PROPOSAL FOR NEW ENCOD STRUCTURE

In order to improve the functioning of ENCOD, a revision of its structure is needed. Herewith we propose some ideas to improve the efficacy of our work:

 Revision of the tasks and membership of the Steering Committee. Staff should not be member of the SC.

 The SC members should be more active/visible, they should lead Working groups and take seriously their tasks as President, secretariat and treasurer. These positions should be voted during the GA (currently it is the coordinator who proposes the positions to the SC members and they accept or reject).

We need to try to get more active members and more horizontal way of working so people can really be part of the decision-making process, maybe we can organise polls on the forum or through the email, like we have done for the votation for the SC.

Working groups

5 working groups are created, 4 for every activity sector that Encod is involved in, one for the presence on Internet.

1. Action:

Cannabis Social Clubs, Worldwide Marijuana March, Events in Vienna, Coca Commercialisation, individual letters to political representatives and the press, stands in festivals and hemp fairs, etc.

2. Lobby

Follow up to CND and NGO forums in the UN, Civil Society Forum and European Parliament in EU

3. Information

Writing and spreading monthly bulletin, develop press strategies, make research

4. Organisation

Administration, fundraising, contact to members, installation and moderation mailing lists..

5. Internet WG

We need a working group that is entirely responsible for our presence on the Internet: the website and other tools such as Facebook, polls, etc. This WG should consist of at least 1 person per (main) language capable of adding news and translating bulletins and other articles directly on the Internet.

National representatives/coordinators

Apart of the SC members, each country should have an ENCOD active representative/coordinator. Ideally this position should be a paid job, so part – but not all, of the funds raised by the national rep would be employed to pay his/her salary. This positions should rotate, the same as the SC. His/her functions would be the following:

 To bold national emails lists or run national forums, with polls;

 to raise funds nationally;

 to raise activism nationally in support of other nation’s activities and problems. For example, they could mobilize campaigns to support drug war victims at the national level (we have few examples: Pinky, UK cannabis activist made suffer by British police; Iker Val, Spanish cannabis activist in trial now; Adrian Ortega, a drug user with mental sickness prisoner in comma due to negligence). The national rep would have the duty to look for means of gathering international support for national campaigns and activities, as well as issuing press releases and raising funds.

 To coordinate the organisation of national conferences, meetings or parties to increase involvement at the national level, with members of the SC attending. These events could be organised by him/her or by other ENCOD members with the colaboration of the national rep. Video conferences could also be organised so people from abroad could participate.

 To maintain constant communication with the SC members and the secretariat.

 To collect or write reports on such matters as:

* national drug policy

* how that policy is or not implemented

* public attitudes

* government stances and those of other political parties

These reports could be put into a database. They could be used to enable Encod itself and member organisations to write to governments, press, politicians, in various countries, informing them of differences and possible alternatives to repressive policies.

In order to raise funds, lower tier membership where people could become associate members of some sort for say 10/20 Euro’s. One possibility is to send a hard copy newsletter twice or four times a year (printed and posted nationally to save money), which of course would also be posted to all ENCOD members.

Within 3 months after the GA the new Steering Committee should initiate the work in these 5 working groups.

In each WG, at least one SC member should be present. The SC member should moderate the communication in the WG, activate the members when necessary and make sure the rest of the steering committee is informed of the main steps that are taken.

After the assembly a process to vote the candidates to national representant/coordinator should be opened, so at the end of the summer we should also have a list of national representatives who should have fluent communication with the secretariat and the SC.