Young Greens Democracy - How It All Works
The Young Greens of England and Wales is a democratic and member-led organisation. That means you, the members get to set the political direction of what we do. You get to choose how we should operate, what issues and campaigns we should prioritise, and either elect or stand for election to lead our movement.
In this section, you’ll find information on:
-
The Young Greens Emergency and Autumn General Meetings
-
Reports, Motions, and Resolutions Explained
-
How to write and submit a Motion or Resolution
-
How to submit an amendment to the Constitution or Standing Orders
-
Amending Motions and Resolutions
The Young Greens Emergency General Meeting
This year an Emergency General Meeting (EGM) as been called and will be held online on the 5th to 6th of December, online due to COVID-19. The event will take place alongside the Emergency General Meeting.
During the EGM, you, the member’s set the agenda for the year ahead! Here you get to put forward, debate and vote on motions, hold our current elected officers to account, question our new candidates before you vote them in.
If you’re looking for the real detail on how this all works, how we’re set up, and what our rules are, you can find this in our Constitution and Standing Orders. There’s no need to know the details of these documents to take part though. They’re just here for reference!
Reports, Motions, Resolutions Explained
REPORTS
Our Young Greens Executive Committee, Green Students Committee, and Democracy and Accountability Committee will deliver a quick summary of what they’ve done since being elected. You’ll have the chance to ask them questions and hold them to account since they were elected by you!
MOTIONS
Motions are papers that you can submit, debate and vote on, which can insert entries into our Record of Policy Statements or Record of Organisational Statements.
A Policy Statement is a record of where the Young Greens stand on a certain issue, and therefore will influence how the organisation approaches this in its comms, campaigns and wider activities.
An Organisational Statement is a proposal to change how the organisation operates in terms of structure or process. This could involve making suggested changes to our Constitution or Standing Orders.
RESOLUTIONS
A Resolution sets the priorities of the Young Greens Executive Committee for the upcoming term. This could involve proposing a new national campaign, putting emphasis on a particular area of work, or suggesting new priority activities altogether.
How to write and submit a Motion or Resolution
HOW TO WRITE A MOTION OR RESOLUTION
Motions and Resolutions should be submitted in the following format:
Title: Make this clear and engaging!
Summary: Quickly summarise your motion or resolution in a sentence or two
Notes:
-
This section should be a list of statements in bullet points that lay out the facts which work as background or context to your motion
Believes:
-
This should be a list of beliefs that you think the Young Greens should hold in light of the facts and context you’ve outlined
Resolves:
-
If this is a Motion to insert a new Policy Statement: This should include the statements that you would like included into our Record of Policy Statements (this could be an amalgamation of the above)
-
If this is a Motion to insert a new Organisational Statement: This should include the statements that you would like inserted into the Record of Organisational Statements and any actions that you would like the elected officers to carry out in relation to these suggested changes.
-
If this is a Resolution: This should include the action that you would like our elected officers to take as a result of the statements you have listed in the Notes and Believes sections. In doing this you’ll be mandating the newly elected Executive to prioritise a certain issue, action or activity. Once elected, they will have to work out together how to implement these resolutions during their term.
SUBMIT YOUR MOTION OR RESOLUTION
-
You will need to create an account on this site and go to the homepage where you can Create a Motion or Create a Resolution.
-
You will need at least three proposers in addition to yourself in order for your motion to be accepted on to the EGM agenda. These people will need to be current members of the Young Greens of England and Wales (members of the Green Party of England and Wales who are students or under the age of 30).
How to submit an amendment to the Constitution or Standing Orders
To make a change to the Constitution and Standing Orders, you’ll need to submit these in our online editor. You can do this by:
-
Creating an account on this site
-
Clicking through to “D1 Constitution” and “D2 Standing Orders” on the homepage
-
Making your suggested changes in an editable version of these documents
-
Including at least three proposers in addition to yourself in order for your amendment to be accepted on to the EGM agenda. These people will need to be current members of the Young Greens of England and Wales (members of the Green Party of England and Wales who are students or under the age of 30)
Remember that when this is debated, you will need to win a two-thirds majority for this to pass, unlike for a Motion or Resolution that only requires a simple majority - [50% +1].
Amending Motions or Resolutions
You can also submit amendments to motions once all papers have been submitted. To do this you will need to go to the home page and hit “Submit Amendment” next to the motion you’d like to alter. You can do this in our online editor. More info to follow.
If you want to make an amendment to a Constitutional/Standing Orders paper, then you'll need to do so using the comment section and gain 3 supporters of the amendment. If you go to the amendment, the comment section is at the bottom of the page.
To support an amendment (to a Constitution/Standing orders paper) then please reply with your name and local party, and saying something along the lines of 'I support this amendment'.