A couple of weeks ago marked the first anniversary of the sad passing of our dear friend and colleague John Lynch. It still seems so unreal that John is not with us. He remains an integral part of what ADSO does and will do in the future. I am excited to see the progress with the community garden in John’s name as highlighted in Democracy Matters a couple of weeks ago and look forward to attending the opening in the spring of next year. We will let you know the arrangements when they are available.
IIMC symposium/VVG Conference – Amsterdam – 21/22 September
This is the final call for expressions of interest to attend the symposium and conference with a £400 subsidy from ADSO. Those who attended last year really enjoyed the experience and it’s a great opportunity to meet colleagues from other countries and enjoy the Dutch hospitality (which is to be recommended!). If you are interested, full details and how to apply are on our website page . We have extended the deadline to Friday 25 August.
ADSO in the Future
A key issue for the Board and myself as chair is securing the future of ADSO and ensuring that we continue to develop as a highly respected professional body. Succession planning and business continuity are two very important aspects within those objectives. We have recently recruited different skills to the Board in the form of Matthew Hall and Mark Towers and we are already seeing the benefit of their experience.
To continue our development (and to move up to the next level) the ADSO Directors are of the view that we need increased capacity at a senior level to support us in our work and provide the continuity we need going forward. When you look at other partner organisations (such as AEA, LLG and SLCC) they all have paid staff running their respective organisations on a daily basis.
ADSO has reached that point in our development. We will be meeting at the end of September to consider how best we provide that resource. Joanna Boaler has already indicated her intention to stand down as Director of Communications so we will also be taking the opportunity to review that role. Watch this space and we will keep you updated.
ADSO Awards
I make no apology for mentioning this again following Carl’s message last week. Putting it bluntly, the awards are in real danger of not going ahead this year due to a lack of nominations. That would be such a backward step in terms of celebrating everything that is good about our sector.
So please dig deep and consider whether you have somebody worthy of a nomination as a rookie, learner or for the distinguished service award. The latter award is about excellence in governance and democratic services. It is not necessarily about long service. So if you have somebody who has made a contribution which you think is worthy of this recognition (regardless of length of service) please consider a nomination by the deadline of Friday 11 August – full details and a form are available here.
Conference – November 2023
I certainly cannot complain about the lack of support for this year’s conference! Thank you to all who have booked their place. As you may have seen, we are already fully booked and have even closed the waiting list due to excess demand. That is a great achievement with some four months to go before the event.
North East, Yorkshire and Humberside Region Report
I have always felt that the beating heart of ADSO is the regions. That’s where you as members interact, discuss common issues and exchange views and information. We have been encouraging regions to share their experiences and discussion topics through Democracy Matters and I am pleased this week to present the offering from Michale Robson and Katherine Harclerode, joint representatives from the North East, Yorkshire & Humberside Region. That region has certainly had some varied and interesting discussions at recent meetings. Thanks to Katherine and Michael and to all the regional representatives for your work and support. You can read the report here:
North East, Yorkshire and Humberside Region report – July 2023
extension: pdf
Call for Evidence – Jo Cox Civility Commission
ADSO is working with the Jo Cox Foundation on running a webinar later in the year. In the meantime, they have just sent through the following call for evidence and have asked that we share it with you. Please do all you can to respond to this very important topic.
“Abuse and intimidation of our elected representatives – including violence towards them – is one of the biggest threats to our democracy in the UK. The Jo Cox Civility Commission aims to find practical recommendations to address this complex problem.
We want to hear from a wide range of individuals with lived experiences, sector experts and others with ideas about how we can make a positive change. We would hugely welcome the contributions of your expertise and experiences. There are three ways to submit evidence:
- 1) Complete the online form
- 2) Submit the word document and email to commission@jocoxfoundation.org
- 3) Arrange to speak to us by emailing commission@jocoxfoundation.org
We would be grateful to receive your submissions by August 31st.
For more information, please visit https://www.jocoxfoundation.org/commission or do not hesitate to get in touch.”
ADSO Legal Bulletin
As usual, our Legal Bulletin is included in the introduction to this newsletter and this and previous versions are available on our webpages.
If you don’t normally read this, I suggest you take a look. It’s a helpful way of keeping up to date on developments. For example, there are some interesting articles this week on the abuse and intimidation of councillors.
Have a great week.
John Austin, ADSO Chair