Nomination 2006

Nomination for the post of National Chairman
John A Smith

I joined 18 Plus when I was 19 years old and it wasn’t long before I was elected on to the Group Committee as Treasurer, this was in the days when the Groups issued the membership cards, and sent tear off sections along with the fee to the Area Treasurer. We had an office at the time, located in Kent I think.

I’ve done every Committee post at Group level with varying degrees of success, my favourite post was Publicity Officer.

Eventually I stood for District Liaison Officer on the Area Committee to arrange help for Groups that needed it and co-ordinate the District Trophy competitions and organise inter-Group events that we called “synchronised events”.

My next Area Committee post was Publicity Officer which I did for three consecutive terms. Initially it was a learning experience, and by the end of my three terms I had built up a good reputation which enabled me to stand for the post on two further separate occasions as an associate member.

I then took a break from the Area Committee but in 1996 I was War of the Roses 1996 Chairman, this was the event that got me interested in 18 Plus Committee work again.

I was next co-opted on to the Yorkshire Area Committee in late 1996 as Publicity & Development Officer.

I was responsible for co-ordinating the 1997 Yorkshire Area Publicity Campaign, which included the 1997 Charity Challenge culminating in our appearance on BBC Television’s Children in Need.

I also organised the first part of the 1998 Recruitment Campaign, including a Yorkshire Television Community Service Announcement.

From 1998 to 2001 I was National Development Officer, I co-ordinated the National Development project of the time which involved encouraging and approving funding for various Area scale Development projects, I also wrote/compiled a Development Guide.

Throughout most of its existence I have been a Northern Area General Committee member and in November 2003 following the resignation of my predecessor I became Northern Area Chairman which led to my election as Deputy National Chairman and thus Acting National Chairman in July 2005.

I have chaired three NEC meetings; I may be starting to get the hang of it now

I doubted that anyone wished to stand for National Chairman at the January NEC meeting, unless there was someone who particularly wanted to chair the National Conference, therefore it appeared that I would be expected to chair the National Conference as Acting National Chairman, therefore I stood for the post myself.

There are two main reasons why I wish to be elected to the post of National Chairman;

1. The NEC and others are working hard to implement the Area Lead Option for the restructure of 18 Plus. Now that we’ve started putting the restructure in place I want to ensure that we put it into practice. I’d like to see 18 Plus following the National Conference settling in to the new structure, with members getting involved in their Area Conferences to make decisions to ensure the continuation of 18 Plus into the future.

2. The future of 18 Plus isn’t only dependant on getting the administrative structure right. The future of 18 Plus is, in my opinion more dependant on recruitment of new members and expansion of the number of Groups. I’d like to see new 18 Plus and Second Tier Groups being opened and all existing Groups recruiting new members all the time. It’s imperative that 18 Plus now talks about ideas for recruitment and expansion, but more importantly, let’s put the ideas into action as well.

I am nervous about chairing the ANC, but I was nervous about chairing NEC meetings, but I seem to have done O.K.