The aim is to set up a structure that can bring together a variety of networks, campaigns, organisations and individuals to contribute to the building of a movement for land reform. The structure needs to have several features in order to achieve this aim:
- Means of ensuring that people have regular contact with each other, both in face-to-face meetings/events and through social media.
- Enable those affiliated to the structure to share information, both about land and about the activities of the different components.
- Enable people from different organisations, networks, groups to work together on common projects.
Membership
Any individual or organisation who signs up to the Common Ground statement will define who can affiliate to the network.
The Network will currently be open to anyone in the UK. Groups may want to coordinate local or regional meetings and activities.
Meetings
There will be three meetings for the Network each year to communicate, learn, and make decisions together. The locations of the meetings will vary so they are not always in London.
Network Activities and Decision Making
Every affiliate of the network is autonomous. This means that they can carry on whatever activities they want without the agreement of the network as a whole. However, a group may propose an activity that is officially supported by the whole network
There is no executive or steering committee that makes policy in between meetings. The meetings are the supreme decision-making body. However, there will be admin working groups to assist the running of the network in between meetings.
Working Groups
The network will initially be run through working groups made up of volunteers from across the Network. The working groups activities will follow on from decisions made at the meetings.
The working groups are:
- Education and outreach
- Direct action
- Policy
and
- External comms (social media, website, newsletter)
- Internal comms (meeting organisation, email account)
- Fundraising
Decision Making and Activities
There may come a time in the Network that we need to make decisions about activities that we participate in, statements we want to make, or initiatives that we want to mobilise for. This will necessitate a more formal decision making structure, where we need to decide what kind of decision making process we use. We think we will be able to better decide what kind of process we need when we discover what kind of network we will become.