SUMMARY OF THE ALL-RUSSIA CIVIL FORUM-2016

The unifying idea is social capital and its growth, community resources (primarily humanabilities, talents, opportunities) for the development of the country and its territories and the solution of their problems, innovative ideas, other non-monetary assets that are not used up completely for now, as well as technologies and institutions required for that (including new interaction between civil society and government).

What technologies do we have? What institutions do we need? What changes to the better and how much, and what is the challenge - in the social and economic dimensions (calculations, justifications of value and risks for the state and society)? And what should we know about the current situation, and the reasons that led us to it (diagnosis, setting real goals)?

Pre-forum-2016

Members of the Organizational Committee of the All-Russia civil forum made statements on topical issues:

• The appeal of the All-Russia Civil Forum experts to President Vladimir Putin about the need for public discussion of candidates for the new structure of the CEC (Central Election Commission) of  Russia (February);

• Statement of the All-Russia Civil Forum Organizing Committee on the situation with the law "On Foreign Agents" (March);

• Statement of the members of the All-Russia Civil Forum Organizational Committee on NadezhdaSavchenko proceeding (March);

• Statement of the All-Russia Civil Forum Organizing Committee related to the inclusion of the Levada-Center in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a "foreign agent" (September);

• Statement of the All-Russia Civil Forum Organizational Committee in respect of the attack on the Sakharov Center (September);

• Statement of the Committee of Civil Initiatives on the situation with the "International Memorial", supported by experts from the All-Russia Civil Forum (October);

• The All-Russia Civil Forum Organizational Committee supported the statement of the Human Rights Council of Russia on PMCs (Public Monitoring Committee) (November);

• Statement of the All-Russia Civil Forum-2016.

The proposals of the All-Russia civil forum-2015 were sent to the authorities, responses were received from 20+ recipients (from formal replies to informative letters), expert comments to them are posted on the Forum's website.

An open admission of the All-Russia civil forum coordinators was carried out - 131 applications were received. There are 14 Forum working groups:

• Sharing economy: Urban participation economy;

• Elections and referenda;

• The quality of social assistance;

• Local government;

• Modernization of penal system;

• Vision of the Future;

• General Education;

• Public control;

• Rights in the Internet;

• Rights of people with disabilities;

• Conflict prevention;

• Social entrepreneurship;

• Ecology;

• Network of networks.

More than 65 educational networks and communities from more than 55 regions of Russia participated in the project to discuss and develop Recommendations on the development of education system. The total audience coverage of the site is more than 200 thousand participants.

• Journalists competition

265 applications received from 113 participants. The average age of the contestants - 35 years. Works from 48 regions of Russia were presented.

• Competition on case solutions in the field of non-profit organizations and initiatives management called "Certainly". *(please see the details below)

The All-Russia civil forum-2016

November 19, 2016

All day long more than 40 events of different formats took place at the venues of the All-Russia civil forum-2016: presentations, seminars, discussions, business games, etc. The results of the work of 14 Forum expert sites were the final documents: statements, resolutions, draft laws, etc. These materials can be found on the new page of All-Russia civil forum -2016 website -"Results of the Forum". For now this section is being filled with materials.

Federal and regional officials attended the Forum. Among them there were: Mikhail Fedotov - Adviser on Human Rights to the President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, Alexandra Levitskaya – advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Abyzov - Minister for Open Government Affairs, Andrey Pudov - Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation, Pavel Zenkovich - head of the Presidential Administration on public projects, Andrey Klepach - Vnesheconombank Deputy Chairman, Dmitry Zimin -  the founder of "Dynastiya" Fund, Alexander Voloshin - the former head of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation (1999-2003).

The selection of the Forum participants began on July 20, 2016. More than 2300 candidates submitted applications for participation, 1179 of them were selected for participation in the Forum.

During the day 827 participants and 91 guests registered at the forum.

280 participants of the expert site «General Education» worked at the Forum remotely.

The work of the Forum was covered by 156 media representatives, 88 organizers and volunteers helped to conduct the activities.

There were made 1377 publications (in 2015 - 1009), including 302 advertising materials in the federal, regional and foreign media for the period from September 1 to December 5.

The key media got the information "under embargo". State and pro-governmental media changed the way of information submission - neutral messages or positive tone publications prevailed. Participants of the All-Russia civil forum were showed on federal TV channels - in news and final weekly broadcasts. Some commentators even noted that the media resonance of the All-Russia civil forum was only marginally inferior to the Action Forum ONF (All-Russia People’s Front) with participation of President Vladimir V. Putin.

