Units, groups, classes, and branches

A NewVistas community comprises of participants – limited partners and their dependents. Limited partners are individuals who have deposited their net worth, of at least US$ 20,000, into the community through the Capital Bank (agency 8).

Some dependents, who have started the process of becoming limited partners as they mature, also have deposits in the Capital Bank. For their deposits, participants receive a certificate, which the bank is duty-bound to honor. among other things, the certificate commits the bank to pay an interest of 12%. The depositor commits to only withdraw their deposits at the rate of 25 per month, among other conditions.

A limited partner is required to be sole owner of successful business. The business’s success is enabled by help from the community agencies. This includes life and business planning, factoring services, and business loans where applicable,

Dependents are minors, the elderly, the disabled, and other people who are at the moment unable to be economically productive enough to sustain themselves and are under the care of a limited partner.

Limited partners and their dependents are organized into units. A unit consists of approximately 10 limited partners and their dependents, all of whom live on the same floor of an apartment building. Each floor has the number of apartments needed to fit the needs of each limited partner and their dependents. With each limited partner averaging 1 – 2 dependents, a unit has around 25 individuals. A branch therefore has around 100 individuals.

Gender and companionship

Limited partners and their dependents , regardless of any other social classifications including ethnicity, race, or nationality, can be viewed as two distinct groups – male and female. Within each group, males and females are either classified as either being partnered (living with or associating with a person that the community recognizes as a partner – husband, wife, or long-term spouse) or single. therefore, there are four major demographic groups that the community recognizes – partnered males (A), partnered females (B), single males (C), and single females (D).

NewVistas depends on a scientific analysis to determine the question of gender. Chromosomal tests are administered either at birth or at placement to determine whether a person is a male or a female. ¹ This is important in ensuring diversity in the community, and ensuring that each demographic is well represented in the community public service.

The community is keenly aware of issues that surround gender identity, where, in the contemporary world, people are identifying as other genders besides male and female. This includes people who identify as transgender, others whose identity is fluid and changes from time to time, and others who identify as belonging to both genders or none. ²

Since the community relies on scientific methods to ascertain gender, there are only two recognized genders. The community offers people with gender dysphoria an opportunity to lead full, productive lives, by providing psychological therapy to enable them to accept their true gender so that they might be able to serve and thrive in the community.

Insurance services that are offered by the community do not cover any medical interventions designed for attempts at gender manipulation or affirmation. These include surgical and hormonal interventions. The community forbids such interventions due to their cost, the dangers involved, and their inability to conclusively resolve the underlying issues facing the individual.

The community holds that the medical principle of primum non nocere is violated when surgery is used to treat a non-diseased body, inviting unnecessary risks and possibly, misapplying scarce financial and technical resources. In addition, Fitzgibbons et al contend that since SRS does not achieve what it sets out to achieve – it is impossible to change a person’s sex through an operation – it should be regarded as an unnecessary failure.

Companionship

In virtually every jurisdiction in the world, marriage is a publicly recognized contract between two or more people, with each accepting a range of responsibilities and expecting some consideration in the form of the responsibility that the other party in the contract agrees to.

However, in many cases, two people living together may not be legally married, with various degrees of formality between them. In some cultures, the costs associated with marriage are extremely high. ³

Lavish, well-planned events that are steeped in culture and tradition are a bare minimum in some cultures. For instance, in India, a modest wedding takes place over two days, includes dozens of ceremonies and rituals, and costs approximately $10,000 in 2026 figures. For this reason, many Indians prefer not to wed until they are financially stable, therefore living with their partners without being formally married.

This scenario is replicated in many other places around the world. Besides the cost, other issues such as non-acceptance of a bride or groom by the other family due to financial and social status, ethnicity, and other issues are common.

Due to these reasons, the definition of a “partnered” person in the community includes

Those who are legally married
Those who live together as husband and wife, or in other intimate arrangements including same-sex relationships
Those who plan to raise a family together

In case a member starts serving the community when they are in one of the four demographics, and the course of their service changes, they continue serving their term. For instance, a man may start serving while single, and midway through their term, get a partner. This will not affect their term of service.

