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Massembly

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Be part of the UK’s biggest community assembly to decide together how we can upgrade democracy!

As part of Upgrade DemocracyDemocracy, we are organising a mass community assembly: the Massembly!

Bring your ideas and imagination, share these with others and decide together: “How might we take meaningful steps to upgrade democracy?” What to expect We will work together in small groups of six. Everyone will be introduced to a wide range of ideas about the current democratic system, complementary people power and innovative people power. Participants will be encouraged to discuss these ideas and share views. Each group will be provided with a set of Explainer Cards that will walk us through each step in the process, including selecting a facilitator and notetaker. We will also be able to vote on a set of statements about the state of democracy in the UK, and how we might upgrade it. With these ideas in mind, we will discuss in our small groups what we have heard and read, bring our own perspectives, and decide on up to three new ideas. These new ideas will then be captured, so that all other groups can consider and vote on them. The Massembly will make use of an online tool called Pol.is, to enable us to capture and vote on ideas. In order to input to Pol.is, each group will need access to three or more smartphones, to be used in pairs or individually by each group member. What if I can’t attend the in-person Massembly? In addition to this in-person Massembly at Upgrade Democracy, we’re planning to run a simultaneous online assembly, to enable those unable to attend in-person to participate. If this goes ahead, further details about the online assembly will be made available soon.
Logistics When: Saturday 31st August, 1-4pm Where: Upgrade Democracy, Windsor (exact location tbc) What to bring: Pen/pencil/paper or some other means of taking notes (not essential) and a Smartphone (not essential, provided there are at least 3 within each group) Further information and support Stewards will be on hand to help organise everyone into groups of six and to distribute the sets of Explainer Cards. There will be an information hub hosted by volunteers from the Community Assemblies Escalation Campaign and the Citizens’ Assemblies Working Group (CAWG) to answer any questions and provide additional support to anyone who needs it, e.g. requests for BSL support and to provide sets of Explainer Cards including large print versions if required. If you have specific requirements e.g. needing a buddy, please email xr.inclusion@protonmail.com and we will support these where possible. What happens next? In the weeks following Upgrade Democracy the plan is to run a series of online assemblies, using exactly the same question and information. Please note: This is still at the ideas stage due to the level of coordination required. These will be scheduled for various days/times to maximise the opportunities for new people to participate. The online assemblies will be open to anyone, to uphold the principle of radical inclusivity and to ensure the inclusion of a broad range of ideas and opinions. After the assemblies are complete, the final step will be to make all the ideas in Pol.is available to a much larger number of people. Everyone will be able add their own ideas and then vote on all the ideas collected from all the individual assemblies. Through the process of the in-person Massembly, online assemblies and ongoing engagement, we will continue to increase the number of participants. This will add to the breadth and quality of ideas, so that we can collectively create the largest ever community assembly in the UK! Finally, we don’t want it to stop there. A summary of the results will be made available. To build on the energy and excitement generated and the experience gained, a set of suggestions will be created for how to escalate and take the most popular ideas forward. Meaning we can genuinely take meaningful steps to upgrade democracy! Let’s get our voices heard and do this together. Share this exciting, biggest ever assembly with everyone you know who’s frustrated and fed-up with how things are right now. This is deliberative democracy in action.

An opportunity to join the UK's biggest deliberative democracy event

Saturday 31st Aug, 13:00-16:00
Be part of the biggest community assembly the UK has ever seen! Bring your passion for real change to XR’s Massembly. For people. For nature. For the climate. For the planet. For everyone. It's going to be MASSive!

In the shadow of the feudal symbol that is Windsor Castle, you're invited to take part in deliberating the question: 'How might we take meaningful steps to Upgrade Democracy?'

How to take part

At Windsor We'll form groups of six and introduce yourselves. Choose a facilitator, a note-taker and a time-keeper. After an active listening exercise, the facilitator takes the group through the structure for the discussion. One person then submits the groups best three ideas to an online tool called 'Pol.is' allowing everyone taking part in the assembly to then vote on these ideas.

Online from home We’re planning to run a simultaneous online assembly, to enable those unable to attend in-person to participate. If this goes ahead, further details about the online assembly will be made available soon.

What will be needed

Facilitators
Ideally, one trained facilitator per group however, anyone can facilitate as the Explainer Cards give you everything you need if you offer to take on this role. Three facilitation training sessions will be available on Friday 30th AM, PM and Saturday 31st AM in Home Park in the Talks & Training tent.

Note-Takers
Note-takers capture key points on post-its or similar to make this crucial task as simple as possible. Pens and post-its will be provided but bring your own if you can.

Time-Keepers
Keep the discussion on track by working with the facilitator using the timer and stopwatch together on your phone.

Learn more about assemblies
There will be a stall, hosted by XRUK's Citizen's Assembly Working Group and Assemblies Escalation Campaign volunteers. Facilitators will be able to pick up printed copies of the Explainer Cards to prepare for the Massembly.

Radical Inclusion
Participants are encouraged to support anyone in their group who might struggle, e.g. with:

  • the tech
  • understanding how to share their perspective
  • those with quieter voices
  • having difficulty reading text
  • hearing each other

The Process
The Explainer Cards guide you through the process. They include the introduction to Pol.is. Participants will need to scan a QR code or click on the link and Pol.is opens in a browser.

  • Set up and intros (5 mins)
  • Active listening activity (10 mins)
  • Topic input [everyone silently reads the 6 topic suggestion cards] (15 mins)
  • Useful hand signals (1 min)
  • Initial reflections (30 mins)
  • Voting on Pol.is [part 1] (15 mins)
  • Discussion of the Question (40 mins)
  • Feeding back and further Pol.is voting [part 2] (30 mins)

Toward the end, one person submits the group’s three hottest new ideas to Pol.is. Then using Pol.is, everyone in the Massembly votes on the entire set of new ideas submitted by all the groups.

After Upgrade Democracy, further online assemblies will take place to increase engagement and the most popular ideas will be represented to MPs and become the basis for XR campaigns.

What is Pol.is?

Using your phone, you connect to Pol.is, and individually read and vote on statements about democracy.

Pol.is is a real-time system for gathering, analysing and understanding what large groups of people think in their own words. Pol.is has been used all over the world by governments, academics, independent media and citizens.

Read how, for example, this simple but ingenious system is used by Taiwan to crowdsource its laws

For an overview of key info for Upgrade Democracy

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