From 3 p.m. the doors of the Forum were opened for an even wider audience. Open activities of the Forum were attended by 337 people.

In total, according to our calculations, 1779 people took part in the IV All-Russia civil forum.

Here are some figures demonstrating the community of participants of the All-Russia civil forum:

Participants represented 69 subjects of the Russian Federation.

The largest representative offices of course belonged to Moscow and Moscow Region - 426 participants, St. Petersburg - 60 people. From 10 to 20 participants were from expert communities of Vladimir, Voronezh, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Samara, Chelyabinsk, Yaroslavl regions, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Perm, Stavropol Territories, the Republics of Bashkortostan and Tatarstan.

The All-Russia civil forum community is growing, 425 participants attended the Forum for the first time in 2016.

The average age of the participants was 43 years. 49% of the Forum participants were women 51% were men.

Tomsk was the "youngest" region - the average age of their community was 31 years. Less than 35 years - the average age of the communities from Vologda, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Omsk, Ryazan, Tambov regions, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Republics of Mordovia and Chuvashia.

The youngest participant came from the Altai region - he is 19 years old.

All-Russia civil forum-2016 was completed by the discussion about a new model of social state with the participation of Kudrin, Nakhapetyan, Dondurei

November 19, 2016

On November 19, 2016 Moscow hosted the IV All-Russia civil forum "Dialogue. Solidarity. Responsibility". It was devoted to the future - the forthcoming and on-going changes in the society as a system of institutions.

The final discussion of the Forum was devoted to the search of a new model of social state. The participants included: the head of the Civil Initiatives Committee, the Chairman of the Board of the Fund «Center for Strategic Research» Alexey Kudrin, investment banker, entrepreneur, philanthropist Gor Nakhapetyan and art expert, editor-in-chief of the magazine Art of Cinema, Daniil Dondurei.

In the current raw model of social state, a human and society is not a resource, not a source of development, but a consumer of raw rent, a burden for authorities -administrator of the system. The participants of the discussion tried to answer the question: "Is it possible to radically change the out-of-date state model and put a person not a system in the center of this model, and what kinds of institutions should be developed for this?"

Daniil Dondurei believes that nowadays authorities are trying to reproduce the loyalty model of the Soviet state, meanwhile Russian society creates its own models. The state treats with caution to everything not- state: business, civil society, personality development, globalization, - he said.

Developing this idea, Gor Nahapetyan noted that there are several states within Russia that control certain territories. So nowadays big cities, corporations, large organizations became separate states. He noted that in a world where people spend most of their time in the network, they unite and even create virtual states out of the territorial sign.

Alexei Kudrin is convinced that human capital is the driver of the future. The society that will be able to mobilize new individual opportunities within the next twenty years will become the most effective. Today our country is on the way from the society with industrial economics to the knowledge-driven economics, and this transition must be implemented, he said.

You can watch the video of the discussion here.

*Competition "Certainly": what was it like?

December 5, 2016

In autumn 2016 Russia hosted the first Competition on case solutions in the field of non-profit organizations management called "Certainly." The Competition was organized by a network of resource centers from 7 cities of the country; the All-Russia civil forum with the support of the Committee of Civil Initiatives was also included in the list of organizers. The coordination function was performed by organizations from Perm (Interregional Public Organization The Society for Development of Productive Initiatives and the Center for Civil analysis and independent research GRANI).

Employees and volunteers from non-profit organizations and initiative groups, youth associations from all over Russia could participate in the competition. To take part they needed to put together a team of 3 people and fill out a simple registration form. The competition was held in 3 stages: remote, full-time and final stage conducted in Moscow. The task for participating teams was to solve situations or “cases” which non-profit organizations could face in a real life.

For example, miscommunication with volunteers or sharp decrease in the need of social services of the organization, serious mistakes due to overload of employees and so on. Those who work in the non-profit sector have really faced such acute situations and understand what it practically is about. Teams had to offer solutions for the tasks assigned from the manager's point of view.

The jury which included representatives of major resource centers and non-profit organizations, as well as managers and marketing specialists, assessed the solutions of cases taking into account the adequacy of the solution to case materials, the quality of problem diagnosis, the unique approach to solutions, the applicability, the depth of the problem study and presentation quality.

The first stage of the competition was held during the week 14-21 of September, 2016. More than 250 teams from 54 regions of Russia applied for participation in the first stage. To participate in the second stage, the jury selected 73 teams from 22 regions of the Russian Federation.

