Units, groups, classes, and branches
A NewVistas community comprises of participants – limited partners and their dependents. Limited partners are individuals who have invested at least US$ 20,000 into the community bank. They own a percentage of the Capital Bank based on their investment. They are also required to be running a successful individually-owned business with help from the community agencies. 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. Each person in a unit lives 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. A unit ranges from 7 – 12 limited partners and their dependents, with a branch goal of averaging 25 individuals per floor.
Units and captains
Each unit is served by a captain. Having four floors, and therefore, four units, an apartment building is also a branch. 1 There are four captains, each from one of the four major demographics in the community: married males (A), married females (B), single females (C), and single males (D). 2 Once a captain has served a four-year term, they are replaced.
Captains, as with all other community public servants (presidents), serve for at least four years. A president 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. 3
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. The possibility that two presidents will be replaced at the same time is extremely rare, meaning 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.
Gender and companionship
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. 4 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. 5
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 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. 6
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. 7 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 at least 6,000 dollars. 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 marriage 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 married. 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 demographics of the area where a community is located. Captains are responsible for recruiting limited partners into and out of 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) “Married” comprises married men and married women using the broader term explained in the previous section. Group (2) “singles” comprises single men and single women. Group (3) “Men” is formed by single men and married men. Group (4) “women” is comprised of married women and single women.
Each group is served by the two captains of 10 who are from the two demographics that combine to form a group. Therefore, the men’s group is served by the captains who are married men and single men, while the singles’ group is served by the captains who are single women and single men. 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 married male and married 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+).
| Class 1 | Class 2 | Class 3 | Class 4 | Class 5 | Class 6 | Class 7 | Class 8 | |
| Week 1 and 3 | All married adults | All single adults | Teen boys and girls | Preteens | Young children | Toddlers | Nursery | |
| Week 2 and 4 | All men | All women | Teen boys | Teen girls |
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 board. 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 board.
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.
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. 8
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 (married men) presides, and president B (married women) takes minutes. On the second Sunday, branch president B presides, while branch president C (single women) 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 |
Branch meetings start on the hour and take 45 minutes. 9 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. 10 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. 11 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 |
| 2nd | 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 (marrieds) and 2 (singles) 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. 12 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, singles and marrieds 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. Married couples 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 13th 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 13th 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 board.
Community events and quarterly conference
On Friday night and Saturday during the 13th week, there are community events designed for all in the community. 13 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.
During the conferences, agency presidents make 12-14–minute presentations. After every three presentations, done by the three presidents serving the agencies in a bureau, there is a 15–minute break. The program also allows for a 2–hour lunch and a 2–hour dinner. The conference runs for 12 hours, including the breaks, lunch, and dinner.
To allow for a more dynamic presentation format, and to remove any implication of hierarchy between the two departments – Human and Financial Capital (agencies 1 – 12) and Process and Property (agencies 13 – 24), agencies from each department use an alternating arrangement so that when 3 agencies from the first department make a presentation in one hour, 3 agencies from the second department take the next hour.
The timetable can be summarized as follows:
Table 4: Quarterly conference timetable
| Morning Session (8AM – 11 AM) | ||
| Bureau | Agency | Time |
| Village (Department 1) | Agency 1 | 8:00 – 8:15 |
| Agency 2 | 8:15 – 8:30 | |
| Agency 3 | 8::30 – 8:45 | |
| First Break | 8:45 – 9:00 | |
| Regulatory (Department 2) | Agency 13 | 9:00 – 9:15 |
| Agency 14 | 9:15 – 9:30 | |
| Agency 15 | 9:30 – 9:45 | |
| Second Break | 9:45 – 10:00 | |
| District (Department 1) | Agency 4 | 10:00 – 10:15 |
| Agency 5 | 10:15 – 10:30 | |
| Agency 6 | 10:30 – 10:45 | |
| Third Break | 10:45 – 11:00 | |
| LUNCH BREAK: 11:00 – 1:00 PM | ||
| Early Afternoon Session | ||
| Bureau | Agency | Time |
| Data (Department 2) | Agency 16 | 1:00 – 1:15 |
| Agency 17 | 1:15 – 1:30 | |
| Agency 18 | 1:30 – 1:45 | |
| Fourth Break | 1:45 – 2:00 | |
| Economic (Department 1) | Agency 7 | 2:00 – 2:15 |
| Agency 8 | 2:15 – 2:30 | |
| Agency 9 | 2:30 – 2:45 | |
| Fifth Break | 2:45 – 3:00 | |
| Business Development (Department 2) | Agency 19 | 3:00 – 3:15 |
| Agency 20 | 3:15 – 3:30 | |
| Agency 21 | 3:30 – 3:45 | |
| Sixth break | 3:45 – 4:00 | |
| Dinner break: 4:00 – 6:00 PM | ||
| Evening Session | ||
| Bureau | Agency | Time |
| Public Administration (Department 1) | Agency 10 | 6:00 – 6:15 |
| Agency 11 | 6:15 – 6:30 | |
| Agency 12 | 6:30 – 6:45 | |
| Seventh Break | 6:45 – 7:00 | |
| Land and Utilities (Department 2) | Agency 22 | 7:00 – 7:15 |
| Agency 23 | 7:15 – 7:30 | |
| Agency 24 | 7:30 – 7:45 | |
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 13th Friday, when there are community-wide events, the budget is provided by the Human Relations Agency. The agency uses a % of its quarterly rent revenues to organize events for the evening. The following day, when there are other community events organized by the Recreation and Arts Agency, the agency provides the needed budget, which is % of its revenue that is determined by that agency in collaboration with the trustee who serves that agency.
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 Human Relations 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.
- The average residential building in 16th 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, married men are treated more favorably by economic and social systems. For instance, married men consistently earn more money than single men, single women, and married women. 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.[↩]
- 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 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.[↩]
- 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.[↩]
- 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.[↩]