Oct 16, 2011
Jonmar Van Vlijmen
Jonmar was elected as one of the two member representatives of the Transeuropa Network for a year, during elections that took place from October 7th to 14th 2011. Find out more about who he is and why he wanted to become member representatives. Sign up to become a member of the Netwok!
Maybe some of you know me already, but for the newcomers: my name is Jonmar van Vlijmen, from Amsterdam, where I live together with my boyfriend and yellow canary in a commune of 9 people. My current activities are dealing with issues evolving around European culture through my work as a social designer. After finishing my post master degree ‘Multiplicity & Visual Identity’ in Switzerland, I became more and more interested in the dynamics of communities and the process of building up new structures from scratch in a democratic way. I’m fascinated by the way people think of their european identity and work on the project ‘Hello Herman’ to provide platform for expressing it. I’ve been involved in European Alternatives for over a year now and have co-organized the Transeuropa festival in Amsterdam in May this year.
As a representative of the members of the European Alternatives, I see it as my task to create a mechanism to canalize all your ideas, comments, critique and compliments to the organization. I’ll use four perspectives to represent you.
new members
New members need to be warmly embraced, their opinion becomes important right after getting involved. As a bottom up organization it’s of importance that new members can have the freedom to give input in such a way that they do not feel excluded in any way. I see it as a great opportunity to provide an clear and open contact between members and the organization.
identity of European Alternatives
The organization may, over time, be overly identified with the person or personality of the founders.
In setting up a legal structure for an NGO, the organization can only stay alive, when it’s a mirror of the members. For the organization to develop in a healthy and sustainable way, from my opinion it is important when it would mirror the members. With this position I hope to ensure this democratic aspect.
decision making
The founders are at the center of all decision-making.
In order to make a truly bottom up and transnational development, they need your input to make good decisions!
As a member on the board, my goal would be to aim for balanced decision making, taking all different views and perspectives from different regions in Europe into account.
we like eachother
of course… but that is not an argument to agree or disagree to developments within the local groups or in the organization itself. Communication and transparency are key for the development of European Alternatives, that’s why your opinion is of great value.
On behalf of the members I would like become a trustworthy representative for the members, on creating a platform to make sure your initiatives, concerns, questions or interests are taken into account.
As a representative of the members of the European Alternatives, I see it as my task to create a mechanism to canalize all your ideas, comments, critique and compliments to the organization. I’ll use four perspectives to represent you.
new members
New members need to be warmly embraced, their opinion becomes important right after getting involved. As a bottom up organization it’s of importance that new members can have the freedom to give input in such a way that they do not feel excluded in any way. I see it as a great opportunity to provide an clear and open contact between members and the organization.
identity of European Alternatives
The organization may, over time, be overly identified with the person or personality of the founders.
In setting up a legal structure for an NGO, the organization can only stay alive, when it’s a mirror of the members. For the organization to develop in a healthy and sustainable way, from my opinion it is important when it would mirror the members. With this position I hope to ensure this democratic aspect.
decision making
The founders are at the center of all decision-making.
In order to make a truly bottom up and transnational development, they need your input to make good decisions!
As a member on the board, my goal would be to aim for balanced decision making, taking all different views and perspectives from different regions in Europe into account.
we like eachother
of course… but that is not an argument to agree or disagree to developments within the local groups or in the organization itself. Communication and transparency are key for the development of European Alternatives, that’s why your opinion is of great value.
On behalf of the members I would like become a trustworthy representative for the members, on creating a platform to make sure your initiatives, concerns, questions or interests are taken into account.
