Life in the Labour party is not always easy.

I was first involved in the party in the 80s in Putney. I went to some meetings to see guest speakers from Nicaragua and other such delights, I went out delivering election material for elections and by-elections, did the knocking on doors during elections, went to Wandsworth Town Hall for the count, in fact I did most things except actually join the party.

I wanted to join, I tried to join, and the people I knew in the party wanted me to join. The only trouble was that nobody seemed to remember who was responsible for signing up new members or how to go about it. There was also some suggestion that I might have trouble as I did not belong to a trade union – I don’t think anyone in my company did outside the factories up north, and I couldn’t see how me being a solitary union member in London would lead to any sort of collective bargaining.

Before I could get anything sorted out I had moved across town to Lewisham anyway, got married, and started travelling a lot with the job. Sometimes as members we feel that the party organisation is a bit ‘too slick’, but on balance I think I prefer that to the chaos I remember from London.

When I eventually moved to Crawley I joined up via the party HQ in London, soon had meeting invites from the local ward and went along to meet them, so it all worked out in the end.

Locally we are trying to attract new members, and to make sure we keep them by making them feel welcome and getting them involved, so I was interested to see a new blog by chickenlittle called Politics for beginners. They have just joined the party, received their membership card, and are waiting to se what happens next.

I will be following their progress closely, to see what their experience is like. If their local party is a good one I can learn from what they do, otherwise I can always learn what not to do. Sometimes joining a new group of people as a newcomer can be daunting and if the existing members appear to be a closed and cliquey group it can be worse. I would like to think that my local ward party will always make new members feel welcome and valued but I don’t want to be too complacent about that. I do know, however, that some wards feel threatened by new members and don’t make them feel too welcome.

(By the way, if you happen to live in Crawley and want to join the party, just e-mail me and I’ll come out to visit you with a membership form!)