What if there’s a role that nobody wants?

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That’s the worst, and it happens surprisingly often. The trouble is, Committees need people on them, so roles have to be filled by hook or by crook. The further down the voting order you go, the more likely it is that unwanted roles will be filled by someone who was unsuccessful earlier on, as a kind of consolation prize.

I really strongly feel this way of populating Committees needs to be improved on. I’m not sure that there’s a system fix (although now I’m wondering if it would have been sensible to completely separate Principal Committee elections and other Committee elections, in the same way as P&R and Committee elections are separated). Instead, I think it relies on Deputies being willing to put themselves forward for unenjoyable roles from the outset (maybe you choose one role out of enthusiasm, and a second out of duty?), and also on coordinating with others so you know where the gaps are likely to be, and you’re prepared to put yourself forward to fill it.

No one person can do the work of the whole States. You are not obliged or expected to step forward whenever there’s an empty role. What you can do, though, is work with others beforehand to make sure there’s a core of competent people prepared to stand for each Committee, to minimise the risks that go with unwanted roles.

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What if I don’t get the role I want?

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First up, don’t despair. There are ways you can pursue your interest even if you’re not on the responsible Committee – requetes, amendments and parliamentary questions are all tools to check up on Committee progress, and even to make things happen, from the outside.

Also, think about whether you can be equally effective elsewhere. There are only 40 of you, and a lot of roles to fill – your talents are bound to be needed. If you spend the whole of the Committee Election period licking your wounds because you didn’t get the role you wanted, you’ll miss the chance to get a decent role elsewhere. Swallow your pride, put your ego on ice, and concentrate on finding a place to fit in. You can deal with the hurt afterwards – you’ve got to be pragmatic for now.

Remember, the P&R President and P&R Committee Members are elected first. Then all the other Presidents, in alphabetical order – first of all the Principal Committees, then Scrutiny, then the rest. And finally, the Committee Members, in the same order.

There is at least an overnight break between each of those four elections, so if you’ve been disappointed early on, you’ve got time to get in touch with people and line up your candidacy for something else. But if you’re disappointed during the Committee elections, and decide to seek a seat on a different Committee, you may honestly just have to turn to the people sat to your left and right, and ask “will you propose / second me?”, so you can quickly throw your hat in the ring.

Be as flexible and adaptable as you can be about your Committee preferences, because there will be so much change during the elections. If you’re certain that having a seat on a Committee is something you want out of this term, then try to have two or three options lined up – but make sure they’re not all the same intense level of work, in case you end up getting them all!

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How do I know who to choose for other roles?

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Get to know them, as much as you can in this short space of time. Get a sense of their track record, and also of their character. Is this someone who’s going to be in a position of particular responsibility, as a President? Will they be able to knit together a functional team, and manage disagreements without it all falling apart? Would you enjoy working for them yourself – or with them, if you’re both standing as ordinary Committee members? Are they competent and essentially decent?

Values matter, and there may be some issues that are red lines for you. It’s reasonable not to want a climate change denier on E&I, for example, when their ignorance could cost people on this Island their future. But if that kind of red line is not crossed, then don’t rule out someone for a role just because they’re very different to you – Committees are teams, and a diversity of views and experiences can enhance the way they work.

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How do I put myself forward for a role?

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You will need a proposer and a seconder. If you want to be a Committee member, you would normally ask the President to put you forward. I would suggest doing this even if you are consciously standing as a counterbalance to the views of the President or other team members. It is good to have constructive disagreement on a Committee, but you need to be prepared to work as a team throughout it.

If the President doesn’t put you forward  (or you don’t want to ask them to), anyone else can nominate and second you.

Be sure to approach your proposer well in advance, because they may need to make a speech proposing you – if the election is contested – and you will want them to be prepared. You can help by providing them with a few bullet points about you and why you’d be good for the role – it will be appreciated!

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Will I be more effective on a Committee or outside it?

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The answer is almost always inside. There is more you can do, more effectively, if you are close to it.

But you can also be effective from the outside – for example, amending Committee policy letters to address the issues that concern you, or moving Requetes to get an issue debated if the responsible Committee is not moving on it.

