Management / Newspapers/ Assessment

MANAGEMENT: THE GOLDEN NUGGET Perhaps I should explain my management background and the Golden Nugget. In management consulting, which is what I do all the time, within any company I work for, the Holy Grail is the “Golden Nugget”. The Golden Nugget is an idea which is: cheap to implement. highly profitable completely against the prior culture of the company. Occasionally in life one achieves this. The increase in effectiveness is dramatic. My background in management was in GEC and Jardine Matheson. In GEC I learned about decentralisation, job definition, allocating responsibility, localism, procedure writing, and "limits on powers" documents. From Jardine I learned that bad news must travel to the top, fast. And the importance of repute. While writing procedures and I concluded: “do not say what ought to be done. Instead describe accurately what is being done”. The result of a very accurate description of the present system is that it usually becomes obvious what ought to be done. Future examples could be "Westminster by-elections", “UKIP recruitment methods” or “branch revival”. If we accurately describe how we do it, we shall probably hit on better methods. The thing that gets me out of bed each day is the idea of finding better methods. “Work to save work”. I want ever increasing effectiveness in UKIP. We are always short of people. Good methods are imperative. So --- how shall we improve UKIP’s effectiveness? Two important ways spring to mind: Newspapers and Assessment/Training. NEWSPAPERS I recognise that Nigel does a huge job in getting our message across in the media. But this needs to be backed up with a more detailed message for those who wish to read it. UKIP used to have a national newspaper up to 2005. Then it suddenly stopped. In Surrey by 2007 we realised that it was not going to start again and we issued UKIP Surrey News, which continues to this day. Peter Lindsay produces it and I played a major part at conference in selling it to counties. Other Surrey newspapers have been produced by Rob Burberry, Roger Bird, Russell Hicks and myself. Meanwhile in Dorset Rod Trelease produces an excellent product. Analysis of UKIP’s 2010 general election results shows that (leaving aside Buckingham, which succeeded by drawing in personnel) the most successful branches all produced and distributed newspapers. Newspapers don’t produce new members but they do get us a better public image and lots of votes. Some areas may not have the time to produce a local edition. I am pressing for a national edition. I am pretty sure that there will be a national edition, produced in Surrey, by end February 2013. Advantages of a national edition: No need for local areas to provide the skill and time to create a local edition Saves the need for press office to vet the wording of many local editions Ready and available for the next by-election, without delay No scrappage at end of by-election campaign. Can be ordered in low quantities and then re-ordered if more are needed.... saving wastage Price can be haggled right down, based on large quantities. Quality of text and pictures will be consistent and high. [Note: local campaign material can go in black and white documents and colour leaflets]. Newspapers are essential to get across these messages: That we are going to form a UKIP government: “What a UKIP government will do for you” “Only a UKIP government will save Britain” ... and to counter the charge of racism.... “We like people from other countries, we respect the work they do, but Britain must not continue with an open door immigration policy”. "Britain is made up of many races, who have added enormously to our country. But in recent years, we have been overwhelmed; 3 million people arrived during Labour’s last term.". "UKIP believes immigration can make a positive contribution to our society. But there must be strict limits on the number of people we admit" but... we cannot continue with an open door immigration policy. See also: www.ukin.biz. (may only work in Internet Explorer). We must persuade Britain that we are ready to govern. Meanwhile we must pedal like mad to make sure that UKIP is indeed ready to govern, with policy working groups, and a shadow cabinet. And excellent branches. We need to know how the public sees us. And we need to modify any errors in that view. Stephen Crowther is doing the research on that. And we must make sure all our candidates are good.   ASSESSMENT AND TRAINING Lisa Duffy is running our Assessment and Training. Assessment is one of the things that will pull the party up from amateur to professional, using “professional” in its original sense of a person who professes to be good at something. How am I helping the assessment process? First I have written at length on the forum so that all can know how to approach the process. Secondly I am chasing all probable PPCs in the South East to apply for assessment.