The Second stage of the competition was held in 7 Russian cities:

1. Tyumen Region (Tyumen), coordinator - Charity Fund for Tyumen City Development ;

2. Yaroslavl region (Yaroslavl), coordinator – Yaroslavl regional public organization “The Center for Social Partnership”;

3. Saint Petersburg, coordinator - St. Petersburg Charity Public Organization "Development Center for Non-Profit Organizations";

4. Novosibirsk region (Novosibirsk), coordinator - interregional public fund "Siberian Center for Support of Public Initiatives";

5. Arkhangelsk region (Arkhangelsk), coordinator - regional charity public organization Arkhangelsk Center of Social Technologies “Garant”;

6. Perm Region (Perm), coordinator - Perm regional public organization "Civic Participation", interregional public organization "Society for the Development of Productive Initiatives";

7. Moscow, coordinator – The All-Russia civil forum with the support of the Committee of Civil Initiatives.

Teams that could not arrive to any of the cities hosting the competition could participate remotely by sending a video and a presentation with the solution of the case.

11 teams from 10 regions came through to the final stage:

• “Dedmorozim” (Perm)

• “Dobriy Arkhangelsk” (Arkhangelsk)

• “Youth Chamber of Yaroslavl region” (Yaroslavl)

• “Young Leader” (Tyumen)

• “We are close” (Chelyabinsk)

• “Our choice” (Irkutsk)

• “Project designers” (Moscow)

• РМР (Saint Petersburg)

• “Synergy” (Barnaul)

• “Strategist” (Vladimir)

• “Florence” (Moscow)

The final stage took place on November 18, 2016 in Moscow. During 4 hours the teams were working with the case – developing solution for the situation in which the non-profit organization appeared in the task set by the organizers. After that the teams presented their ideas to the jury.

On November 19, 2016 at the All-Russia civil forum Alexey Kudrin, the chairman of the Committee of civil initiatives and Gor Nakhapetyan, co-founder of the fund “Friends”, the chairman of the Skolkovo Graduates Council, presented certificates to all finalists as well as the main award to the winners of the competition. The winner was the team called “Dedmorozim” from Perm consisting of: Inna Savchenko, Maria Brezgina and Diana Bimatova.

The jury chose their case solution because it was "the most sensible" - based on experience, common sense and organization’s capabilities.

Briefly about examples of strong solutions and major mistakes.

Let’s have a look at the example of the first case of the competition.

The case was devoted to the non-profit organization working as an educational and resource center in its region with a highly qualified expert staff. But recently the organization faced budget cut, burnout of the team and growing tension in the organization under high workload of employees.

The teams presented a lot of interesting and excellent solutions for the situation, offered at the first stage of the competition. Among the main mistakes made by the participants of the competition were the following ones:

• To provide as solutions those that have already been mentioned in the text of the case (for example, to introduce formalized job descriptions) without giving a proposal how to implement this solution if there is a significant resistance to it;

• To concentrate on only one issue (for example, on finding and using volunteers) without explaining how this will lead to solving the problems of the organization;

• To rely only on their own experience of NPO-activities without taking into account that there may be other successful NPOs using alternative strategies and approaches;

• To develop solutions, changing (not considering) the clear strengths of the organization (such as diverse and qualified staff, willingness to switch, various sources of income, etc.);

• To base the decision on the weaknesses of the organization (for example, the practice of training employees without identifying the need) without explaining how exactly they will be strengthened (changed);

• To offer solutions that are completely new to the organization (there is no any experience in using such tools) without explaining how risks can be avoided and removed (for example, the appearance of an external supervisor in the organization, etc.);

• To propose solution without arguments of the problem diagnosis: without reliance on theoretical management models and the experience of non-profit organizations.

The jury also noted the elements of strong decisions as follows:

• The use of management models (mostly SWOT-analysis and/or Greiner model), analysis of their own experience or other organizations’ experience with references;

• The proposal of alternative variants of individual solutions with explanation, under what circumstances (for example, to coordinate with director and project managers to reduce occupation for "not your" projects) one can choose a particular option;

• Innovative solutions based on the existing experience of the organization and management culture (outsourcing part of the functions, the transition to a "virtual office" in terms of activities, etc.);

• The participants ranked issues distinguishing the main of them (for example, NPO doesn’t have a defined and discussed product (marketing) strategy that increases future risks, etc.). “Root problems” – those that cause or aggravate other problems. In other words, if we can solve the “root problem” than the acuteness of other problems will decrease or they will become easier to solve.

• The participants gave reasons and defined the scope of proposed solution (for example, a clear description that volunteers and specialists for outsourcing can be in universities and access to them through the analysis of a list of thematically related research projects, term papers, etc.)

These mistakes and examples of strong decisions are relevant for the analysis of any other cases in management.