Step One

Tomorrow evening - Wednesday 1st April 2009 - a ticket has been reserved for me to attend what I had thought would be my first taste of service at my Local Conservative Council meeting. However the meeting will be a mainly 'ceremonial' one, ie Mayor making. Hmmm. Roll on to, Wednesday 6th May 2009, the meeting which will interest me.

In addition I have received the following:

I think that you may have heard of the Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation, which is a special committee established by the House of Commons: the Conference is looking at the reasons why women, people from ethnic minorities, disabled people and people from the LGBT community are under-represented in the House compared to their representation in society. It has been asked to produce recommendations for ways to increase the representation of individuals from these groups so that the House better reflects the society it serves. RADAR has suggested that you might be willing to meet the Conference for an informal discussion about the experiences of those living with IID who are interested in political leadership. Might you be willing to meet the Conference at Westminster... You will wish to know that the Conference is extending a similar invitation to other individuals suggested by RADAR. The Conference is of course able to refund travel expenses and in some circumstances can also pay subsistence costs if, for example, your attendance would mean being away from home for more than half a day, or overnight: for further information you would be very welcome to contact my colleague...who deals with the Conference's finances. I would be very grateful also if, should you be able to attend, you would liaise about any adjustments the Conference should make to support your attendance and participation in the discussion. I hope that this invitation will be something you would be interested in doing; your participation would be tremendously valuable to the Conference. If you are interested but unfortunately unable to attend on that day please do contact me and let me know as it is possible that we might be able to make some other arrangement to facilitate your involvement. Thank you for your interest in the Conference and I hope to meet you soon,