The membership

The membership of LIBERAL YOUTH is defined as the members of the federal party who are under 26 or a student.  In practise not all of these people are listed as members as they may not have informed the party of their date of birth or their student status, this can be fixed by emailing our office

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The membership is invited to attend two conferences each year, in Spring and in Autumn, that are usually organised at a university during the standard school holidays.  Under exceptional circumstances these can be moved, but this is always done before advertising it to the membership at large.

 

People between 26 and 30 can join LIBERAL YOUTH if they specifically wish to, and those over 30 can join as a "friend", which does not afford them voting rights but most other advantages.

The executive

The day-to-day running of LIBERAL YOUTH is handled by the executive which serves a term of one year, starting in July.  Elections to be a member of the executive occur in April and are a postal vote, counted under the Single Transferable Vote system.  The chair is assisted by four vice chairs, responsible for Campaigns, Communications, Finance and Membership Development.  It in most cases the Vice Chair Communications has been a jobshare, two people working together to do the job, and in recent years Membership Development has been filled with jobshare candidates.  As well as the Vice Chairs the executive also contains GEMs, General Executive Members, who can decide their own portfolio; and representatives from the English, Scottish and Welsh LIBERAL YOUTH organisations.

 

Honourary Officers

The honourary officers of LIBERAL YOUTH are elected by conference and serve on two year terms.  They are the people responsible for LIBERAL YOUTH as a political organisation but have very little involvement in the running of LIBERAL YOUTH.  For example, the Treasurer is an honourary Vice President and is responsible for the accuracy of our accounts.  The honourary officers are entitled to receive all internal executive communications, and are an invaluable resource, without whom new executives would be lost.

 

English, Scottish, Welsh branches

The national parties of the Liberal Democrats are complimented with national parties for LIBERAL YOUTH.  These have their own executives which are chaired by convenors who call their AGMs.  These organisations main duties are contributing to the executive meetings of the national Lib Dem bodies and negotiating membership agreements with their Lib Dem counterparts.  For example, there is a discounted rate for members joining at Freshers fairs within England.

 

The Regions

The national branches are sub-divided into regions, in the same way as the federal party.  These generally cover a few large cities and their surrounding towns and also have an executive.  Some are far more active than others, depending on the local branches they cover, the size of the area and many other factors.  Generally speaking the regions often have no formal meetings and often become defunct due to a difficulty in finding people interested in forming an executive.  In such regions branches often talk directly to eachother and the federal region, only forming a true executive when people are interested in doing so.

 

Local Branches

Local Branches are the most common type of LIBERAL YOUTH group and the only one that is not officially recognised by our constitution.  From a legal point of view, branches are self-governing clubs that are usually attached to a university student union to form a university society.  Some, like Bristol, cover an entire city, including multiple universities and schools, whereas others cater to the students of the university only.

 

There may be a joining fee for these branches on top of the fee for joining the Liberal Democrats.  This allows the branches to operate campaigns without relying on grants from the national organisation and is also a necessity for most student unions to recognise them.