The IndyApp is a bespoke networking tool for the Yes movement. It is designed to first locate all the non-party political campaigning experience, enthusiasm, creativity and organisational talent developed since Indyref1and then allow easy connections to be formed between those activists within the existing autonomous group network.
Firstly, it is important to recognise that the creation of the IndyApp networking tool has been a long term process of discussion and negotiation with active grass-root pro Indy Groups located all around Scotland. More importantly, once the App is launched to the public, development will not stop, it will continue and intensify as every group grows their collective capabilities. This will be done through IndyApp’s key functions. By explaining those functions, the grass-root capabilities of the IndyApp become obvious.
Each group will have a public ‘Front Door’ on the App. This will display information such as, Group name, google map location, meeting times, venue, events and group campaigns. It will also have a group profile page with the option of a paypal ‘donate direct to this local group’ button. All information on this ‘Front Door’ will be the responsibility of the Group. Most importantly of all, each ‘front door’ will have a Contact/Join button.
So, on FREE download of the IndyApp, interested members of the public with no previous experience or contact with the movement can simply type in their postcode and the App will direct them to their nearest Indy group ‘Front Doors’, to peruse, contact and be warmly welcomed into the grass-roots. In this way, previously difficult to find local groups become visible and making contact is simple. This is key to encouraging early participation in the Yes movement, as it makes easy access available just as soon as any individual shows an interest in getting involved.
Groups can also be searched for by Town, Name and Web for internet only groups.
This gives every group member the ability to talk directly to each of their fellow group members individually, as well as to their group as a whole. The NYR can also pm all IndyAppers directly too. So, this function alone is going to be a big communication breakthrough for everyone, even though private messaging is really just the precursor to the local forums and national forum as far as group communications are concerned.
This allows an entire Group membership to network with one another easily, 24hrs a day. Each group member can also read what’s going on in the ‘National Forum’. This means folk can dip in and out of local activism ‘as and when’ they can. If that means picking up messages and discussing local or national campaigning ideas after work or late into the night then that is possible.
These allow each group to list their local resources, such as Membership skill sets, Equipment, Suppliers, Venues, Media contacts etc. In this way the groups give their entire membership easy access to local campaigning information. This will in turn practically encourage and simplify self-starting ideas for campaigns within each group, no matter how big they become or busy things get during the heat of Indyref2.
This allows each local Group (collectively) to post campaigning ideas, and network as a group just as effectively as individual members can on their own ‘Local Forums’. Again, this is a 24hr capability, allowing Indy work to be done ‘as and when’ it becomes possible for the activist. The ‘National Forum’ also has its equivalent national ‘Resource button’ to allow groups to share any of their own local resources that they feel are suitable for regional or country wide applications. In this way, each individual local group and group member is networked nationally, fully aware of where the national grass-root movement is flowing, and able, in their turn, to influence and help that movement with their own practical ideas, skills and enthusiasms.
Once new campaign ideas have been identified or proposed in the Forums, the ‘Committee rooms’ are used for developing those ideas and practically enacting them . They allow individuals locally and Groups nationally to organise themselves across the country. A good practical example of this IndyApp function is how Yes merchandise ordering by the grass-roots could be achieved nationally.
A ‘committee room’ is set up at national level, where each group puts forward a ‘merchandise member’ responsible for both, their own group’s Yes merchandise needs and for coordinating orders with their fellow ‘committee room’ members from all around the country. That mass order, made up of all the local orders, is paid for by the individual groups and the order is placed by ayeMail (or a similar pro indy organisation) in order to take full financial advantage of the resultant economies of scale. Then, once the order has been filled, It is divided back into the original constituent group orders ready for distribution locally by each group’s own equivalent ‘local merchandise’ committee room.
This is the relatively straightforward mechanism through which Yes merchandise can be ordered, paid for and distributed nationwide by the grass-roots themselves. No need to rely solely on a central Yes HQ again, which would inevitably become another over centralised supply ‘pinch point’ during the heat of the next looming Indyref.
As with merchandise, this organisational tool will work just as well for Wee Blue Book distribution or for setting up national tours to effectively share Pro Indy Speakers, musicians, films, fundraising events etc. among interested local groups. It can easily bring together specialist knowledge, skills or experience previously locked away in local group memberships spread throughout Scotland. It can be used to bring all that knowledge to bear on difficult campaigning issues deemed important to the grass-roots. Those ‘committee room’ deliberations can then be posted on the ‘national forum’ for any group to discuss, consider and if desired, act upon locally.
This is how even relatively complex issues can start to be tackled by the grass-root movement at local, regional and national level. Whichever is deemed most suitable.
Each local group is then free to select and adapt whichever ideas or campaign strategies they feel best suited to bringing their own communities toward a Yes vote. This natural in-built community focus is at the root of each autonomous group’s local campaigning power and why the NYR IndyApp has been built around them as the building blocks of our network. Local groups and their autonomy are foundational to the principles of Scotland’s grass-root, community centred Yes movement.
I hope this outline of the basic functions of the IndyApp has made clear the ambition and scope of the National Yes Registry (NYR) project. Please remember however, this is an App and it has been carefully designed for simplicity and ease of use, so articles trying to explain it in any detail are by their very nature much, much more complex than the IndyApp is itself!
And so… if you want to see the formation of a powerfully networked non-party political Scottish grass-roots movement and help this 2 and a bit yearlong project reach fruition please donate what you can.
Many thanks for all your support.
https://chuffed.org/project/indyapp