South East Edinburgh Greens - Annual Report

South East Edinburgh Greens Annual Report 2020-
21

This report covers the period August 2020 to June 2021. It was a shorter year
because 2019-20 was extended, in line with Edinburgh Branch, because of the
Covid-19 pandemic.

Green News

As usual, we produced Liberton/Gilmerton and Southside/Newington editions of
Green News in the Autumn. Owing to concerns from delivery co-ordinators about
not having enough volunteers because of the pandemic, we delivered fewer than
usual:

The Spring edition was produced by the national office for the Holyrood 2021
campaign.

Fundraising and Finances

With no capitation income this year we set a £300 fundraising target to cover
potential costs, however the only expenditure that we had this year was for a
staple gun, used for putting posters on A-boards for the elections.

Auction of Promises

We asked branch members to submit a promise – something that they’d make (e.g. a
crumble), or have already created (e.g. a handmade bag), or could do for someone
else (e.g. cello lessons).

Promises were put up for auction via Facebook between 8 and 18 December, when
the highest bids were announced.

£270 was raised.

https://www.edinburghgreens.org.uk/events/auction-of-promises/

Big Burns Night In

SEEG undertook this event on behalf of the branch as a Holyrood 2021 Campaign
fundraiser, with Robin Liebmann (BOE) providing professional support. Originally
we had hoped the event would be in person but it soon became clear that it would
have to be online. This meant a steep learning curve for SEEG volunteers and
Robin.

However, the online event turned out to be a wonderful occasion, and more than
matched expectations. It drew together large numbers of people in creating the
event, fostered a real sense of team unity.

£3,464 was raised.

https://www.edinburghgreens.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising/big-burns-night-in/

Transgender Policy sessions

The resignation of Andy Wightman in December drew attention to the party’s trans
rights policy with members wanting to understand more.

SEEG were the first group to host the party’s educational workshop and followed
that up with our own, more informal, discussion group.

Holyrood 2021

This campaign was all about delivering printed materials, as we were unable to
canvass or have street stalls. The national campaign office produced a long list
of materials to be delivered in a relatively short space of time.

Initially we were pessimistic about how much we could achieve. However, the
Lothian campaign support officers were good at increasing our volunteer capacity
(e.g. through phone banking) and in the end we delivered well over 25,000 items,
made up of:

We also delivered 250 window posters to supporters and members and put out A-
boards at 17 polling stations.

Following the election, we had a thank-you social for volunteers at The
Salisbury Arms. This was attended by around 28 people, including many new
volunteers who got involved for the first time during the campaign.

Membership

We now have 220 members in our two council wards. This is an increase of 10% in
the past year, and is at its highest for over 5 years.

We've developed a welcome information letter for new SEEG members, taking the
branch version as a starting point.

Plan for 2021-22

The coming year will undoubtedly be dominated by the council elections in May
2022. Liberton/Gilmerton is a target ward for the first time with candidate,
Leda Sharkey, already in place.

Southside/Newington have also been working on a ward plan of community action.
SEEG members submitted ideas for issues they would like to work on and voted on
them with the following coming top:

With the Holyrood Campaign taking priority, detailed planning of these was put
to one side until the summer.

Representation on the Branch Committee

John Nichol, who has been SEEG's representative on the Branch Committee since
2018, resigned from the post at this year's AGM.

Our newly elected representative is Breck MacGregor.