Units and groups

Units are explicitly required to be diverse, with limited partners coming from all the social classifications and demographic groups of the area where a community is located. Captains are responsible for recruiting limited partners into their units.

While serving a unit, a captain is a “captain of 10” (7-12 limited partners). They help limited partners and their dependents interface with the community – interacting with various agencies automated systems, dealing with social issues, and other tasks.

The limited partners in a branch are also organized into four groups. Group (1) “partnered” comprises partnered males and females using the broader term explained in the previous section. Group (2) “singles” comprises single males and females. Group (3) “Males” is formed by single and partnered men. Group (4) “females” is comprised of partnered and single females.

Each group is served by the two captains of 10 who are from the two demographics that combine to form a group. Therefore, the males’ group is served by the captains who are partnered and single males, while the singles’ group is served by the captains who are single females and single males. In their capacity serving a group is a “captain of 50.”

Dependents also belong to the group that reflects their marital status and gender – such that a young boy of 5 is a single male, while an elderly couple of 90, both of whom have given their power of attorney to their son, will be regarded as partnered male and partnered female. Each of the four groups has an average of 50 members.

Within each group, there are different subsets, known as classes, based primarily on age. There is a class for Nursery (0-2), toddlers (3 – 5), young children (6-9), pre-teens (10-12), teens (13-18), young adults (19-31), adults (32-72), and empty nesters (73+).

A branch, composed of 4 units, has around 100 participants. The four captains, one from each demographic group together form a branch presidency. Here, each captain is a branch president, but also a “captain of 100”. A captain when serving as a branch president has different roles to the ones they play as a captain of 10,50, or 100. Their main focus is the proper representation of their unit in branch activities.

10 branches make a village. A village has around 1,000 participants. A village is served by three village presidencies, each from an agency in the Village Bureau. The three presidencies of 4 form a 12-member council. Village presidents, serving their village in the council, are also “captains of 1,000.” 4 villages form a district. Similarly, a district is served by three district presidencies drawn from the three agencies in the District Bureau. The three presidencies of four form a 12-member district council.

With four villages of ~1,000 members each, every district has ~ 4,000 members. There are 24 districts in a NewVistas community. Therefore, the community has between 75,000 and 100,000 participants.

Units and captains

Each unit is served by a captain. Having four floors, and therefore, four units, an apartment building houses one branch. ⁴ There are four captains, each from one of the four major demographics in the community: partnered males (A), partnered females (B), single females (C), and single males (D). ⁵

Captains serve a four-year term, after which they are replaced through a process carried out by their branch presidency, of which they are a part. A captain begins their service on the birthday of the president they are replacing. On their first birthday, after they start serving, the count for four years begins. ⁶

The pegging of entry into and exit from service on birthdays enables randomness in replacement and gives presidents enough time to acclimatize to their roles. Also, each president finds three other members of the presidency they are part of already having served a considerable amount of time.

The captains are the only public servants who live where they work, as they must live on the floor that houses the unit they serve. Because of this, their selection is determined well before they assume office so that when needed, moving houses and relocation can happen seamlessly.

Meetings

Meetings are a critical part of enhancing individuals’ participation in the community’s activities. Units, groups, classes, and branches are important social support structures and have meetings regularly. Villages and districts also have meetings, while the community and its public servants meet every quarter. ⁷

On Sunday, every branch in the community holds a full branch meeting. With the community focused on enhancing participation, it is hoped joint branch meetings on Sunday will attract up to 70% of the members of a branch, with the subsequent hour’s classes attracting around 50 – 60% attendance.

Branch meetings are facilitated by one branch president in turns, such that branch president A (partnered man) presides, and president B (partnered female) takes minutes. On the second Sunday, branch president B presides, while branch president C (single female) takes minutes. All presidencies in the community rotate presiding and clerking each week by the following schedule: Community conference meetings take place on the thirteenth Sunday of every quarter. This week, there are no presidency meetings.

