i don't know all the details, but it is a system being put in place by the Organising Dept to build up a list of contacts according to industry and geographical area. so ideally, every branch would have members in contact with the ODB for every active IU in the branch. it means that branches should be getting the support they need for their organising and the OD should be getting regular updates as to what's going on around the union. it's also a good way of encouraging industrial organising as an IU grows and becomes more active.

[tangent] BIROC currently already does a similar sort of thing at UK-wide scale, with individuals as passive contact people for those in their IU who want to get more active in their specific industry. they are listed in our internal bulletins and on the website. then when an IU gets large enough to begin co-ordinating across BIROC, the IU appoints one or more co-ordinators to help facilitate this. currently we have these in IUs 610 and 620. the idea is that they form proto Industrial Unions before being chartered as such. [/tangent]