Bear in mind that, when you’re on a Committee, you have to compromise with the other members to achieve a set of proposals you can all live with, before you bring it to the States. If, like me, you’re inclined to be more radical, then you either need to work with a team who can tolerate dissent (as I was blessed to do on all the Committees I served on) or consider if you’d be more effective pushing for progress from the outside. But bear in mind that a lot of stuff within Committee mandates never even comes to the States, so if you sit on a Committee, there are lots of small victories – things you can do to make people’s life better from day to day – that you wouldn’t even get close to if you weren’t part of that Committee.

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How do I know which role is for me?

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You probably already have some idea of what you want to achieve in the States, so that will help to guide you towards where you want to work.

I’d say think about the soft stuff as well as the technical stuff. Maybe this is the Committee that interests you, but will that President or that team allow you to function effectively? Are you comfortable being on board even though you know you won’t be able to toe the majority line?

Also, take soundings from others. Try to figure out where you’re *needed*, as well as where you’d like to go. 40 people is actually a very small number to run a whole government, whatever the nay-sayers on social media think, and we need people with good insight and good work ethics evenly distributed across Committees, if possible.

(On which note, my pet hobby-horse. Please think about putting yourself forward for the DPA or the TLA. These bodies are elected towards the end. This means that – especially at the start of term – people who hadn’t been elected onto other Committees are usually shoehorned into them. That’s not to say they don’t turn out to be good at the job, but this is not the right way to populate bodies that can make decisions with very substantial consequences – for our air connectivity, and for our environment and economy. We need competent people who are willing to take one for the team, who will put themselves forward for those roles alongside service on another Committee.)

Finally, do your research on the actual Committees. By all means, go along to the formal induction events, and talk to the civil servants involved with them – again, this will give you a sense of whether this is a team you can work with. But also talk informally to the outgoing politicians who have served on Committees you’re interested in. Not only will this give you some insight into the political reality, it may help you to understand if the thing you want to do is *actually* part of the remit of the Committee you assume it is, or if you’d be more effective elsewhere – or pushing for change from the outside.

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Should I be networking?

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YES.

Just yes. Quit reading this and go out and meet your colleagues. Even the ones you think you’ve already got the measure of. Even the ones you know you’ll never agree with.

You might be pleasantly surprised. You may not be. But you’re one big team now, and the foundations of success over the next four years are solid, mutually respectful working relationships with the people you’re serving alongside, whatever your differences may be.

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How do I join a Committee?

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Decisions about who goes on what Committee are decisions made by the whole States.

After you are sworn in, you’ll meet four times to complete a set of Committee elections. It goes:

  • President of Policy & Resources
  • Members of Policy & Resources
  • Presidents of all other Committees
  • Members of all other Committees

There is at least an overnight break between each of those. The way you do Committee elections (for Presidents and members alike) is: the six Principal Committees first, in alphabetical order, starting with Economic Development and ending with Home Affairs; then the Scrutiny Management Committee; and then the various other Committees, Boards and Authorities, again in alphabetical order. (I feel for you if your preferred Committee is a long way down the voting order: it is difficult to know whether to hedge your bets and wait to put yourself forward for it, or whether to stand for other Committee seats earlier on, knowing you might end up with an implausibly large workload.)

Get to know your colleagues now. Find out their interests, and let them know what interests you. There are so many moving pieces in Committee elections (who’ll be the President? Who else will be looking for a seat?) that it’s worth keeping your plans as open and flexible as possible.

When it comes to voting, there are quite detailed rules about the process. You can find these in the States Rules of Procedure, under Rule 16.

One word of warning – being on some Committees rules you out of joining others. This is to avoid conflicts of interest on things like Scrutiny and the so-called “quasi-judicial” bodies, the Transport Licensing Authority & the Development and Planning Authority. You can check the exclusions for the Committees you’re interested in by reading their constitutions, which are set out on page 81 onwards of the  States’ Rules.

What you need to know is, you will need someone – another colleague, that is – to nominate you, and someone to second you for any Committee roles you want to stand for. It’s customary for the President of P&R to nominate their Committee members, and often also to propose people for the other Presidencies. Likewise, a Committee President will usually try to put forward a preferred slate of four candidates as their team of Committee members. But you can also stand “from the floor” – that is, with someone else nominating you. It is no bad thing to have competitive elections.

You need to come prepared to speak – and if you’re standing for a Presidency, to answer questions – but you will only have to do so if your seat is contested. Your proposer will also have to speak, and you need to make this easy for them – as soon as they’ve agreed to put you forward, let them have a few bullet points about you, and why you’re well suited to the role, which they can adapt into a speech about you if they want to. Even if you know each other well already, it’s a busy time for everyone, and your proposer will definitely appreciate having their life made easier!

