2024 Policies
Decide how we work together
This proposal outlines a new system for the committees and hubs that connect People Powered members with each other and with the organization’s programs and activities. People Powered is a vehicle for participatory democracy organizations and advocates to build global resources, programs, and infrastructure to support their work. Our committees and hubs are the spaces for members to do this work. Our current system is outdated and does not match our current programs or the work in our strategic plan. This is a proposal that members will discuss, revise, and vote on during our annual member decision-making process, People Powered Decides.
Background
- Membership Changes from Strategic Planning: In 2023 strategic planning discussions, People Powered members, staff, and board prioritized two broad changes to the membership system and organization:
- Expand membership to incorporate individual members, government practitioners, researchers and advocates, along with local and national organizations.
- Adjust the spaces for focused member participation, including regional hubs and thematic committees.
- Programmatic Restructuring from Strategic Planning: People Powered has experimented with lots of resources and programs in its first three years. In our new strategic plan we narrow the focus to a set of priority resources and activities that have had the most support and impact. This enables us to align our member committees with these priorities.
- Learning from Initial Regional Hubs: People Powered launched its first two regional hubs in 2022, in two specific regions (Francophone Africa; and Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans). We found that it would be hard to sustain this model of many sub-regions at scale, and that we had a greater initial need for continental hubs that could include and engage more members, and enable staff to more easily communicate with members across major regions. After consultation with African members, we decided to transition the Francophone Africa hub to an Africa hub, and to prioritize setting up hubs in PP’s four priority regions: Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
- Transition from Specific Focus on PB to Broader Focus on Participatory Democracy: People Powered grew out of the Global PB Hub that was formed in 2019. While we transitioned to a broader focus on participatory democracy, we have maintained the old legacy structure of the Global PB Hub, with the Global PB Practitioner and Research Boards being our only programmatic boards. We engaged these boards in discussions about how to transition beyond this old structure, and there was overwhelming support for changing to a new structure that did not disproportionately prioritize PB.
Proposed Changes
- Align Regional Hubs with Priority Regions: Focus first on setting up regional hubs in People Powered’s four priority regions. Consider setting up hubs in other regions once the first four are established.
- Align Thematic Committees with Strategic Plan: Consolidate many different long-term and ad-hoc committees into a new set of long-term thematic committees that matches the resources, programs, and activities in our new strategic plan. Discontinue the Global PB Boards and shift to smaller committees that focus on specific areas of work, across different kinds of participatory democracy. Ensure that form follows function - that we have the committees that we need for the work that we aim to do, to help get that work done and to provide a clear purpose for committee members.
Comparison Between Old System and Proposed New System
Description of Committees
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Conversation with Yen-Ting Hsu
Would it be useful to have a committee for regional hubs if it is not under the governance committee? I think it will also be precious that regional hubs are learning from each other. PP can also discuss and develop policies for all the regional hubs in that committee.
Me parece muy importante que los hubs regionales se conecten de alguna manera y de modo regular porque uno de los valores de People Powered es su alcance global, la oportunidad que da a los miembros de conocer otras regiones. De modo que, aunque me gustan los hubs regionales porque se pueden hacer actividades más contextualizadas y se facilitan quizá por el idioma, es muy importante que haya conexión entre ellos. Está función podría tenerla un comitee, o el staff pero sería bueno que esté pensado.
Thanks Yen-Ting and Rocio for your comments!
We are planning to have a committee or at least we will have monthly meetings with coordinating organizations, where the idea is to keep improving the work and structure of the regional hubs and define how PP will support you better. Additionally, as Yen-Ting mentions to have an space for coordinating organizations to share lessons and find opportunities for collaboration.
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