Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

A bit out of order?

Just a brief note as I am busy working.

I am sure all UNISON members reading this blog will share my disappointment that an apparent bid by the Standing Orders Committee (SOC) for our National Delegate Conference to make it into the Guiness Book of Records seems likely to have failed.

It appears that the SOC wanted to be the first ever to rule out of order more motions to National Delegate Conference than they admitted to the agenda. Unfortunately;

(1) (with thanks to the Croydon branch for the maths) just 48.5% of all submissions to Conference have been ruled out of order (it would be cheating to count only those submissions not made by the NEC in order to push the figure above 50%), and;

(2) it appears that there is no such section of the Guiness Book of Records!

More here later about this (more than you want probably...)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe the any Guinness Book of Records award should go to the branches who submitted the motions that were ruled out of order!

Until and unless you can demonstrate the SOC has made an incorrect decision on a motion I'd have thought you would agree Jon, that if a motion is not competent the SOC are required to rule it out of order.

Anonymous said...

I will take at face value your assertion. that the SOC are ruling more motions out of order each year. There could be two reasons for for this:
a) The SOC are getting stricter.
b) branches are submitting more motions that are not competent.

I believe you are claiming it is (a) but to prove this you should provide evidence of which motions are being ruled out of order and show why the SOC were wrong.

Otherwise I think it is reasonable for anyone to assume the more benign reason that it is (b) rather than the "it's all a plot" reason of (a).

I think the final musings in your comments may be correct that lay members may becoming worse at drafting motions. For example, every year the SOC tell branches motions referring to staffing will be ruled out of order, and every year there are motions that refer to staffing, and every year they are ruled out of order. And the following year the same thing happens again. You can't blame the SOC for that, or can you?

I take your point that ultimately it is only the SOC that can overturn its own decision. But that is what it says in the Rule Book that we as members have voted for.

Anonymous said...

Jon. Thanks for the explanation. I feel bludgeoned into submission! I shall check that comments you've made against the prelim agenda with the motions ruled out of order.