Municipal Cooperation Checklist for Associations

A Foundation for Future Changemakers

The Municipal Cooperation Checklist for Associations supports collaboration between associations and organizations with municipalities: from independent operations to equal partnership! This four-part material compiles questions that associations and organizations should consider as a foundation for building effective municipal cooperation.

• Ensure quality operations in your association: ensure that the association’s fundamental matters are managed systematically and purposefully. This way, you know that everything is in order, and the association appears as a reliable partner to others.
• Get to know your future cooperation partner: by familiarizing yourself with the municipality’s sectors, decision-making processes, and already agreed-upon operating procedures, you build cooperation while taking the municipality’s expectations into account, can schedule your own activities accordingly, and get to the point more quickly in discussions.
• Clarify your association’s objectives and expectations: support or partnership? What is your association’s goal in municipal cooperation? Do you need support from the municipality for your operations, or do you want to engage in equal partnership? When you know what is needed, by what means, and what benefits you are seeking, you can articulate cooperation proposals clearly, purposefully, and comprehensibly.
• Offer your association’s expertise and knowledge to the municipality and make an impact! Associations can have various opportunities to influence municipal decision-making.

Municipal Cooperation Checklist for Organizations (PDF)

This material was produced by the organizational section of the Varsinais-Suomi Regional Cooperation Group in 2021.