This page can be used to have a "blog" alias a Listing of What's going on and calendar of important events and deadlines to be done by NS' and we ourselves.

Archival Record of General Assembly, Latina, April 2006

Deadlines

• Registration for eGA in Latina (end of Dec 2005, but there is some elasticity)
• Host List Request Form 2006 (within January 2006)
• Annual Report Form 2005 (within March 2006)

What's going on

• Hostlist Workshop for latina (telcon on GMT 6 PM on Jan 14th, 2005)
• Funding Requests AND DECISIONS for eGA 2006- Italy-Roma-Latina
• Host_Lists_received
• NEW SI Stamp Process 2006 SPF and unused stamps received

Logistical Plan (draft, in progress)

Honora is steering a Secretariat, which would prepare a package of translated and English agenda items, name tags, and so on. This package would be printed in Turkey (cheap printing there) and brought to Latina. Honora has been in communication with Marissa and with Laura.

Actions: Gary

• to request address from Omer -- where to send printing?
• to check with Honora and Claudio on use of Secure Printing Site -- we need to continue to build an "index" or list of materials, with titles and page numbers.
• check so on

Additional Actions

Check

• ensure a team is available (Anna?) for compilation
• Binders -- Gary to clarify with Honora: who is supplying these?
• Discussion papers: how many of these? What is the index of these, and their titles and page numbers?

Anna

• supply local map of Latina
• supply local "map" of hotel
• name tags

Supply of Stenographers

We need two stenographers. Exco will pay, but we need a budget estimate of their charges. They are not asked to take verbatim notes, but rather, to catch the motions, votes, decisions at least, and perhaps a "gist" of the context, so people can understand the notes. Their work will be typed each day, and distributed the next morning, to all delegates. (who to do this typing and copying?) At the end of the week all 5 1/2 days notes will be compiled into one document and it will be given to everyone as a record of the meeting. A final decsion by the GA, on this format will be made at the beginning of the meeting.

• Action: Anna -- where are stenographers, and how much money is needed.

Form of Votes

Claudio informed EXCO of the concept of the ballot-papers. There was a brief, inconclusive discussion. Honora has the paddles, and she probably could bring them to Latina, to hand to next General Secretary and also keep in reserve there.

• Action

Anna: to arrange for a design of the voting ballots, for consideration and approval of EXCO in advance. They would then be sent for printing.

Laura is a great volunteer; Honora is still short of translators for the written Agenda and other documents, in French. Italian not required.

Gary to check with Honora:

• confirm what she is doing to follow-up with Penny for French translators.
• possibly extend search to UK?

Welcome activities

• Anna to investigate a motivational, distinguished speaker for evening of Day Zero. Of course, Mario and Geoff would welcome at certain times to be determined.
• Anna to consider an Italian Night, a brief presentation of Italy in slides (songs? Music? Learn some italian? coordinate supper of italian pasta with hotel? -- we did not discuss; this is only comment)

oral interpretation in French and Spanish

Should we ask the cost of professional interpretation?

• Costs of professionals would require 2-3 translators, for five days, for each of two languages; the interpretation should be simultaneous.

The room is not designed for this. But both Germany and France have proposed that there be 3 languages, with translation for each Fr., Sp and Eng

Gary as above: Honora

• Perhaps Amir can help us conceive a technical solution?

Supply of neutral facilitators

 Dag Eirik Eikeland was going to make some enquiries; Penny Pattison has a couple of ideas, too, but no one has actually said, "here they are!"

• Action:
• Anna will investigate locally.
• Gary will check with Penny, Dag Eirik.

Preparation for eGA

All preparatory work to be completed at the Park Hotel by afternoon of Saturday, April 1 – Secretariat, Elections Group and provision for vote counting (vote counters), Agenda Working Group, Logistics, Special Advisory Group, on issues extending from Audit and Financial Report, Social Sessions Group and Workshop leaders.   Several of these people must arrive before Saturday, to achieve this goal. 

technician Action: Ewe Fedder is going to be approached.

Meeting Rooms

• Anna: Plenary Meeting Room is big enough for all delegates plus volunteers directly supporting the eGA.

• Several Workshops must meet concurrently: therefore at least 5 meeting rooms or quiet meeting areas are required. Other smaller meetings could I suppose occur in common areas or in double hotel rooms?

*So that two "popular" items can be considered at the same time as some more specialized items (and, if, say, 70 attend the eGA), then perhaps there should be 2 meeting rooms with capacity for 25 or more each, and three meeting rooms or meeting areas with capacity for 12 or more each. 

