Jennie Rigg from Calderdale, standing for FCC

[cosmolinguist]

What's your name, where are you from, and which committee(s) are you standing for?

Jennie Rigg, Calderdale, Federal Conference Committee

Are you standing for the first time or restanding? If first time what new thing do you bring that nobody else could; if restanding, what about your record are you most proud of that you think should make us vote you back in?

This is my first time standing.
Conference committee is skewed very London-the-south-east. I would bring a resolutely northern perspective.
I pledge to attend every meeting and report back publicly on what happens (or publish reasons why if I can't attend). The sterling efforts of Zoe O'Connell aside, FCC remains worryingly untransparent, and this is a tragedy in a democratic party. The electorate must be informed.

Are you standing for any other committees, if so which ones; and if elected to more than one how do you plan to divide your time?

Nope.
Although you can't be directly elected to more than one committee any more you can be indirectly elected to more than one (for example, FPC has a rep on conference committee).
I don't think this will arise for me, but if it did conference Committee would be my main focus because it's where my interest lies.

Are you an active member of any SAOs, and if so which ones?

I am on the exec of LGBT+ lib dems, and am a member of HSLD.

If someone asked you on the doorstep, the hustings or on TV to sum up in one or two sentences what the Lib Dems, uniquely, stand for – and then why anyone should vote for us – what are your answers?

We stand for the right of the individual to be free from poverty, ignorance & conformity.
You should vote for us because we're the only party committed to ALL of those things.

(I would then almost certainly get into further & better particulars, but the question asks for one or two sentences, so...)

What is your view on diversity quotas for committees? Should they be extended to cover more than just gender, scrapped totally, kept as is or something else?

I object to them because I think they mask the symptoms rather than curing the underlying discrimination.
Also they are either too simple (just gender, and binary gender at that) or horrifically overcomplicated (gender, sexuality, race, religion, disability, income level, geographical, education level and huggins of other things can be a diversity metric - this naturally leads to visible diversity metrics trumping invisible ones which is another form of injustice).

Secrecy rules prevent the party knowing what committees are doing. What will you do to communicate with members; and in what circumstances is confidentiality justified?

I'll blog and tweet. If I'm told not to blog or tweet I will report that I have been told not to blog or tweet and why.

Confidentiality is justified in any circumstance where injustice might be caused to an individual (disciplinary procedures for example), or for specifics of financial dealings. Conversely, confidentiality is not justified that disciplinary procedures have happened, or that we are having financial dealings at all.

Generalities should always be communicated to the party even if specifics can't be so that the party knows what it's elected representatives are doing.

How would you make Conference more accessible for people who currently cannot attend?

Push for improvements in and more publicity for the access fund.

I actually think conference does reasonably well in terms of venue accessibility once you're there, although things can always be improved, but getting there in the first place is the big hurdle for most people.

The YouTube offering was better a couple of years ago than it was for the most recent conference; I'd look to go back to dividing main stage sessions by speech. I'd also try to get at least some of the fringes on there.

What do you think needs to be done to improve the process of selecting the agendas for Conference?

My honest answer is that the process itself appears from the outside to be fine; what it needs is for elected members to be active in engaging with it.

I lean towards debate over speech, but recognise purely from attendance numbers that I am in the minority there.

The list of all candidates who have answered can be found here.