It could sound like a pleonastic question, actually, the answer is in the question: the coordinator of a consortium should be the one who facilitates the meeting of the partners when they meet, either online or in presence. But this is not always the case. In recent years we happened to assist meetings coordinated by those who were officially hosting the partners in their premises, or we were asked to be the temporary facilitator of the two-day partnership encounter just because the gathering, though online, was officially meant to be hosted by our organisation. The rational for this, at least the way we have understood it, is that since you are the host you should take over not just the logistics of the meeting, but also the facilitation of the working encounter. We believe there is a point here, though we think it is quite a weak one unless we are missing something; so we’d like to listen to others’ points of view.
The way we conceive the leading of a transnational partners meeting (TPM) is that the coordinating partner, in the person of its coordinator, has the task of making the point of the project development, of taking decisions over matters to be sorted out, of planning the upcoming tasks and duties attributing them to each member of the consortium. During a meeting, whether online or in face-to-face mode, the coordinating partner is the final responsible in front of the executive agency (i.e., the EU Commission) for the delivery of project outputs and results. The partners’ gathering is a specific working tool, a very privileged one (and we do not need to explain why), when – during an extended time – a set of crucial activities are taken over so as to implement the project work qualitatively and efficiently during the working period from a distance. For this reason, the coordinating organisation, i.e., the project coordinator appointed by the leading partner, shall be the one to lead and guide the working activities of the meeting. He/she has the best overview on the project development, he/she has the most invested outlook over what has still to be accomplished, he/she has the authority and the mandate to stimulate, ask, demand, and spur partners (or just one of them if needed) since the final goal of implementation is on him/her.
Nothing to be said about the expected accountability of all partners on the project’s achievement, however the invested interest of the coordinator a far beyond the ones of the temporarily hosting partner of the meeting. Nevertheless, we assume that someone has filed to be the coordinator of a project because he/she has, among other qualities, the one related to leadership, management, coordination, facilitation, and involvement of the partnership. This might not be due to the momentarily appointed facilitator of a two-day encounter, which changes every time the meeting will be hosted on different national premises.
Having said that, which refers to the principle of project coordination, there are also case studies we experienced through time. One describes the drafting of the agenda, where the temporarily hosting coordinator must ask the project coordinator information on what he/she expects to be discussed. Another one refers to the need of the momentarily appointed leader to keep asking the project coordinator if everything has been discussed according to expectations, or the case in which the project coordinator has to integrate, complete, if not correct what the hosting coordinator has just discussed. This ends up in a “co-facilitation” matter of a meeting which, if not properly organised ahead and controlled on the spot, might end up with uneasiness and lack of clarity among participants (“who is leading the meeting?” “who has the final word on the facilitation?” “whom shall we follow?”). It is all about working group dynamics and their management.
We do not sponsor this specific working approach though we are respectful of those who apply it as long as it fits the purpose of accomplishing all required tasks in a transnational encounter. And what is your thought and experience about this?