Equipment

• Working groups and formal sessions must be supported with a fast photo-copier (rented?), lcd projector-beamer, laptops and printers with ample supplies of cartridges, paper and so on. It would be good to check with Spain on this; I suspect that the eGA there printed or copied about 10,000 pages. I know that during one coffee break period it copied an amended agenda of about 4 pages for everyone at the GA. ref: Ewe Fedder?

Arrival time:

Geoff is writing to all people who have already registered, and asking them to confirm to the Park Hotel that they will come by Saturday. He will tell them to write to the hotel again, and tell the hotel they will pay for Saturday. See below, early arrival for volunteers.

Pre-conference trips and post-conference trips

does the hotel work with tour guides? Park Hotel's tourist company can suggest tour possibilities, (This would be in addition to Servas welcomes.) Organizing of trips, and give information -- and identify tour guides.

Action: Anna

Breakout afternoon tour

An organized trip for 50+ people as you say, to a city near Latina. 3-4 hours that day. This would be in addition to the invitation you would give, to meet with Servas Italy. Action: Anna

Early arrival for Working Group and EXCO

EXCO will arrive 29 March. Some other people will take pre-trips, to see some of the magnificent sites of Italy.

Sat preparation of all eGA Working Groups – finish getting ready

Sunday

 :Education and Training (zero day)  this is a core part of the Conference, and every delegate is expected to attend.

Monday:

Complete items on Education and Training -- there may be a signing ceremony, to comit to the lessons we have learned.

• Can Italy consider someone to invite, to deliver a Welcoming address – a Speaker who can excite participants, encourage them toward peaceful lives and mutual respect, constructive work together at the eGA and in life. someone "important:" as you say. e.g. North American sessions invited a chief of the aboriginal American Indian peoples, the Mayor or city councillor, and a major peace activist, to give language and inspiration. The welcome was done at supper, at the commencement, and it resulted in strong, positive feelings.

Afterward:

A few people will stay on Sunday, including perhaps some of the old EXCO, to clean up accounts, etc.  

post-conference trips.

As above: A travel agent could "sell" these trips in advance.  The travel agent's offer could be included in the Conference materials.  People could deal directly with the travel agent.

eGA Page

• Preparing the eGA

• conference bolletin no 1, Travel day, people coming to Latina + photo of the day before

• conference bolletin no 2, April 2nd 2006, day 0, the begining

• conference bolletin no 3, April 3rt 2006, day 1

• conference bolletin no 4, April 4th 2006, day 2

• conference bolletin no 5, April 5th 2006, day 3

• election of the executive comitee, newspaper editor and archivist

• conference bolletin no 6, April 6th 2006, day 4

• conference bolletin no 7, April 7th 2006, day 5

• after the eGA

download the pdf versions of the daily bolletins:

No.1 (pdf, 221kb); No.2 (pdf, 196 kb); No.3 (pdf, 192 kb); No.4 (pdf, 199 kb); No.5 (pdf, 192 kb); No.6 (pdf, 195 kb); No.7 (pdf, 218 kb);

all issue (pdf, 1528 kb)

Buon giorno Latina 2006! Vanakkam! (Tamil)
issue: Tuesday 4 th April 2006

N E W S F L A S H ! – Late night group; Exco and governance works intensely on new concept for SI Leadership. Gary Sealey (Canada)

Si ce que tu as à dire n’est pas plus beau que le silence, tais-toi! If what you have to say is not better than silence, remain silent. Si lo que quieres decir no es mas bonito que el silencio, es mejor callar.

Let’s not give people excuses for incompetence! Be nice – but don’t let people walk all over you! Demelza – Malawi

URUGUAY offers free host lists to anyone who would like to visit us and even those who don’t. We would like to see you and we encourage you to find out where we are on a map!! Marcelo SIVACK – URUGUAY

‘Arohanui’ - This Maori word means literally ‘big love’ and refers to the love of and for one another P E R K S   O F   B E I N G   O V E R    7 0

• In a hostage situation you’re likely to be released 1st.
• People call you at 0900 and ask; ‘Did I wake you?’
• People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.
• There is nothing left to learn the hard way.
• Things you buy now won’t wear out.
• You can live without sex but not without glasses.
• You quit trying to hold your stomach in.
• Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.
• You can’t remember who sent you this list.

BABY SITTERS NEEDED! If you’d be willing to sit in my room - 118 from 10pm to about midnight+!! and just watch over my sleeping baby (Sïchella) - while I complete the daily conference bulletin. Please bravely approach me! (You don’t have to change poo-y nappies and you can call reception & they get me if she's screaming.) Demelza – Malawi.

