Committees are defined as either permanent or ad-hoc combinations of Working Groups. Committees have one Secretary and may elect up to three Deputy Secretaries who may assume the role of the Secretary at the discretion of the Secretary, or in the absence of the Secretary during necessary assembly of the Committee. Membership in the assembly of a Committee requires membership of a Working Group that forms that Committee. Members may join the assembly of more than one Committee, provided they are an active member of an appropriate Working Group.
Working Groups, whether defined in this document as permanent or not, are ad-hoc assemblies of Members with specific remits, with responsibility for organisation of the assembly and responsibility for ensuring the democratic process partially resting in a Secretary elected by the assembly of that Working Group (and any interested Members), but also in the assembly of the Members within the Working Group itself.
The means of decision-making for Working Groups shall be, with certain exceptions, Assembly Consensus.
Where those exceptions apply (as detailed elsewhere in this constitution), the only viable alternative is Party Consensus. Working Groups may choose (by Assembly Consensus) to appoint Deputy Secretaries to aid the Secretary in organisational matters but the Secretary may not make such appointments unilaterally.
The Secretary of any Committee or Working Group is responsible for recordkeeping.
The Secretaries of the Working Groups and Committees are obligated to create and maintain a digital working document as a means of recording the details of the meeting. They may delegate elements of that task to a Party Participant or Member who is also present at the meeting provided there is no objection from the meeting participants. They may delegate this responsibility so long as the delegation does not result in dereliction.
There shall be permanent and defined Committees and Working Groups, but the Membership is free to form further Working Groups and Committees as per Party or Assembly Consensus; as such Working Groups may create new Working Groups as per their own consensus, but those Working Groups exist only in the Party context as long as they are active and operating. Ad-hoc Working Groups are subject to the same rules as permanent Working Groups. Working Groups may be formed at the discretion of Members. It is suggested that 4 is enough to form a Working Group.
Working Groups may also agree, through a Thing (a meeting of multiple assemblies), whether to form a permanently co-operating Committee if it is agreed that those Working Groups have a strong intersection of interest.
The permanent Working Groups are:
- the Financial Working Group, which supports the Treasurer and provides a forum in which to discuss the financial workings of the party openly and transparently; all members of the Party are always members of the Financial Working Group;
- the Operational Working Group, responsible for maintaining and upholding the Constitution of the Party (and therefore referral to the Committee for Resolutions), enforcing the Constitution of the Party (as a step prior to the Committee for Resolutions), and supporting the other Working Groups organisationally by way of providing expertise, data, and other non-financial administrative and IT resources;
- the Media Working Group, responsible for external Party communications, both responsible for the hiring of, and co-operating with & oversight of any staff that the Party may hire for this role ("the Media Team");
- the Constituency, Regional, and City Assemblies, which are geographically organised, and into which all Members are sorted upon joining the Party.
The permanent Committees of the Party are:
- The Committee for Resolutions, comprising the Operational Working Group, the Financial Working Group, and the Party Secretaries, but never to be chaired by a Party Secretary. The Committee shall when necessary appoint three of its assembly (who are not otherwise Party Officials and who have not within six months held the role) to the role of Secretary of Resolution, who shall relinquish those positions after six months or when there is no active caseload, whichever occurs first. The Secretaries of Resolution shall chair all Party disciplinary hearings unless one or more must recuse under this constitution. Should two recuse, they must step down and be replaced.
- the Foundational Committee is a Committee comprised of the Operational Working Group and the Financial Working Group. It provides a means of collaboration between the Operational and Financial "wings" of the Party, but it also bears responsibility for creation of new assemblies. More specifically, the Foundational Committee verifies that new assemblies do not encroach on existing remits held by other assemblies, and verifies that new assemblies are in keeping with the Constitutution of the Party, particularly the Ethical Kernel.
- the Party Policy Society is a Committee which handles communication for, as well as supporting the ad-hoc Policy Working Groups ecosystem with organisational effort and labour;
- the Constituency Societies Committee is a Committee supporting and comprising the Regional, City, and Constituency Working Groups, and is responsible for organising the establishment of Constituency and City Working Groups for any UK constituency or city which lacks one;
- the Constructive Activism Committee is a Committee supporting and responsible for forming Constructive Activism Assemblies (sometimes called "Societies"), which will campaign on whatever issues their consensus selects;
- the Committee for Presentation of Policy comprises the Policy Society, the Constituency Societies Committee, and the Media Working Group; it organises collaboration between all three of these to ensure good communication of both efforts to obtain, and the results of efforts to obtain, Consensus - to the Membership and the Public, in turn through the Media Working Group.