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Available roles – spring 2023

Do you want to get more involved in running your branch of the London Renters Union? Do you want to get trained up to build people power? Do you want to support other members to get active in the union? Taking on a role in the LRU your chance to help build renter power.

Branch roles

All of the following roles are also members of the branch organising committee, which meetings every 6 weeks to coordiante the work of the branch.

2 x Coordinating group representatives

  • See full role description of the coordinating group here: https://londonrentersunion.org/coordinating-group.
  • Represents the branch’s issues, ideas and strategic thinking at the coordinating group and puts forward proposals from the branch at the CG.
  • Be a point of communication between the branch and coordinating group and other parts of the union including by giving an update and asking for issues to be raised at each branch meeting.

2x Branch secretary

  • Responsible for making sure the organising committee meets in a regular monthly slot and attending those meetings.
  • Sends out meeting calls for agenda items and proposals, announcements/newsletter and meeting minutes to branch members.

2x Outreach and membership secretary

  • Responsible for helping with the smooth running of key organising work of the branch.
  • Organises regular phone banking sessions and encourages branch members to attend and to organise their own.
  • Helps with the organisation of street outreach sessions e.g. organising a rota.

4x Outreach and membership lead
Outreach and membership leads are organisers who develop an outreach and membership team, which recruits renters to join the union and to support them to take part in the activities of the branch. This includes through:

  • Street stalls
  • Door knocking
  • Developing links with community groups
  • Supporting new members to get active including through 1:1s
  • Phone banking

The Outreach and membership leads should divide this organising work up between them. For example, one member might want to focus on getting members to build links with some community groups and someone else might want to focus on getting members to run street stalls and to follow up with the members we recruit. Outreach and membership leads should get some experience at the beginning of their roles running stalls, phone-banking and having 121s, but should then focus on supporting other members to do these activities and building an active and engaged outreach and membership team.

2 or 3 x member solidarity team lead

  • Bottom lines the member solidarity team holding a monthly/six-weekly meeting and reaches out to new members to ensure the meeting is well attended.
  • Support coordination of member solidarity activities such as disputes, eviction resistance, actions and peer support spaces with members, ensuring that new members are getting involved and gaining the skills needed to do these things.
  • Hold 1to1s with new team members
  • Has an overview of the active cases in the team

2 x Campaigns leads
Supports the branch to run effective campaigns, which includes:

  • Identifying leaders in our membership who can help bring campaigns forward.
  • Having 1to1s with members to encourage them to get involved in campaigns
  • Supporting with outreach and phonebanking
  • Supporting with action planning
  • Facilitating participatory decision-making spaces for campaigns and supporting other members to facilitate.
  • At least one Campaign Lead attends monthly meetings of the LRU’s campaigns committee every 4-6 weeks and represents the branch within the committee (https://bit.ly/43LdhSn).
  • The role holders should work out how to split the responsibilities between them.

2x Education leads

  • Attend Education working group meetings every two months, and keep regular and open communication between the Education Working Group and branches.
  • Work with the Education Working Group on planning, strategising and evaluating education and training in branches and the wider union.
  • Be a part of the branch Organising Committee and work with the rest of the Organising Committee and Branch Organiser to make sure that new and existing members are accessing training and growing in confidence and participation within the union, including by doing phone-banking and turnout for key trainings.
  • Make branch members aware of union-wide education and training events
  • Make the education working group aware of current training and education activities within the branch
  • Be responsible for running fully accessible and empowering education events within the branch and supporting members to run them.

Communications officer 

  • Liaises with local media.
    Runs social media accounts for the branch and is in touch with the LRU Communications Working Group.
  • Organising committee member (optional)

Organising committee member
Attends organising committee meetings and takes on action points

Treasurer 
Ensures that branch members are aware of the financial situation of the branch so it can plan accordingly. See agreement on how we spend money here. Helps members to make decisions about spending and claim back money spent.

Directly elected coordianting group roles

As well as two representatives of each branch, working group and caucus, there are also a number of directly elected coordinating group roles.

2x Coordianting group members

Three members of the coordinating group are directly elected by the membership. There are two vacant positions. The role of the coordinating group is to:

  • Support effective coordination between branches and working groups
  • Uphold the values of the union, and ensure they are being upheld by branches, working groups and members
  • Oversee the implementation of decisions of all member meetings
  • Develop and oversee union strategies and policies in accordance with the values, objectives and democratic decisions of the union
  • Support the development of new branches
  • Ensure the sound management of the union’s financial resources
  • Ensure appropriate processes are in place for the management of union staff and the protection of personal information held by the union.
  • Members ofthe coordianting group serve as directors of the company

2x Coordinating group convenors
Up to two coordinating group convenors are directly elected by the membership. The convenors are members of the coordinating group a specific focus on increasing coordinating group transparency and capacity by supporting other coordinating group  members and to ensure everyone is able to participate as fully as possible, including by:

  • Talking with coordinating group members to support and encourage them to participate
  • addressing any access needs among CG/potential CG members (e.g. access to laptops/video equipment, childcare, adaptations). 
  • Supporting coordinating group members to understand the processes of the union
  • Ensuring roles are filled within CG and that CG co-opts additional members where necessary
  • act as a point of contact for CG for incoming requests to CG and forwarding them on to committee leads, working groups or branches as appropriate. 
  • Work closely with relevant union staff to ensure the coordinating group is running effectively

The term for these directly elected convenors is 12 months. In order for members to be eligible to stand for these roles, members need to be formally nominated at a meeting of their branch or working group, or nominated by 25 other members. If no-one volunteers for these roles then the CG may co-opt two people to fulfil these positions.

2x Staffing and finance leads
Up to two staffing and finance leads are directly elected by the membership. They have the following responsibilities: 

  • Coordinate any sub-committee of the coordinating group related to staffing and finance (called the staffing and finance committee, as of December 2021). 
  • Play a key role in supporting staff line managers and holding them to account, although in a more light touch way than conventional line management. Specifically:
    • Each Staffing and Finance lead would have designated responsibility for a staff line manager
    • They would offer pastoral support, liaising with HR staff as appropriate 
    • They would receive monthly top-line reports from staff line managers (aspects of which may be shared with the whole CG)
    • They would lead annual evaluation/appraisal processes with the staff they have responsibility for 
    • Have regular one to ones with their designated staff, at mutually agreeable intervals (this could be anything from monthly to quarterly).

The term for these directly elected leads is 12 months. In order for members to be eligible to stand for these roles, members need to be formally nominated at a meeting of their branch or working group, or nominated by 25 other members. If no-one volunteers for these roles then the CG may co-opt two people to fulfil these positions.

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