So much of the States’ real work is done in Committees – what we see, in the States Assembly, is just the tip of the iceberg. So getting the right people onto the right Committees is crucial. Good luck!

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Wow, do I really have to do this for the next four years?

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I’ve included this because I really, acutely, remember feeling like this after the Election result had sunk in. Four years suddenly felt like a life sentence. Who knew what could go wrong in the next four years? How much criticism I’d have to face? How much of that would be justified?

If you’re a worrier or an over-thinker like me – and I suspect quite a high proportion of Deputies are, believe it or not – then you might be feeling exactly the same.

I couldn’t have imagined, four years ago, what challenges we were going to face this term. Even without the pandemic, so much of what keeps you occupied in politics is unpredictable, and much of it carries life-changing (if not life-or-death) significance, almost by definition. Who knows what the next four years will hold for you? It’s probably a blessing not to be able to see too far into the future – it means we carry on just putting one foot in front of the other and, step by step, we make it through. You’ll reach the end of four (and a half) years more knowledgeable, more experienced, much more tired – but almost certainly proud of much that you’ve achieved, and glad you didn’t give up on it.

Let me be clear: if you need to walk away – for the sake of your own health, mental or physical; for the sake of those who are dear to you; for the sake of your conscience; or for any personal reason (which you are not obliged to share with the public, by the way, though you will doubtless be asked) – you can walk away at any time. Whether that’s a week in, or a week away from the end of the term. If you can afford to do so, I think it is probably wise to give yourself time to think it over and be sure this is absolutely the decision you want to make. It is pretty irrevocable once you have done so. But you will know your own boundaries. You are not obliged to sacrifice your health or your sanity or your life or your children’s happiness to this work. I think we can all think of instances where we’ve seen that happen, or at least seen people dancing pretty close to the fire. You don’t have to.

But know this too – when you have a moment of bleakness or overwhelm (or even if those moments stretch on into days or weeks), you won’t be the only one who feels that way. Most of your colleagues will have gone through the same experience at one time or another. The intensity of this work means you’ll make wonderful new friends – draw on them for moral support and share your battles. And draw on the people you’ve always loved, who have believed in you and supported you up to now.

Try to keep some kind of work-life balance. Try to find stretches of time where you can put it all out of your head and unwind. Give yourself positive things to look forward to. Don’t be embarrassed to ask for professional support if you feel your mental health unravelling. Know that you have an escape hatch if you need to use it. Take care of yourself and each other – do what you can, and remind yourself of why you did it in the first place. Four years will pass – in the end, you may even be surprised at how quickly they’ve gone, and how much you managed to do in that time.

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What are my responsibilities now?

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Erm, they’re infinite.

No, don’t worry, it’s not as bad as that! But one reason a “job description for Deputies” is eternally elusive, is because everyone’s interpretation of the role is different.

By that, I mean your idea of how you want to spend your time, and what your priorities should be, may be quite different to the person elected next to you. (And neither of you is necessarily wrong.) Added to that, every islander you speak to will have different ideas about what you should be doing, and will want you to prioritise their thing, or their way of working.

There are some responsibilities that are unavoidable. You will be responsible for handling people’s data safely, in accordance with the law. And you will have a special duty to children in the care of the States , as a corporate parent – I’ll come to that in a bit. You can’t walk away from those.

But beyond that, how you interpret the role is very much up to you. You are expected to show up at States Meetings, to make useful contributions to debate, and to vote. If you stand for a Committee, you’ll be expected to participate fully in the work of that Committee: to read the papers, to attend meetings, to be fully engaged in decision-making. And if islanders contact you wanting help, you might not always feel able to do so yourself, but you should be prepared at least to connect them with someone who can.

You might find it helps to set yourself some boundaries and expectations early on (“I’m only going to spend so many hours on emails or paperwork a day”, or “I’m always going to require to enquiries within a certain time”) – or you may prefer to wait until you’ve got a flavour of the job before you start building in rhythms that work for you. It’s okay to be making it up as you go along – most people are, for much longer than they’d like to let on! Just give it your best shot and stay honest. And don’t worry if every now and again you need to stop and reset your priorities and the ways you spend your time. That goes with the territory, and it’s totally fine.

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