Welcome to Kingston & Surbiton Constituency Labour Party

As the current Chair of Kingston & Surbiton CLP, I am delighted to welcome you to this site.

Let me introduce the officers (who are elected annually) and tell you something about the CLP.

Laurie South, Vice Chair for Membership – laurie@kingstonlabour.com

The Joint Secretaries are Pat Dobson and Johnnie Byrne – patdobson56@gmail.com and johnniebyrne@btinternet.com

Caoilte O’Connor is the Treasurer caoilte@gmail.com

I am always happy to hear from you.

Conor Bollins, Chair –  conorb@kingstonlabour.com

Meetings

Once you are are a member (find the application by clicking this link), registered supporter or registered affiliate your name and e-mail address can be used by the Chair, Secretary and Vice-Chair Membership of this CLP. You will get regular e-mails about what is happening. You will also find meetings publicised here under events.

All members are invited to our monthly meetings at 160 London Road Kingston, KT2 6QW. They always take place on the third Thursday of the month. This is where all members can help decide policy, and take part in discussions and debates often introduced by guest speakers.

Membersnet.

Membersnet is an information hub for Labour Party members. Log in on this link. You will have to register the first time you log in to this site so will need your membership number. Under “Profile” you can see and change the details that the Labour Party and the local Constituency Party hold about you. If you get a new e-mail, for example, you can change the details the Labour Party holds on you yourself. You can also alter your “Privacy settings” so that you restrict what is sent to you.

Membersnet contains a host of webinars (web based seminars) which will be useful to you.

Becoming a Councillor in Kingston

Thinking about becoming a Labour Councillor in Kingston? There is a very helpful booklet on Membersnet under Party Activity / Local Government Hub / Becoming a Labour Councillor – the what, why and how. To look at this booklet, click here  The next full Kingston Borough elections will be in 2018. We are looking for potential councillors now.

Campaigning

Without campaigning we will never get our message across and we will not get voted into power. We campaign in a number of different ways:

(i)            Social media

(ii)          Comments and press releases in the local papers

(iii)         Street stalls where we can talk to potential supporters

(iv)         Leaflets delivered to letterboxes

(v)          Special leafleting events (e.g. giving out leaflets at railway stations

(vi)         Knocking on doors and talking to people about issues

(vii)        Canvassing

(viii)      Surveys

(ix)         Public meetings

Every member can help on at least one of these.

Fundraising

Only a very small portion of your membership subscriptions goes to the local Labour Party. To fund our campaigning, we have to raise money. We do this:

(i)            Through the “100 Club” – buy your numbers by direct debit and half the amount goes back to members in a monthly draw. This means half the amount goes towards campaigning. Join by filling in this form (link):

(ii)          Fun social events – quizzes, barbecues, cheese and wine evenings, social evenings, and comedy evenings with national figures organised through “Stand Up for Labour”:

(iii)         Letting out 160 London Road – we let out the office and the meeting room

(iv)         Donations – particularly important at election time: the more we raise the better we can campaign.

Joining in can be great fun and you know any funds raised go to an important cause.

Other communications channels include:

Twitter – https://twitter.com/KBLabour

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/KingstonLabour/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kingstonsurblabour/