THOUGHTS FROM AFRICA – Is it really ok to generalise? “Africa is too large and diverse for generalizations. It has fifty-four nations, five time zones, at least seven climates, more than 800 million people and, according to the latest diligent research, maybe 14 million proverbs. [There are 1,000 languages and six imposed lingua francas—Arabic, English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.] South Africa and Burkino Faso have as much in common as Spain and Uzbekistan”. WOW ! Had you ever thought of that? Granta 92 (2005) “The view from Africa”.

MUJER Y DESARROLLO SOCIAL. Las mujeres somos parte escencial en el desarrollo de los paises. Tenemos muchas mas capacidades de las que se nos han podido reconocer. Las mujeres ya ocupamos cargos importantes en las organizaciones y en la politica. Hay mujeres reconocidas mundialmente por el trabajo que realizan y el gran aporte que han dado al mundo.

Rigoberta Menchu de Guatemala Premio Nobel de la paz Isabel Allende de Chile Prestigiosa Escritora Angela Merkel de Alemanna Primiera ministra. Seguramente que si tres mujeres hubieran iniciado SERVAS existiria al igual que hoy. CONSTRUIR LA PAZ Y EL DESARROLLO ES TAREA DE TODAS Y TODOS.

WOMEN & SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Women play an essential part in the development of the countries of the world. We can do a lot more than has been recognised so far. We already occupy a number of important positions in organisations and in politics. Worldwide women have been recognised for the work they are doing and the enormous contributions they have made. Rigoberta Menchu from Guatemala - Peace Nobel Prize winner; Isabel Allende from Chile - magnificent writer. Angela Merkel from Germany - Prime Minister.

If three women had founded SERVAS surely it would be working at least as successfully as it is now!

BUILDING PEACE & DEVELOPMENT IS SOMETHING FOR ALL OF US TO DO – WOMEN AND MEN!

(Blanca y Eva. Guatemala & Austria)

DAILY SUMMARY of Monday, April 3rd:

• Formal convening of the Servas General Assembly for the

first day of deliberations.

• The agenda was approved by the GA.
• Reports from officers (Exco and others) were received by the delegates. The term ‘received’ is a point of procedure meaning the reports had been sent in by the officers and their receipt formally acknowledged by the GA. It did not mean a vote of acceptance of the contents of the reports.
• Rules of Procedures were passed by the GA.
• There were two presentations to the GA on Development and Youth. This was to prepare delegates for the workshops on the two issues later in the day.
• The GA voted against a motion to recall General Secretary, Honora Clemens.
• There were 4 workshops to end the day’s work. They were on Exco and Governance; Development and Youth; Finance and Administration and Hostlists.

Mullai Pathy - Singapore

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Servas EXCO Newsletter

• President Geoff Maltby,------------------------------ Vice President Bibendra Pradhananga
• General Secretary Honora Clemens,----------------------------------- Treasurer Omer Ozkan
• Peace Secretary Gary Sealey,----------------- Host List Coordinator Claudio Pacchiega

___________________________________________________________________________________

• Volume I, No. 3
• October 2, 2004

___________________________________________________________________________________

EXCO MEETINGS TO BE HELD IN PARIS, FRANCE

Schedule Nov 2 –– Nov 9, 2004

1. Thursday, is planned for meeting with the Audit Committee
2. Friday, is planned for meetings:
   1. in the morning with Frits of the Nominating Committee
   2. in the afternoon with the ICT
3. Saturday, is planned to meet with reps from the S3 group
4. Sunday, there is a luncheon with 200 Servas members
5. November 7-9 is for planning the future

OMER, SI Treasurer, REPORTED:

His meeting with Gin and Alex in Budapest was "successful and informative." He thanks Gin and Alex for that collaboration.

After many long days of work on Omer's part, he said "all is cleared up" which answers the questions raised at the General Assembly in Spain.

Omer continued, “After the internal audit we will collaborate again and answer the question raised by the Audit Committee.”

The internal audit has been started for 2001, 2002 and 2003. "After the internal audit we will collaborate again to answer the question raised by the Audit Committee.”

COMMITTEES TO CONTINUE UNTIL ELECTIONS COMPLETED

• Our concern is that elections won't be completed by Oct.25 when the overlap period is over
• We know we need a "Continuity of Governance."
• We are following Statute V, parts 2, 3, 5
• ___2. The Executive Committee shall appoint those Servas officers who have not been elected by the General Assembly
• ___3. If the post of any officer becomes vacant between General. Assemblies, the Executive Committee may appoint a replacement
• ___5. The Executive Committee is empowered to make decisions by a majority vote at a meeting of the Executive Committee

EXCO's Decision Due to time constraint EXCO decided to reappoint and extend the term of existing members of the 2001-2004 committees that have not been replaced by those newly elected for the 2004-2007 period.

