Is People & Planet student led or democratic, does it even matter whether it is?
Wednesday,23 December 2009 by MC Alex Wood
Come to the Forum and have your say.
People & Planet (P&P) prizes itself on how student led and democratic it is. But have you ever wondered if People & Planet actually is the most student led and democratic organisation out there? Are there organisations which do things better than us? Can we learn anything from these organisations so as to become more student led and democratic. People & Planet clearly excels in this area but we can’t rest on our laurels. That is why people have been thinking about all this in a number of different settings, whether amongst the Management Committee (MC), the staff or recently on the PANDA (People & Planet Associated Network for Direct Action) email list. However, what we really need is to get everybody in the network thinking about it, discussing it in their groups and then putting forward the changes that they think should be made (if any) at the Forum. It is really important that students attend the Forum as it is our annual democratic event where students from across the network come together to decide the direction of P&P and its campaigns, this year it’s being held in London on March 19-21.
We are planning on having a session which will begin by exploring the current structure of P&P, before looking at how other organisations such as UKYCC, Climate Camp, Oxfam, and Student Unions are organised. We then want people to brainstorm ideas based on what they’ve heard and their own ideas of how P&P could be better organised in terms of student leadership and democracy. Before we then try and consensually come up with changes we would like to see in P&P.
This is a really exciting opportunity for us to shape P&P into the organisation which we want it to be. But for the session to work we need you to start thinking about these questions, discussing them with your group and asking any friends involved in other organisations what they think.
If you have any questions please email alex.wood@peopleandplanet.org
Find out more about The Forum here.
Tags: democracy, People & Planet, student-led, the forum
January 29th, 2010 at 11:38 am
[...] this year there will be big decisions about whether People & Planet is and should be student led. Its is supposed to be a democratic process in which the voices of everyone in the network from the [...]