The Party is organized at five levels: the precinct, the county unit (sometimes called senate districts), the congressional district, the state, and the national level.
Each level above the precinct is organized through party units that adopt their own constitutions, elect their own officers, raise and control their own finances, and manage their own affairs, subject to certain general rules adopted at the state level or at some intermediate level between the state and the party unit. For example, a senate district is subject to general rules made at the state level or at the congressional-district level. The officers are typically a chair, associate chair, secretary, treasurer, affirmative action officer, and a number of officers at large whose title is "director." Some party units assign specific responsibilities to the directors, but in most cases the directors serve as officers without portfolio.
The highest governing body of each party unit above the precinct level is a convention that consists of delegates elected from a lower level. The convention usually meets only once in each general-election cycle . The convention usually elects the unit's officers, and almost always enjoys the exclusive right of adopting or amending the unit's constitution.
Each party unit above the precinct is governed between conventions by a central committee that consists of the unit's officers and of delegates elected from lower-level party units, usually including the chairs of those lower-level units. For example, a county-unit central committee usually consists of the county-unit officers, and the precinct chairs and associate chairs. The state central committee consists of the state officers, the county unit chairs and associate chairs, and delegates elected from the county units.
Each party unit's central committee automatically includes any member of a higher-level central committee who lives in that party unit. Thus a delegate to the state central committee also serves on his or her congressional district's central committee and on his or her county unit central committee.
Each party unit is governed between central-committee meetings by an executive committee that includes the unit's officers and any member of a higher-level executive committee who lives in that party unit. The members of the unit's executive committee are also members of its central committee.
Any electoral jurisdiction that does not fall within this basic hierarchy -- such as a city or a county -- can establish its own organization with authorization from the immediate higher-level body. Thus the Hennepin County DFL Party is organized under the auspices of the State Party, and the Minneapolis DFL Party is organized under the auspices of DFL Congressional District 5. Each such jurisdiction usually follows the preceding six principles.