Young members set out their campaign priorities

Prospect’s young members met in Manchester at the end of October to discuss and agree their campaign priorities for the next 12 months.

Twenty-five young members, from 14 different branches, including the Intellectual Property Office, BT Scotland and EDF Energy swapped ideas and experiences.

A survey before the event identified the issues that matter most to young Prospect members. Young people’s voice within the union was voted the highest priority. Pay and professional development were also identified as key issues affecting young members.

Speakers included Prospect general secretary Mike Clancy and the union’s president Alan Grey. Mike focused on the challenge of finding the next generation of leaders in our union and stressed the importance of developing workplace reps’ talents.

Organising awards

Reps at Rosyth Royal Dockyard won the 2015 branch organising award. Membership has increased from 571 five years ago to almost 800 in 2015.

Reps mapped the workforce across the entire dockyard and then went out to recruit colleagues who were not yet members.

Alan Grey praised branch vice-chair, Davie Linton for all his efforts: “Davie has driven the organising activity at Rosyth over the past year or two and has encouraged other reps to get involved with recruiting.”

Davie used the Member recruit Member initiative, organised a branch prize for the best recruiter and ran a members’ questionnaire to highlight the dockyard’s workplace reps and how to interact with them.

“The branch’s recruitment and organising activity has led to an excellent membership density at the dockyard. Reps now have a target of 800 members in the short-term and are aiming to have 1,000 members in the longer-term.

Debbie Stringer won Prospect’s young member award for her achievements in continuing to build young member activity at Sellafield. Her hard work and leadership in chairing the national YPN committee was also recognised.

Debbie, who received her award at the young professionals’ forum, said: “I’m over the moon to receive this award. I really enjoy the work I do within Prospect, especially my national YPN work.

“Since I got involved I’ve had the opportunity to experience so much and also make positive changes for the future of Prospect. Receiving the award at the national forum was a real bonus to an already successful weekend.”