1. EAPN Fighting for a social Europe free of Poverty!
Membership Development – context for the TCB Task Force
Tanya Basarab

2. Membership Development in EAPN
Capacity Building activities
Mainstreamed in policy groups
Part of preparation for annual conference
Induction training and other thematic seminars
Enlargement and support to new members
induction manual + training
meetings and guidance on getting involved
support to new members of groups
Financial sustainability
Influencing EU programmes (Structural Funds and EUPSCI)
Seminars on funding with good practice and external guests
EAPN Fund and fundraising strategy
Managing contracts with the NNs

3. Membership Development in EAPN
Participation of people experiencing poverty
Good practice dissemination – 2 publications
Raising questions on the link between participation and democracy (MAG)
Building an activist base from people with direct experience
Training and participation in lobby events
Link between EU meetings of People Experiencing Poverty and Annual Convention against Poverty and Social Exclusion
Better mainstreaming of participation goal in other areas
Evaluation and Strategic Planning
A process based on 3-year periods
Identifying recurring challenges of member engagement
Developing a more structured support
Conflict management, support to individual Networks (some concrete examples)

4. Current Strategic Plan ambitious vision of stronger and more engaged member-led network
recognising and using more the expertise of the members + supporting members strengthen (development)
ensuring members are strong Anti Poverty Platforms – lobbying and policy-making
ensuring people experiencing poverty feel EAPN is their network – participation
3 Goals on influencing policies; on developing the network and on strengthening the participation of people experiencing poverty and social exclusion

5. Four pillars of strong National Anti Poverty Networks
Influence National Governments for better policies: advocacy, lobbying and policy-making linked to European level developments
Participation of People Experiencing Poverty and Social Exclusion in Internal and External Workings of the National Network
Development and Growth of the Network
Growth
Training and capacity building
Good governance and strong internal democracy
Strong internal democracy
Management of workers and volunteers/activists
Strategic planning/thinking
Funding (starting with contracts with EAPN)

6. Indicators and ways to see how those are being fulfilled for each area
Proposal of 3 essential indicators for each area and a way to understand how those are being fulfilled (documents, discussions, annual report)
Additional recommended indicators
Lists of documents that can show how the indicators are fulfilled
Additional lists and examples; templates could be proposed.

7. Challenges and why the Executive wants a renewed training and capacity building agenda
Large network, very different national realities
Similar challenges among networks – not developing enough, too few people engaged
Need to revise and give more clarity to the training and capacity building spaces in EAPN
Implementation of a more consistent membership assessment and support system

8. Objectives of the Training and capacity building Task Force and Exco guidance
Objective of the Task Force
To map out the capacity building needs of the members, the expertise that members can provide, the priorities that members have in terms of network development and develop an EAPN training agenda, as well as develop the framework for establishing a pool of trainers of EAPN within the framework of the Strategic Plan.
Objective of the first meeting
Understanding the membership reality of EAPN, the learning and capacity building work that has been carried out so far and develop a plan of involving members in mapping out their capacity building needs and expertise.

9. Working method map out the training and capacity building needs;
map out the expertise among members and identify persons with training and development profile who could form a future pool of trainers;
develop a prioritized training and capacity building agenda and the establishment of a pool of trainers to carry out this work;
plan the first meeting of the pool of trainers in 2013;
provide support to members, if requested, on their development plans and if necessary assist with implementation. Support needs identified should also be carried forward to the pool of trainers.
identify alliances that can help strengthen the capacity of the members.
The Task Force should meet 3 to 4 times to plan and launch the mapping exercise, have a first review of the progress in a second meeting and finalise the work in a third meeting, including presenting a well argued priority list. Members of the Task Force should commit to attending all the meetings of the Task Force and to progressing the work between meetings using , skype, telephone or other tools.