Consell d’Entitats starts new term

foto 2019 consell entitats 2Yesterday evening Formentera’s coalition of local associations —the Consell d’Entitats, or CDE— held a constituent assembly setting in motion the 2019-2023 legislative term. Consell de Formentera president Alejandra Ferrer highlighted “the entire governing team’s intention to boost civic participation”, insisting their scope extends to include “more than just local associations, but islanders of all stripes, and particularly young people”.

President Ferrer delegated CDE chairing functions to Vanessa Parellada, who heads Formentera’s office for citizen participation. The head of the local chapter of Asociación Española contra el Cáncer, Pepita Gabaldar, was appointed the CDE’s vice chair.

Crowdsourcing proposals
Consellera Parellada gave updates on the progress of sponsored projects under the CDE’s “participatory spending” initiative launched in 2016. Looking ahead to 2020, Parellada said €325,000 had already been set aside for projects in the initiative, and from Friday 22 November through the end of January, the CDE is accepting proposals from local associations. “Submissions are reviewed and a preliminary selection of feasible projects made in February”, explained Parellada, who said the next step would involve “proposals being presented to the CDE, whose member groups will in turn decide which initiatives will get funding in 2020”.

New communication channels
Meeting attendees also heard proposals about new ways to communicate with islanders. “Emails aren’t going anywhere”, said Parellada, but to make sure information gets to the CDE’s member groups quickly, additional channels of communication, like group text messaging, will be used — a change that was agreed by the whole CDE.
 
Member groups also reviewed the proposed formation of the CDE’s “Sectoral Sections” (Seccions Sectorials) for the 2019-2023 term. The sections were appended to include two new categories which the consellera called “hugely significant on account of their transversality”: mobility and equality. Representatives of the island’s audiovisual operations entity were named at the gathering as well. The CDE is the highest level, and only, body existing to promote coordination between the different associations of Formentera.


22 November 2019
Department of Communication
Consell de Formentera