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