Ballot for Chair of Wolverhampton Liberal Democrats

9.46.43am GMT Tue 29th Nov 2005

W'ton Lib Dems hold ballot for Chair

As advocates of democracy, Wolverhampton Liberal Democrats practice what they preach and are in the process of electing a new Chair for 2006 with a postal ballot of all members.

The two candidates are the current Secretary, Eileen Birch and former Chair, David Jack.

The counting of the votes will be on Wednesday 7th December and the result will then be made public.

Eileen Birch

Eileen Birch has been involved in many types of voluntary work and her chief interests are family issues and justice, including being one of the longest serving Neighbourhood Watch Coordinators in Wolverhampton and a term of office as a Custody Unit Visitor. In her message to members Eileen wrote, "When I joined the party, my intention was to stand for council, which I have done in Ettingshall Ward at every opportunity since. I have done this because I want to make a difference to people's lives and to give them the opportunity to vote for somebody who represents true democracy and is not part of the two-party dictatorship that prevails in most areas.

In 2000, I was invited to stand for election as Secretary of the Local Party, a role I have undertaken since. Now I feel that both the party and myself should be moving forward together.

The Local Party is like a family, we sometimes have our disagreements, but at the end of the day, we must all look after each other and I feel that this is one of the roles of the Chair.

If elected, I promise to make no promises that I do not intend to keep and I will make every effort to keep any promises that I do make. My first promise will be to ensure that our family remains a family. I believe in freedom, fairness and trust.

David Jack

David Jack wrote in his message to members, "As many of you now will be aware it is my intention that I wish to stand again as chair for the local party for a third and final year. Many of you are also aware that I resigned mid way through my second term as chair having served, I hope, faithfully on your behalf, campaigning to move our party forward and place us in a position to be able to mount strong campaigns and win seats. This has always been my intention and always will be. As a party, I ask you once again to back me as a committed campaigner and advocate of Liberal Democracy and let us all work to finish what we set out to do some two years previous when you over whelming backed me then in the ballot to become chair. I appeal to you to give me that mandate as chair. A mandate that I will serve the needs of the many members, not the demands of a few.

This party may have been served well over the years by previous members, but we cannot dwell on the past. Time has moved on. We need to modernise, evolve and move forward - Learning from previous lessons and being prepared to learn new ones as we become more professional and, hopefully, more numerous in our membership ranks.

Let us finish our development and evolution into a professional party this year, a year in which I am sure we will finally win seats in other places than just Springvale and show the people of Wolverhampton that the party is not about one person, but rather an ideal fought for by a group of people committed to that cause through want rather than because of needs.