Reply To: Our Euroelection campaign
James, one thing Edinburgh Br did was to hold a branch business meeting, but also separately host a discussion group on another evening. A non-member took up the role of treasurer for the discussion group, fixing dates for the room hire. Another non-member showed his commitment from several times cycling 15 miles to the venue of the discussion group.
Branch business meetings were also attended by non-members so that they experienced the Party democracy and decision making procedures first-hand. And of course learning that on some things we had a healthy dissenting debate within our Party. They were encouraged to offer their own views but fully understood they could not formally vote. Even though we were few in number, members stuck to procedures so that whether we were three or three hundred the democratic process was very visibly exercised.
The follow-up is indeed getting those interested along to local branches but these have to be welcoming and not bore a stranger with tedious Party business. If a Discussion Group is not practical then a very definite discussion period should be built into a branch meeting. (And perhaps an apres soiree swally)