Motion #10
Since Spring Conference 2023 the workload of ADRC has increased in terms of referrals (from DCRG and self referrals) but not many have proceeded to full mediation.
Immediately after Spring Conference we were able to co-opt two younger members to the committee, Anja Jungmayr and Edward Green. Soon afterwards Clare Bonetree left the committee. We are grateful to Clare for her contribution to the committee for over a year. We are hoping to be able to co-opt to the committee a member with experience of a liberation group and of the complaints’ process.
Current members:
One vacancy to be filled by co-option prior to Conference to be confirmed via election, or directly through election.
We continue to share among members of the committee the tasks of coordination. Communications are routed through coordinator@drc.greenparty.org.uk
We are seeking to change our Standing Orders at Conference to reflect more closely our practice in relation to co-ordination, and of not having a Treasurer (as we have no budget).
Since Spring Conference we have dealt with 14 new cases, 6 referrals from Disputes & Complaints Referral Group (DCRG), and 8 self-referrals.
Once again, in the majority of cases we could not secure both parties’ agreement to go ahead with mediation, although often the conversations we held with each party were judged by them to be beneficial.
We have noticed a trend of self-referrals from groups of people (groups for or against a particular policy, local parties experiencing internal conflict, tensions among groups of councillors, particularly between those newly elected and those who may have served for longer spells). We are always happy to try and offer facilitated conversations, but where there are many individuals involved there are issues of power dynamics and practicalities such as availability that can make it quite difficult to make arrangements.
We continue to hold a list of volunteers prepared to act as mediators, but participation in training/discussion events that we have offered has waned. After the last Spring Conference we held an on-line event for Regional Co-ordinators and organisers, which was very well attended and well-received. We hope to have the capacity to develop this work.
ADRC contributes to the work of the Code of Conduct working group, and the group looking at improving the culture of the Green Party and the overhaul of the complaints’ system. There are good working relationships with Green Party Regional Council (GPRC), Dispute and Complaints Referral Group (DCRG), the Complaints’ Manager’s office and Discipline Committee (DC). We also contributed to the work of the Bullying and Harassment sub-committee of the Green Party Executive (GPEX).
We have offered to help develop the work on the Toolkit that was approved at Spring Conference and await to be included, if helpful, in further work.
Last updated on 2023-10-21 at 11:41