A flurry of new publications from ALDC and the Elections and Skills department and the Party President came out for Conference, and are all now available for sale:

Campaigning in your Community by Mark Pack and Shaun Roberts, 
This ALDC booklet is about how you too can join the ranks of successful campaigners. It  shows you how to find the right issues to campaign on, how to run successful campaigns and how to build up the team and the track-record  which then wins your election, and re-election, as a councillor. Copies are available from  the ALDC shop.

Building a winning team by Austin Rathe
This booklet from the Election and Skills Department is designed to show you how to build, motivate and organise a small committed team who have a winning attitude.
As well as practical advice it includes stories from Lib Dems across the country who bear testament to what we know works, and activities which will help make the theory relevant to your campaigns. It concludes with a task list to help you to start now to build your winning team. Copies are available from  the ALDC shop. 

Ask Every Time by Austin Rathe
When Liberal Democrats talk about local campaigning ambitions, the discussion often seems to end up in a familiar place; not enough money not enough people.  “We don’t have enough  volunteers because we don’t ask enough people to help” This booklet from the Election and Skills Department is based around that simple idea that is about recruiting that team of people who will deliver leaflets and knock on doors for you. It’s not about the “core” campaign team Copies are available from  the ALDC shop. 

ALDC presented its annual Campaigner Awards at its AGM during Federal Conference in Birmingham.  We had a large number of entries from across the country and the standard of entries is improving every year.  Once again, the awards were kindly sponsored by Midshire and Riso.  The awards were presented once again by our Party President, Tim Farron MP.

Pictures of all the winners can be found on ALDC's Flickr site.

The winners were:

Overall Winner

Bath and North East Somerset

Best Focus

Winner: Cambridge
Highly commended: North Somerset and Eastbourne

Best literature by a volunteer campaigner

Winner: Cotswold
Highly commended: Preston and South Northamptonshire

Best ward campaign

Winner: Brent
Highly commended: Southwark and Lewisham

Best election campaign material

Winner: Portsmouth
Highly commended: Wycombe, Manchester Withington and Swansea

Best online / e-campaigning

Winner: Wiltshire
Highly commended: Mid Sussex

All of the artwork from the winners and highly commendeds will be uploaded to the Best Practice area of our website over the next few weeks.  Links will be added in above as appropriate.

Autumn Federal Conference is always a busy time for ALDC, and this year's event in Birmingham was no exception. 

ALDC's training programme saw 27 different sessions highlighting issues as diverse as: email campaigning, being an effective ward councillor, campaigning against organised independents and campaigning in your local community. 

Our Fringe programme kicked off on Saturday evening with our Annual General Meeting which included the 2011 ALDC Campaigner Awards presented by Party President Tim Farron (see separate story). This was followed by our members reception, with kind support from the Co-operative, and guest speakers Nick Clegg MP and Andrew Stunell MP. You can see a short video of Nick's speech to ALDC members below or on our YouTube site here. 

Three policy fringes included a fringe on campaigning locally on national issues where speakers included Andrew Stunell MP; a "Green Deal" event (with kind support from B&Q) where speakers included Chris Davies MEP, and a Community Politics event with speakers (Lord) Paddy Ashdown, Tim Farron MP, Daisy Cooper and Director of Elections and Skills Hilary Stephenson. 

More photos on our Flickr site here.

Community Politics fringe, local campaigning fringe, Nick visiting the ALDC stand, the members' reception, and two pictures form the Campaigner Awards. 

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Liberal Democrat Federal Party Conference takes place this Saturday 17 September, to Wednesday 21 September 2011, in Birmingham. All Party members can attend, more details on registration are available from the main party website here. 

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference. 

Come and visit us in the Exhibition Hall - we're at Stand 104 in the main Hall 4. Come and tell us how you think ALDC is doing - staff, Management Committee members and volunteers will be on hand from Saturday through to Wednesday to help with advice, information, membership information and technical queries. 

Fringe Highlights

Saturday 17 September 2011, 8.15pm, ICC 10B (Conference Centre, just after the Rally)

ALDC Annual General Meeting and Campaigner Awards 2011
Party President Tim Farron MP presents the 2011 Campaigner Awards. £500 for the top prize sponsored by RISO and Midshires. We've received a record number of entries so it looks set to be a great evening (drinks provided).  

Sunday 18 September 2011, 1.00pm, ICC 8A
ALDC Members Reception (Members Only)
Join Nick Clegg MP and Andrew Stunell MP at our annual members reception in partnership with the Co-operative. (Lunch and drinks provided). 

Sunday 18 September 2011, 8.00pm Jury's Inn 112
Local Campaigning on National Issues
How do we campaign as a party in the new political environment? What are the best ways we can deliver our Autumn party campaign locally and nationally -  “Save money, Stay Warm, Go Green”. Speakers include: Andrew Stunell MP, Shaun Roberts. 

Training Highlights  

ALDC have 22 training session and six workshops at this Autumn’s conference in Birmingham. See our guide for the times for each session. 

Winning Ways
We are running a set of six ‘Winning Ways’ training sessions, these sessions will be run twice once in the morning and once in the afternoon:

Campaigning in your Community
In Touch All Year Round
A Record of Action
The Best Person for the Job
Voter ID
Targeting Voters

You might have missed: 
Next Generation Alumni
Update training session for the participants of Lib Dem Next Generation 1-5 and Lib Dems on previous Leadership Academies. 
Jury’s Inn room 114 – Sunday 9-15 to 10-45

Mayoral Campaigning - How we won in Bedford 
Sunday Morning at 11am  Room 113/115/117 of the Jurys Inn
Find out how we doubled our vote this May in Bedford with Mayor Dave Hodgson, Christine McHugh & Shaun Roberts.

Campaign Workshops
We have to half-day Campaign Workshops on Saturday afternoon: 

Winning Elections for Beginners 
This workshop is for people just starting out, it will give you the basics you will need to start campaigning in your ward, area, with practical ideas and examples to take away. Ideal for local election candidates and new campaigners.
Hyatt Regency Hotel Andante – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30

Why should anyone vote for me in May?
This special session workshop will work though developing your message for next year's local elections. Ideal for all local election candidates, councillors, agents and campaign organisers.
Hyatt Regency Hotel Allegro – Saturday – 2-30 to 5-30

Download and print out ALDC's Conference Planner for our full guide to training and fringe events for this year's September Conference. 

Cllr Jonathan Wallace has arranged some photo ops for conference which will be of interest to ALDC members and other Councillors.

All will be held in Hall 5 of ICC. The Nick Clegg photo op is for council candidates for 2012 only (Leader's office stipulation) and members will need to notify Jonathan in advance if they are coming to the NC event by email to jonathanwallace@compuserve.com.

Sunday 11-11.30am Stand alone session (no MP but with props for income tax cut and pupil premium)

Monday 11-11.30am Chris Huhne (Green Deal)

Tuesday 4.30-5pm Nick Clegg (for 2012 council candidates only, no props)