MASS – EAPN Iceland Results of the Self-Reflection and Assessment carried out by EAPN Iceland

2.1. Ability to Influence National Governments for Better Policies: Advocacy, Lobbying and Policy-making linked to European level developments We are in the process of making a lists of contacts for: News/media people Heads of government committees (ones that deal with our issues) Chairmen of council administrations Mayors/governors of municipalities The Directory of Labour (Unemployment Benefit Fund) The Icelandic representative on the Nordic Council of Ministers The people who can get our information out to our member organizations’ member bases.

Our strengths: Having a seat on Ministry appointed committees on behalf of the EAPN Welfare Ministry: Reviewing Municipal Laws European Platform Small Community advantages Easy access to politicians Easy Access to media The challenges are: Informal communication Keeping an open dialogue

Our challenges: Promotional Material PEP Research We need material in Icelandic We need a Website Facebook PEP Getting together a strong, functional PEP network Regular meetings Research Being involved in research Getting notified on new research

PEP members on our board 2.2. Participation of People Experiencing Poverty and Social Exclusion in Internal and External Workings of the National Network PEP members on our board We have attended 2 PEP conferences by the EAPN We need to: decide on a process of picking delegates more active PEP members! announce our PEP meetings more affectively have material on PEP and the EAPN in Icelandic Translation of “Breaking Barriers – Driving Change” in process

2.3.1. Growth of the Network Use our contact list from 2.1 Be more active in the media Work on “being noticed” Work on broadening and strengthening our member base. We have already made a list of possible new member organizations and will be approaching them for membership. We are also setting up an EAPN group in Akureyri (the largest town in Iceland, located in the northern part of the country) that will be established in January 2014.

2.3.2. Training and Capacity Building Material in Icelandic!!! Different fields of EAPN PEP Exco Learning Forum Inclusion Strategies We need to mediate between us what happens at these different events. Attending EAPN conferences We have been active in sending members to attend different conferences Having an employee would be extremely helpful! This would make our work more effective

2.4.1. Strong Internal Democracy We have our own law We elected a vice chairman at our annual general meeting (democratic election) We make sure our meetings are legally announced We document our meetings properly and send the documentation to all board members.

What we need to work on: We need to prepare a package including our law, work ethics, list of member organizations etc. We need to read out our meeting documentation each time before we end a meeting for everybody to agree upon. We need to establish our own code of ethics. We can possibly use existing documents from other organizations (Almannaheill) to go by.

2.4.2. Management of Workers and volunteers/activists We need more people involved!!! This has been a challenge Every time we organize a project we need to set goals and work out how to obtain them. Be organized with clear tasks for everyone involved and a task manager who can make sure everything gets done.

2.4.3. Strategic Planning/Thinking We already have goals but we need to focus on obtaining them. Our weakness up to this point has been acting on our ideas and effectively putting them into practice. One option is establishing work groups (which we have now started to do). 2012 was mainly dedicated to starting up. Now as we have some funding and better knowledge of the EAPN, we can establish an effective work agenda. We have recently decided to make housing issues a priority agenda for 2014.

2.4.4. Funding We need to make an annual report, that was done for our last AGM. It was a hindrance for us last year not to receive funding from the EAPN as we lacked proper instructions on how to fill in the application. Adequate information was greatly lacking when we were starting up. New EAPN networks need funding and guidance right at the beginning of their work. We need to make a list of where we can possibly apply for further funding (locally and internationally). We need to make a financial estimate when we apply for funding, both to the EAPN and to other entities. We did when we applied to the EAPN