Cherie's Place

First thing tomorrow I am setting off for the PCS Conference, it doesn’t seem a year ago since I was at last year’s Conference.  The things that have been going on in my life in the past few weeks have meant I haven’t been able to get myself organised properly this year.  The paperwork and agendas have been arriving but I have only just had time to look at them.

Once again I am on the Standing Orders Committee for the group conference so I will be helping to make sure that conference runs smoothly.  For the main conference, my task is to write up and report back to the branch and the wider Shropshire area on the key motions that are debated.  I shall be sitting in the observers hall with my pad and pen, scribbling down note arduously.

The fringe meetings don’t look very interesting this year although other meetings are announced during the week. The two I am currently interested in attending are both at lunch time, which means I need to work out how to fit food in somewhere along the way.  The conference day starts at 9 and doesn’t finish until 5.30 with an hour lunch break.  The lunchtime fringe meetings take up the whole of that hour.

The meetings on my radar so far are:

• Making Your Vote Count – This will discuss the outcome of the PCS campaign that encouraged members to  engage with PPCs about public service issues in the run up to the election.  It will also look into the outcome of the recent election and examine the need for a voting system that really does make people’s votes count.

• Anti-privatisation – This meeting will examine the issues and problems surrounding the privatisation of public services.  It will also be looking at the problems with PFIs.

On a lighter note in-between the two conferences I get an afternoon off.  It is my plan to visit Brighton Pavilion, with my camera in hand of course

Tags: Brighton, Conference, Fringe Meeting, PCS