Decidim Association - Coordination Committee Meeting

1-New methodology 

Info

A little bit of house-keeping first: Introducing Elsa's new role and discussing next CC meetings.

Moreover, we need to discuss how to make CC meetings more agile. Nil can work on a detailed proposal that, based on IR articles, implement a methodology that is based in two main points:

• More Asynchronous work: I can prepare a detailed document with all updates and recent news. This document should be sent 1 week before the meeting and should be read in advance by all the CC members, in order to have a more agile meeting. We can use Metadecidim comments to manage the Q&A and clarify everything before the meeting.  

• During the meeting: Use the time to discuss and make decisions, rather to inform. So, if we asynchronously do the Q&A, we can spend the meeting time on deliberation and decision-making. But in a more agile way.

To do

• Agree on discuss asynchronous the new methodology and make a decision before next CC meeting 

• Define regular CC meetings (i.e. monthly last wednesday at XXh)

Notes

Elsa’s presentation. 

Nil will write a short document to define the new methodology and make it easier to understand and coordinate. Based on two points exposed above. The Committee should read this document (before every meeting) to get ready for the next one, the information and topics that will be discussed. 

Ali asks if there will be a proposal uploaded to the coordination committee assembly in metadecidim in order to share it with the team. Yes, we will do so. Ben will help Nil in the preparation draft. 

It will be presented in the next meeting. 

Marta has doubts about the asynchronous work and the amount of work, due to limited time to work on this. [ I agree with the async discussions in metadecidim, but I’m afraid not being able to be up-to-date if there are a lot of open issues, that is my point ]

Ali suggests deliberation should happen away from the calls. Ben agrees with that and doing so through Metadecidim is easier. Metadecidim deliberation should substitute it through using the chat. 

Antonio suggests that topics for next meetings should be approved in the online meeting, not only on Metadecidim. 

Agreements

• A draft will be prepared by Nil and Ben about the new workflow.

• It will be uploaded to Metadecidim

• Better to use Metadecidim for deliberation rather than Telegram/Element chat

• Last Wednesday of every month the committee should meet (it will be agreed through the Telegram/Element chat the best day) and Elsa will schedule the meetings. Ali will coordinate with Elsa on this. 

2-Swiss Local Chapter (Decisional)

Info

After a few months of discussing this topic, we finally have been able to move forward with our lawyers. Furthermore, the Swiss people already written a proposal for the Statuses of this Swiss Association that you can consult on Metadecidim (under the related documents section): Read the Metadecidim Proposal and debate

Finally, our lawyers (Across Legal) had written a text for the Trademark agreement that would regulate the use of Decidim’s trademark by those international Associations.

• The text in Spanish: Decidim_Convenio licencia marca Decidim_2025.07.17.docx

• The text in English: ENG_Decidim_Convenio licencia marca Decidim_2025.07.17(1) en-US.docx

The Swiss people had read the trademark agreement and they had a few comments. Take a look at Lucien’s comment: Read Lucien's comments reacting to the Trademark Agreement 

There will likely be a variety of ways in which the Swiss Local Chapter attempts to raise funds, and these should have different trademark fee structures depending on the nature of the funds raised and their purpose (for instance, to fund core maintenance versus to organize the Swiss community Decidim implementors). Rather than attempt to anticipate all possible variations of this in advance, we have proposed a flexible process for the first (approximately) year of the agreement between the Decidim Association and the Swiss Local Chapter (in the meeting between Lucien, Lars, Nil, Ali, and Ben on Dec. 10 2025). Here is the link to the full notes document for the meeting, and here are the proposed aspects of the process for determining trademark fee structures on a per-initiative basis:

For the purposes of determining the trademark fee structure during a year-long pilot period with the SLC, the following process will be followed:

• Prior to the Swiss Local Chapter (SLC) applying for funds, formalizing a partnership, or otherwise initiating a revenue-generating project/program, the SLC will notify the Coordination Committee (CC) of the Decidim Association (DA) via the (soon-to-created) SLC room on Matrix. Either the CC or the SLC can request to hold a meeting to develop the trademark fee structure on the proposed projects.

