Documentation Copenhagen 2012

7/31/2019 Documentation Copenhagen 2012

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DOCUMENTATION

2nd Network Meeting on

„Participation and Democracy in Europe“

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”.

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With financial support from the EU Fundamental Rights & Citizenship Programme



WHO WAS THERE?

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.

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4 DAYS AGENDA

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.

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ACTIVITIES AND OUTCOMES

*** DAY 1 – Reconnect ***

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

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purpose of the group and to set the ground to start working.

The power point presentation of the Berlin meeting’s outcomes is attached to this document.

The group entered then on the first content discussion of the day, with a World Café on“New forms of Participation and Democracy in Europe”.

The exchange happened with 3 roundsof discussion, with people rotating atevery round, on the following questions:

What are the new forms of participationand democracy that…

1. you see emerging in Europe?

2. you see promoted and implemented in your work/study environment?

3. Which are the tools and strategiesthat are used at the European level and in your work/study environment? Identify them and draw on the flip chart.

WORLD CAFÉ OUTCOMES

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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?”.

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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?”

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4) How to efficiently attract target group of our common/ mutual activities? How to make

people co-owners of the project? Events, websites, ideas, projects…

5) Participation meeting in public space

The day finished with a speed dots-evaluation, to measurethe group feeling on the statements:

• I have found concrete opportunities for collaboration

• I would like to work further with this group

• I want to contribute to have more of these meetings

Here on the picture the results of the evaluation.

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*** DAY 3 – “Own it!” ***

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?

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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.

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ProjectsProposalsPublicationsFeelingsFree spacesJourney

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

What is the need?

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3) Prototype on STRUCTURE AND FORMATFormat of gathering3 days, meetings like this,+ expert inputs from outside

+ public sphere eventWith our methods and local leader from the network

Size of the network: open, committed, speaking EN, relay to the topic, guidelines,

Roles and responsibilitiesContinuity and stable factors, commitment of whole network / delegation(resources), rotatingcore groups

Proposal:

Set of criteria to join the network

Format of the gatherings(conferences, events, workshops, partnerships, joint projects Roles and responsibilities (who does what?)

Size of the network

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“My society”

Europe/public

Good practice for collaboration

Practicing new forms of democracy and participation

Not enough explore way of doing things

Lobbying for democracy(activate similar networks,public meetings, connectingactors)

Event: deliberation asprocessConcrete: how to useaddresses

Why we, why this network.What can we add and whatdo the others miss? Eg:Citizens for Europe.eu

“My group”

This network

Openness of conversationsBe visible-gain recognitionCreate a space for

diversity(different expertise,

background)

AgencyEmpower members andcommunitiesPromoting the network in our own job

One vision; many missionsDemocracy is learningtogether

Students consultants or thinkthank producingrecommendations for network. Eg How to makeopensource for democracywork for NGO network

“My life”

Me personally

Quality conversationSpiritual and materialresources(energy,knowledge)

Fundings, proposal writingIdeas

Sharing methods

Open source for democracy

Maybe with the young

Federalists (JEF)



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

No fixed topics Keynote on networking tools

Sessions on projects proposals

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Funding possibilities

1 expert + current members

Private + accessible spaces

Prototype II

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

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- 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)

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NEXT STEPS

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).

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Documentation Copenhagen 2012

Documents

Transcript of Documentation Copenhagen 2012