By Staff reporter 
Members of the Montserrat Legislative Assembly attended a post-Election Seminar which was held on January 14 and 15, 2015 at the Montserrat Cultural Center in Little Bay. Post-Election Seminar organized by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) British Islands and Mediterranean Region (BIMR) on January 14 and 15 2015 to be held at the Cultural Centre. There will be a brief Opening at 9:00am and you are hereby invited in your capacity as media Managers.
The se
minar was organized by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) British Islands and Mediterranean Region (BIMR) and was a follow-up to then Speaker Sir Howard Fergus who conducted a Parliamentary Orientation Seminar in November 2014 particularly for new members elected at the September 2014 General Elections. That seminar also exposed the members to observe the rules and standing orders of parliament at the same time served as an introduction to the Assembly.
The purpose of the seminar was to introduce the elected members of the Legislature to Montserratian politics, to provide an overview of the Constitution make up of Montserrat and to define the role of the executive, legislation and the judiciary branches of Government.
The two-day seminar was conducted by three international parliamentarians; they were Mr. N. H. Cole Simons (backbencher) from the island of Bermuda, Hon. Alexander F. Dowines OBE, MLC from the Isle of Man and Ms. Cloe Mawson, Clerk to the House of Lords from the United Kingdom. They offered the expertise on areas of governance, parliamentary behavior and procedures, the overall duties as a legislator.
There were a number of roundtable sessions covering topics related to but not limited to the role of Parliamentarians while the topics were selected based on the needs of the Montserrat’s Parliament. The sessions were also geared to build skillsets on communication and engagement. The facilitators also took the opportunity to answer some of the concerns from the group in attendance.
The seminar concluded with a mock debate by the elected members of the house of parliament conducted by incoming speaker of the house Shirley Osborne.
The Legislators who attended all expressed gratitude for the seminar and cited how beneficial it was to them as they proceeded to carry out the duties of governing Montserrat.
The sessions were mostly quite interactive with questions, comments and suggestions leaving the participants all very informed and according to the many responses, satisfied.
