New HQ Director for People sets out her plans I have previously covered the appointment of Laura Davies as the new Director for People at HQ (a job title now tweaked from the original Director of People). Here now is Laura reflecting on her first few weeks in the job and her plans for the future. It’s a very strange to discover that before you have even set foot in the door, you already have a crowd of commentators, speculating about you, your new job and what your priorities should be – not to mention your personal appearance! Odd as it might seem, just a few weeks in I still maintain I have landed my dream job. The reason? These very same people – the ones that I get to work with and for – and who will no doubt continue to observe, advise and maybe, from time-to-time, even cheer me on. It’s these opinionated, smart, dedicated and liberal people that it is my job to support as Director for People. My role is to see that the journey people take into and through our party is as encouraging and empowering as it should be. The time is right for us to refresh and renew ourselves, in order to re-build a base on which we can grow into the future. What this means is prioritising our efforts to attract new people into the party – and indeed new types of people. More members means more ideas, more skills, more funding (oops did I say that?), and more capacity – all things that we critically need. Two people in a London office cannot recruit the next Lib Dem generation, so we must mobilise our local parties and campaigners with the right resources, to ensure that winning members is up there as a goal right alongside winning votes. Secondly, rebuilding means empowering our members with the skills and opportunities to develop into an active, volunteering base – and beyond that, into the many exciting roles our party offers. I plan to expand the reach of our excellent training beyond Conference, such as through self-service online learning. I also want to be able to guide these new, enthused members and volunteers immediately towards opportunities – so I’ll soon be asking (begging?) for information about our myriad of brilliant social events, action days, and training activities being organised locally to be fed through to my team. Communities and organisations grow stale through uniformity, and our party is no different. That’s why growing in diversity needs to inhabit everything else we do. In my team that will be no different. Diversity cannot just be a standalone project – but part of the objectives of every initiative: to recruit more diversely, to pro-actively upskill and encourage members from under-represented groups so that the composition of our committees, councillors and candidates starts to reflect society better. At the heart of every good relationship is communication. I look forward to continuing the conversation with people in every part of the Lib Dems. Let’s keep inspiring and encouraging each other, and together we can grow again.