 Welcome to the first meeting in this session of the local government and community committee. I will be sharing that very briefly, as is allegedly the oldest member of the committee. After the first two items, I will be passing over to the individual who will be elected as convener. A warm welcome to the local government and community committee. Can I please remind everyone to switch off any mobile phones, as they can interfere with the electronic sound system. The first item on the agenda is to declare interest. I'm starting with myself. It's on the table so that everyone can declare any interest that is relevant to the work of this committee. I will declare that I have a private flat in Glasgow, which I let out to Can I declare that I received money previously from unison to support taking forward my breastfeeding bill in Parliament and I'm also a member of the United Nations? I don't think that it's directly declarable, but just for transparency, I still have a bongling membership of the HCA's Law Institute of Scotland, just for clarity, even if it's not the Education Committee. I am a councillor in South Lanarkshire, Mary. I am currently a councillor at Angus Council. Sorry, I have no declarable interests, although I was a member of the local tax commission up until December last year. Alexander. I am a councillor on Perth and Cynos Council. Thank you very much for that. We now move on to the second item on the agenda, which is the choice of convener. The procedure is very straightforward. It was agreed by Parliament at the Scottish National Party, it would have the convenership of this committee. Therefore only members of the SNP are available to be nominated, so do we have any nomination? Mary. I would like to nominate Bob Doris. Bob Doris, we don't need any seconder for that, but do we have any further nominations? Graham Behr-Winking at me there, I thought that maybe you are going to do the switch. That must be what it is. Okay, we have no further nominations. Bob, are you happy to accept the post? Yep. Okay, we'll do that. Welcome to the Post of Convener of Local Government Committees Committee. I now vacate the post, and Bob will be taking it for a couple of people. I thank Kenny Gibson for that and for Mary for nominating me and for the committee for me to be the convener. It's a privilege to be the convener of the committee, but I will play one straight with the next item on the agenda, which, shock horror, is the choice of a deputy convener. As Kenny Gibson said beforehand, it's a straightforward routine for doing this. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish Labour Party are eligible for nominations as deputy convener of the committee, and I will invite nominations for that post. Nominate Elaine Smith. Okay, noted. Elaine, are you happy to accept that? I am, indeed. Thank you very much. Please accept. Congratulations, Elaine. You have been elected. You will note that I didn't say, are there any other nominations? Elaine is the only Labour member on the committee, but I am delighted to have you as our vice convener. I am sure that we will work very well together, and we will move straight on to agenda item 4, which is the decision on taking items in private. I invite members to agree to consider agenda item 5 in private. This will be the committee's first opportunity to consider its approach to its work programme. I also invite members to agree to consider a work programme in private at future meetings. This is because work programmes, items usually include discussions of approach papers, and those work committees have not yet reached a view on potential witnesses. I ask members to agree to take agenda item 5 and future discussions of work programmes in private. I agree. Okay. Thank you for that. We now move to agenda item 5, which we have just agreed to take in private, so we now move into private session.