DOCUMENTATION 2 nd Network Meeting on „Participation and Democracy in Europe“ On February 2 nd – 5 th , 2012 the second Network Meeting on “Participation and Democracy in Europe”, initiated by Citizens for Europe e.V., took place in Copenhagen (Denmark), in the beautiful rooms of t he Kvarterhuse. After a first meeting in Berlin on September 2011, a group of 21 participa nts coming from all over Europe met again, with the purpose of bringing forward the exchange started in Berlin among practition ers on the topic of “Participat ion and Democracy in Europe”. 1 With financial support from the EU Fundamental Rights & Citizenship Programme
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On February 2nd – 5th, 2012 the second Network Meeting on “Participation and Democracy inEurope”, initiated by Citizens for Europe e.V., took place in Copenhagen (Denmark), in thebeautiful rooms of the Kvarterhuse.
After a first meeting in Berlin on September 2011, a group of 21 participants coming from allover Europe met again, with the purpose of bringing forward the exchange started in Berlinamong practitioners on the topic of “Participation and Democracy in Europe”.
1
With financial support from the EU Fundamental Rights & Citizenship Programme
Beside a core group of practitioners who were already present at the first meeting in Berlin,new representatives joined the event.
The group formed itself through personal invitation, on the basis of the personal andprofessional connection of each participant to the topic of the event.
A lot of previous collaborations among the practitioners were present in the room.
The agenda focused on 4 main steps along the 4 days of activities:
1) RECONNECT – after 5months since the 1st
meeting, the group had thepossibility to reconnect toeach other, to welcome thenew entries, to stateinterests and identitiesobjectives for theupcoming days;
2) SHARE – a good time was
dedicated to the group
members to present their own activities, ideas andfuture projects, in order tomap resources andidentities of the group;
3) OWN IT! – one core
objective of the meetingwas to raise ownership inthe group in the futuredevelopments of theidentity, goals andstructure of the network.The participants discussedand prototyped ideas andsolutions to keep nurturingthe group and its way of meeting in the future.
4) BRING IT HOME – the last
step consisted in creatingthe basis for future actionsand steps for the group to
keeping on seeing eachother in the future. Rolesand responsibilities for making the next meetinghappen were discussed.
The first activity of the event consisted in a Check In for participants on the question “With all the places I could be, why am I here today?” .
An interactive dinner created the space for people to greet each other, to get to know newfaces, to start grasping the ideas that would have developed in the room in the upcomingdays. With rotating tables of 4-5 people, participants have been invited to exchange on thefollowing questions:
• What motivates you to do what you do?
• What was your dream when you were a child?
• Find 5 unusual things that you have in common. The table with the most uncommoncharacteristics will be the winner.
The ice was broken to start working together!
*** DAY 2 – “Share” ***
The day started with a storytelling from Arianna of Citizens for Europe e.V. on whathappened in the last meeting of the group in Berlin, on September 2011.It was an important moment to bring everybody on the same page, to recall the origin and the
Strategies- Focus on initiators at the local level- Create a canalization tool to connect the local to the European level- Concrete action and evaluation through the identification of daily life concerns- Go local, go concrete and then up to national & transnational- Think global, act local- Education, communication teacher-student- Let go from role- Pupils in the center
- Education response change, actor/agency participation- Trans-partisan mobilization or a-political- Creating flexible networks: synergies, avoid duplicates- Exchange best practices: virtual database, actual network meetings
+ How to cope with frustration?
Tools- Media(social)- Open space- World café- Languages: national+ functional
Resources- Time- Infrastructure: clubs, organizations, teams
The day went on with Pair Interviews on “My next projects: Which is the project I wouldbe open for collaboration?”.
Each participant was invited to share with the interview partner strengths and struggles thathe/she was encountering in this specific project.
The results of the interviews have been presented in plenary, in order for the group to getupdated on the current and future activities of the members of the group. As gallery walkallowed each member to connect to other projects, giving advices or providing support to thehighlighted resources.
The last activity of the day, following the topic of the day (“Share”), created a space for participants to share their own projects with the group and, at the same time, by benefiting of the collective knowledge of the group to bring their own ideas forward.This was made possible with a Pro Action Café on the question “What is boiling in thepent? How can I realize my project within the network?”.
5 topics and questions were discussed:
1) How to make the agenda tool used by our network?
2) Opening Up Culture (project of Katharina). How to set-up a participative project in a
cultural context?
3) Research action. How to define “Governance as learning together?”
The third day invited participants to focus on what was really important for them to happenduring these days. Therefore, with a Self-hosting Morning on the question “How do we
want to keep on meeting each other?”, small group activities on specific themes wereorganised and self-hosted by the participants themselves.
2 main groups formed on:1) the visit to the exhibition on “The Europe of Today” (?!?!?)
2) reflection on the identity of the group, its goals and its next steps
SELF-HOSTING MORNING OUTCOMESGroup 1: VISIT …
Group 2: IDENTITY, GOALS AND NEXT STEPS OF THE GROUPOrganization for the Next Meeting:When? Funding (Grundvig, Leonardo, self-financed travel?, age of the participants for thefundings)Who to initiate?Place (public spaces, strategic places, according to the climate?Host?Tasks?
How to open up or reinforce core team?Small groups (task forces), meetingsConnection to our normal activitiesConnection to campaigns like ECI
Topics of the Next Meeting:Manifest/ identityGrand annual meetingConcrete actionExpertise from outsideMapping relations
Why a Next Meeting?Value added?Personal contact, keep in touch, follow up/ valorization of the results, enlarge group or not?
