Chapter 9
The Trunk
The Basic Unit of Organization


Chapter 9a
Local Citizens Groups


The basic unit of organization we imagine is the Local Citizens Group. These groups will comprise the heart and soul of the organization. They will form the ‘trunk’ from which the branches of the organization’s governance grow, and to which the branches of government are accountable. It is with the citizen-members, whose collective democratic will is expressed through these Local Citizens Groups, that the power base of the organization will reside.

As mentioned previously, we have thought that it will probably be most advantageous, for political reasons, for Local Citizens Groups to be geographically organized by US Congressional districts. The current rough average population of a US Congressional District is almost 700,000, however. We think this is far too large a division to define ‘local’ groups, since we imagine that Local Citizens Groups will be of an optimum size that facilitates the impact that each citizen is able to exert within her or his group. We are imagining the optimum size of Local Groups to be in the hundreds, or perhaps a thousand or two at the most, (but again, these are only our own preliminary thoughts and ideas, and we hope that more of us will apply our mind power to the task of imagining the most ideal form and structure for the organization we undertake to build).

The organization’s constitutional provisions might allow for groups to be organized locally, within a District, by issues affinity, or by identity affinity, (by gender interests, ethnicity, students, seniors, etc), or by any other criteria that fits the needs and inclinations of the citizen-members, rather than (or as well as) by neighborhood, zip code, or other geographic criteria.

If we assume successful growth, on the scale we discussed earlier, (on the scale of an organization with millions of members), then each District might grow to contain dozens, or even potentially hundreds, of Local Groups. The structure we build must therefore be entirely scalable. It must be able to accommodate Districts made up of only one or two (or several) Local Groups, with a total membership population of 25, or 50, (or any number), to Districts with large membership populations of many thousands, (or tens, or hundreds of thousands), with many large Local Groups of hundreds or thousands each.

To accommodate communications from the Local Group level, to the District Congress level, and then to the State Congress and National Congress levels, (according to our prototype organizational chart), we must devise a layered system of representation. In order to allow for such easy scalability, (and developmental growth that is likely to be very uneven from one geographical area to another), we must devise a ‘one person one vote’ system of representation that can encompass both rapid and uneven growth to any scale, and also great diversity in the size of Local Groups, District Congresses, and State Congresses. Some Districts might develop rapidly, and quickly grow to significant size with large numbers of citizen-members, while other Districts develop slowly, with only a handful of citizen-members. Every likelihood must be fully encompassed in our scalable plan.

Opportunities for developmental and temporary cross-District Local Group participation in sparsely developed areas, (organizing Local Groups directly by State, rather than broken into Districts), might also be allowed for to help accommodate uneven development and facilitate scalability. Provisions might even be provided to accommodate ‘at-large’ participation, in non-geographically based groups, (by issues or interest affinity), during a developmental period, to encourage expanding participation in areas where no Local Groups have formed, with stipulations for the formation of District-based Local Groups once a population within a District has formed through ‘at-large’ participation. (People who are citizen-members of at-large Groups could be encouraged, or possibly required, to join Local Groups in their Districts once those Groups have formed).

(We will discuss our ideas for a completely scalable ‘one person one vote’ system in detail in Chapter 10-I-h).

It should be emphasized that membership in this organization, as we imagine it, cannot be anonymous, and that to obtain ‘credentials’ of citizen-membership, people must establish their identities as real persons, and this must include their place of domicile. Various public database tools can be used to facilitate this, (public directories, ID by driver’s license number, Social Security number, or other public ID database). Citizen-members can be assigned a password that allows them to sign-in to participate in the function’s of their Groups, and if a person has no public ID to present, (or does not want to present an ID for some reason,), this password can be mailed out, by snail-mail, to their physical address, (with research provisions in place to link this address to their names).

Provisions must be made to provide the option of electronic payment of dues, and these provisions themselves, which are based on various commercial databases, (credit cards, PayPal, etc), can facilitate establishment of credentials.

Zip codes can be used to track people’s home Districts, and if at-large participation is allowed for developmental purposes, the organization’s database can track District membership populations, in order to determine when any given District’s growing membership population warrants a shift of its members from at-large ‘Local’ Groups to District-based Local Groups.


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