PUTTING A MOTION TO F.o.E . CONFERENCE for a Campaign for Short Public information Films on Television. The tale so far...

By Pam Laurance, Brent FoE member:

This spring I suddenly had the notion that it would be really good if there were short and frequent films on TV about climate change.  I believed, and still do, that this would get loads more people engaged in the issue than we are reaching through current F.o.E campaigns. Aha, I thought, I will see if I can put this forward as a motion at the annual F.o.E conference to be held in September; it shouldn’t be too hard, surely...

Then all I had to do was – 1) Compose the motion, 2) Get agreement from Brent F.o.E (All motions come from groups, not individuals. Getting enough Brent F.o.E members to state that they agreed with it was a challenging task as not everyone who agreed realised that they actually needed to say so), 3) Send it in to F.o.E.  with background information, 4) Find anotherF.o.E. group to second it, 5) Book place at conference, travel arrangements etc. etc, 6) Wait to see if it got through the prioritisation process (they only take about six motions at conference and eleven had been put forward), 7) Research, write and send to F.o.E expanded background information, 8) Write speech for conference that would fit within the 3 minutes allocated and agree it with seconder (Maureen Edwards from Sheffield),9) Note rather unfavourable response from F.o.E  staff and resolve to re-write speech, 10) go to conference and discuss motion at informal discussion group, 11) Re-write speech in relation to what had been said at conference (finishing at 2.00am) , 12) Give speech in formal debate session. This was slightly nerve-wracking but it seemed to be well-received.

And then be disappointed as the motion was lost. (25 for, 31 against, 11 abstentions) But maybe all is not lost...

This is the motion–

Campaign for Short Public information Films on Television.

This conference calls on the Board of Friends of the Earth Ltd to consider running a campaign to persuade the Government to delegate to the Advisory Committee on Climate Change the task of commissioning frequent short (3 minutes?) films on all aspects of the issue, to be shown on all UK based channels at least once or twice a week at peak viewing times. The channels should be required by law, if necessary, to show these films.

But - As I said,before the formal motion,there were discussions about all the motions with staff and board members. John Halliday, from the F.o.E. Board, seemed quite interested in aspects of this motion. And afterwards Tom Wright (our local groups support worker) said that he thought it would be worth our while to keep pushing for this motion, if we still believe in it; the board may be persuaded to take in on in some way.

Now I am working on us sending a letter to the board, to be discussed and approved (or otherwise) within Brent Fo.E.

More details available from Pam Laurance