Sustainability of network
Virtual communicationContinuitySeries of meetingSelf-commitment of actorsRegularity
Why this Network?Single actor becoming lobby group?/ task forceGood practice of collaborationPublic sphereGroup activity/projectManifestation on participation: mission, name, action purpose, common themes
What is the Need?SynergiesNetworkingContacts/partnersKnowledge productionInput at topics/activitiesGrowing/expansionHow to develop the network? Structure/purpose/identity
New topics inputs:Quality of conversation that makes meaning
Migration ArtsYouthEducationWork on participation inclusionOpportunities/ surprises
A Circle Harvesting brought the group together again after the activities of the morning andallowed everyone to get updated on the outcomes and emerging questions of the morning.
Carpet idea: citizens, responsible, Europe, actions, participation, together
Questions for this prototype:How to do you explain “we are living participation”Is this the right name for the external world?
2) Prototype on NEEDSGoal:To enhance participation and news practices of democracy in Europe
Objectives:- Open source for democracy: sharing ideas, methods, expertise- Take diversity within the network and outside (bring in diverse people and activities beopen, inclusive= one vision)
Activities:a) what are others doing: what is missing= collaborationsb) Produce toolkits (e.g; Jede Stimme, university coursec) Unity, vision statementd) Creating event “deliberation as learning democracy together”e) Establishing student consultants “courses Grenoble/ Frankfurt (DAAD, European
Association of teacher, Europe School netf) Action 3: measurability Citizens’projects 100 000 euro. Europe for citizens Programmeg) Monitoring programmes & fundings scholarships
4) Prototype on COMMUNICATION IN BETWEEN THE MEETINGSWhat is the procedure for the external communication? What are the tools that can supportit?
Based on email, website,Website: good for the visibility but very minimalistic. Not good for the publicE-mail: when an update on the website is made people receive on weekly/monthly object.The private part of the website, available only for members
- Calendar: traditional events, our network meeting, collaborations
- Storage possibilities /exchange of information( fix fundings)
- Feedbacks
- Collaboration, events between org
5) Prototype on FUNDINGSPropose a funding plan and sustainable strategy: How can you create resources within the network?
What are the concrete possibilities/ funds to apply?
Individual contributorsExpertise/knowledge, on how to fundraise, identification of sourcesDifference resources between members, voluntary fees, would everybody in the room shouldpay a part of the costs his/her participation occurs?
EUYouth in action
Citizens for EuropeLifelong learningGrundvig
Foundations Asko Europa StiftungBertelsmann Stiftung Allianz StiftungKirbes StiftungEwofoundEdmund Siemens Stiftung
Private companies, municipalities
Action plan:Define the content: project description, define budget, identity own resources (cash, nameresponsible persons for funding, identify the host country, use knowledge from the network
6) Prototype on NEXT MEETINGPrototype IPure networking body
Twice a year meeting + intense e-communication
Aim: present the projects, knowledge exchange, partnetship, resources sharing
Focus on expertise: Deeper knowledge in some areas (fews, specific)
Choose topics 1 (themes, method, target group)
Each participant purpose on the topic and share knowledge
Action planning+ division duties
Few of us + many stakeholders
Need based / topic location related
Mostly public
*** DAY 4 – Bring it home ***
The last day of the event focused on setting the ground for the next meeting of the group. Inorder to identify the necessary next steps, the group answered to the question “What arethe things that I like that could make the next meeting happen?”.
The main issues concerned:- Criteria and principles to choose a location for the next meeting
- Roles, responsibilities and resources in the group- Communication in-between the meetings- Format of the next meeting
The discussion produced the following outcomes:
Next meeting ideasPossible Locations:- Paris (Inga, François, Katharina)- Barcelona (Kevin)- Prague (H.S)- Balkans
Possible Partners/Supporters: European Movement, Goethe Institut, Praxis, European Alternative
Orga team: need to identify a core group of people taking care of the organization of themeeting (content, method, logistic, funding levels)
Possible Contents: immigration, open democracy in Balkans
Vision for the meeting: it should reflect diversity, happen in a place not overloaded by theEU discourse, involve central-eastern Europe
Suggestions for the format: - a network to get to know each other - realization of joint projects during the meeting- have experts inputs from outside
-make project together in different countries
- focus on one topic
Who invited: open academy+ practioners
Open Questions:- What will be the size of the meeting of the network?- How many people can we logistically host?- How do we guarantee continuity? (ideas: to invite new people on the basis of needs
and interests in the topic; to prepare the new entries in advance, before the meeting)
FUNDRAISING TEAM: Katharina, Jakub, Inga, Martin will look for funding possibilities.
ORGANISATION: from now till April 15th the people who identified a possible location for thenext meeting will collect information, in order to understand where will the next meeting takeplace.
On April, 15th there will be a Skype call in order to decide on the final location. The call will beorganized and hosted by Inga.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION: Jakub will investigate new alternatives and create aproposal for the group
VISION STATEMENT: Sebastian will write a statement proposal to be discussed in the nextmeeting. Arianna will help him.
CORE TEAM: a core team for the whole organization of the next meeting will be formedafter April 15th, on the basis of the location decision. This group will be responsible of:
- ongoing communication with the other members- supervise the process- take care of funding, logistics, contents and methods for the meeting
To support this process and keep track of the experience made so far, Martin will create atemplate with all the necessary steps that have been undertaken in order to organize the last2 events (Berlin and Copenhagen).