On 29-31 May 2009 Citizens of Europe held its second OpenFora evaluation meeting in Berlin. The main coordinators of the 2008-2009 cycle “Contemporary Challenges to Europe” were present, but also some important partners, participants and external experts had been invited to join the discussion. This was the occasion for everyone to make some conclusions about the joint actions realised throughout the last twelve months. Executive officer Gert Röhrborn started the meeting by demonstrating how OpenFora programme functions as a project interface for the diverse activities and fields of cooperation of Citizens of Europe. It also included a concrete and dynamic presentation by Alicia Tri Utami on how to improve our fundraising. In the name of the whole network chairman Frank Burgdörfer expressed his gratitude to the brilliant student who has shared her ideas and insights with us during the last three months (see the interview with Alicia).
For the main part of the workshop people present evaluated whether the purpose of the programme actually fits the methods, organizational procedures and the forms of documentation used. Participants engaged in a very open and productive discussion on the results and shortcomings of the events realised so far; all agreed that some important progress compared to the first cycle “Challenges to Citizenship in Europe” has been made in respect to the programme and selection of participants, and that Citizens generally managed to establish OpenFora as a space for equal debate on conceptual problems of activism and culture. Finally participants discussed future events of the programme (planned in Vicenza, Kyiv, London, Cluj-Napoca, Berlin and Amsterdam) and more general perspectives of cooperation. See www.openfora.eu for more information.