NaBloPoMo Post 9: My second Unlock Democracy AGM

[fearmeforiampink]

(Subtitle possibly 'The student is now the master')

I've slipped a couple of these, hoping to catch them all up today, or at least a pair so I can just double up sometime this week. The reason for that slip that is also the the inspiration for this post; Unlock Democracy's Annual General Meeting.

A year ago, I was volunteering for Unlock Democracy at the 2011 AGM. The application process for the job I now have had opened a couple of weeks before, a month later I was at the interview, and by the end of that day I'd been offered and accepted the job.

That time, because of how we'd set everything up, I spent most of the day in a corridor a little way away from the AGM. Things went reasonably smoothly, though we did have a few moments when the queue began to build up slightly, when it took us a little while to check on someone's membership (most people pre-book that they're coming, but we always get some people who just turn up on the day, and we need to make sure they are actually allowed to vote and speak). This year, despite lacking the internet for pretty much the entire 'rush' period of the registration, we had noticeably less buildup, which was nice.

This was mostly because having myself as the dedicated membership officer (rather than last year when someone was covering some of that role along with their own job) means I had about half a dozen different spreadsheets I could check to find if someone was a paid up member, plus a lot of information just held in my head from having discussed things with people. To be fair, I think we also had less unexpected attendees this year, so that also helped. But I feel I can take some of the credit for things running smoothly. It was also quite nice to be a little closer to the action, as our setup this year allowed me to listen to much of the AGM as well.

To take this a little broader, it ties in with one of the things I like about working at UD; the feeling that I am good at my job. Now, this may sound like a fairly basic and assumed thing. But due to the combination of my dyspraxia and the mishmash of jobs I've had since university, it's something that's definitely nice to feel. Whilst it's partly from the experience I've had in the last year (and indeed, before that when I was a volunteer), it's also because this job — keeping track of the data, outputting it for others knowing what's where and who's who — fits my skillset. And a combination of knowing what we need and the support of other staff means I can put in place enough backup/fallback stuff so that if I make a mistake or something goes wrong, it's non-critical, and we can work around it. Given my dyspraxia has at times made me feel like life is a house of cards and every so often I slip and scatter them all, it's nice to not feel that here.

And beyond all that, once the stress of the initial rush was over with, it was a generally calm and smooth running day, where I got to spend time with a whole bunch of people I get on with, some of whom I don't see very often (danieldwilliam being one of them).

Comments

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I thought everything went very smoothly.

Particularly impressed that you had my proxy all sorted out. Which means that next year I know I don't have to fret about that on the way from the station and can concentrate on practising my speeches.

I think the hallmark of good conference organisation is that the underlying organisation isn't noticed by participants and allows them to concentrate on the conference.

In this I think you succeeded admirably.

Good to see you too. Very much enjoyed getting to the pub with you.

I may try a glass of mulled cider over Christmas.

[fearmeforiampink]

Your proxy was quite easy because it was submitted in good time, online (meaning we had a relatively quick form of communication with the person whose vote it was in the case of any questions/issues), and because it was the only Named Member proxy. I did remember part way through the motions that I'd not checked whether you needed to borrow my power supply, but I'm guessing that you didn't.

There was a certain amount of stress; this is one of the two big things (the other being elections) where a lot weighs on specifically my shoulders, and it's down to me if I've messed something up. And there was a certain amount of stuff going mildly wrong; lacking the internet, two people being slightly harder to find. But all those things were sorted, and made me glad I'd put together all the backup information (half of which went entirely unused, but I'm glad to have wasted a little time on having it, as part of the whole package). But both from my perspective, and from what you and others have said it went well. I'll admit I was curious whether Vince was going to drop a bombshell at the meeting, but his speech was still good without such.

And yeah, it was good to be able to have a drink and a chat; I find it interesting that I have a fair few people I consider friends who I primarily or entirely interact with online, and in some cases in somewhat indirect ways — through reading each others posts, commenting on the same subjects, rather than more person to person stuff like this, or chatting fairly direcly as I do with people I know on IRC. And it's nice to be able to mix it in with actually chatting to those people face to face sometimes.

Hope you enjoy the mulled cider if you find some, and that it doesn't disagree with you…

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Just thinking about the proxies – looking at the way the process works in practise one would be much better off if one gave a proxy to a trusted friend with whom you generally agreed rather than to the chair. Then one could be assured that you would get a vote if motions were heavily amended.