I Representative Council
Chamber of Associations: Merle Haruoja, Rita Kivisaar, Agu Laius, Reet Laja, Margit Rosental; substitute members: Jaan Ots and Mihkel Tiks.
Chamber of Foundations: Helmut Hallemaa, Mall Hellam, Toomas Trapido; substitute members: Ülle Lepp and Sirje Grossmann-Loot.
Chamber of Informal Partnerships: Silva Anspal, Anu Jänes, Aarne Maripuu; substitute members: Kairi Jõesalu and Timur Araratjan.
Chamber of Umbrella Organizations: Kaja Kaur, Tiina Koidu, Kristina Mänd; substitute members: Astrid Hindriks and Urve Paeorg.
Chamber of Minority Organizations: Jelena Klausen, Tatjana Korotkevits- Tsõganok, Larissa Semjonova; substitute members: Anne Raadik and Ljudmilla Shevtshenko.
Agu Laius was elected to be Chairman, Kristina Mänd and Silva Anspal to be Co-Chairmen.

II Representative Council
Chamber of Associations: Agu Laius, Mihkel Tiks, Reet Laja, Aleksandr Jefimov, Vladimir Naumov; substitute members: Sergei Ivanov and Angelika Rehema.
Chamber of Foundations: Ülle Lepp, Maimu Valdmann, Helmut Hallemaa; substitute members: Ülo Siivelt and Daimar Liiv.
Chamber of Informal Partnerships: Aarne Maripuu, Hans Korge, Anu Jänes; substitute members: Arvo Lekk and Merike Raiste-Prutt.
Chamber of Umbrella Organizations: Kristina Mänd, Kaja Kaur, Helger Rannu; substitute members: Jana Krimpe and Mati Kirotar.
Chamber of Minority Organizations: Vladislav Reznitsenko, Larissa Semjonova, Juri Jurkevits; substitute members: Nadezda Sporõhina and Valentina Pralla.
Chamber of Children and Youth Organizations: Kalle Laane, Elina Kivinukk, Marika Markus; substitute members: Jevgeni Krishtafovitsh and Svetlana Okuneva.
Agu Laius was re-elected to be Chairman, Kristina Mänd and Helmut Hallemaa to be Co-Chairmen.

Meetings, activity plan and organizing of work
In the first year, the Representative Council (hereinafter “RC”) of the Roundtable of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations (hereinafter “Roundtable”) arranged 14 meetings, two of them as three-day brainstormings.

Main questions of the meetings:
1. Working arrangements of the Representative Council
- It was decided that the RC would have a Chairman and two Co-Chairmen.
- Subsititute member of the RC take over the duties of an elected member when the member of an according Chamber cannot take part in the work of RC.
- It was decided that RC meetings would be arranged every time by a different member of the RC and in the same way changes the moderator of each meeting.

2. Activity plan of the Roundtable RC
In 2001 the topic of compiling activity plan was discussed on almost every meeting of the RC and lots of ideas were presented. The activity plan was prepared during a brainstorming in July 2001, it was drawn up in August and included longer-term activities than one year. As such, it was an excellent starting point for the new RC in order to prepare its own activity plan. In July 2002 the completion of previous activity plan was analyzed and new plan was established for the year 2002-2003. In Estonian the two activity plans can be found on the website of the Roundtable at http://www.emy.ee

3. EKAK
The priority of the first RC was to give final touch to the text of Estonian Civil Society Development Concept (EKAK), taking into consideration the remarks and suggestions of the February 3, 2001 meeting. However, for various reasons (poor interest of politicians in the theme of civil society; ungrounded accusations of differences of opinions within the nonprofit sector, political tensions in the Parliament) the enforcement of EKAK has been dragging on in Estonian Parliament. By now the joint redaction committee of three Parliament commissions has compiled a new version of EKAK, which can be found on the website of the Roundtable.
Members of RC and experts of EKAK have attended number of meetings and training events in order to introduce the essence and content of EKAK.

4. Financing of nonprofit organizations
Proceeding from the standpoints of the February 3, 2001 meeting, the first RC consistently dealt with the questions of financing civil society organizations in Estonia. Written statements with the proposition of re-arranging state system of NGO funding were repeatedly sent to the Prime Minister, Chairman of the Estonian Parliament, Minister of Financial Affairs and Minister of Interior Affairs, with the RC offering cooperation and partnership. Proceeding from that, the Ministry of Interior Affairs began analyzing the work of ministries and offices in financing activities and projects of NGOs.
Tensions between public and nonprofit sector emerged due to the new draft of Gambling Tax Act which was not discussed with civil society organizations. To counterbalance this, the RC elaborated the idea of Civil Society Foundation Act and presented it to public institutions. Although the reply of the Minister of Interior Affairs was positive and welcomed the idea, nothing was done to develop the idea or cooperation. The RC failed to overcome opposition in the matter of Gambling Tax Act and on 13 March 2002 the new act was adopted, completely ignoring the propositions of civil society organizations. The funding of civil society is still far from open and transparent.
In order to get a clear overview of the financing of civil society organizations, we need the according statistics gathered by public sector, which would give the basis and necessary data for implementing correct analysis. Therefore the RC of the Roundtable of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations, Network of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations, and Praxis have started consultations with the Board of Statistics to implement a joint project for regulating statistics on NGOs in Estonia.

