ECA governance infrastructure & organising

Call will be tomorrow at noon on Skype: nicoleleonard92

Unfortunately, Ann Marie and I will be out tomorrow morning. Perhaps you can write a summary or @maiadereva can fill us in after the fact. Thanks everyone!

My skype is nicoleleonard92

Call at noon!

Sorry, I didn't know this was coming up until I read your email from a few hours ago just now.

A little advance notice would help! ;)

Should we try again sometime soon?

ok, i now see you mentioned this and opened a doodle 2 days ago.. missed it. looking forward to see the notes (event tho crazy busy with other things)

9 days ago @ivorstodolsky ;) But yes I know, it's hard to follow things. I think we had a good conversation. I am writing up some notes to share with everyone, but it will have to wait until tomorrow as I've got to run now.

Notes from Governance Call (Friday February 10)

We agreed to write up a code/charter of our “Working Principles”. The following were discussed and agreed upon, based off observation of how the group has been functioning so far, and our conversations in Brussels and on loomio. The text however is still open for comment as this is just my (Nicole's) interpretation:

1. We manage the ECA as a commons. There is no hierarchy.
2. The ECA is a space to collaborate, rather than a body of representation.
3. Participants cannot legitimately speak “on behalf of” the Assembly as a whole.
4. They can however claim that ideas or work “emerged from” the ECA, or identify as members or “part of” of the Assembly.
5. We work through self-organized groups that take responsibility of carrying out actions (“workshops?”... I think this is an important vocabulary question we should agree on).
6. The groups are autonomous in their decision-making when the decision does not implicate the ECA at large.
7. When it does affect the group at large, higher levels of input and discussion with assembly members should be sought out.
8. All groups have an obligation to communicate and share their actions with the broader ECA.
9. At the beginning of an agreed-upon initiative they should clarify and document a mandate that describes and contextualizes the action. (personally not clear about the details on this mandate so maybe Fred or Maia want to add more)
10. We operate via the principle that all actions are okay unless there is explicit objection. If there is objection then discussions should take place to find a solution and resolve the issue.

We also talked about the various meeting proposals that have been offered over the last few weeks and months and reflected on issues of representation and building a timeline for 2017-2018.

-There are many proposals on the table. In theory (and in line with #4 in the code above), there is no reason why all the initiatives cannot go ahead and be self-organized (unless financial resources become an issue or there is a time conflict).
- We need more detailed information about each meeting proposal to know if priorities/decisions need to be made and so we ask for some documentation/mandate about each one to be shared on loomio by the end of the month, February 28 (in 2 weeks!). These should include the date, context of the event, who would be responsible for organization, how it relates to the ECA at large, and the financial status of the initiative (if funding is already secured, still needed, not necessary, etc. and how much).
- The proposals seem to vary in scope and prominence of the ECA within them. Some are simply about having a convening space for the ECA in the context of a pre-existing gathering, where others are explicitly an ECA event. In line with #2 above, we can consider all these as various ECA Moments or spaces. They are not instances of representation and members are free to claim association with the Assembly.

EDIT/COMMENT on the text through the hackpad (better formatting of bullets there):

https://europeancommonsassembly.hackpad.com/Governance-charter-Working-document-ECA-9UjjdfTiWV0

I will let this sit a few days before circulating to the broader group.

But I will start contacting people that have proposed meetings to ask for their elaborated proposals before the end of the month.

Dear all,
Thank you for the notes on the call. Sorry that I missed it – I got confused with my agenda… I think the first draft is really good. Do we have a deadline to share it with the rest of the Alliance / finalize it?