Week	Presiding	clerking
Week 1,5,9	Branch president A	Branch president B
Week 2,6,10	Branch president B	Branch president C
Week 3,7,11	Branch president C	Branch President D
Week 4,8,12	Branch President D	Branch president A

meetings presiding and clerking

Branch meetings start on the hour and take 45 minutes. ⁸ They focus on important things facing the branch as a whole, with facilitators tasked with forwarding any arising issues to the necessary avenues for further action. The meetings run for 45 minutes, after which participants move to specific classes.

Branch and group meetings are held in the district building, such that a branch that belongs to District 1 will hold its meetings in District Building 1. ⁹ A district building can hold 10 branch meetings, at the same time. It is also able to hold group meetings (featuring classes) at the same time. This means that villages take turns to hold their branch meetings.

Meetings begin at 9 AM on Sundays. When the first village’s branches have concluded their individual meetings, they move to other classrooms nearby for group meetings. The assembly rooms that they had occupied are taken up by the second village. When the first branch’s groups have concluded their group meetings, they vacate the building, and the second village’s branches then take these rooms for their group meetings.

Branch meeting assembly rooms have capacity for 72 people, or 70% of the branch. This is enough for a branch to have a well-attended meeting, considering normal attendance patterns in similar meetings, such as church or social group meetings. ¹⁰ Classrooms can accommodate around 60% of a class’s membership.

The time slots are not reserved for specific villages in perpetuity. If one village has its meeting at 9 AM this year, it will rotate and another village take its place the next year, so that over a 4-year cycle, all villages have an opportunity to start their meetings at different times.

The order in which villages follow each other for Sunday’s meetings, and in the week’s activities, is calculated based on the year 1836. In this year, the Kirtland Temple was completed and dedicated. The Plat of the City of Zion and the design for the House of the Lord are clear on the dimensions of the house, and that this building was to be the first of 24, each with specific functions. Therefore, the timing of meetings assumes that they have been happening as originally envisaged, in the district buildings.

Therefore, the rotation of villages during branch meetings is calculated using the following formula:

Where 9: the earliest time a branch meeting takes place (9 AM)
4: the cycle takes four years before restarting
Floor function – : to return the provided figure to the nearest less integer, so that, for example, a figure of 2.65 is provided, it will be returned to 2.

Illustration: to calculate the start time for village 1 in 2025, the calculation is as follows:

Village 1, which started the 1836 meetings at 9 AM, will start these meetings at 10 AM in 2025.

The villages’ rotation can be summarized as follows:

Table 3: Branches’ rotation

	Village meeting starting time (hour)/day of the week:
Village number	9am; Mon.	10am; Tues.	11am; wed.	12am; Thur.
lowest	Village 1	Village 2	Village 3	Village 4
2^nd	Village 2	Village 3	Village 4	Village 1
3rd	Village 3	Village 4	Village 1	Village 2
4th	village 4	Village 1	Village 2	Village 3

For branch and group meetings, the lower and upper court assembly halls can each be subdivided into 4 assembly rooms that each hold a branch attendance of 72. There are 2 courts in every district building, so this creates 8 rooms for 8 full branch meetings. The first floor can be divided to create two assembly rooms, adding up to 10 assembly rooms in the district building, enough to have 10 branch meetings at the same time.

Classes:

After branch meetings, groups have their class meetings which begin in the classrooms at the start of the next hour. These group meetings are usually held in the form of classes and take 45 minutes as well. There is a 15-minute break in between to allow people to move and rooms to be adjusted.

The classes that are formed by Groups 1 (partnered) and 2 (single) meet on the first and third Sundays of every month. Those formed by Groups 3(men) and 4 (women) meet on the second and fourth Sundays of every month. During these meetings, groups are separated into classes by age.

Class meetings take place in 5 classrooms that are adjacent to or directly above the assembly halls where branch meetings have just ended. A classroom can hold up to 20 people and can be divided to create smaller rooms, accommodating 10 people or less.

Classes are facilitated by the volunteers who teach participants on important topics about the community. Such topics may include the principles that are essential to the community, such as “all things in common”, and “no poor among them”. Other issues such as why the community is designed as it is, the economic system, the roles of public servants, and why it is important to volunteer, are discussed. The two captains who represent the respective demographics in a group help in setting up lessons for that week. ¹¹ The full branch presidency works together to make sure that the needs of all in their branch are addressed during the general branch meeting and the classes that follow:

Unit events

Units meet once every month. Unit events involve a lunch, with members engaging each other in a relaxed, informal, atmosphere. The lunch meetings happen on Tuesday at noon.

