Galway County PPN Secretariat

Galway County PPN Secretariat Background
The PPN has a voluntary committee with 11 members called a Secretariat who administer and manage its activities at County level. Some of the functions of the Secretariat include managing the PPN workers and delivering on a work plan agreed in March 2020, and to generally support the 932 member organisations.

The PPN and its Secretariat are wholly independent of the County Council and are both represented in Council Committees by its PPN representatives. The PPN Secretariat, like the PPN Representatives are also nominated by their member group and elected by the whole PPN but their role is more general than that of the reps. The Secretariat functions like a steering group and it meets 4-6 times a year. Its membership consists of one representative from each of the 5 Municipal Districts, 2 Community & Voluntary Reps, 2 Social Inclusion Reps and 2 Environmental Pillar Reps.

Positions to be filled

1 Female representative from the Social inclusion Pillar. This position is open to county wide members.

1 Female representative from the Community & Voluntary sector. This position is open to county wide members.

Nominate – Social inclusion Pillar
 
Nominate – Community & Voluntary sector.
Guidelines for groups in choosing nominees for election
(Members from the Environmental Pillar cannot be nominated for these positions).

In all cases we are seeking diversity in representatives in terms of gender, geography and experience.  We particularly welcome nominations from groups who are traditionally underrepresented in decision making.

  • Has the person got experience in the particular topic which they can bring to the table?
  • Has the person got experience and knowledge of issues affecting groups in their sector i.e environmental, Social inclusion, Community and Voluntary etc?
  • Can that person make an effective contribution on committees etc?
  • Is the person willing to represent the views of all the groups who elect them, and not just their own?
  • Is the person willing to communicate with all interested PPN members regularly to discuss relevant issues?
  • Has the person the time to prepare for meetings (often involving reading large documents), attend meetings (which can be during day, evening or weekend time) and feedback to the groups who elected them?

In addition to the above, the following generic requirements must be met:

  • Elected representatives of Local Authorities cannot be nominated through this process.
  • If anyone nominated through this process subsequently decides to enter electoral politics, he/she must immediately resign their PPN representative role and the relevant nominating PPN unit (Electoral College / Linkage Group) will choose a replacement.
  • A person who has been an elected representative of any level of Government (local or national) should not be chosen to represent PPN in any representative role for one year after completing their term of office.
  • Representatives will be expected to declare potential conflicts of interest. Employees or professionals, where significant conflict of interest occurs, cannot be nominated.
  • Groups who already have representational rights on a particular committee, cannot nominate to that committee (e.g. Farm organisations cannot nominate to a committee which already has a farming representative)

Specifically the role of the representative is to

  • Represent the PPN / Municipal Districts and be accountable to the PPN membership. They are not representing their own organisation.
  • Bring issues of relevance from the body that chose them to the policy making arena, and contribute to the work of the committee they are on.
  • Give feedback to the PPN on the outcomes of the policy meetings and the issues being raised.

Any queries or clarifications can be directed to [email protected] or 091 50 91 30 .

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