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I wanted to highlight both of those things.
Even though the Liberals were still doing that as recently as several years ago- that party is gone forever, no matter how long the LPC lats or maybe even grows back.
I've been reading this thread, and building and maintaining a riding association is a lot of work and really needs a core group of people with various skills and time to do the "work". Not sure about how much "money" it needs, but it does require organization and more than just a few bodies or people do get burned out.
So perhaps a riding association needs a couple of people to do social media for the riding - eg. a active webpage, blog, FB page, and twitter all tied in together, that does both local, provincial and federal items. Perhaps every couple of months or quarterly a newsletter (one page both sides) that can be emailed out to the membership, and if necessary by snail mail although that is a big job.
At least this way, there is "something" going on and local in focus. I personally think that there should be activities, perhaps 2X per year, such as movie, speaker, or supper. We did a thank you turkey super after the provincial election and it was well attended. It was a lot of work.
I also think that mtgs can be done 4 times a year, and held in different parts of the riding and keep the meeting part short, with getting new people out and getting ideas and suggestions.
And the mtgs should be well run, focussed, with an agenda, with which everyone has, so it is not wasting people's time.
Thats not the Cons. Their success at organizing and fundraising is entirely centrally driven. They have a bunch of riding associations that are fundraising dynamos on top of that, but they do that for the mission of the Party, not their riding itself, which in each of these cases is a lock.
Perhaps I'm reading the original complaint through my own experience, but I don't think any or us (or most of us, at least) object to the fundraising pitches, even if they did become incredibly frequent and irritating during the last couple of years under Layton. The point of my kvetching here is that if members can be hit over and over again for money there is no reason why we can't be engaged through the same electronic means or mass mailings, inviting discussion of issues and opinions on specific matters. Why not alternate the fundraising with invitations to participate in policy discussions and even in decisions?
I don't mean the rhetorical questions that so many groups send out under the guise of surveys, as in "Do you agree with ..." really a fundraising pitch inviting one to approve a litany of positions formulated without full input from the general membership.
Riding associations are the most legitimate forums, yes, but in the electronic age there's no reason why only people who can make it to meetings physically should be considered part of the party's process of discussion and articulation of policies.
As for having a membership card -- why mention it? It's a pretty meaningless object, unless one is to present it at riding association meetings.
The information for my riding is outdated or not useful (the website and related email are both down), but others might find this useful in gaining a meaningful foothold in the party: http://www.ndp.ca/your-riding
Thanks writer! I tried sending a e-mail out to the RA here to find out what's going on, so we'll have to see what happens.
Thanks, writer. My riding still has Jack Layton listed as my Member of Parliament...
Wow - that's amazing, Michelle. I wonder what the new MP thinks of that?
and just maybe Michelle it is hard for the web master to delete Jack from the page and so just doesn't go there.
Michelle, that's terrible. I suspect there hasn't been a serious update for riding contacts since the last general federal election.
Let's hope things like this become more of an ongoing priority if the party is serious about membership having any meaning.
Well, I get the feeling that this is probably a neglected corner of the NDP website. When you have a huge website, it's sometimes difficult to keep a handle on every corner of it.
But if you think about it, that's just the problem, isn't it? In order to win people over, the NDP is going to have to organize on the ground, riding by riding.
So, the section of the website where people can go to find out about their local riding association should be a priority area. And yet, it is so outdated that they have a person who has been dead for 8 months listed as the Member of Parliament for one of the ridings, and apparently dead links and e-mail addresses for at least one other riding - and both are downtown Toronto ridings (one of which is an NDP stronghold) where you would think there would be a huge amount of activity at the local level.
It's true that an organization is only as strong as its members and volunteers, and writer is exactly right, that if NDP members want stuff to happen on the ground, they have to make it happen instead of waiting for someone else to do it. But when the central organization focuses on fundraising to the exclusion of all other activities, and provides no support whatsoever for local organizing, the result is losing, unless a fluke like what happened in the 2011 election (a bunch of paper candidates winning in one region) happens due to a good air campaign for a few weeks.
"It's true that an organization is only as strong as its members and volunteers, and writer is exactly right, that if NDP members want stuff to happen on the ground, they have to make it happen instead of waiting for someone else to do it. But when the central organization focuses on fundraising to the exclusion of all other activities, and provides no support whatsoever for local organizing, the result is losing, unless a fluke like what happened in the 2011 election (a bunch of paper candidates winning in one region) happens due to a good air campaign for a few weeks."
So true...
Members like me have no say in our ridings. Yet, we have been receiving emails demanding money, money, money...
How can Jack Layton be listed as the MP of Danforth in 2012? This is not just a small mistake at all. There are so many other problems with the website. In this digital age, NDP can do great things on its website. It could be a great destination for so many Canadians. But, I don`t think they're willing to do it.
So sad...
