United Kingdom Independence Party Havant Branch Hustings & AGM

Date: Venue: Attendees: 19 February 2014 7:30pm 9pm St Francis Church Hall, Riders Lane, Havant, PO9 4QT Steve Harris (SH) Branch Chairman John Perry (JP) Branch Treasurer 20 UKIP members

Minutes:
1. Hustings Four prospective PPC candidates applied for the Havant PPC position: David Craig, David Younge, John Perry and Ray Finch. Both Ray Finch and John Perry were present on the evening. Each candidate gave a five minute speech and had the opportunity to answer questions for five minutes. John Perry was announced as the PPC candidate in the following ballot. Individual candidate votes were not disclosed. 2. Apologies SH apologised for not being able to perform his role as well as he would have liked because of UKIP SE Regional responsibilities. 3. Matters Arising None 4. Treasurers Report JP talked through the 2013 accounts, identifying a 3 error in meeting costs in 2012. JP noted that two new members had joined (thank you Gary Kerrin) increasing branch funds by 40 for the first years membership fees. JP also noted that he had introduced two further members with the membership fees going to Head Office. The accounts were circulated and unanimously approved by the members. 5. Chairmans Comments/Local Election/By-election SH answered a question on Branch membership fees. The first years membership fee is allocated to the Branch, if paid to the Branch. All future membership fees are allocated to Head Office to cover the cost of mailings and other central activities. SH mentioned that the Branch had been asked to contribute circa 600 towards the MEP elections, yet our Branch funds were just over 600. SH suggested a contribution between 200-300. JP suggested 300, with him making a donation to the Branch of 100. This proposal was put to the members and accepted. Page | 1

A question was asked about funding for the MEP Elections in May this year; SH confirmed that for the General Election, the Branch is a separate Accounting Unit, but for the MEP Election, the SE Region is the Accounting unit and so all expenditure for the MEP election must go through the SE Region and not through the Branch. Consequently, all promotional material will be free to the Branch, hence the Branch contribution. We discussed voting, and SH confirmed that in the Eastleigh by-election, 20% of the UKIP Vote was from voters who had not voted for 20 years. JP believed we need to focus on the non-Voters in future elections. SH identified that we ideally need 14 candidates for the forthcoming local election on 22 May 2014, and while we were able to secure seven candidates for the county elections last year, finding 14 this year is proving hard. Some potential candidates were identified during the meeting. Action: JP to identify candidates for wards after meeting and by end of March 2014. SH then explained that his SE Regional workload had prevented him from chairing the Branch as well as he would have liked to and he offered to stand down. JP offered to stand as Chairman; Gary Kerrin offered to stand as Treasurer and Geoffrey Brooking offered to stand as Secretary. This motion was proposed by Tony Storey and seconded by Brenda Kerrin and passed unanimously. SH mentioned he had some promotional newspapers and flyers which were collected after the meeting. JP will hand out at Havant railway station and Geoffrey Brooking to distribute the leaflets Steve had. 6. Regional Organisers comments/Future activities Dates for the diary are as follows: 2014 UKIP National Spring Conference 28 Feb 1 Mar at the RIVIERA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, Torquay 2014 UKIP South east Region Conference 7 Jun 2014 at Eastbourne 28 April BIG EVENT? WHAT WHERE????? Because of security issues, all conferences should be booked online at WWW.UKIP.ORG

7. Any Other Business/ Questions Communication with electorate. JP answered saying he would like to set up tables in constituency shopping centres and engage with the electorate. UKIP Portsmouth Branch urged Havant to actively engage in the community and JP was invited to the Portsmouth North Committee meeting next week. Page | 2

Facebook Page. Havant recognised the need for communication methods and this will be discussed at the next committee meeting. From Portsmouth Norths experience, keeping it local and current was key. UKIP Leavers. A question was raised about UKIP committee members who had left the party. Action: JP to contact each ex-committee member who had left the party to encourage. JP thanked everyone for their vote of confidence and thanked SH for his support over the years. 8. Next Meetings Committee meeting to be arranged within one week Branch meeting to be held in March 2014. The meeting ended at 9:15pm, and the caretaker was paid 30 by cheque for the hall hire.

John Perry Treasurer and Secretary Xx February 2014

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