Dear Colleagues,

CWU Women's Conference - Saturday 23 February 2008

CWU Women's Conference will be held on Saturday 23 February 2008 at the Holiday Inn Hotel, 22 Ormeau Avenue, Belfast BT2 8HS.

Delegates

Branches are entitled to send two delegates to the Conference. The details of delegates should be included on the appropriate form that is attached to this LTB.  The completed form should be returned to Carmel McCudden at Head Office no later than 25 January 2008.

Visitors are also welcome to attend. It would be helpful, for administrative purposes, for visitors' details to be entered on the form.  Admission to the Conference for visitors is by production of their membership card.

In order that we can cater for any delegate with special needs in terms of seating, it is important that you advise us in writing of the name of the delegate(s) and the particular requirement by return but no later than 25 January 2008.

Crèche facilities are currently on 'standby' dependent on the number of children booked.  Therefore, delegates should advise Headquarters by return, but no later than 25 January 2008 if they wish to use this facility.   Please ensure that the names and ages of the children, together with an appropriate address to send the crèche form for completion are included in this advice. Under no circumstances will it be possible to provide on the spot facilities to those delegates who have not informed us in advance.

Motions

·         Each Branch is entitled to submit 1 motion for consideration to be included on the agenda of the Conference.

·         Each Regional Women's Committee is entitled to submit one motion to the Women's Equality Conference.

·         The Women's Advisory Committee is entitled to submit up to three motions standing in their name.

Branches, Regional Women's Committees and the Women's Advisory Committee are asked, where possible, to minimise the use of abbreviations in their motions to assist new delegates.

Motions should be submitted electronically, using the template emailed to branches, to cmccudden@cwu.org.   Branches who do not have this facility can still submit motions by post.   Requests for paper motion forms should be made to Carmel McCudden on 0208 971 7260 or 07968191134

Motion forms must be returned by 25 January 2008, if by post by first post or 12 noon if submitted electronically.  All sections of the form must be completed.

As with previous Equality Conferences, the agenda will be structured in such a way as to maximise debate and participation by delegates. There will be 2 sections to the agenda, one for motions which are eligible for consideration for submission to General Conference and one for motions that, in the view of the Standing Orders Committee, would not be admissible to the General Conference agenda.

Branches will be aware that the CWU Women's Conference has the entitlement under the rules of the union to submit 2 motions to stand in the name of the conference to General Conference. It is therefore important that if branches wish their motions to be in this category, they must contain policy that is capable of being discharged by the NEC, as opposed to either of the Industrial Executives.

As with previous Equality Conferences, the 2 motions for submission to the General Conference agenda will be decided from amongst those motions adopted at the Conference. A ballot to select the 2 motions will be held at the Conference.

Any enquiries regarding this LTB should be addressed to Carmel McCudden either by post to head office or by email to cmccudden@cwu.org

Yours sincerely,

John Donnelly

General Conference Standing Orders Committee