Conclusion

Sunday 4th September 2011
See below my feedback to the NEC of my views of the whole process now that it is all over:

First of all I would like to say it has been an honour to serve as the Proceedures Secretary for this new Selection Process the second CLP I believe after Corby to do so.
I would like to thank everyone from the Selection Committee for all their help I could not have done this without them, including Kevin Wilson as the Organiser and Dan Simpson (Regional Organiser) and Ann Black (NEC Representative and Observer.) Last but not least the tellers on the day itself to ensure the vote went smoothly.
I had not appreciated the amount of work and time involved as I have said earlier,I am not sure though however how to scale back on the procedure (but was glad to hear from Dan that for really unwinnable seats there would not be so much procedures to go through,) but perhaps this needs to be looked into for marginal constituencies or others were we have a shout of winning, it is a good thing that the Party is being more professional in how it conducts selections, and to ensure equality and fairness in the process, it is important that no matter your background disablity or finances that every shortlisted candidate has a fighting chance of being selected and thereby ensuring that the PLP has a better balance of MP's from all walks of life.
It would of been nice to also have had a better cross section to have been able to choose from, the candidates we did shortlist were of course excellent but very young (apart from dare I say it one mature candidate) it would of been good to of had some more older candidates, ethnic minorities and women, again sadly I don't have all the answers but somehow the party needs to consider how this can be improved on.
I think it would be useful as well as having the Procedures Pack (which is helpful overall and covers most things but from my own personal experience I found was not easy to find everything in one place or set out everything that I needed to do) to have another pack with templates of emails that have to be sent off to candidates etc and a bullet point list of the duties of the Procedures Secretary so at least they know at first hand what is involved, (I am more than happy to assist Victoria Street on this if it would be of help as I have kept everything in one folder.)
It would in some respects been good to have had a longer process as it was unfair on me and the Organiser to get things done in some cases under quite differcult tight deadlines, if the local party did not have an Organiser to help me, what with myself working full time some things just never would have happened. Also it mean't less time for more hustings and social events for candidates to meet members and may have got a higher turnout, even though candidates leafleted, had websites, emailed and rang or knocked on doors, by hearing more speeches from the candidates or chatting to them together, it may have brought more differences out on policy, their personalities, or outlook on how they would be as campaigners (all conjecture I know and perhaps may not have changed the result in any case.) I appreciate that organising more events does equal more work.
I am glad to see that there is a more define criteria in the issuing of postal ballots I was concerned that the granting of them and the reasons for absences allowed appeared more to be on interpretation and oppinion, and could of come back to haunt us.
Lastly the Final Hustings and Selection all went very smoothly and I cannot fault any of the proceedings on the day, apart from which I say in a light hearted manner about the issue of a couple of comfort breaks.
I hope that this has been of some use to you.