Hi Tapani,

If you would provide some clarification on this, it may be helpful. Is there a difference between funded travelers and those who wish and are able to participate at their own expense? I don’t see any distinction between the two in your email below. My understanding has always been that these meetings are open, but only with limited funding for travelers. I was never aware of any rule that said equal numbers from the two SGs are required in the room.

Also…, remote participation, along with publicly archived transcripts/recordings, have always been available in the past. So even if the numbers of in-room attendees is equal, remote participation may upset that balance.

Thanks.

Amr

> On Nov 23, 2016, at 1:43 PM, Tapani Tarvainen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> On Nov 23 10:42, James Gannon ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
> 
>> Tapani can I see where that decision to restrict attendance to
>> Councillors and ExCom members was taken and documented please? As
>> that was not the case in previous intercessional.
> 
> As far as I know it's been the case in every intersessional, with the
> obvious caveat that when some councillor or EC member could not
> attend, others could be (and were) substituted.
> 
> I don't think anything would stop us from excluding some of them,
> regardless of their ability to come, in favour of others deemed more
> important if we choose to, but the number of participants is fixed.
> 
> Formally it was decided in the spring when the budget request was
> made, negotiating with CSG and staff, but in practice we simply
> followed precedent and staff-given budget constraints. If I remember
> correctly people involved were me, Rafik and Rudi from NCSG and
> similar number of CSG folks. I could dig up the correspondence and
> budget request if need be. I don't remember who decided it and how for
> the first intersessional in 2013.
> 
> Also, there have been "social events" where local non-participants
> could be invited. But in the actual meeting it was always the case
> that CSG and NCSG had to have same number of people, based on
> the number of EC members and councillors.
> 
> -- 
> Tapani Tarvainen