The Youth Council of Ale

The Youth Council is a body for encouraging young people’s opportunity to influence matters that concern young people in Ale. The Youth Council and the annual Influence Square are central parts of the municipality’s Framework for Youth Influence.

The practice of the Youth Council takes place through deliberations, consultation, and mutual exchange of information between representatives of the young people and the municipal board and other names.

Through the Youth Council, the young people can actively work for changes in the municipal association. They can inform about and make suggestions for suitable adaptations of the offer that affect young people’s opportunities for an excellent quality of life.

Purpose of the Youth Council

The Youth Council is a tool in working with issues that affect young people in general, such as work with strategic plans, operational plans with budgets (municipal board’s decision-making area) and in larger community planning issues (community planning committee’s decision-making area).

• The Youth Council must strengthen its influence in all matters concerning young people.
• The Youth Council must be a forum for opinion formation and dissemination of knowledge.
• The Youth Council must be a referral body in matters that directly affect young people in Ale.
• The Youth Council must be a meeting place for consultation before decisions affecting young people.
• The Youth Council must work to ensure that young people’s questions and opinions are considered in the municipality’s operational planning.
• The Youth Council can initiate new issues in committees/municipal boards and administrations.
• The youth council must be part of the municipality’s framework for youth influence.
• The municipality’s committees must, in matters that are central to the young people, consult with the Youth Council at such an early stage that the Youth Council’s views and proposals can affect the handling of the matter in the relevant committee/board before a decision is made.

The municipality must inform about its activities, planned changes and the results of various measures that affect or may affect the municipality’s young people.

Organization of the Youth Council

The Youth Council is organizationally linked to the municipal board. The municipality must provide the Youth Council with staff to support their work, convene meetings, keep minutes, and manage finances/fees. The municipal board must annually determine the budget for the Youth Council. Meetings between the speaking group and the chair of the municipal board and 1st vice chairman take place three times per term.

Forms of work

The Youth Council decides themselves how they meet. Meetings must take place at least five times per semester. Decisions about extra meetings must only be decided by the youth council.

The Youth Council’s decision is decided by a majority of the members’ votes.

The Youth Council must annually, in collaboration with the municipality, arrange and implement an influence square where elections for the Youth Council take place. The results of the work that takes place on the influence square shall form the basis of the youth council’s annual business plan.

The Youth Council must annually appoint a spokes group. The speech group meets before the youth council’s big meetings and their task is to spend more working time on issues that require this, prepare big meetings, and hold meetings with the municipality’s youth policy group three times per semester. The Youth Council can also delegate additional tasks to the spokes group.

Young people in the municipality who want to carry out events whose purpose is in line with the Youth Council’s business plan must receive support from the Youth Council, for example guidance and/or resource support.

Referrals or questions to be dealt with by the Youth Council must be sent to the members of the youth council at least one week before the meeting in such a way as the Youth Council has decided.

The Youth Council’s positions must, after each general meeting, be reported through minutes, which are shared with the members of the Youth Council as well as municipal committees and the municipal board. The minutes must be adjusted during the next general meeting. The municipal board is tasked with supporting the youth council and is responsible for its minutes.

The composition of the Youth Council

The Youth Council shall consist of a maximum of 23 members, of which most members are appointed at the Influence Square held annually.

The student councils are offered before the influence square to elect a representative to the Youth Council. The election process must work to get a representative Youth Council. If all the localities are not represented in the election, it is a task for the open youth activities to try to recruit more nominations. Members are appointed for one year at a time. If a member does not attend 3 meetings in a row, he loses his Seat, and the Youth Council reviews a reserve list from the election (most votes) and takes in the next in turn. The Youth Council itself appoints its spokesperson group at its first meeting of each business year. The sitting members must first be informed of the tasks of the speaking group. If a member wants to sit in the speaking group, they nominate themselves or are nominated by someone else. The speaking group must consist of a maximum of 5 people.