Scotland Meet-ups

Open Government Meet-ups in Scotland

Campaign Plan August 2017 – April 2018

Objective

Provide the opportunity for local citizens to come together to discuss, plan and take action on issues of importance to them.

Rationale

Many people feel powerless and dissatisfied with how decisions are made at local, national and international government level. Citizens have so much information and connectivity at our fingertips, yet seem to be excluded from many decision making processes which can have a large impact on their lives.

Aims

The campaign has five main goals:

encourage more meet-ups to take place across Scotland
ensure equality groups are well represented and integral to the meet-ups
promote greater autonomy and ownership of groups
make process of establishing a meet-up group easier
record and track the development and activity of meet-up groups

Actions

Connect with and support organisers of already planned meet-ups
Determine current status of meet-ups
Develop both a campaigns plan and a comms plan
Identify and contact equalities groups
Create and upload plain language meet-up guide to encourage participation and local leadership
Encourage participants to blog and share their experiences via social media

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Equality Groups

The following groups will be asked to participate:

Young Scot
BEMIS
CEMVO
Inclusion Scotland
Young Women’s Movement
Glasgow Disability Alliance
Stonewall Scotland
Engender
Health and Social Care Alliance
Scottish Refugee Council
SAMH
Scottish Council on Deafness
Poverty Truth Commission
Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC)

Targets

The project aims to work with equality groups representing women, young people, black and minority ethnic communities, refugees, disabled people, people in poverty and LGBTI groups.

Budget

There is approximately £3,000 available to assist participation. Venues with free meeting spaces will be encouraged.

Planned timeline of key events

2017-18	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Mar	Apr
Review current status of meet-ups	X
Campaign plan		X
SCVO comms plan		X
Plain language meet-ups guide		X
Advertise for local meet-ups		X	X	X		X	X
Contact equalities groups		X	X			X
Review progress – number, location, content of meet-ups					X	X
Final Report							X	X

Activities Log

Date	Action	Status	Deadline	Lead	Outcome
Aug 2017	Understand current status of meet-ups	Review completed		AY
Aug - Dec 2017	Dundee meet-ups - 2 held			SO	Group forming
Sep 2017	Write campaign plan	Draft for comment		AY
	Discuss plan with comms team	Comms to draft a plan for meet-ups		SL
	Write plain English guide to meet-ups	Draft nearly ready	26/9/17	AY
Sep - Nov 2017	Contact with equalities groups	14 contacted so far, following up with interested groups		AY
Sep 2017	Advertise for meet-ups	Regular adverts in PON and bulletins, regular twitter posts		AY
Nov 2017	YWM event postponed	RB liaising with YWM		RB
Nov 2017	Inclusion Scotland report received	Awaiting blogs from IS and YS		AY
Dec 2017	Glasgow meet-up held			AY	Comments from SCoD on Open Govt
	Meet-ups review			AY

Current Status of Open Government meet-ups

Useful content has been uploaded to the meet-ups website, detailing what the Open Government project is all about. An organisers template is needed to encourage more local leadership. A group has met twice so far in Dundee and plans to keep forming (coordinated by Sheghley). One-off meet-ups have occurred in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife, with Ruth coordinating one with the Young Women’s Movement in Glasgow.

Equality events held with Young Scot, Inclusion Scotland and CEMVO means pre-existing contact should yield future meet-ups