Young Liberals (UK)

The federal Conference is the sovereign body of the Young Liberals and has power to determine policy and direction. The federal Young Liberals usually hosts two conferences a year, a conference in the Winter and a training weekend known as 'Activate' in the Summer, which also acts as the constitutionally mandated Annual General Meeting. At conferences policy motions which shape YL policy and amendments to the organisations constitution are debated, alongside training and speaker sessions.^{[citation needed]}

In addition, during each conference there is an Executive Scrutiny session, whereby members of the executive submit reports to conference on their activities and actions in their job. After each report motions on officers are debated, wherein any member can submit a Motion of commendation, Motion of censure or Motion of no confidence in an officer. Motions of commendation and censure are non-binding opinions of conference passed by a simple majority, expressing either positive or negative opinion on the actions of an officer. Motions of no confidence are binding motions which if passed have the effect of removing an officer from their position and require a two thirds majority in order to pass.^{[citation needed]}

All Conferences following Manchester 2021, the first in person conference following the COVID-19 pandemic, are held as hybrid conferences. Hybrid conferences allow members to join in debates via Confera, an in-house developed and bespoke software package (and mobile app) which allows hybrid participation and voting in democratic events.^{[citation needed]}

Year	Summer Conference/Activate Venue[citation needed]		Winter Conference Venue[citation needed]		Notes
2010	NW	University of Manchester, Manchester	Y&H	University of York, York
2011		'None'	EoE	University of Essex	Essex conference called "Autumn Conference" no Activate held
2012	SE/SE	Adversane, Billingshurst	NW	Manchester
2013	SE/SC	Watchfield, Oxfordshire		Cardiff
2014	EoE	Cambridge		None
	Winter Conference Venue		Summer Conference/Activate Venue
2015	Y&H	Leeds	WM	Birmingham	From 2015 Winter Conference was held at the start of the year instead of the end
2016		Edinburgh	SW/WC	Bristol
2017	Y&H	Sheffield	EM	University of Nottingham, Nottingham
2018	SE/SC	Oxford		Swansea University, Swansea
2019		Glasgow	LON	London
2020		None		Online	Summer Conference was due to be held in Birmingham, but was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2021		Online	NW	Manchester/Online hybrid	Winter Conference was due to be held in-person, but was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Summer Conference first conference to be a hybrid conference and allow attendance online and in person.
2022		Edinburgh	WM	Birmingham	All conferences from Manchester 2021 onwards are a hybrid conference so both conferences hybrid.
2023	SE/SC	Reading	NE	Newcastle/Gateshead
2024	Y&H	Sheffield

In addition to the two ordinary Conferences the Young Liberals may also hold additional "Special Conferences". The Special Conferences require a requisition submitted to the Young Liberals Federal Executive signed by 40 full members, including at least 4 members of each State Organisation. The Special Conferences debates business specified in the requisition, although additional business may be taken at the discretion of the Executive.^{[citation needed]}

The threshold of a Special Conference used to be significantly higher, standing at 200 members, however with the success of Online Conferences it was lowered as they could be held online with ease.^{[citation needed]}

The Liberal Party and the SDP each had separate student and youth wings, including the Young Liberals and the Young Social Democrats until their merger in 1988. These merged in England to form the Student Liberal Democrats and the Young Liberal Democrats of England. In Scotland, there was a separate Scottish Young Liberal Democrats (which also included students of all ages). Liberal Democrat Youth and Students was itself created in 1993 from a merger of the Student Liberal Democrats and the Young Liberal Democrats of England who had shared many resources in the run-up. The merger talks were overseen by a committee which included Sarah Gurling, who later married the late Charles Kennedy. LDYS reorganised into a federal structure in 2000 and then admitted Scottish Young Liberal Democrats as its Scottish federal unit in 2002 - forming a single GB-wide organisation for the first time since the combined ULS-NLYL committees of the 1970s.

The organisation was then known as Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (LDYS). Spring 2008 saw LDYS renamed as Liberal Youth, at an event hosted by the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg.^[15] Liberal Youth is the successor organisation to all the youth and student wings of the Liberal Democrats, the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party, including the Union of Liberal Students, the National League of Young Liberals, (the Liberal party's youth wings), the Young Social Democrats and Students for Social Democracy (the youth and student wings of the Social Democratic Party).

• English Young Liberals – English wing of Young Liberals
• Scottish Young Liberals – Scottish wing of Young Liberals
• Welsh Young Liberals – Welsh wing of Young Liberals
• Liberal Democrat Conference
• Liberal Reform
• Social Liberal Forum
• Cambridge University Liberal Association
• Oxford University Liberal Democrats
• Young Labour
• Young Conservatives