I was recently asked by my local BCNDP Riding Association president to present a proposal for a new E-Communication strategy for our riding. Happy to oblige, I first took to the BCNDP website for some inspiration. I don’t frequent the site as much as I used to and I was surprised to see that it was remarkably out of date in many areas. At first glance, there isn’t much wrong with the website. They have updated headlines critiquing policy and other such things coming from the BCLiberals and Christy Clark. They have an updated bio of the new provincial leader, Adrian Dix. They have a link where you can get updated news from the party by giving them your email. All of this is a great way to engage visitors to the site and keep them informed. However, when you make your way to the about us section and click on the Young New Democrats link, see what pops up:
Who is that lady in the pink suit jacket? Why, it’s ousted leader Carole James? But why on earth is she in a picture with students when in fact, as you can see above, Adrian Dix is the leader? Questions for the website admins.
Inconsequential you think? That’s just a picture mistake and surly the BCNDP aren’t so disorganized that they don’t update their press releases? Think again:
That’s right. Their Newsroom hasn’t been updated since 2010. Surly, you must be thinking, that’s because they lost their leader in 2010. That would be a reasonable assumption if, in fact, the most recent press release wasn’t from December 28th. James resigned in early December.
I shouldn’t leave out either the sections of the website that have scant or zero content. For example, the Reality Check section, where they take BCLiberal talking points and policies and put truth to them, is completely void of anything resembling reality, let alone checks. The same goes for Recent Quotes (how recent do we have to be really, a few months should be fine), Multimedia (not even any script to explain that there will be something up soon) and finally the Events section, where apparently there are no BCNDP events in the future.
Why am I targeting the BCNDP, the very party I am a member of? Because I’m not an apologist. Because I hold myself and my party to a high standard. Because to counter the BCLiberals and the momentum they will surly gain as a result of electing Ms. Clark, we in the NDP need to be on the ball and at the top of our game. If these small mistakes can be made on a website, what internal errors are being made and who is making them? The media campaign is important during any campaign and not being able to let grassroots organizers have access to media, quotes, and many other tools will mean that we cannot do our jobs. HQ need to get on this RIGHT AWAY, as a provincial election is likely coming and those of us on the ground floor are not being left with much to work with. You can be darn sure that Clark’s team will be ready. We need to be as well.
