Regional Council meeting to nominate General Secretary?

I have written today to follow up a question asked at Wednesday's Regional Council by Local Government Service Group Executive member (and Tower Hamlets local government Branch Secretary) John McLoughlin.

John asked about the convening of a special Regional Council meeting to consider Greater London's nomination in the recently, and hastily, declared election for UNISON General Secretary.

Past practice in the Greater London Region has been for this to be considered by the Regional Council, as the West Midlands Regional Council will be able to next week.

I understand that the South West Regional Council last week decided to convene a special meeting rather than delegate nomination to a smaller and less representative body.

This was clearly a wise move since any nomination made by a Committee on behalf of a Regional Council would be tainted with illegitimacy (and therefore hardly welcome by the candidate who received it!)

It would be possible to convene a special meeting of the Greater London Regional Council if steps are now taken urgently.

Given the concerns expressed on Wednesday about the difficulty of getting a quorum for meetings this could well be an opportunity to attract delegates to a Regional Council other than the Annual Meeting - and to use one of the four Council meetings required by our Rule Book constructively and effectively.

The Regional Committee could approve a nominating meeting as one of our four Regional Councils (so that there would be limited additional expense in convening the meeting).

I shall report back on any response (and am hoping for a response which tells me that my proposal was unnecessary as steps are already being taken to convene such a meeting!)