These guidelines offer advice on how to formulate motions for the two main annual conferences of NIPSA; the General Conference, the Civil Service Group Conference.
The business of the General Conference is matters which concern members of both the Civil Service Group and the Public Officers’ Group. In other words motions for the General Conference should be on broad policy issues. They would include motions on matters of broad principle or policy relating to such subjects as:
The business of the Civil Service Group Conference is matters of sole concern to members of the Civil Service Group. If however a motion is framed in such a way as to relate solely to a section of members for whom there is a Departmental committee, panel, etc, it will not normally be included in the primary agenda for the Civil Service Group Conference. This arises because Conference Standing Order No 7(d) stipulates that motions which can be dealt with by a body such as a panel set up under rule 6.9(a) of the NIPSA constitution will be included in the secondary agenda.
Generally speaking motions should be on aspects of Civil Service conditions which apply across Departments and occupations. The range of topics would include:
Branches can submit motions on matters of public policy, provided they do not contain any matter of a party political nature. For example motions dealing with matters relating to human rights, peace, unemployment, public expenditure, education, social security, health, etc. would be in order. However motions would be out of order if they dealt with party political issues such as the organisation of political parties or groups, elections to Parliament or other public bodies, the constitutional status of Northern Ireland or campaigns, meetings etc run by a political organisation or a group of political organisations. Motions which express support for or opposition to particular forms of government or social systems are likely to be ruled out of order. If a motion, which would otherwise be in order, contains any matter of a party political nature, it would be ruled out of order even if the party political element is only an incidental statement or comment, etc. Branches should not therefore import any party political elements into their motions.