Q: How come you decided to take part in organising the Second National Annual Meeting?

A: Last October we found the idea of Milieukontakt of turning the national meeting into a tradition a very interesting one and this is why we decided to bid for this project in conjunction with three other organisations. The outstanding message behind Milieukontakt's idea was partnership both amongst organisers and amongst sponsors.

Q: Were there times when the orgnaisation of the whole thing threatened to collapse?

A: Oh, yes, certainly. The hardest of times came when the Foundation for Civil Society Development (FCSD) withdrew three weeks before the meeting itself and they were the donors to provide over 50 % of the funding, you know. This was a moment of great trial and but for the quick reaction on the part of the Democracy Network Programme it would not have been possible for the meeting to take place.

Q: Was it you who found the other sponsors?

A: The Regional Ecology Center was listed as a sponsor from the very start - already in Milieukontakt's proposal, and the Democracy Network Programme chose to contact us and offer their assistance, and at the most decisive moment at that. We had already distributed 220 invitations and thanks to the sponsors we had enough money to have all 220 representatives without having to do a selection.

Q: What are you happy about and where do you think things went wrong?

A: I'm happy there were no scandals; all organisations had that idea in their mind that they need to work in cooperation. What I'm not happy about is their work discipline and their motivation. I thought environmental NGOs rank at the top in terms of work discipline and cooperation.

I think we should not have discussed the programme with so many people. This proved a real stumbling block. Different organisations have different priorities and it turned out that there far too many important issues to discuss and time was inadequate.

V