• Once a revenue-generating activity of the SLC is confirmed, a written agreement on the trademark fee structure for that activity will be submitted on Metadecidim as an agenda proposal to the CC for approval. 

• We will revisit this trademark fee agreement no later than April 1, 2027

• SLC can only obtain funds for transfer to the DA if those funds cannot be transferred to the DA more simply.

To do

• We need to review the above proposal, make amendments if necessary, and determine the procedure for finalizing this agreement with the Swiss Local Chapter.

Notes

Previous conversation with the Swiss team and a trademark agreement was proposed. 

Ben explains the last meeting with them. 

Establish a year long or 6 month pilot programme to make a final decision of the trademark fee, the swiss team will notify us in advance when they pursue a fund, and once they get it they will write a proposal agenda item in the next CC meeting for the committee to check it and decide. 

Not a specific fee policy defined. 

Ali suggests to vote if there are concerns about Ben’s 4 points exposed above through the poll tool in Jitsi but Xabier comments not to do so, better to discuss it. 

Nil has doubts with the process (swiss local chapter coordination). Transferring money from Swiss cities to the Decidim Association (a digital public good) will be very difficult, especially public money.  Now the situation is more focused on doing a Decidim local community there. His concern is about creating an internationalisation committee, it’s better to maintain the CC. 

Ben heads up that the Swiss team is going to try to transfer money from the local chapter to the Association, it’s not like they have dismissed this idea or that they are not going to do so. 

Nil explains the new hypothesis of collaboration that is being deployed lately where governments can contribute with funding for roadmap procedures that can be paid as a service. 

Heads up by Antonio that they (swiss team) should be aware that the money transferring is relevant for the CC. 

Agreements

• Are the 4 points exposed by Ben agreed by the CC? Yes. 

• This will be communicated to the Swiss team for them to proceed with the local chapter

3-Permanent Decidim Fest Committee (Decisional)

Info

Read Metadecidim Proposal 

To do

• Decidir on: Establishment of a permanent Decidim Fest Committee with permanent membership from members of the Technical Office and Coordination Committee and an annually rotating group of Association volunteer members. 

Notes

Topic: Formalise a Decidim fest committee to make the fest more transparent and participatory. 

Antonio: permanent means one or two people from the CC take part to the Fest committee but rotate every year. Yes. 

It was informally made in past editions to help curate the programme.   

Ali suggests it to be showcased (the advisory committee) in Metadecidim in order to be transparent and even open the consultations and suggestions to the community. 

Make a formal proposal for the structure, Antonio will be involved. 

Ali suggests opening it to the Association, the decision-making. Let people join in different points, agenda settings, topics, speaker suggestions…Open a proposal component so that people can take part.

Nil heads up that it should be structured, who’s going to be in each meetings, responsibilities…January, February and March will be the calendar plan in which this advisory group will operate. 

Who will join the planning? Ben, Nil, Elsa, Ali and Antonio

Agreements

• Make a formal proposal for the committee structure 

• Ben will send the availability poll for coordinating this

• And it will be approved at the beginning of the year to start working ASAP

• Antonio will come to our upcoming meeting with Mozilla and the City Council scheduled for January 14

4-Procedure for the Deprecation of features (Decisional)

Info

Read Metadecidim Proposal 

To do

• Identify and explore cases where this has been the case (consultations, groups, members page)

• Propose a process to deprecate and its needed resources (i.e. a place to consult deprecation decisions)

Notes

It will be tackled in the next meeting. 

5-Nil Salary Review (Informative)

Info

Follow-up on this point previously discussed.

To do

• Convene the meeting to discuss this point and define who is responsible

Notes

A special meeting will be set up aside. A short commission of the CC will tackle this for taking a decision in the next meeting.

Ali: Would first meet with Nil and someone else from the CC and then come back to the CC to deliberate what information needs to be had before taking a substantive decision

Xabi: Roadmap salaries should be planned, how it is negotiated, comparisons…How to make it not personally, more objective. 

Agreements

• Ali will coordinate this short commission of the CC to explore this, present it to the CC and have something approved at the next meeting.

6-Others (Informative)

Agreements

• Ali and Elsa will work to coordinate the next meeting’s date time for the next 5-6 months

• Do a retrospective regarding the process of the roadmap