Laptops on the tables. The murmur of small group deliberation. Comings and goings at the organisers’ helpdesk. This is the Action Workshop, the fourth meeting of VU Amsterdam’s Assembly addressing the question how it can become a sustainable university. The date is Tuesday 3 June and it’s a mere two-and-a-half weeks until decision day.
Participants of the Sustainability University Assembly have entered the home straight. After weeks of collecting, sharing and developing ideas, it’s time to decide about their proposals for a sustainable VU Amsterdam. At this stage, this is not a whole group effort, but the action is taking place at 14 tables where thematic Working Groups are deep into deliberation about how they’ll present their ideas. Important, because at the next and final meeting, the Assembly as a whole will decide which of the proposals are strong enough to be adopted into their Sustainability Agreement.
The Assembly participants formed their Working Groups at the 15 April Summit, when they identified the main topics their Assembly should address. In May, they consulted with experts and then exchanged ideas between groups. Now, the focus is on capturing the essence of their visions into a clear proposal containing up to five ‘decision points’ that will be subject of a vote at the University Convention on 20 June. On top of finalising their proposals, the Working Groups are tasked with preparing a presentation to deliver at that decisive final meeting of the Assembly.
Sparring partners
The Working Groups in this Assembly are autonomous, but that doesn’t mean that they’re left to their own devices. All sorts of support were available to them at the Action Workshop. It’s up to the participants whether they make use of it. Aside from process guides, templates, and an information booklet full of background info and links to sources for further information, the groups could also bring a facilitator to their table, or a ‘sparring partner’. Various people holding decision-making roles within VU Amsterdam joined the Assembly today to spar with participants. It offered Working Groups an opportunity to check how their proposals relate to existing policy and thinking among decision-makers. In the end it’s wholly up to the participants if and how they incorporate the insights from their conversations with sparring partners into their proposals.
Just before the dinner break, the moderation team interrupted the hard work at the tables for a first bit of Assembly decision-making: setting the voting threshold for the Convention. In keeping with the G1000.nu philosophy, only the participants themselves can decide this. In a lively plenary session, participants weighed up various ways of interpreting voting results, and decided to put four options to the test of an initial electronic vote. Each option was first voted on individually, then the two most popular options were considered in a preference vote. The result was clear, on 20 June the voting threshold will be as follows: a decision point is adopted into the Sustainability Agreement if it receives more votes in favour than against. This Assembly favours simple and straightforward democracy.
Artwork and videos
After – and quite possibly during – the dinner break, participants concentrated on their proposals once more. Two of the Working Groups decided to have a last-minute merger and to combine their wisdom on the topic of Education into a single proposal. Elsewhere participants were consulting fellow Working Group members who couldn’t be there in person today, recording one-minute videos to explain their proposals, and creating art work to feature in their presentation. The available group facilitators had a relatively quiet evening, as groups were seemingly able to conduct fruitful deliberations without much process support. As participants headed home at around 8.30pm, we were seeing confident faces. There may be some final refinements to make, but their proposals for a sustainable VU Amsterdam are just about ready to be shared with the world out there.
The Assembly’s proposals will be shown on the ‘Working Groups’ page on this website from 13 June. The groups will present their proposals at the University Convention on Friday 20 June. This is a public meeting – register here if you want to join! After the presentations, Assembly participants will vote on decision points and determine what the Sustainability Agreement for VU Amsterdam will look like.