state districts: Baden-Württemberg Bavaria Berlin-Brandenburg Hamburg Hesse Lower Saxony / Bremen North (Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) North Rhine-Westphalia Rhineland-Palatinate / Saarland Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia Divisions and groups of individuals Verdi's divisions are oriented towards the industries and sectors of its members and are responsible for the "tasks involved in the subject-specific representation of member and company-related interests". The divisions determine their own inner structures and have their own statutes, which must be approved by the Trade Union Council. Verdi currently has five divisions (Fachbereiche), formerly 13 divisions: A: Financial Services, Communications and Technology, Culture, Utilities and Disposal B: Public and Private Services, Social Insurance and Traffic C: Health, Social Services, Eduacation and Science D: Trade E: Postal Services, Shipping Companies and Logistics Specialist groups and specialist commissions can be formed within the individual divisions to particularly support and promote the specific interests of individual professions. Alongside the divisions, the Verdi Statute also stipulates that so-called groups of individuals be established on a district, state and national level. Verdi currently has a total of eight groups of individuals: Young People Senior Citizens Workers Civil Servants Masters, Technicians and Engineers Freelance Collaborators and Personally Self-Employed, Freelance or Employee-Like Individuals Unemployed Individuals and Migrants The tasks, structure and membership of each group of individuals is regulated by guidelines that are passed by the Trade Union Council based on proposals made by different committees. Membership numbers and structure Verdi's total number of members decreased from 2.81 to 2.04 million between 2001 and 2014. One of the reasons behind this decrease is the union's competition with rival trade unions such as the physicians' union Marburger Bund and the pilots' association Vereinigung Cockpit. According to observers, Verdi is "comparatively good" at recruiting new members but is limited in its success when it comes to establishing loyalty among its members on a long-term basis. In fact, the battle against decreasing interest among employees and women in particular was already an issue even before the merger of the five individual unions in 2001. In 2003, member numbers dropped so low that Verdi was forced to let some of its own staff go. This was, however, also due to the fact that many structures were duplicated in the Verdi administration after the merger. In 2007, the National Congress instructed the Executive Board to take measures to stop or even reverse the dwindling member numbers. This led to the initiation