Meeting of Together board, Strasbourg, 18th February 2014

Proposed agenda :

• Informations on Constitution of the network
• 2014 Action plan
  • Basic functions of the network
  • Exchanges and solidarity between territories
  • Public policies
  • Promotion of the network
  • Partnerships

Presence:

• Fayçal KAABI, Kairouan Tunisia
• Odete SEVERINO, Portugal
• Konstantinos SIMITSIS, Kavala Mayor Grece
• Io CHATZIVARYTI, Kavala Grece
• Andre DE SMET, Braine L'Alleud Belgium
• Viviane GONCE, Braine l'Alleud Belgium
• Carine JANSEN, Walloon region Belgium
• Irena KOWALCZYK, COE
• Gilda FARRELL, retired COE
• Samuel THIRION, COE
• Joel OBRECHT, COE
• Lydia PAPANDREOU, COE

Summary of discuted points and decisions

Constitution of the Together Network

• Odemira: Head office
• Network has been officially registered in Portugal as an association
• Bank account is to be done soon
• Membership fees payment request to be sent soon after
• Some actions of the network will be supported by COE
• Self-financing options and solidrity finds are to be further discussed
• Currently no financial means to have a physical office and paid secretaries

Action plan for 2014

• Has been presented and validated
• To download here : Together - Calendar Action Plan 2014.doc

Logo of the Network

• The first propositions were rejected because the font was too rigid.
• The final logo chosen is available here.

wikispiral.org website

• Has to explicitively give the address of the headquarters, contact and plan
• Work on presentation (movies, ...)
• Evolution of the statistics
• Evolution of the system of semantic codification
• Need to build general public pages - website too technical

Network development

• Importance to build a dynamisors network to master development in the different countries
• Follow-up and training of dynamisors to be done by SPIRAL team (Joel, Samuel) and Thi-Minh which is coordinator of dynamisors
• Several national or regional dynamisors network to be built
  • French speaking countries
  • Portugal / Spain
  • Russia
  • Eastern Europe
  • Italy / Cittaslow
  • Maghreb
  • Africa

Solidarity between territories

• Supporting funds for coresponsible projects
• Question of funds lost or participation to property
• The network could purchase shares

Thematic networks

• Creation of theme referents

Samuel Thirion retirement

• Samuel will be retired from the Council of Europe a the end of March.
• He proposes to be available as volunteer for the secretary needs of the network.
• His status is to be validated by the network direction

Notes of discussion and important news

• Irena KOWALCZYK: The current strategy and action plan for Social Cohesion stops in 2015. Importance of the renewal
• Gilda Farrell: Important new approach of institutions as facilitating: mediator between interests, assist in developing citizens and grassroots initiatives, hybridation of resources (ex of [[https://respondingtogether.wikispiral.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=218|Community Land Trusts]], Belgium)
• Io CHATZIVARYTI: Importance of the thematic networks in SPIRAL to carry the unique ID of SPIRAL: coresponsibility melting civils actors and institutions. both should be fitting as members of the network.
• Gilda FARRELL: Proposes facilitating contracts between institutions and citizen initiatives (help for legality, related to fiscality, help in kind, ... , and the parallel commitment of the initiatives carriers)
• André DE SMET: Importance to transmit values, the differences of SPIRAL, not only the technical aspects
• Io CHATZIVARYTI: Importance for wikispiral and Together Network to maintain support to key actors on the field
• Gilda FARRELL: Importance of the ability of the SPIRAL initiative to develop with some depth, for deepening the local action over time.