EUDEC is a democratic organisation. People who join EUDEC become a member and are allowed to vote in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) every summer. Members build contacts and organize amongst themselves to start and develop different projects. The members have formed a council to help manage these projects.
True to our principles, these structures are democratic and participatory, allowing every member to take an active role in decision-making. We have two central institutions on the European level:
- The Assembly of Members, which meets at least once a year and has the final say in all matters.
- Council, an elected board that manages the organization according to Assembly’s decisions.
Below you can find more information about these and about the Oversight Committee, which receives and investigates members’ complaints and must approve certain extraordinary decisions before they go into effect.
Members can organize in Workgroups in order to collaborate on different projects. Structures are also in place for local networking and action within Regional Chapters which members can create.
Assembly
The highest organ of EUDEC’s democracy is the Assembly of Members.
Assembly meets at least once a year, at Annual General Meetings AGMs. Every member of EUDEC can make proposals and take part in discussing and voting about proposals. Proposals can be decisions on actions and projects; they can be resolutions and declarations; and of course they can decide about community rules and structures. (This includes the Articles of Association, which is the legal document framing EUDEC as a registered association in Germany, and the Guidance Document, which lays out the internal rules and procedures.)
Assembly also elects members for certain areas of responsibility – in particular, Council and Oversight Committee.
Council
Council is a board of members who volunteer to manage the organization between Assemblies, based on the decisions of past Assemblies. Full elections for Council take place every two years during the AGM. Council meets two times a year in person, and every one or two weeks in an online conference call. Their many tasks include representing EUDEC publicly, budget management, Assembly planning and preparation, project coordination, and organizational strategy.
Oversight Committee
Assembly elects a three-person Oversight Committee every two years. The Committee’s job is to receive and investigate complaints from members according to clear rules set by Assembly. The Committee also acts as a safeguard – certain kinds of decisions have to be reviewed by the Committee before they can become final. (For example, if Assembly decides to make a change to the Guidance Document, Council has to propose exact wording and changes, and these have to be approved by the Committee.)
Current members of the Oversight Committee
Legal structure
EUDEC is a registered non-profit association in Germany, EUDEC e.V. More details can be found here.
Our legal framing document is the Articles of Association (Satzung) and Council is the official Board (Vorstand). The Articles of Association delegate most details of the organisation’s work, rules, and structures to the Guidance Document.
Regional Chapters can be organized as projects under the umbrella of EUDEC e.V., or they can be independently registered associations.