Citizens’ onboarding

The Democratic Odyssey’s Assembly onboarding event was composed of 210 ordinary citizens from at least 25 EU Member States. We had a total of 236 participants and 35 countries overall. We identified the onboarding process as necessary to consolidate a good level of engagement by participants, as well as to make them feel welcomed in the process with ad-hoc activities (e.g. presenting significant objects from their country of residence) and to start the transnational exchange. For this reason, the EUI, together with all the partners of the project, carried out a dedicated moment to onboard them through a online meetings, which aimed to inform the participants about the programme of the upcoming in situ assembly in Athens (WP4), foster the deliberative quality of an assembly by encouraging their mutual recognition before the actual start of the Assembly, and bolster an ethos of pluralism within the Assembly Members’ group. Members already started to discuss about their previous experiences of crisis, to learn about the diversity of experiences across Europe and to prepare further conversations about this when they are all physically together.

The onboarding moment also allowed Members to meet and exchange with the organisers of the Assembly and, very crucially, start to identify the faces of those who would be contact points in Athens. The onboarding process also marked the official start of the Democratic Odyssey journey for the Assembly members.

On top of the onboarding moment for members, we also added a separate online moment, dedicated to the observers. The objectives of this meeting were twofold: firstly, to share with them the ethical guidelines for observers, communicated to them through the intermediation of the Democratic Odyssey’s official rolling evaluators. Secondly, to give them all the necessary contact points, as well as logistical information, for the Athens moment.

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