Unit 1 meets on the first Tuesday of the month, while unit 2 meets on the second Tuesday, unit 3 on the third, and unit 4 on the fourth Tuesday. Unit events are held for 12 Tuesdays of a quarter. The thirteenth week is reserved for district and communitywide events and the quarterly conference.

Village-wide events

Branch meetings, classes, and unit events are facilitated by the branch. Every week, the village organizes events for each group’s classes. The events take place between Monday and Thursday. As summarized in Table 3, If a village’s branches have their branch meeting at 9 AM on Sunday, the village will have its weekly events on Monday, while the one whose branches had their meeting at 10 will have its events on Tuesday, and so forth.

Just like the Sunday classes, weekday village events are organized on class basis. This means that in a month, on the first and third weeks, the single and partnered have their events, while on the second and fourth weeks, males and females have their events.

Since weekday events involve all branches, there is even greater variety in interactions, due to the larger number of participants involved. This influences the nature of events held. For instance, on Sunday, there may be just 5 teenagers in a branch. Assuming other branches have a similar number, the weekday event will easily have 50 teenagers, who can engage in different events.

Activities are designed to appeal to a large group of people, improving networking and interactions. For instance, teenagers can engage in a team-building activity such as Encanto. Others can also organize virtual playing helpful videogames or chess, with winners meeting in later stages for a community-wide competition. partnered people can use such opportunities for dinners, or invite marriage experts for a talk on how to make their relationships better.

District Events

There are no unit, branch, class, or village meetings on the 13^th week. This week, the district holds various activities on Monday -Thursday. These events, which are held in the evening from 6 – 8 PM, involve the whole district of around 4,000 people.

District events are similar in theme to the village events that have been happening in the previous 12 weeks. They however aim to use the numbers available to further bonds between participants and encourage greater participation.

While events during this week are not class-themed, different classes can nonetheless use the week as a culmination of their previous weeks’ activities. For example, teenagers and young adults in all branches who are chess enthusiasts may have been playing chess games against each other in the form of a league. In the 13^th week, they can hold the last stages of the competition, and have 16 finalists play each other, with the final taking place on Thursday night.

This may also be an opportunity for branches, whose captains recruit with a keen eye on diversity, to have a cultural event where the different cultures can showcase their cuisine, dressing, music, and dance, among other things that define them. These events are organized with the facilitation of the district council.

Community events and quarterly conference

On Friday night and Saturday during the 13th week, there are community events designed for all in the community. ¹² Friday night is planned by Agency 1 and Saturday’s activities by Agency 6. The events are an opportunity for all participants from different districts to interact. Events can include concerts, sports tournaments, and related activities which are likely to attract a sizeable proportion of the community’s 100,000 participants.

The scope on Friday and Saturday is much larger. It can involve trying to showcase a product to a bigger market, having fun in front of a bigger audience, or sampling what other people in the community have to offer. During these two days, farmers can come together to have an agricultural fair where they showcase their best produce, while app developers take the opportunity to show novel designs that can help people manage their businesses and homes, have fun, or meet others more comfortably.

Event organizers work in concert with the facilitation of the two agencies responsible. This ensures a smooth and well-run event and maximizes the participants’ experiences.

On Sunday, there are four parallel conferences, each for the presidents representing a particular demographic. All 1,920 community public servants attend these conferences. Participants, including captains, can listen in online. There are four parallel conferences – one each for presidents from the same demographic. Partnered males meet in building 5, lower court, partnered females, building 5, higher court, single males, building 17, lower court, and single females, building 17, higher court.

Meetings and conference budgets

Every grouping in the community – unit, branch, group, and class – has a budget for every quarter that is based on rent revenue during the previous quarter for their grouping. This budget is meant to cater for meetings and events that they hold. The budget is a percentage of the relevant organization’s revenues.

