Dear everyone, would like to thank you for all for your comments and make the following updates:
currently there is a group of people trying to work on making this gathering a reality (@Gaelle_Bigler@Petros_OFN_GR and myself)… we are working on logistics and most pressing agenda items simultaneously. Both having in mind everyone’s requirements, which I hope you understand is not easy task.
do not want to disappoint @Rachel and @gen.shanahan but Ireland is not on the radar for the gathering, for many different reasons but mainly one aspect - it would be quite complicated to find accommodation which is both reasonably priced and with good broadband access.
we will be posting some updates on this soon, and please do let us if you can contribute in any way (if you haven’t done so already).
I agree with Rachel that we do not need to worry too much about the agenda yet. There will definitely be a lot more than enough to talk about. We can braisnstorm a list of possible topics in advance and then nearer the time pick the ones that are most relevant to the people who will be there. Also I think that the agenda will evolve organically as the gathering goes on.
Great work getting to this point. I think it is time y’all make some firm decisions and so we can progress and start booking travel. it is getting close to the dates now.
In my opinion (based on attending almost every gathering OFN has ever had):
Don’t worry about the agenda. We always base the agenda on who is there and this year in particular we wont know that for sure until we are there. Trying to plan a tight agenda in advance will create more problems than it solves. Instead, just gather thoughts on what people would like to see on the agenda so we can plan over dinners.
I would suggest just deciding the gathering is in Porto at @luisramos0 place. it is a super kind offer. porto is easier than Greece for most people attending. Luis has also been part of most OFN gatherings and will be a great local support. Making this decision will allow people to start planning travel etc and since the gathering is getting close now this needs to start happening. Also it would be great to see Luis
I say all this in loving support as if we don’t firm up the plan very soon I think many (myself included) will just not be able to attend.
Thanks @lin_d_hop and @NickWeir thanks you for your comments. We’ll see what we can do, Hope you understand we have set up some steps now, so we will try to include your comments (with recognized experience) and develop something based on everyone’s suggestions and on our experience too Maybe some change won’t be too bad.
I think an OFN Europe could be useful to access finding and even to advocate at the European scale. Cloughjordan would be a wonderful venue fr a gathering, yes I would say that as i’m based there. Its not the most central location, could be blended though with online participation as well as face to face.
@DavieP thank you for your post. At the moment there two options on the table:
Greece w/ @Petros_OFN_GR defining final details to put up as a proposal
and Porto, Portugal w/ @luisramos0 also offering between 10 to potential 14 spaces for free accomodation.
Should we include Cloghjordan, Ireland on the table? If so, could you let us know about other details (eg.: potential accommodation, connections from Dublin etc.)?
Please let us know as soon as possible so we can circulate the options and have everyone vote preferred location.
It depends on the time of year for Cloughjordan. We have a hostel that can accommodate around 16 people and a large training space in the Ecovillage. However there will be renovations taking place from October to December and would be a better visit in the spring. So I wont suggest hosting this gathering in Cloughjordan. For European gatherings I have found it is good to host in a central location that more people can access. Thanks
Hi all!
The previous week I created a poll on Slack but didn’t work out due to limitations of Slack.
I have re-created the new poll on Doodle, with the following questions.
Some questions are to be answered individually, and some to be answered as a team/instance.
Each question comes with a description on the relevant link.
Please kindly share the whole set of questions with everyone in your team, so that we start putting things into shape and perspective.
This set of questions will also be posted on the relevant Slack channel.
Please be kind to tag anyone related to this gathering (both here & on Slack), that has not been notified about it. Please also be kind to reply, by Friday 24th of September.
Hi all!
Thanks to everyone who participated in the poll for attendance and possible dates for the forthcoming European Gathering!
Things are getting into shape regarding the dates.
To begin with, kind reminder to anyone who hasn’t voted on the poll yet. @Ben Ryan @Luis Ramos @David Giovannini @Eugeni@Evonne (OFN Ireland)
Everyone tagged, please vote on the poll above if you are interested in joining the gathering.
Ignore this tag if you will not be joining, or if your team members have voted for you.
Back to the gathering planning again.
Based on the current votes, we have the following results :
People & Attendance
Voters : 13
Attendants (of the gathering) : 11 approx. (4 definitely YES / 7 maybe yes)
Dates (in order of preference)
2nd half of November : 10
Later than that : 8
(only one voter that can only join later than 2nd half of November)
Based on the above votes (and in case the current preferences are not affected by the remaining people that haven’t voted yet),
we go with the following :
SUGGESTED DATES(for the core event, arrivals before or after are optional)
Guess what, the vote is over (both here and on Slack) soooo,
HABEMUS GATHERING!!!
DATES : 26 to 29 of NOVEMBER LOCATION : Porto, Portugal
Everyone who will be attending physically, you may start making travel arrangements!
We will be checking with @luisramos0 to confirm our attendance, as he will be organizing logistics and accommodation.
Also, @ferrazfil and @Rachel will be handling the agenda of our gathering, so we will be referring to them, in order to add any topics of discussion, etc.
Please, let’s keep in touch for the rest of the process.
Looking forward to meeting you all in person!!
Hi everyone, I have done a quick list of who has voted to go to the gathering. Now we have some questions that need confirmation so that we can move on with the logistics aspects. I have created a quick list of names (if people are coming in person or just joining online). We also need to know for those who voted for Greece, will you still be coming, or cannot? Please check this list and make changes as adequate. If for some reason you cannot access the list please just write a comment to this post (are you joining in person, or just online? will you need accommodation or have a place to stay in Porto?).
Also, @luisramos0 has started two extra Slack channels:
#porto-gathering-2021 for everyone who is planning to join or is interested in following the gathering sessions (remote or physical)
I am open and interested to attending some sessions online, but don’t need you to be trying to schedule around that - when there are a group of you in person I suspect it will be hard to sync with online sessions. Will keep an eye out
Dear everyone, the time has now come bring more clarity on what will be the agenda/program for the gathering:
We will have 4 days (Friday 26th to Monday the 29th of November), so we should create an overview of our time and how we will manage it (it’s important not only for those joining in person but for those joining online). Below is an approach to include various needs already raised:
Leaving space for impromptu and nurturing gathering:
leaving some space in the agenda open for unplanned topics (these will be decided at arrival on first day).
there is a lot of work being done by staff and by volunteers of the network and it seems people are in great need of a nurturing environment, moreover in this pandemic context…So let’s make sure we allocate enough time to get-to-know each other and just relax a bit.
On the more structured part
Some items have been listed at the very beginning of this post (the 25th of Aug… please click the drop down arrows to be sure you see everything). I would like to know if:
you are happy if these are part of the agenda? (I have not seen any signs of disapproval but still would just like to be sure).
is there relevant information you would like to share in respect to these items? (maybe we can bundle this in a information package for the gathering);
what else do you believe are pressing aspects we need to address. Basically what else would you like to talk about?
We are 1month away from the gathering. In my view there is some discussion that can take place before, so that we could potentially use the time of the gathering for taking actionable decisions. My intention is to create some separate discourse topics on these to see very generally where are we all standing.
Thanks to you all for your work on this.
I like how it is developing. Can I suggest that we make a list of ALL the things that we might want to discuss, have a quick session at the beginning of the gathering to plan a rough outline (accepting that we are unlikely to be able to cover everything in the time available) and then let the agenda evolve as the gathering progresses.
This was the system we used for a recent OFN UK gathering and it worked for us.
I agree that it would be good to have a sheet like this one used at the last gathering so that we know when we are all arriving and leaving. If nobody else gets to this soon I will do it
Maybe some change won’t be too bad.
if you are interested in joining the gathering.