Well, let's not be too uncharitable. I'm sure the party is struggling at the moment to get its organisational capacity up to speed, having suddenly lept from a small fourth-place sliver of parliament to the OO, gone through a long and taxing leadership campaign that drained many resources for months, and now adjusting to a new leader finding his feet. I mean, a lot has happened lately. But these concerns do have to get addressed eventually and the sooner the better.
Well, don't take that as me berating anyone for an oversight. I'm sure that after Jack's death, and then being plunged right into a neverending leadership election, it would be easy to miss something here and there, especially when there are thousands of pages and sub-pages on the website. There are only so many staff hours in the day.
With Mulcair's "308 plan" (I think he called it that?) to build up ridings from the ground right away in order to be viable in every riding next election, hopefully more of a priority will be put on getting this information to the membership of the party, both by direct outreach, and by strengthening their online resources for people who are looking for info on their riding association.
Michelle,
My life is all about creating and promoting websites. Believe me: Ndp.ca is a small website and it`s very easy to manage.
After reading the posts above, we can easily say that there is not a good connection between the party and its members. Offline and Online!
Of course, I will continue to support the party and I will try to be optimist. But I don`t have high expectations.
Update:
Since my last post, I got 2 phone calls from the party. As you can easily guess, both were about money. No surprises there, eh?
The interesting thing is that when I tell them my story, the person on the phone says "Really? I`m very sorry. You are absuletely right about your concerns / points etc. Please continue raising your concerns so that the decision makers in the party may do something about them".
And I say "Since you called me, you should be the one to deliver my message to the decision makers" and the conversation goes on.
The last email I received was from Mulcair (I'm sure all the NDP members received the same email). I replied and wrote my concerns to him (to the person who reads his emails) I even wrote the URL of this thread hoping they will do something about this disconnection between the party and its members. I honestly don't think they will do anything...
I won`t be donating a cent to NDP until they start listening to members and engage them with the party in simple, meaningful ways.
Update:
Since my last post, I got 2 phone calls from the party. As you can easily guess, both were about money. No surprises there, eh?
The interesting thing is that when I tell them my story, the person on the phone says "Really? I`m very sorry. You are absuletely right about your concerns / points etc. Please continue raising your concerns so that the decision makers in the party may do something about them".
And I say "Since you called me, you should be the one to deliver my message to the decision makers" and the conversation goes on.
The last email I received was from Mulcair (I'm sure all the NDP members received the same email). I replied and wrote my concerns to him (to the person who reads his emails) I even wrote the URL of this thread hoping they will do something about this disconnection between the party and its members. I honestly don't think they will do anything...
I won`t be donating a cent to NDP until they start listening to members and engage them with the party in simple, meaningful ways.
I've tried in vain to unsubscribe from the donation request mailing list (five or six times), but it never works. Someone should know that and fix it. The party doesn't want people to just add the ndp.ca domain to their spam filters. I do donate regularly, and I don't need frequent email reminders.
The Harpers and their propagandists in MSM are already spending lots of money to brainwash Canadians. Biggest war chest typically wins elections. The NDP has to ask for donations. The bad electoral system and big money influencing elections is not ideal, and we have no choice but to play their undemocratic game in kind until we can elect an NDP government to change things.
Excellent
Yes, exactly. Usually, though, they contain information about a cause that the requested appeal for a donation is geared toward. Whether it's a by-election, or an issue regarding something like cuts to pensions or health-care, etc., generally the request for a donation is tied to something concrete. I have no problem with this and welcome it.
Not me. Granted, I may not always donate (in fact, right now, I just leave it to my sustained monthly donation, though when I find work, I'll likely go back to making sporadic donations along with my sustained monthly amounts.)
I have a card. Each year the NDP has mailed me a membership card.
Please. Spare the poor trees. Can't we all just use an internet search engine? Type "Mouseland" in http://www.duckduckgo
The whole website is for the members and for the public at large.
I could care less if I was the only member. I think I'd be happier if I was the only member.
I don't care why they didn't vote. That's their business.
Surveys? Yuck!
Surveys? Yuck!
Yup, it's all about money. I want all my friends to donate money to the idea of an egalitarian society as represented by the NDP.
Of course, my own MP and MPP (Chow and Marchese, respectively), have also invited me to things like a free movie night (the great Wall-E), a soccer game, and a Canada Day hot dog BBQ, which was a pleasant change of pace from the normal requests for donations. Still, fundamentally it's getting donations that wins elections. The Conservatives get more donations, and thus they win elections. Let's not kid ourselves about this. If you want an egalitarian society run by the NDP, then it has to be backed by the same aggressive fundraising that the Conservatives have. If those who back NDP egalitarian ideals are not as passionate (aka likely to donate) as those who back Conservative ideals are, then the NDP loses.
I did a quick search on the NDP site for the riding of "Toronto Danforth", and it gave me the correct information. Admittedly, the "riding association" link is dated, though.
