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Creation of a Local Chapter for Switzerland
Purpose
The highest purpose of the Swiss Decidim Local Chapter is to support, promote and apply the mission of Decidim in Switzerland as expressed in the Social Contract(External link).
Moreover, the Swiss Decidim Local Chapter commits to:
Stand as a non-profit & neutral Decidim expert in Switzerland
Improve collaboration between actors and with the Decidim Association on common useful resources such as documentation, tutorials and best practices as well as index available modules and existing use cases in the country.
Actors
Participants in the Swiss Decidim Local Chapter CAN be the following:
Cities & cantons
Associations & civil society representatives
Participation experts
Thematic partners
Academic Research Partners
Founders
@larskaiser(Opens in new tab)(Opens in new tab) (Urban Equipe / ZH)
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@hadrien_froger(Opens in new tab)(Opens in new tab) (Octree)
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Amended proposal based on and requests from the Coordination Committee (below in comments)
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please note: in the following documents, the Swiss Decidim Association may be refferred to as “SDA” or “the Association” and the Decidim Free Software Association may be refferred to as the “DA” for simplification reasons.
Initial context is always mentioned in "italics."
Our replies start with →
Statutes proposal - v.0.1
https://octreegva.notion.site/Statutes-proposal-v-0-1-1b212ef1253c800dacd9e2c9723218c3(External link)
Internal governance proposal - v.0.1
https://octreegva.notion.site/Internal-Governance-proposal-v-0-1-1b212ef1253c801bb7b9e74d15ef711a(External link)
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Clarifications
✅ The following clarifications have been understood and agreed to, however, we didn’t identify any actionnable output to integrate in our proposal for statutes.
“The Decidim Association will begin the process of working with lawyers to draft the following requirements into legal contracts/language.”
“The Decidim Association reserves the right, through a majority vote of the Coordination Committee and under conditions to be detailed in the Decidim Association’s Internal Regulations, to revoke the rights of the proposed Swiss Decidim Association to use the trademark and logo of the Decidim Association.”
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“The Decidim Association is the responsible legal entity of the Swiss Decidim Association and will retain control of SDA’s activities.”
→ no idea how to implement this.
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“The SDA cannot hire employees.”
→ the DA will have access to the SDA’s finances, so the DA can use it as a ground for exclusion.
✏️ The following requests have been integrated in our proposal for statutes.
(art.21.b(External link)) “The proposed SDA must, just as the DA, make its finances transparent and public.”
(art.4(External link)) “There is no preferential right for the SDA to be contacted first for new projects in Switzerland, as this is a prerogative of partners.”
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Open Questions
We gave the following questions close thought. Below you will find our reply to each of them, with references to our statutes or to Swiss law.
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“We need to develop rules for how the Decidim Association will be involved in the financial decision-making and regulations of the proposed Swiss Decidim Association.”
(art10.c(External link)) (art20(External link)) Specific membership for the DA’s Coordination Committee as a External Auditor to participate in General Assemblies. We will publish a yearly financial report on metadecidim.
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“If the SDA raises funds, who is legally in control of the bank account that receives this funding?”
→ Swiss law recognizes Associations as independent (and thus financially responsible) entities.
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→ We need a legal structure in CH, and having a bank account is a prerequisite to create an association
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“What kinds of funding can the SDA raise and what can they do with those funds? Limitation principles for the purposes and use of funding? For instance:”
(art.3(External link)) “Funding can be raised only for organizing events (such as hackathons and workshops), for funding Decidim Association development and maintenance activities, or for research with academic partners.”
(art.4(External link)) “The SDA may not directly distribute funding among technology providers for development or maintenance purposes.”
(art.4(External link)) “Any funding for development or maintenance purposes received by the SDA must be forwarded in its entirety to the DA for distribution.”
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“What are the basic formal requirements of an association in Switzerland in terms of having a president, etc? Would formally designated association officers and/or members need a Swiss ID?”
→ A council (the board), statutes, minimum 2 persons (at least one risiding in CH), and a bank account: https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/24/233_245_233/en#book_1/tit_2/chap_2(External link)
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Optional open questions
The following questions were options we considered. Below you will find our thoughts and positions on the subject.
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“One option is to explore the legal possibility and limitations of officially creating a Branch or Delegation of the Decidim Association that could legally and effectively operate in Switzerland without creating a new or different entity.”
Txema writes: “While consulting a lawyer with knowledge in these matters (internationalization of non-profit entities), I would like to point out the possibility that the DA creates a delegation or office in Switzerland, which could be headed by the persons and entities that want to create the local chapter, who will be appointed (and revoked) directly by the DA.”
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...“This would give the DA full oversight of the activities in Switzerland. However, would such a solution (creating a DA delegation or office in Switzerland) undermine the usefulness of the local chapter in the first place, for instance funding eligibility from the Swiss authorities? We ask the SDA proposers to explore the feasibility and usefulness (from their perspective) of this option.”
→ We suggest looking at this after the experimental period.
→ Unnecessarily heavy at this point
→ You could have a bank account and a mailbox, but not a legal entity without having a swiss resident onboard.
→ It could undermine the legitimacy of the Association in Switzerland if it is founded and controlled from Barcelona. It may be a strong argument against public administrations using public money to fund the association’s activities.
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“It is necessary that the DA consult with both Spanish and Swiss lawyers as we contemplate how best to set up this arrangement. This comes with costs, obviously. Would the SDA proposers be open to discussing the possibility of sharing these costs in some proportion?”
→ We don’t see why we would need a lawyer in CH, as we see the SDA as an experiment, however we are open to consult a lawyer to formalize the internationalization after the experimentation period.
→ To ask what questions?
→ It makes sense the DA checks with a lawyer from their perspective.
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