HOW TO BUILD A YOUTH WING

FIVE TOPICS TO CONSIDER AND DECIDE UPON
1st TOPIC
NAME, PURPOSE AND MEMBERSHIP
The first thing you want to do when writing your organisational regulations is to
state your name and your overall purpose: a short formulation of who you are and
what you want to achieve. It will be a relatively complicated business to change
the purpose again. It is therefore wise to make a formulation that gives a true and
fair description of the purpose of the organisation without being too specific, but
you should state your orientation to clearly mark your position, preferences and
interests.
Being a youth wing, you will touch upon age as one of the membership criteria.
Each youth wing operates with its own age limits. In some youth wings it is 30
years, in others 35 or more. On the same note, it is also worth considering having a
minimum age for joining.
Furthermore, you will define your membership fee and your financial year,
the period for which you will collect the fees and draw up your annual accounts.
For the sake of convenience, this will typically be identical to the calendar.
Finally, you will have to register in a legal manner. How to do this, the cost
involved, in which way and what you need to have in place before registration will
differ from country to country. Make sure you know the rules of your country
from the very beginning of the establishment of the youth wing.
2nd TOPIC
CONGRESS AS THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY
The Congress (or General Assembly as it is sometimes called) is the highest decision
making authority of a democratic organization, this is where the democracy
unfolds. The Congress is the place where the broad spectrum of members will
meet to decide on the future direction of the party.
Decisions taken here can ONLY be reversed by another Congress. As such, the
meeting of the Congress will be the most important organisational event of the
year. The members will meet, debate, elect the Board and vote to set out the following
year’s organisational and political priorities
Define the circumstances of the Congress clearly. Make it predictable and
emphasize the need to allow members ample space to debate and have their say.
When elaborating your rules you should at least agree upon:
´ When and how the Congress should take place: You might want to hold the annual
congress on a specific day every year, in order to make it predictable. Over the years,
members will know and plan accordingly.
´ The notice for the invitation to the Congress: Allow good time for members to meet
and prepare in local groups or groups of interest. They might want to formulate proposed
amendments together. Notification of congress in good time does indeed favour
the democracy within the party.
´ How to invite: Again it is important to be predictable. state exactly how and when
members will receive the invitation e.g. by email, newsletter or letter and make sure
you are able to comply in practice.
HOW TO BUILD A YOUTH WING DANIsH INsTITUTe fOr pArTIes AND DemOcrAcY pAGe 13