14 January 2004

January meeting - ADM motions revised

Minutes

Present
Jon Kendrick, Fraser Addecott (chair), Jemima Kiss (social secretary), Adrian Colley (secretary/treasurer), Alan Whitehead, Sam Thomson, Virginia Bridgewater, Naomi Marks, Linda Harrison, David Blackman, James Morrison

Apologies
Emmannuelle Riviere, Chris Baker, Barbara Wiseman, Toby Chasseaud, Bip Mistry, Karen Hoy, Rowan Dore.

1 Minutes
November minutes were circulated and accepted with no comments arising.

2 New members
13 new members were elected to the branch.

3 Correspondence
A number of head office circulars for members to see, including copies of the Trade Union Friends of Searchlight newsletter, a copy of the Searchlight magazine itself, the latest Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom newsletter.

4 Officers' reports
Treasurer Adrian Colley reported that we had £1,023 in the bank.

5 Chapel reports
Fraser Addecott, the former Father of Chapel at the Argus said that union president Jeremy Dear had spoken to the managing director of Newsquest Sussex and that an agreement had been reached to approach the ACAS arbitration service to help decide who would comprise the bargaining unit at the Argus. This would determine the number of people entitled to vote in the campaign to win union recognition at the newspaper.

6 Geogre Viner
£25 donation was backed to the George Viner memorial fund, which helps would-be black students pay for the costs of tuition.

ADM nominations
Rowan Dore (nominated by Fraser Addecott, seconded by Virginia Bridgewater) and Adrian Colley (nominated by Fraser Addecott, seconded by Naomi Marks) were elected as the branch's delegates for the union's delegate meeting in Liverpool in March.

9 Freelance conference
A request to become involved in helping to stage a freelance conference was circulated. There was no interest expressed at the meeting in helping out with this.

10 Argus repeat
Fraser Addecott pointed out that a request to give money to the Argus chapel had already been passed last year. Adrian Colley apologised for putting it on the agenda.

11 Searchlight
Anti-fascist organisation Searchlight, to which the branch affiliated last year, was appealing for donations. Adrian Colley said its January edition of its magazine painted an alarming scenario of how well the BNP might do in the European elections in the summer. Searchlight believes that in the north east the BNP could win a European Parliament seat with just 8% of the vote in a low turnout and that the party might capitalise on a slump in support for the UK Independence Party. (More information at www.stopthebnp.com).

The meeting agreed to donate £50 to the campaign and asked secretary Adrian Colley to ask Searchlight for more of its magazines as it was felt that one copy for more than 180 members was not sufficient.

12 TUC council
Fraser Addecott asked to be nominated to the TUC's southern and eastern regional council for 2004/05.

13 Rejected Annual Delegate Motions
The branch had two motions for the Liverpool ADM rejected by the union's standing orders committee for lack of clarity.

They were:
1 " This ADM instructs the NEC to put pressure on the British government to allow the press in Zimbabwe to operate freely from restrictive laws and the fear of violence and intimidation. The union should support practical independent journalism in Zimbabwe by making available such equipment as it requires for it to operate."

2 "This ADM recommends that the Journalist magazine to be redesigned to reflect the dynamics of the NUJ."

On the second one, it was decided to ask for an amendment to be made to our motion to the effect that a committee be established to look at improving the editorial and design of the Journalist.