Culture Pro KICK OFF MEETING
This was the first meeting within the framework of the project entitled: CULTURE PRO. Creative path of development (Grant Agreement no. 2014–1-PL01-KA202-026462).
DATES AND VENUE:
10-11.11.2016
Krakow. Pawilon Wyspiańskiego (Wyspianski Pavillon), Pl. Wszystkich Świętych 2.
PARTICIPANTS AND PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS:
ORANGE HILL – PROJECT LEADER.
Anna Zaroda – Dąbrowska
Małgorzata Błaszczyk
Tomasz Dąbrowski
Verein KULTURAXE – PROJECT PARTNER:
Caroline Kaiser
Paweł Mendrek
Elmar Kickinger
DELLE Association – PARTNER ORGANIZATION:
László László Révész
Adrienn Dorsanszki
Emese Dorsanszkine
A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE MEETING:
The meeting proceeded under the agenda:
After short invitation, participants presented themselves and their organizations. Anna Zaroda-Dąbrowska presented main idea of the project: Objectives, main activities, expected results (ppt presentation attached to the minutes). Second part of first day was devoted to setting first steps of the project in upcoming months. In particular partners focused on IO 1 and discussed the new idea for this output (as below).
Second day of the meeting was devoted to managerial and technical issues of the project. This was the part of the huge importance as partners don’t have experience in Erasmus + projects. Bilateral partnership agreements were presented and undersigned by partners. Budget details were presented to partners and discussed.
Anna Zaroda-Dąbrowska presented and explained financial rules (required documentation) and reporting rules.
Management structure in project was discussed on very general level and needs to be developed as well as cooperation rules in the project and communication plan. Dissemination strategy was not presented and discussed due to lack of time.
THE MAIN FINDINGS OF THE MEETING:
1) Intellectual Output nr 1 – publication
Partners discussed the aim and form of the publication.
It was agreed by partners that this output should be independent from other outputs and should be easy to use also out of context of the project. The main aim of this output would be dissemination and promotion a unique role of art and culture in developing the competencies and life-long learning. Partners agreed that despite the target group is defined as managers, IO no 1 should be addressed to as wider audience as possible.
In a result of discussion partners agreed that there is a need of changing the form of this IO from traditional e-publication to a video. This will help in reaching the audience and catch the eye of target group. Partners intend to develop up-to-date and modern results, attractive for users and user-friendly to enhance the impact of the project.
The agreed first idea of the video is to present an average person who leaves the office after work and walks through a city (sceneries of Vienna, Krakow and Budapest are planned) where encounters different situations and people that change his attitude towards art and culture.
The viewer doesn’t watch the video passively but is engaged into action by taking on the role of main character and is able to change the scenario and course of action actively from time to time. This way combination of different scenarios is possible what is attractive for users/viewers and they will probably come back to a video and watch it again one or more times. The film is planned to last 2-3 minutes and is expected to include 4-6 30-second educational scenes (eg. role of theatre in discovering one’s potential to express emotions). Between the scenes active action will be undertaken by the user/viewer who is expected to choose one from 2 or 3 possible continuations.
Further steps within the output:
Delle is expected to elaborate ideas of storyline for the movie.
Orange Hill is expected to elaborate statements for the movie.
KulturAXE – as Output Leader – is expected to provide a recognition of possibilities of development of the scenarios and production of the movie (the recognition of required resources, technical conditions). KulturAXE is also expected to prepare frames for common work for partners and set the calendar of the output with deadlines for partners.
PROJECT MANAGER’S SUGGESTION AFTER THE MEETING:
The important thing to consider is that video is very demanding form of communication with no options of implementing changes after realization. That requires very deep and detailed preparations and strong awareness of each technical and substantive aspects of final version. In this context there is a need to shift project schedule and move IO 1 after we will have developed results of IO 2 – training materials to particular topics. New proposed start of IO1: APRIL 2018.
In this option partners would start working on IO2 from December 2016.
The other justification of this proposal is the feeling that we need more time to meet each other and get to know our expectations and workstyles to find common understanding of the project and its results. This is crucial for the quality of the product and for making the result useful for all of partners.
BILATERAL AGREEMENTS:
There were no remarks concerning the text of the agreement. The agreement needs to be supplemented with following annexes:
- Part of Annex II – translation of the most important parts of the grant agreement (attached to bilateral agreement in Polish) – to be done by PROJECT MANAGER until the end of January 2017.
- Annex V – Evaluation and quality management strategy – Quality Assurance Plan. The starting/basic version will be prepared by Project Quality Manager after consultations with Quality Management Board (by the end of January 2017) and then will be regularly updated according to the progress of the project and agreed changes, if applicable.
MANAGEMENT – PROJECT TEAMS:
There were many questions concerning management and decision-making during the meeting. Partners were presented with idea of forming core project teams that would be stable and fixed for the whole project (if possible) to ensure common understanding of the aims and quality of project management and in a result, to guarantee project quality. Core teams could cooperate with other persons employed to a project for shorter period of time in order to develop particular parts of the output. All participants of the meeting agreed with this idea and declared to develop such core teams.
PROJECT MANAGER’S SUGGESTION AFTER THE MEETING:
The first suggestion is to implement design thinking method of work, what means more energy put into preparation of results and more engagement in consultations with target groups concerning expectations and needs. This model of work also results in the need of more frequent teamwork in a project and more frequent meetings between partners. This also requires setting project teams as proposed below.
Second suggestion. Basing on findings from partners meeting, to ensure the quality and provide partners with transparent rules of project management, Communication and Reporting Rules (Annex IV to Bilateral Agreements) was developed and detailed description of roles and responsibilities and also clear structure were added to a document.
MANAGEMENT – INTERNATIONAL PROJECT MEETINGS:
Partner agreed that there can be a need of more frequent meetings to discuss project progress and to plan further actions. This is also required as partners implement design thinking model of work.Project budget for travels must remain on the same level.
MANAGEMENT – REPORTING:
Partners were presented will all rules concerning the settlement of grant and also with all required documents.
Partners were informed and agreed with it, that besides of regulations of Erasmus+ and documents that need to be provided to Project Manager according to reporting plan they take their own responsibility for compliance to national rules of law. That means that all statements and declaration of persons representing the Partner organization will be kept by Project Manager as legal and truthful and Partners Organizations and persons representing them will take their own responsibility towards authorised institutions in case of any control or audit.
This international meeting report (Minutes) was prepared by Anna Zaroda – Dąbrowska
Krakow, 30.11.2016.