CPA Structures

The CPA is currently administered by an interim Coordinating Group of local activists convened by Andrew Feinstein, but we are committed to implementing a fully democratic constitution. We aim to produce a draft constitution based on the principles laid out in the below document, and will invite our members to debate, amend, and vote on the constitution at an inaugural Annual General Meeting before the end of 2025.

1. Membership

Anybody who lives, works, studies or volunteers in Camden who supports our statement of aims and principles and who agrees to abide by our code of conduct should be entitled to join the organisation.

Members will normally be required to pay dues, graded according to ability to pay.

2. Structures and Leadership

A co-ordinating group should be elected by the membership at an annual general meeting (AGM) each year.

The Co-ordinating Group (CG) takes responsibility for the day-to-day administration of the organisation. This will include:

1. Overseeing the organisation’s finances and legal responsibilities

2. Planning the organisation’s regular meetings

3. Overseeing the organisation’s membership list

4. Overseeing the organisation’s digital infrastructure

5. Overseeing the organisation’s staff (if we can afford any!)

6. Liaising with the organisation’s working groups and with external organisations

7. Ensuring that the members of the organisation are kept informed about upcoming meetings and their agenda, and that they are able to access the minutes of previous meetings

8. Public statements on behalf of the organisation

9. Taking any necessary decisions in between meetings

Officer roles

1. Chair/convenor - responsible for chairing meetings and consulting with others to set the agenda

2. Secretary - responsible for administrative work

3. Treasurer - responsible for finances

Other officer roles may be created as appropriate.  Officers will normally serve for up to two years.

Working groups

Working groups should be set up on a case by case basis to take forward particular projects - whether time-limited or ongoing.

In general, working groups should be open to non-members, but there may be specific working groups (e.g. more sensitive or more internally focused ones) that should be restricted to members, or to some subset of members.

Each working group should have a convenor, to chair and coordinate with the CG  and with other working groups, and to ensure that notes are taken to report back to the CG/other meetings.

3. Meetings and communications

Meetings

Once a year, there should be an AGM where the CG is elected, reports are presented about the organisation’s finances, and where high level issues of organisational policy and strategy, as well as constitutional amendments, are discussed and voted on by the organisation’s membership. There should be a mechanism for calling Extraordinary General Meetings (EGMs) if there is an urgent need for such a meeting sooner than the next scheduled AGM.

The CG should determine an appropriate schedule of regular meetings (perhaps monthly) for coordinating the day-to-day activities of the organisation. These should generally be open meetings where non-members from the local community and from other campaigns and organisations should be invited to participate.

The CG should determine its own schedule of committee meetings as necessary to facilitate its work supporting the wider organisation. Working groups should determine their own schedule of meetings as appropriate to their work.

Communications

We should periodically review our communications infrastructure; for a new organisation, a proposed set-up is:

1. a WhatsApp community to facilitate internal communication & coordination, with subgroups for different purposes, working groups, committees, etc

2. a shared platform e.g. GoogleDrive for hosting internal documents

3. an internal email broadcast list for important announcements, particularly e.g. upcoming annual or extraordinary general meetings

4. an external email broadcast list for informing supporters about upcoming events, campaigns, etc

5. external website and/or social media (especially an Instagram page) for wider publicity & engagement

4. Decision-making

Constitutional issues and amendments to the organisation’s statement of aims and principles should only be made at an AGM or EGM by a vote of the membership. There should be specific requirements for these issues to be publicised to the membership in advance, and there might be a requirement for a quorum or for a supermajority.

Questions of policy and strategy should be decided collectively at regular meetings by majority vote. The CG and Working Groups should operate within the bounds of those collectively agreed policies and strategy when carrying out their day-to-day activities.

5. Organisational linkages

We should wherever possible and appropriate work together with other organisations and campaigns (especially local ones), and invite them to participate in our Working Groups where appropriate.

We should also encourage all of our members to participate in other local organisations and campaigns, and to use our organisation and its structures as a forum for sharing their experiences in those groups, learning from others in other groups, and helping to coordinate between the members of those groups.

We would like to develop systems to help support, cross-promote, and co-ordinate between local campaigns and organisations that are doing work which lines up with our aims and principles.

However, external organisations should have no formal decision-making power within our organisation’s constitutional structures.