5. Statute of the Roundtable of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations
On the first General Assemby it was decided that a task of the RC would be to compile a statute of the Roundtable. Obviously it was rather difficult to prepare a well-functioning statute for a completely new initiative and open form of cooperation of civil society organizations. Ideas for the statute came both from the practical work of the RC and many times from the analysis of the first General Assembly. The draft statute was presented in January 2002 (working group: Kaido Floren and Agu Laius). Amended statute of the Roundtable was adopted at the II General Assembly on 7 April 2002 in Tartu.

6. Preparations for the II General Assemby of the Roundtable
The RC began with preparations for the second General Assemby already in the summer of 2001 when the topics of the assembly were in planning.
Proceeding from the EKAK, the RC decided to compile a Code of Ethics for Estonian Nonprofit Organizations (working group: Katrin Enno, Mall Hellam, Agu Laius, Ülle Lepp, Kristina Mänd) and to discuss the sustainability of Estonian civil society and nonprofit organizations (working group: Katrin Enno, Helmut Hallemaa, Mall Hellam, Agu Laius, Reet Laja, Ülle Lepp, Kristina Mänd, Mihkel Tiks, Ülo Siivelt).

7. Arranging exchange of information and discussions
for civil organizations. Public relations.
The RC started information and discussion list of civil organizations org.kodanikeyhiskond@lists.ut.ee, created and started internet website of the Roundtable at http://www.emy.ee/. Booklets of the Roundtable have been compiled and printed twice, members of the RC perform in media, especially in the newspaper “Foorum” and TV broadcast “Kolmas sektor” (Third Sector”). They have participated in many seminars and conferences on civil society, published press releases about the work and events of the RC and sent public references to representatives of the state.
Through the above-mentioned homepage, all information on the work of the RC is made public.

8. Relations with public structures
After the first General Assembly, the RC met with the Minister of Interior Affairs. The principles of EKAK were introduced, the nature and functioning of the Roundtable and its Representative Council, and cooperation was offered in the field of civil society. Sadly it remained to be just a short meeting, no joint activities or cooperation followed even after the RC had sent specific written suggestions (re-arrangement of financing) to the Ministry. The Ministry showed no interest in getting acquinted with the activities of the RC of the Roundtable, neither were the representatives of the RC invited to the established working groups.
Similarly to the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the reactions of political parties in Estonia and the Ministry of Financial Affairs also reflected the lack of interest for cooperation.
In January 2002 a new government began its work. Newly appointed Minister of Interior Affairs took part in the II General Assembly and contributed with a welcoming speech. In May and September 2002 two meetings were held with the Minister to discuss EKAK.
President of the Republic of Estonia has taken an interest in the work of the RC; a representative of the RC is involved in the elaboration process of a national agreement.

9. Relations with other organizations
Members of the RC have had meetings with the Union of Building Societies, Union of University Students and many umbrella organizations where propositions for cooperation have been made.
At the beginning of 2002 the Chairman of the RC met with Aadu Luukas from the Association of Large Enterprises. Participation of third sector organizations in the preparatory work of the national agreement was discussed.

10. International affairs
The RC of the Roudtable have been very active in promoting international relations and introducing the Roundtable and EKAK to the world. Members of the RC have made speeches in various international seminars and conferences, they have published articles in international newspapers and newsletters.
Members of the RC - Mall Hellam, Kristina Mänd, Agu Laius and an expert Daimar Liiv took part in the CIVICUS worldwide annual conference in Vancouver in August 2001, where the essence of EKAK, establishment principles and work of the RC were introduced in three different working groups.
Representatives of the RC have been invited to many international events to speak about the development of civil society in Estonia.
Visitors from many countries and organizations have been to Estonia in order to get acquinted with EKAK and the Roundtable.
To foster international communication, part of the information on the website of the Roundtable is also presented in English.
It can be noted that the Roundtable, work of the RC and the EKAK have received positive feedback in the world. Concerning our developments, in many international NGOs and countries in general there are very big expectations; the RC has initiated cooperation with many of these organizations.

11. Participation in public policy
Taking into consideration the local elections which took place in Estonia in October 2002, the RC decided to involve civil society organizations more actively in the course of election campaigns. For this reason the RC organized a public hearing of Estonian political parties to learn about their standpoints in relation to the nonprofit sector and the involvement of citizens in public politics.
The RC has made good contacts with the Estonian Law Centre Foundation which has helped influencing public policy and also certain draft laws.

12. III General Assembly
Since July 2002 the RC have been actively dealing with the preparations of the III General Assembly of the Roundtable of Estonian Nonprofit Organizations. The key topic of the assembly will be increasing of participatory democracy in the society of Estonia.

The Representative Council of the Roundtable has achieved the improvement of cooperation among Estonian civil society organizations and the smoother formulation of joint standpoints concerning the public policy matters. It has also been acknowledged by the Estonian public sector as a main dialogue partner from the nonprofit sector.