in groenlinks…
Return »What do I do in groenlinks? well, several things. let’s see right now:
1) Member of the board of groenlinks utrecht
My business here is to suport workgroups. I might be called workgroup coordinator, but this sounds to me a bit arrogant. Workgroups mostly do what they want, and they need support, not coordination. I try. See here my profile.
2) Chair Kleurrijk Platform
The KP is the national workgroup for migrants. Originally a lobbying club for having more migrants as groenlinks politicians, in current times we try to produce content, rather than politicians. In our page (even if not yet up to date) you can see an overview of our issues. We meet monthly and I try to keep the order of the meeting, and normally fail, so they are pretty much always very amusing meetings.
3) Member of both Europa and Werkvloer workgroups
These two workgroups of groenlinks are busy with european issues and entrepreneurs issues. In the first I am a bit active in the Heerlen network, which is a collection of local green politicians across europe, that deal with over-the-border issues. The conceptual relation alive today with my migrant stuff and this european stuff is that migration remains to be a relevant issue in european politics. In the Werkvloer I am less active, but I help starting it some couple of years ago. It is a group of people that tries to relate the small and medium entrepreneur with the politics of groenlinks. So far I think that we are rather unsuccessful… and it would be nice to invest more energy there, but my time is limited.
4) Member of the Linksom redaction
The Linksom is the members newspaper of the Utrecht chapter of groenlinks. So I meet about monthly with other people, and we decide in which way shall we manipulate the naive members of groenlinks this time. Actually, if we only could… I have the impression that the Linksom is not exciting enough to be really read. I write a more or less fixed column there, and try always to make it more sharp.
5) Member of the “new target groups” team, groenlinks utrecht
A while ago Lot was the chair of groenlinks utrecht, and her administration realized that the contact of groenlinks utrecht with migrants was very bad. So a group of people was put together and we do several things when we see each other. Some of us wrote a vision tekst, some others visit periodically migrants’ organizations, other compile the agenda of migrant-related events in utrecht. This is a long term thing, and so far it moves. The coordination is by Ed Hoekstra.
6) Odds and ends
Now, I have done couple of things, and tried couple of others. For example, I was candidate for the last city council elections, obviously without success (beware next time). Another candidature that I miss was the international secretary of groenlinks. I have been member of the partijraad, and helped writing a vision text on migration. Now I am member of the commission that should direct the process of writing a new set of principles for groenlinks. This is more or less just started, but it looks promising. Probably is the most important issue that I have been involved in groenlinks so far.