Branch Structure

Attention     All members

A democratic party may have different types of decision-making processes and as such this will impact on the members powers and degree of managment of the party. Therefore the Branch structure of a party is vitally important so that the purpose and the definitions of a branch’s structure be carefully defined as it will affect how we, as a party, determine what a branch should be.

Purpose of a Branch:

It seems to me that the purpose of a branch is to have close contact with members of the Party in a defined area as well as the community in that self same area. The local members should be encourageing each other, as well as being the face of the party to that community at large. The closer the contact is between members, the greater the capacity to encourage each other in both their daily and political lives in whatever manner that the local membership so desire. This encouragement maybe by many means including debating and social agendas, including prayer meetings ect. Hence the need for a branch to be capable of being able to fulfill those purposes there will need to be members in reasonably close proximity or to be able to be in conduct by remote meetings (Zoom or such like). This may in some electorates mean that there will be branches created around towns or regions; while in other areas it may mean that members from several electorates in close proximity may form a single branch. This may need reasonable flexibility in the branch structure and this will depend upon the style of democracy within the party we all choose.

Representive Democracy:

In a Representive Democratic model a branch usually sends delegates to the central decision-making meetings to vote on behalf of the branch. These delegates are elected by the local members at a formal branch meeting. In this model the branch’s boundaries and structure becomes more important so as not to disadvantage the more remote communities.

Full Democracy:

In a Full Democracy model then, each member will be able to vote on all matters at the central decision-making meetings, they will just need to be there, or as per other arrangements may be put into place from time to time. In a Full Democracy model the leadership group must see that the meeting locations are not disadvantaging some members by the tryanny of distance; hence it is advisable to have meeting in various regional areas and to have remote input into all meetings. Under this model the branch structure is not as critical as in the Representive Democracy model

Your feedback is vitally important:

Please let us know of your views in regard to the way you would like to see a branch structured which will need to be inserted into the constitution