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Results
The two Corporate Power campaigns chosen by the network at the Forum 2009 are:
- Reclaim Education prioritised to be launched autumn 2009
- Total Ethical Procurment
Read below for a summary of the session or download the full minuted account
Aims of the Session
- For members of the network, representing a range of groups to choose the first two Corporate Power campaign strands to be launched over the next two years from the seven prioritised proposals
- For this decision to be made through discussion and consensus-building about what campaigns would be best for P&P, and then ultimately decided by a vote.
Key Outcomes and Overview of the Session
The session started with an explanation of the campaign criteria that have been developed as guidelines to what makes a good P&P campaign, as well as a reminder that the aim was choose the campaign that would be best for the network. This was followed by 5 minute presentations on each proposal and a chance for people to ask questions to the proposers. The views of our schools and colleges network, collected using surveys, were fed in through a presentation and the need for the new campaign to work for them was highlighted.
To analyse how well the proposed campaigns fit the campaign criteria, the group split into 7 working groups, with each group looking at one proposal to discuss the criteria they felt the proposal least fulfilled, and brainstorm how this could be overcome.
People were then given the chance to see where the group’s initial preferences were lying through a few mapping exercises to see which proposals they initially thought were the best suited as a P&P campaign and least suited as a P&P campaign. At this point Reclaim Education and Ethical Investment were emerging as popular options. Interestingly Tax Justice seemed to be a controversial proposal, receiving lots of votes for both most and least suited campaign.
This show of preferences then framed small group discussions in which the group were able to discuss their response to the proposals.
Something that came out of Saturday’s discussions was a desire from some to combine similar proposals. It was felt that there were substantial crossovers between Reclaim Education and [Ethical Investment], while Ending Exploitation and TEP also held similarities. It was explained by students and staff that while there may be potential to integrate elements of similar proposals into the chosen campaign during campaign development, it was important to use the opportunity of being together to make this important decision as so much work had gone into developing the proposals and we needed to make progress with developing the campaign. It was also highlighted that although there were crossovers, each proposal had a distinct approach and strategy, and it was important to recognise the careful thought put into each discrete campaign.
The potential to merge or amend proposals was further discussed in one of Saturday evening’s open sessions. Notable ideas were:
The analysis of the Ending Exploitation campaign could be applied to the Total Ethical Procurement campaign.
The Reclaim Education campaign could be an over-arching campaign that included Total Ethical Procurement and Ethical Investment.
Combine many of the campaigns into a new bigger one. This was ruled out because it would have meant voting to re-open nominations and restarting the process that had already been running for the best part of a year, and that it would be impossible for us to develop one campaign on everything!
While it was not going to be possible to implement these amendments before the decision, the group felt it was a useful discussion and all ideas were minuted by office staff for referral. As the suggestions made are relevant to the two campaigns that were chosen (Reclaim Education and Total Ethical Procurement) these will be fed into the process of developing these campaigns by the new Corporate Power Campaigns Officer in the Support Office.
On Sunday there was a facilitated full group discussion giving people a chance to debate the options, before voting. The voting system used was Single Transferable Vote as it is the voting system in which least votes are wasted, meaning everyone’s voice is heard.
There were 2 rounds of voting: the first deciding which 2 campaigns should be chosen and the second to decide which campaign should be launched first.
After it was announced that the two campaigns chosen were Reclaim Education and TEP, Juliette from the Support Office asked the group consider which campaign should be launched first considering:
any relevant hot topical issues
- whether one could be developed any more easily in terms of existing materials and resources.
Reclaim Education was chosen to be launched first.
Next Steps
- Recruitment for the Corporate Power Campaign Officer is taking place in April!
- Funding and grant options are being explored, and the student network is beavering away with fundraising.
- The Office Support Team will be holding a strategy day at the end of this month to explore the next steps in campaign development
- Students have been writing case studies of reclaim education successes to inspire the network about what is possible.
How to Get Involved
Come to the Summer Gathering! There will be loads of Corporate Power workshops and this will be your main chance to feed into the development of the Reclaim education campaign at this key stage in development so don’t miss out! 28 June - 2 july
Help fund the campaign Now the campaigns have been chosen we money to make them a reality! This is a great way to throw your enthusiasm behind the campaign - follow Edinburgh’s Corporate Ceilidh lead and raise over £500 to tie it to the Corporate Power campaign.
Become a Campaign Advocate If you’d like to get really involved in the campaign next year this is a great way to do it. We’ll be recruiting for our exciting revamped volunteer positions from 1 May so look out for more info.
Do you know any related stories or successes? Have there been any Reclaim Education successes at your school or university? Write a news story for the website to inspire people about the campaign and highlight opportunities. Check out the latest copy of the Activist (coming soon) for Edinburgh’s inspiring case study on their Scottish Universities’ Renewable Energy Conference
