is listed HERE on the Alba website, although you’ll probably need to log in first. If for any reason the above link doesn’t work, you should also be able to find the link in the message that was sent out to all Alba members on Friday.
Once you’ve emailed Alba with your nominations, I’d be grateful if you’d then also email me letting me know you’ve nominated me, and also whether you’ve nominated me for both positions or just one. Apologies for doubling your trouble in this way, but there are two important reasons for asking you to do this: a) so I can judge how near or far away I am from the thresholds of ten and twenty nominations, and b) just in case I’ve misinterpreted how nominations are supposed to be submitted (for example if I find out at the last minute I was supposed to send over a list of names myself). My own email address is: icehouse.250@gmail.com
Nominations are open until 6th October. Many thanks in advance to any members who do decide to nominate me, and the best of luck to anyone else throwing their hat into the ring for these internal elections.
