Conversion to Affiliated Organisation status
On Monday, 27 June 2022, Chinese Liberal Democrats held an Extraordinary General Meeting via zoom to adopt a new Constitution and Members Code of Conduct as recommended by the Party pursuant to the Party Bodies Review Report. We are delighted to report that we are now on track to applying for Affiliated Organisation status of the Party!
The new Constitution is posted on the website. This follows the model Constitution for AOs with only minor additions to conform to CLD's particular aims and objectives. We have also acknowledged in our Constitution that we currently have 2 Patrons, namely, Lord Menzies Campbell and our current party leader Sir Ed Davey MP. The model Members' Code of Conduct was adopted without amendment.
The formal part of the meeting was preceded by a lively talk by guest speaker, Amna Ahmad, Vice President of the Party. She shared about how the role of VP has since become an elected position following the appointment of her predecessor, Isabelle Parasram. She particularly wants her work to be collaborative with the diverse communities that she represents.
Currently only 2% of LibDems members are from an ethnic minorioty background and Amna is well aware of the scale of challenge she faces in dealing with racism, prejudice and unconscious bias within the Party. She knows she can only achieve this through dialogue and engagement and taking the agenda across the country. She was pleased with "Project Stellar" that will help train, select and elect more MPs from ethnic minority background. The task of achieving greater diversity and inclusion within the Party should however not merely fall on her shoulders, but should also be the shared responsibility of the Federal Board. Local and regional parties also have roles to play.
We were pleased to be joined by the ubiquitous Juliet Makhapila, Diversity officer of London region at the meeting.
If anyone has views on any of the matters mentioned above, please feel free to email us at info@chineselibdems.org.uk