Mondays are always-term time-when I set up and organise a Boxing Group for young people in the village. We actually get people from as far as Marden attending, but they are still welcome. So I usually attend the evening in the Scout Hut. I also try to find volunteers to help me and a professional ABA training coach. I have one very good one at present, but her time is limited.
On the 3rd I had another introduction to MBC in Maidstone House. This was a much fuller induction rather than the brief oversee of 28th May. We had a few more processes to go through and more people to meet and some more forms to fill in! Then we had a tour of people and places throughout Maidstone House, the Town Hall and the Museum. It was a long day. It was a lot to take in. I was not going to remember all the names and the places to find them, but we got a map of the buildings!
On the 4th we had a Conservative Group meeting to de-brief after the election again and go into our political strategy for the AGM of Council on the 7th.
Incidentally I have other jobs and roles. I have small pensions from former roles in teaching, local government and industry as a result of my enforced retirement (as a result of injuries sustained from a Road Traffic Collision), but I still have a need to earn a living. I also have care responsibilities for a 82 year old mother! And I continue my Youth work and Parish Council roles. But I had a working day in London on the Friday, as a member of the Care Quality Commission Inspection teams. And the phone constantly rang whilst I was trying to engage in Care Inspection work!
The AGM of Maidstone Council finally came. June 7th was to be the inauguration of Richard Thick as Mayor -he is the other Headcorn Councillor- and the election of the Council leader.
The meeting is very much a pomp and ceremony affair for some of it. Electing the Mayor is a very civil and civic matter. All parties applauded Richards new role as we all thanked Clive English the out-going Mayor.
Later we would all dress in robes and go to Church together, I accompanied an Independent and a Lib Dem in a line together and it was very amicable. Then I'd sing hymns with a Labour member!
And bearing in mind us "newbies" had already started getting to know each other in our inductions and we had already formed some friendly rivalries or indeed genuine common interests.
But the Leadership vote would be key. The Lib Dems insisted on a named vote so that each individual member would make their vote known for the record so the Chief Exec asked for each member by name and then each member would say who they wanted as Leader. You can not be anonymous! The new UKIP members asked to abstain. So with some members absent and only marginally a few more Tories than Lib Dems, it all hung on Labour and the Independents to swing the vote. 2 Independents voted for the Conservatives and Annabelle Blackmore was elected as Leader.It was fairly tense though.
Then we got papers from officers giving us our committees and roles. Officers had clearly worked out all conceivable options from that vote and gave us papers accordingly after the vote.
Then we were all nice to each other! But the Lib Dems did not like UKIP!
On the 3rd I had another introduction to MBC in Maidstone House. This was a much fuller induction rather than the brief oversee of 28th May. We had a few more processes to go through and more people to meet and some more forms to fill in! Then we had a tour of people and places throughout Maidstone House, the Town Hall and the Museum. It was a long day. It was a lot to take in. I was not going to remember all the names and the places to find them, but we got a map of the buildings!
On the 4th we had a Conservative Group meeting to de-brief after the election again and go into our political strategy for the AGM of Council on the 7th.
Incidentally I have other jobs and roles. I have small pensions from former roles in teaching, local government and industry as a result of my enforced retirement (as a result of injuries sustained from a Road Traffic Collision), but I still have a need to earn a living. I also have care responsibilities for a 82 year old mother! And I continue my Youth work and Parish Council roles. But I had a working day in London on the Friday, as a member of the Care Quality Commission Inspection teams. And the phone constantly rang whilst I was trying to engage in Care Inspection work!
The AGM of Maidstone Council finally came. June 7th was to be the inauguration of Richard Thick as Mayor -he is the other Headcorn Councillor- and the election of the Council leader.
The meeting is very much a pomp and ceremony affair for some of it. Electing the Mayor is a very civil and civic matter. All parties applauded Richards new role as we all thanked Clive English the out-going Mayor.
Later we would all dress in robes and go to Church together, I accompanied an Independent and a Lib Dem in a line together and it was very amicable. Then I'd sing hymns with a Labour member!
And bearing in mind us "newbies" had already started getting to know each other in our inductions and we had already formed some friendly rivalries or indeed genuine common interests.
But the Leadership vote would be key. The Lib Dems insisted on a named vote so that each individual member would make their vote known for the record so the Chief Exec asked for each member by name and then each member would say who they wanted as Leader. You can not be anonymous! The new UKIP members asked to abstain. So with some members absent and only marginally a few more Tories than Lib Dems, it all hung on Labour and the Independents to swing the vote. 2 Independents voted for the Conservatives and Annabelle Blackmore was elected as Leader.It was fairly tense though.
Then we got papers from officers giving us our committees and roles. Officers had clearly worked out all conceivable options from that vote and gave us papers accordingly after the vote.
Then we were all nice to each other! But the Lib Dems did not like UKIP!
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