The WEA's conference at the beginning of October was a success. The Friday event, open to many, covered items around Skills for Social Justice and emphasised, to me, how this seems a more real issue in Scotland than it often does in England.
The Saturday was the WEA's business conference and this was greatly speeded up by effective electronic voting. However, as I've felt in previous conferences, the issues being raised were often not fully discussed because of the traditional structure of conference proceedings. Many motions raised issues around older learners, engaging with issues of disadvantage through the downturn, campaigning for lifelong learning as we move towards a UK General Election, the need to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy faced by students, tutors and volunteers and the work of the WEA internationally. However, we didn't manage to group these into the effective debates and discussions that would do credit to the issues raised.
Hopefully, we can look at how other organisations, like the Women's Institute, manage their conferences to develop strategy out of issues raised throughout the organisation at grass routes level.
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