Richard Wilson is a candidate for Chair of Liberal Youth.

Yes, I’m going to say it. We don’t need Liberal Youth in its current form. We really don’t. I’m not leading a call for dissolution. Just for it to be labelled what it currently is – Liberal Democrat Students. No more and no less.

Let’s look at the evidence – Of the candidates at this election, the vast majority are students. Of the campaigning Liberal Youth does, well, it’s mainly about student issues, and of the money Liberal Youth spends on campaigns…well, I’m sure you’ll be surprised to hear that it is mainly spent producing materials during Freshers Fairs. Liberal Youth cannot claim to be a youth organisation, only a student organisation.

As such, we don’t need Liberal Youth in its current form – anyone who has been to a freshers’ fair knows that a bright shiny stand is generally the deciding factor in getting footfall past your stall and getting people to come and have a gander at your society. You get people who join and people you don’t hear from ever again. That isn’t a failing of Liberal Youth, it’s the case for every University society around.

But a Liberal Democrat youth wing is entirely necessary. How do we get from the “Liberal Youth” now to a Liberal Youth that encompasses and embraces everyone? Do we require a rebranding, a relaunch, a revolution?

The student-based campaigning that is done is successful to an extent. Retention rates aren’t as high as they could be. Links between university branches and local parties aren’t as productive as they could be. But every September and October a lot of first year students join up, and that is worthy of applause. Then many don’t do that much. Yes, we’re praising these elections as having the most candidates forward in recent memory, but it comes off the most successful freshers campaign in recent memory. The two are inextricably linked. Many of the candidates put forward this time around have only been in Liberal Youth since Freshers 2009. That is no slight on them, but the democracy and healthy operation of Liberal Youth shouldn’t be reliant upon yearly turnover rates. Had we come off a 2009 freshers season that was poor, then there’d be many candidates running unopposed. And I’m sure many people who have paid attention to Liberal Youth long enough can remember cases of this happening.

So how can we lay claim to being a Youth party? It would require changing the whole course of the party, quite simply. Something we might not be able to do for practical reasons.

The first thing is the link between branches and local parties. Liberal Youth does not have a detailed membership database with the age of every member. If we did, we could target campaigning not just at universities, but in the local areas as well. It makes common sense to do so – after all, what local party wouldn’t want Liberal Youth to send them the national campaign materials we publish to target local schools and get people involved in their local parties before University. Equally, local parties would have to reciprocate and help localise a branch’s campaign materials which would help propagate the notion of Liberal Youth branches being active in local areas, allow more opportunities for members to get involved in the local area by increasing awareness of non-campus issues and, by extension, increase retention of the membership. It’s a win-win situation. The hindrance to this is simply that students aren’t in the area 12 months of the year, but the benefits surely outweigh this.

And if you’re a local party without a nearby university? A true Liberal Youth’s work in getting members in this manner would have a drip-drip effect in bring highly active members back to you for the holidays. Members who know what they are doing. People who can make a difference.

Secondly, we must turn our focus inwards. Show that being in Liberal Youth does get you somewhere. I previously wrote an article espousing the benefits of setting aside a number of seats for the top under-25 talents in the party and my stance is the same. You cannot teach how to campaign in a classroom. The only way to learn it is to do it. Parliamentary seats should be designated for the very best young talent in the party to give them the experience of running a full general election campaign. Whatever the result, the skills gained would mean that next time around, this young talent would be more than ready to lead in a target seat or target ward.

Finally, let’s change the message. The amount of people who truly care about tuition fees as a dealbreaker is, funnily enough, about the same amount of students and graduates who have had to pay them. What is more important to a third year student – their fees or their job prospects? What’s more important to a 16 year old leaving school after GCSEs – getting training or a job, or fees for a degree they will never get? A true Liberal Youth organisation would be flexible with their message to not allow themselves to be pinned as little more than “Liberal Students” and give out a message that is relevant for all young people – that we will help you fight youth unemployment, that we will fight to make more training available, that we want to improve your education at school. And, if you’re at university, we’ll fight against fees and the frankly ridiculous pay Vice-Chancellors receive to ensure you get a fair deal for your degree.

It would require a sea change, but how many non-students who qualify for membership hear anything from Liberal Youth? Not enough. And those that do probably joined while at University. That needs to change. We should know exactly who our members are and where they live (and a major concern in this year’s election is that a considerable amount of ballots will go to addresses not occupied by the members or go to people who are not eligible to vote). We should reach out into local communities and grab young people all year around.

And, here’s the self promotion bit, that’s what I’ll make sure I do. It’ll take time. It’ll mean using every penny as efficiently and as effectively as possible. It’ll be based on a lot of hard work. But to have a Liberal Youth that actually lives up to the name… That is a reward worth chasing for every single member of the Liberal Democrats, not just those getting their Liberal Youth election ballots.