Prioritised agenda proposals

The Forum: Come together to discuss the future of people & planet

How The Forum 07 agenda was decided

In Autumn term 2006, network members and the support office submitted ideas for what they thought was most important for discussion at P&P’s democratic event.

On 7 December 2006, the Management Committee, including six elected student representatives, met to prioritise these proposals to fit in to the limited time available at The Forum event.

This page outlines the items they prioritised and their reasons for doing so. It also highlights the reasons that certain proposals did not make it onto The Forum agenda, and how these may be taken forward.

The final agenda and issues for discussion can be found in The Forum Guide

Items prioritised for The Forum 07 agenda

Final Agenda Item	Proposals it relates to	Reason(s) for Prioritisation	What will be covered in this session?	Anticipated outcome of session
Parallel session 1a: Future of Fairtrade Uni campaign	Fairtrade or Network co-ordinated campaign proposal Living Wage Campaign proposal Ethical Investment campaign proposal Fairtrade in context of international trade justice	Feasible Important decision Lots of options to consider	Set context of options for Fairtrade Uni campaign: To be continued to be supported by an intern or campaign to be dropped and replaced by a network coordinated campaign to be supported for 1 year. Discussion of options: Keep Fairtrade Uni campaign with moderate development (ideas from office and St Andrews proposals) / National ethical investment campaign / Living wage campus campaign	Decision
Parallel session 1b: Future of climate change campaign for sixth formers	Parallel sessions proposal	Fairtrade Uni session not relevant to sixth formers Level of interest from sixth formers to develop this area	Set context in terms of current campaign and sixth form network activities and resources available Discuss and debate options for developing climate change campaign in schools and colleges.	Recommendation of direction this work should go in
Session 2: Democracy	Office Democracy proposal Group Voting A membership paper being drafted by MC students. Aspects of decision-making mentioned in other proposals.	The MC need direction from the network in order to move forwards in this area. Several proposals made which are relevant to this session	Discussion about developing P&P’s democracy Then focusing on specific ideas for developing our democratic structures particularly discussing membership	Recommendation of direction this work should go in to MC
Parallel session 3a: Policy on non-violence	Policy on non-violence	MC felt that it would be important to discuss the advantages or disadvantages of developing policies as a way of demonstrating or agreeing our values as a network	Background to P&P’s position on this as an organisation What other policies does P&P have? Do we want to develop more policies as an organisation to reflect shared values?	Discussion & Recommendation to MC/Office
Parallel session 3b: P&P’s role in coalitions	People & Planet’s role within coalitions	MC felt that this is an important issue for the network	Some aspects of this proposal would come into the democracy discussion	Discussion & Recommendation to MC/Office
Parallel session 3c: Incorporating actions as permanent feature of events/ network national actions	A little less conversation Parallel sessions proposal	2 proposals relevant to this and felt there to be a high level of interest on this in the network	Following the Carnival of Climate Chaos during Shared Planet 06, this session will discuss how we might link actions into events in future. It will address how this might work and it could be planned.	Discussion & recommendation to MC/ office
Parallel session 3d: International student networks	Parallel sessions proposal	MC felt this is important to consider for our long term strategy	Introduction to international student networks The advantages and disadvantages of P&P getting involved in international networks Discussion of ways we could get involved, with particular focus on Solar Generation	Recommendation to MC / office
Parallel session 3e: Fundraising	Discussion of the way P&P is financed	MC felt this is critical for P&P’s sustainability, was also very popular at Forum 2005	Discussion of the way P&P is funded Role of the network in funding P&P	Discussion
Session 4: Open session to bring up new issues, discuss important issues further etc	A blank space on The Forum agenda	To allow any issues that arise over the weekend or between now and The Forum to be addressed or to allow items which weren’t prioritised by management committee to be discussed	The content of this session will be decided by participants at The Forum 2007	Discussion / Recommendations to the MC

Other sessions on The Forum 07 agenda

Some short sessions were agreed by the Management Committee in addition to the proposals above:

Welcome and introductions
Question and answers with your management committee representatives
The campaigns setting for Forum decisions: what limitations are there?
P&P Finances update
What´s been implemented since The Forum 06?
Management Committee elections
Sum up and farewells

Items not prioritised for The Forum 07 agenda

Due to limited time and other constraints it was not possible for all the network or support office proposals for The Forum agenda to be covered at The Forum 07. The proposals which did not make it to the final agenda are listed below along with the reasons they were not prioritised and any further action that is being taken.

Proposed agenda item	Reason for decision	Action to be taken now
Trade & Transparency: A proposal to launch a preferential trade and banking transparency campaign directed towards European relations with Africa	The MC felt that this would not be currently feasible to implement as we could only release capacity equivalent to 1 intern by discontinuing the Fairtrade Uni campaign. (Go Green will continue in the next year due to committed funding for a local campus based climate campaign)	Forum team to go back to proposers and ask whether there are any aspects of the proposal that might be taken forward given our limited capcity.
Future of Ditch Dirty development	It was felt that this input and decision could be made elsewhere Not as time critical decision as other agenda items prioritised.	Emma (MC) and Anna (MC) to work with the Support office on drawing up a process for input and decision making on this. E.g. It could be put on the agenda for the Summer Gathering or we could try an on-line consultation.
Openness of the management committee	It was felt that this could be tackled as part of a wider Q&A session with the MC. The MC agreed with the specific ideas in this proposal, some of which are underway but some of which can be raised during the main democracy session at the Forum	MC and Forum team to consider possible format of this Q&A session, which will take place at The Forum, as will Management Committee elections.
Greater Transparency in the office	The MC agreed that there would be real benefits to the network and the office to implementing this proposal.	We can start by including a round up of what the office has been doing in the last year in the Forum guide to be sent to groups in early February.
Legal basis of P&P	The MC felt that not many people would want to attend this session and that what would be interesting to the network is any democratic reforms we might want to include in our legal constitution which will be included in the democracy session	To include a short briefing on the changes to the legal basis of P&P in the Forum guide as a background for the democracy session.

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