Perth Training Weekend Date Change:
September 21/22nd to
December 7th/8th
All this talk of a snap general elections (plus the Tories losing their majority so badly) means that our Perth training weekend is unfortunately being completely overshadowed by election campaigning for many of the activists booked up to attend (quite rightly). So, we are worried that holding the training weekend as planned will clash with this and attendance for the event will understandably suffer (stopping the training event being the success everybody really needs it to be).
We had just about hit our min attendance required to go ahead with September, but as usual, we were expecting to pick up more attendees as we got closer to the date. However, with all concentration now focused on getting ready for campaigning for any election, attracting sufficient additional attendees is now increasingly difficult. In fact we have already had a few call offs 🙁
For these reasons we have gone ahead and consulted on an alternative plan with everyone who booked and paid their deposits for the September dates.
I spoke with the venue regarding our legal commitment to hold the Training Weekend on September the 21/22 and they have agreed that if we pay a % of the full costs now, the venue is willing to move the event to December 7/8th. This should hopefully take us past all election campaigning, plus give folk a few weeks of rest and recovery before meeting up in Perth for the Training and social weekend. Consultation replies (approx. 60%) were overwhelmingly positive about the change.
A silver lining to this unfortunate enforced change would be that: Post-election, with the SNP hopefully surging to +++ MPs and BREXIT a done deal (however it turns out), IndyRef2 will be a much, much more concrete prospect to everyone, and so the re-scheduled training weekend could benefit by increased attendance from a renewed urgency among group members (the bigger the attendance the better). While the training event would still work with fewer, Ideally we want 160+ attending for guaranteed success. A few of those that we consulted, and are already coming, have said it’s very likely that the changed date would increase attendance from their own group, so hopefully that’s a sign that the change will be a positive one.
So, that is what we’ve done. Changed the date to December the 7th and 8th. This also means that we have more time to push the event, increase attendance and get the crowdfund over the line, which is a real bonus for us as there is still so much to be done. This is such an important moment and event in the next stage of the IndyApp project that we MUST give it the very best opportunity to be a great success, rather than just plough on regardless of the political circumstances surrounding us.
Hope everyone understands our decision making and that you are not too disappointed with the re-schedule. It was the very last thing we wanted, but after consulting and thinking hard about it we are all pretty sure it’s the right way to go. Things are so up in the air at the moment politically though, it’s impossible to tell for sure…
Speaking at AUOB Edinburgh!
Good news is that we are now booked in to Speak on stage at the Edinburgh AUOB rally on the 5th of October and we will also have a stall, so, with luck, that will really help underline the importance to Indy group members that they come along to the Perth weekend after the elections. AUOB are projecting over 100,000 for Edinburgh, so should be another great one! Really hope you can come along and see us!
Jason and the whole NYR IndyApp Team
You can read more about the December training event in Perth here
And book your tickets and accommodation here