"Coming Together is a Beginning - Keeping Together is Progress - Working Together is Success."

The Need for a Coalition
CV is actively encouraging the emergence and strengthening of a broad coalition in support of institutional changes and heritage protection.
The objective of institutional reforms is particularly challenging, and neither CV nor any other individual organization can achieve this objective on their own. But by working together and sharing our resources, we can increase the effectiveness of our efforts and greatly improve the prospect of achieving our common objectives.
The best chances of making an impact depend in fact on cooperation, rather than competition.

A Flexible Structure
There are no hard and fast rules about the structure of a coalition. Coming together from different organizational structures and cultures implies that the form of the coalition must be flexible to accommodate differing ways of operating and different capabilities.

It should not be thought that once a coalition is formed it will achieve success overnight or that there is a simple and easy route to follow from the start. Although a frame for collaboration may have already been agreed upon, certain ideas may prove unworkable or opportunities may be missed, leading to a different direction from what is initially envisaged.
Most certainly, a number of difficulties will be encountered, some minor and some of a fundamental nature. Fundamental difficulties will probably lead to drastic decisions, while lesser difficulties will be taken in stride and resolved along the way as a coalition gradually lays the basis for a hopefully flourishing and long-lasting collaboration.

We Don't Care Who Gets the Credit
Working under the principle that you can accomplish amazing things if you don't care who gets the credit, CV will deliberately nurture relationships that give partner organizations opportunities for project ownership.
We will be ready to collaborate and pool resources with individuals and organizations which favour collaborative and accountable approaches, and will withdraw our support from those which do not.
We will focus on shared goals and will be ready to accept and support other organizations' proposals and projects as a basis for CV's own decisions. However, we will always be clear about CV's institutional reforms and heritage protection objectives, and will give priority to supporting and engaging in programmes which advance these objectives.

Advantages of Joining the Coalition
As a coalition member, your organization will have access to the other members' expertise and resources. It will be exposed to new ideas, concepts and methods. It will learn from other members' experiences and it will be able to draw from a wider network of professional support.

Projects your organization had not considered before for lack of expertise and resources may now become feasible thanks to the support of the coalition. Furthermore, your projects can be analysed by the coalition, providing you with different perspectives and approaches from the ones you may have considered, thus increasing their chance of success.
Meetings and social events will also allow your organization to meet like-minded people encouraging a wider exchange of information and ideas.

The higher purchasing power of the coalition, will also lead to economies in the procurement of common materials and equipment. For the same reason, in-house or discounted training schemes for employees and members will also become a possibility.

And, finally, an effective working relationship will have the added benefit that the coalition's efforts will at a certain stage reach a "critical mass" point at which productivity will begin to accelerate rapidly, the level of external resistance will diminish and the time to successful project completion will decrease.

A Final Note
Just the coming together will be a sign that success can be achieved when individuals and organizations move beyond narrow self-centred visions based on the exclusion of others.
But, it is clear that each individual organization must contribute to the effort to the best of its capacity if the objectives are to be achieved. If this individual commitment is lacking progress cannot be achieved.

(*) For the purpose of CV's work, the words "Venices", "Venetia" and "Northeast Italy" are interchangeable, and are taken as meaning the historical Venices within Northern Italy - i.e. the current italian regions of Venezia Tridentina-Sud Tirol/Alto Adige, Venezia Euganea, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the current provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona (i.e Venezia Orobica), and Mantua.