Support Areas
How were they formed?
The current Support Areas were formed when 120 group activists from all over Scotland attended our IndyApp training weekend in Perth, 2020. The question we asked everyone then was, ‘Where would you be willing to travel to help your fellow Yes Groups?’
To answer this question, and to avoid responses being defined by UK electoral boundaries, we sourced this 16th century shire map of Scotland and asked each person to select the shires they would be happy to travel within to support a fellow Yes Group.
16th Century
Using this info, we then mapped each person’s choices as lines of travel, shown below. From this process the current IndyApp ‘Support Area’ map of Scotland emerged. Everyone then chose which areas to join, and these new memberships named their ‘Support Areas’.
Populating
Support Areas
Attendee
'lines of travel'
Support Areas are NOT regional leadership organisations – they are simply geographical areas that allow local group members an easy association with all other group memberships in their area - automatically networking them as members of their wider Yes communities.
Once the initial 'Area Map' emerged, NYR then populated each new Support Area with the IndyApp registered group memberships that fell within them.
Support Area boundaries are practically
defined by the activist journeys required to physically meetup to give each other local support when needed.
Support Area formation is an organic process. So, the map will inevitably change over time as we continue to ask everyone that same ‘willingness to travel’ question, and keep updating the map with more and more group membership feedback.