My daughters and I had a great conversation on Sunday morning. They were commenting about the Prolife advertisements that they had been seeing on television lately. They then talked about the Conservative ads showing how hard-working Harper is and how scary the Mulcair NDP is. They talked about Conservative policies related to the environment, muzzling scientists and subverting elections. They talked of how nobody they knew agreed with these policies, yet so many people vote Conservative anyways.
They asked why the NDP has so few ads in comparison.
It boils down to Conservatives being more willing to support their cause with donations. I do not resent the NDP asking me for money all the time. I think the NDP needs to organize riding by riding so that these appeals can be made "in person", as in the days when I first joined the party many years ago.
Yeah. That "riding association" link that is "dated" is the link I posted originally, which is still not updated now. That's how I got to the page too. It's good that they have Craig Scott listed on your link. Then on the page you linked to, click on the "riding association" link (in case you might want more information on how to contact the riding association in your area), and you get to the page I posted above, which still, even now, has Jack Layton listed as the MP.
The good thing, though, is that when you type "toronto danforth NDP riding association" into Google, you get the riding association website, which seems to be updated properly. But in order to do that, you have to know what riding you're in - lots of people just getting interested in politics, or new to the area, might not know what riding they're in. So they might go to the NDP website and look for their riding association that way, and then they discover that their MP is Jack Layton and no website is listed for the riding association, just an e-mail address.
My friendly advice would be that if you are serious about a "308 plan" (and I really liked that part of Mulcair's platform), then on the main page of the website, you should make the link to find your riding association front and centre, and make that section of your website a priority, with the most up-to-date information. To find that section of the website from the main page, where you can find your riding association, you have to somehow figure out that you should click on "Party" from the main menu (not an obvious choice), then scroll through the drop-down list to the very bottom, where you'll see "Your Riding". (And on small screens, like the little notebook I'm using currently, the bottom of that drop-down list drops below the bottom of the screen, so it's easily missed.)
Very Far Away, why don't you try to get involved in your local riding association. Ridings are all how one makes them, some more active than others. Everyone is a volunteer and have busy lives.
Fundraising is an absolute neccessity- organizations do it or die, not because that's all they are interested in.
The other thing is that compared to activating the membership, fundraising is easy. Look around at any member based organization that is not local and face to face.
That's not an excuse for doing nothing, or shrugging your shoulders at not enough being done. But it is a reality.
All these ideas on how to improve the NDP. Almost every part of the NDP is based on volunters. People like you and me giving time that we can find to spare. It is not some overpaid organization that has 24/7 oversight.
Criticisim is easy, solutions aren't. If you expect the party to be better, volunteer and make a difference.
AS far as the fundraising annoyance is concerned, just delete the requests or politely say no. Is that too much to ask?
Thank you for all the responses. What I understand from these last comments is that NDP is doing everything right and I`m doing something bad by complaining about disconnection between the party and its members.
I became a member and the party didn`t even send me a membership card (Which is just a paper and it may mean nothing, but party doesn`t care about that kind of stuff and is this acceptable?)
I do live in Guelph and I`m sure there are some party members here. What I expect from the party members is that they can easily contact with me and ask for my help. They did nothing so far. Not even a single soul from Guelph contacted me. How difficult is it for the party to inform its members in Guelph about the new members in my riding so that I can volunteer for the party?
Please review the picture of Thomas Mulcair`s pic on the home page of NDP`s website. Is this how you want to promote the leader of the opposition? Is this the picture of a prime minister in waiting? A horrible jacket and incredible pants full of wrinkles. Do you think the people in this picture represent Canadian population? More importantly, is this the best website that NDP can have? Very bad navigation, outdated content, horrible pictures? Is this the website of the party that will be in power in 2015?
( I create and manage websites and I'm very good at it. Companies pay me a lot of money to do this and I`m ready to do this for NDP for free. How difficult is it for NDP to find the right people for doing that kind of stuff for the party. For example, here at Rabble, there are some great people with great ideas and NDP can easily contact them to help the party. Why doesn`t NDP do this?)
I was ready to contribute to the party the best way I can. When they called me to ask for money, I gave some and I told them my ideas. When I talked about this membership problem, in response, I got "You are absulutely right. Please raise your concerns so that a top NDP person may hear you and they may do something about your concerns." What kind of logic is this? I even wrote to Thomas Mulcair and of course, I got no response.
We expect NDP to be the voice of all Canadians, to create a just society. But, NDP can`t even treat its members properly. When this is the case, how can I talk to my friends and try to make them members of the party and donate money? In my experience, NDP only asked for money and did nothing else.
I think constructive criticism is good and necessary. Defending the party no matter what it does is wrong. We should always look for the best solutions. In this membership thing, my experience is horrible and I don`t think I should accept this as reality and go on. Nobody disputes the fact that fundrasing is extremely important, but it should be done properly so that the results will be good and no member of the party will be alienated.