On the night of the 13^th Friday, when there are community-wide events, the budget is provided by the agency 1. The agency uses a percentage of its quarterly rent revenues to organize events for the evening. The following day, other community events are organized and funded by agency 6. The agency obtains the revenue from a portion of its revenue that is determined by the agency council.

Villages fund all events that take place in the village, besides Sunday branch meetings and the unit’s Tuesday events. These events include weekly group meetings, Sunday group and classes meetings. Villages use a% of the rent they receive quarterly from participants to cater for expenses. These are determined in collaboration with the trustees who serve the village agencies.

Branches cater for any expenses associated with their Sunday meetings they use a% of the branch’s rent revenues for this. These costs, as with other meetings in the community, include the rent of space and equipment to hold the meeting. Branches can also invite guests to speak to participants during the meeting. Units also fund their activities using a% of rent revenues received in the unit.

Funds that are not used in a quarter are forfeited to the community. Among other duties, village presidencies for agency 1 routinely monitor branches, groups, and units to ensure that they hold their events as set out. Refunding any unused funds at the end of a quarter also encourages participants and the public servants who serve them to hold these events.

Quarterly conference expenses are footed by agency 1 and agency 6. Each agency dedicates a percentage of its revenue in a year to the quarterly conference.

Funds meant for community groupings’ meetings and other events are determined in the quarter before the one when these events are held. For instance, the funds for the September to December quarter are obtained in the June – August quarter.

Chromosomal tests are the only scientific means of establishing the biological gender of a person. Psychiatry.org describes gender dysphoria as an incongruence between a person’s birth-assigned sex and gender identity, while new WHO classifications list transgender under “gender incongruence” implying that the two conditions are the same thing[↩]
Renowned psychiatrist, Paul McHugh of John Hopkins University has characterized transgender as an opinion without biological foundation. Further research has revealed that sexual reassignment surgery, done to affirm the gender that person identifies with, is usually unable to cure their deeper gender crisis and confusion. It has led to extremely high suicide rates in those who undergo the operations compared to the general population.[↩]
The community will apply common law marriage practice, whereby when a couple cohabits for a specific amount of time, they will be deemed to be legally married.[↩]
The average residential building in 16^th century English urban areas was between 2 and 4 floors. Today, four-storey buildings have a few advantages – for example, they are the point at which the use of an elevator becomes economical. Also, many governments, aiming to incentivise taller building development, have a threshold of four floors as the starting point for tax cuts.[↩]
Generally, between a third and half the population is single. Pew Research shows that close to 50% of men under 30, and 50% of women over 65 are single, with the number of single poor being less in other age brackets. At the same time, partnered males are treated more favorably by economic and social systems. For instance, partnered males consistently earn more money than single men, single women, and partnered females. This potentially gives them the opportunity to dominate other demographics, hence the need to have each demographic equally represented in the community public service.[↩]
All presidents serve for only 1 term of four years. This time is sufficient to achieve any agenda they may have in their roles, but is also short enough to prevent monopoly of a few people in important offices, in addition to providing an easy way to ensure diversity and change in community service.[↩]
Meetings are an important tool used to generate greater enthusiasm and participation in community affairs. By attending regular unit, branch, and class meetings and events, participants have a thorough understanding of how it works, what is happening, and have an opportunity to air their views too.[↩]
The community provides for short meetings that are succinct, and consider the attention span of attendees. Longer meetings can achieve less as participants become distracted.[↩]
The building design of the House of the Lord, revealed in 1833, describes the uses of the house that the saints are instructed to build. It would contain space for various activities, including a “school” for saints.[↩]
For instance, the UK Parliament’s average attendance for normal parliamentary sittings is just below 70%. Committee meetings, however, see a significantly reduced attendance.[↩]
Classes in the community are meant to achieve the same objectives as in companies and churches, where people are trained regularly to enhance their satisfaction with their roles, improve their participation and engagement, and boost retention. Training is essential in equipping people to live their lives and run their businesses properly.[↩]
While quarterly conferences are unlike annual general meetings – there are no votes, and no direct contribution by participants – they are important for other similar reasons, especially informing the community about how it is doing, and boosting transparency amongst community public servants.[↩]