HOW TO BUILD A YOUTH WING

Do the committees lay down their own priorities within a political framework?
Is the President the spokesperson in the public and in the press as well?
Or is this the responsibility of the Board?
Both ways of organizing have their pros and cons: The choice is either a
structure with a high level of delegation of political responsibilities (encouraging
many active members to work and participate) or a structure with a lower
level of delegation of powers (giving the Board a higher level of control, centralizing
decisions).
Working groups will be more informal in nature. They could originate from a
specific decision of the Congress (wanting a proposal for a position on certain
issues before deciding if it should be a political priority) or they could originate
from a desire of specific members to draw up a certain proposal on a position
in order to convince everybody that this should be official policy.
The dynamic of such groups can be invaluable for the development of a
democratic and vibrant youth wing. It is highly recommendable to stimulate
them, but also to set up clear frameworks and guidelines for their work – thus
preventing them from working in vain.
EXTRAORDINARY CONGRESS
Who – besides the Board – will have the authority to call for an extraordinary Congress?
For democratic reasons, you will want members to be able to make the call
but it is also important that a critical number of members support the idea. You can
express this as an absolute number or as a certain percentage. The higher the number,
the more difficult it will be to carry through an extraordinary general Congress
by initiative of the members.
HALF THE MEMBERS + 1
Different youth wings will have different procedures for the election of the Board
members. In one of the Danish youth wings the procedure is as follows: The Board
candidates will present themselves in a written form three weeks before the Congress
and answer questions such as: Which experiences do you have from political
work? Which areas do you want to get engaged in? How do you see the development
of our youth wing in the future? Why should we vote for you? The written
presentations are distributed to all Congress-participants. The participants can vote
for half of the members needed for the Board + 1 in order to ensure a fair representation
from eventual minorities.
HOW TO BUILD A YOUTH WING DANIsH INsTITUTe fOr pArTIes AND DemOcrAcY pAGe 15