Tony Lennon re-elected President

Tony Lennon, BECTU’s current President, has been elected to serve a further term from 2008-2010.

A senior lay activist for more than two decades, Tony Lennon will head up the union’s National Executive Committee (NEC) for the new term which starts on 1 June 2008 after this year’s annual conference in Liverpool.

The NEC is the union’s key decision making body between conferences and looks after the interests of BECTU’s entire membership.

In addition to his NEC responsibilities, Tony is a delegate to the union’s BBC Divisional Committee and is one of BECTU’s negotiators on the National Joint Council, a joint union/management group responsible for industrial relations in the BBC.

BECTU’s President is also a respected figure in the UK’s broadcasting community and is a regular contributor to debates on public service broadcasting and media matters generally.

In recent months Tony has led BECTU’s involvement with OFCOM’s Digital Dividend Review and pulled no punches at a Westminster conference last month when he described OFCOM’s proposals for the sale of spectrum as “treacherous”.

Commenting on his re-election Tony said “I’m touched and honoured that members are willing to place their trust in me. I’ll do everything I can in the next two years to ensure that BECTU continues to fight for their interests, wherever they work and whatever they do”.

NEC Elections - the story so far…

At the same time as members have been electing their next President, they have also been electing their divisional representatives to the NEC.

Congratulations are due to the following BECTU members who have been elected to represent their divisions on the NEC for 2008-2010:

• Mick Corfield, Jo Livesey and Douglas McGill for the Arts and Entertainment division;
• Robert Scott and Dave Smith for the Independent Broadcasting division;
• Christine Bond and Lawrence Van Reiss for the Regional Production division.

The BBC is the only division where the number of nominees exceeds the number of available places so an election will take place amongst the BBC membership with ballot papers set to be despatched on 10 March.

The ballot will close on 30 April with the results to be declared at Annual Conference on Saturday 10 May. The nominees who will contest the election are Alastair Hendrie, Willis McBriar, Jane Perry, Mark Rivers and Angie Scurr.