Minutes - 31st Meeting Of Exco

CONFIDENTIAL

The Civic Party Minutes of 31st meeting of the Executive Committee Date: Time: Venue:

24 October, 2006 (Tuesday) 6:30 p.m. Party’s HQ

Present: (1) Kuan Hsin-chi (Chairman), (2) Joseph Cheng Yu Shek, (3) Audrey Eu Yuet Mee, (4) Fernando Cheung Chiu Hung, (5) Margaret Ng Ngoi Yee, (6) Vincent Ng Wing Shun, (7) Alan Leong Kah Kit, (8) Gladys Veronica Li, (9) Stephen Char Shek Ngor, (10) Mandy Tam Heung Man, (11) Thomas Yu Kwun Wai, (12) Amy Yung Wing Sheung, (13) Bill Lay Yan Piau, (14) Ronny Tong Ka Wah In Attendance: Tsang Kwok Fung Items

Action

Part A - Confirmation of Minutes 1. Agenda Members endorsed the agenda as distributed. 2. Minutes of the Last Meeting Members approved the minutes of the last meeting. 3. Matters Arising from the Minutes (a) Chairman’s Report for AGM Members were asked to submit their half-yearly reports for Chairman to edit as soon as possible. Part B – Items for Discussion 4. Discussions on CP’s Position regarding the Coming Budget To streamline the drafting process, PL suggested that she would ask her Minutes of 31st ExCo meeting 24/10/06

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assistant to prepare a submission draft for ExCo’s discussion at the next meeting. The agenda item was postponed accordingly. 5. CP’s Administration (a) Members discussed the paper prepared by Mark on CP’s administration. Members agreed that discussions should proceed in his absence. (b) Some members indicated that certain proposed functions should not fall under the duties of the S-G, such as budgeting, financial reporting and policy co-ordination. Some members were concerned that with respect to the scope of the duties proposed in the paper, the differences between the functions of ExCo and those of the S-G should be clearly distinguished. (c) Members agreed that the S-G should take up the duties of Deployment of Secretariat Staff, and Budget and Financial Reporting as suggested by Mark in his paper. (d) Members in principle agreed to further consider all the suggestions made in the paper, and that ExCo should deal with all these issues at an appropriate time. 6. Preparations for AGM (a) Members discussed the continuous lobbying efforts of some active members recently. The concerns of these members fell into the following categories: the feasibility of confidence votes in the coming elections of ExCo members; the order of elections of posts of the ExCo; and the role of the membership committee. (b) Some members reported that they held personal discussions with these members recently. They believed that these members were not hostile to the ExCo, and their concerns deserved attention. Some indicated that the ExCo should not be forced into making promises beyond its authority. Others also indicated that the suggestions made by these active members would not be beneficial for the development of the Minutes of 31st ExCo meeting 24/10/06

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party. (c) Members agreed that the ExCo should reiterate and further clarify the election procedures when the nominations of ExCo members were closed. Mark was asked to prepare the notice for party members.

Mark

7. Suggestions on Activities in Support of EC Elections (a) CAO introduced his paper on the proposed activities for EC elections. Margaret indicated that a series of activities had been decided at the Working Group for CE Campaign meeting on the same day of the ExCo meeting. These activities should be taken into consideration when making plans for the EC campaign. (b) Members agreed that the identity of the Civic Party should not overshadow the roles of the other parties involved in support of the campaign. It was also agreed that a press conference should be held by CP, if possible, with the other parties to announce the groups participation in the EC elections. (c) Members discussed the progress of the preparations work in various sectors. Members agreed that CP’s list for the legal sector could be reduced to make way for other non-CP candidates who might have a better chance to win. (d) Ronny appealed to ExCo to mobilize candidates to take part in EC elections in the Catholic community. 8. Preparations for the CE campaign (a) Margaret reported on the work progress of the CE campaign. She reminded members that they should be discreet in answering media enquiries. All press enquiries related to the campaign should best be forwarded to Wong Ming Lok, the Manager of the CE campaign. Members were also reminded that the public relations company would only be providing policy services to CP rather than organizing the CE campaign for the party (this clarification also served as an amendment to the first sentence of Paragraph 8(d) of the minutes of the last ExCo Minutes of 31st ExCo meeting 24/10/06

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meeting). (b) Messages and themes of the campaign had been discussed and decisions had been made. Members were asked to be discreet. (c) It was also agreed that CP should take up the responsibility of organizing community activities in support of the campaign. Margaret would meet party members to form a task force for the work. Part C – Reports to Note 9. Chairman’s Announcements All members were asked to go through the half-yearly report compiled by Chairman and give him their comments within two days. Chairman would work on the Chinese translation.

ExCo members

10. Party Leader’s Report Party Leader’s report was noted. PL added that CP finally abstained in the vote on Andrew Leung’s motion on the criminalization of invasion of privacy. Albert Ho’s amendment to the motion was passed.

11. S-G’s Report S-G’s report was noted. The following issues were discussed: (a) Staff Salary Adjustments S-G added that CAO would prepare an appraisal of the performance of Sai Fai and Au Fei for members’ consideration. It was also agreed that all personnel matters thereafter should not be discussed and decided through e-mail. Further, a system of staff performance appraisal would have to be set up. The ExCo would have to make a decision later.

CAO

(b) Common Platform on Universal Suffrage Among Pro-Democracy Groups Minutes of 31st ExCo meeting 24/10/06

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S-G reported that Ronny had participated in the discussions of establishing a common stand on universal suffrage among all prodemocracy political groups. A draft position paper would soon be presented to ExCo for consideration. (c) District Council Elections S-G reported that he had attended the co-ordination meeting on District Council elections the Friday before the meeting. Co-ordination work made good progress within the pro-democracy camp. 12. Branch/Committee Chairpersons’ Reports HKI’s report was noted by members.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.

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