• the nomination committee and
• youth committees excepted

Their continuation shall extend until the new election process, designated by the 2004 General Assembly, can be duly completed. Every effort must be made to complete the election of new committees by the end of December 2004. Hopefully they will be completed before that date.

PACIFICA WILL BE ABOLISHED At the pre-conference meeting of NG’s from Pacifica with Mike Johnson in July 2004, it was decided that the three-year experiment of merging North America and South Pacific into Pacifica had not been a success and that the area revert to its former state i.e. North America and South Pacific.

Exco agrees with this decision and effective immediately the area known as Pacifica’ will be abolished. Bermuda, Canada and USA will revert back to the area formerly known as‘North America’.

Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tahiti and Vanuatu will revert back to the area formerly known as ‘South Pacific’.

Exco will address the issue of North America and an AC when they meet in November. It is believed that the eight countries of the South Pacific would benefit from having an Area Coordinator. Michael Johnson is currently the Area Coordinator for Pacifica. His term of office terminates on 25 October 2004 and he has kindly agreed to remain on in a ‘caretaker’ role until such time as a new Area Coordinator for South Pacific has been appointed. The Nomination Committee have asked Michael Johnson to seek nominations from the South Pacific NGs for the position of Area Coordinator South Pacific.

• OUR MOTTO
• Transparency and Trust
• As we work together
• In the Spirit of Peace.

• To work together successfully,
• it is very important to know
• what members think about issues
• presented in the EXCO Newsletter
• as well as issues not presented
• in the Newsletter

Please write to: generalsecretary@Servas.org

Comments, More from the eGA......

From Norway .....

Now Tora and I are back from Italy, after having been a week in Castiglione del Lago at Lago di Trasimeno. We had some wonderful days there, discovering the region by train.

Some short notes and comments after the GA.

We think that many people think it is desirable to do something with the form of the GA and its processes, and here are some thoughts about that:

• When running into periods when the communication isn’t as good as desired, the moderators could take short ”time outs” and let us have a short view on our communication, in what ”room” of communication we are, if we are creating ”winners” and ”losers”, ”minors” and ”majors”, before we continue. Here it could be remarked that the ones that in the moment are keeping the ”major” position (and know that they have this position!), will have a special responsibility.
• The discussions in plenary are too timeconsuming. The GA should not do detailed considerations and discussions in many cases. It’s very good that the GA leaves the work to committees and working groups, but the GA should also give the working groups authority to make decisions. That will of course make it necessary to do some work on beforehand, e.g. in the composition of the groups and their mandates. It’s a matter of trust, which should not be a problem in a peace organisation!
• There are also too many agenda items. That has something with the culture in the organisation to do; whether we are able to put ”limits to ourselves” and our ambitions
• Too much time is used to discuss statutes and regulations. Servas is a little and simple organisation, and after 57 years we should have come to a state where the statutes could be said to be rather ”developed”. In the end the statutes ideally spoken should be some kind of a ”safety net”, just to put in use when everything else fails!!!

Warm greetings from Tora and Dag Eirik, Norway

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From Brazil ...

About eGA… it was great having had the opportunity of representing Brazil.

It was a very intensive learning process I must admit. I really appreciated some of the workshops that I participated – Youth, Development and Host Lists. Pat´s presentation of Conflicts Resolution was great. Particularly I would like to thank the Italian team for all the hard work of hosting the Assembly. You are all welcome in my country and particularly my place in São Paulo. Beijos,

Marina Maluly Pacheco, Brazil.

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From Ex SI Presient.......

Dear Anna, Mario and Uwe

EGA2006 has ‘been and gone’ and I guess most of the participants are now home again.

I wanted to put on record my sincere appreciation for the magnificent job of work you each did to ensure that the ground logistics for the EGA were well and truly covered. There were no doubt other members of Servas Italy who assisted each one of you in your duties and I would also express my appreciation to them for their dedicated involvement.

Exco set out to bring to Latina an EGA with a solid foundation of peace and friendship. This I believe, we achieved. However, the combination of a friendly conference, together with the efficient ground planning organized by Servas Italy culminated in what is possibly one of the most successful GA’s convened in a long time. Please accept my personal thanks and also those of the ‘old’ Exco.

Kind regards

Geoff (Geoff Maltby, ex- SI president)

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INFORMES DE PAÍSES - ASIA

Pakistán: Plantación de Árboles, Parachinar

Siendo Servas una organización donde prevalece la comprensión, el entendimiento y la amistad, ésta ha estado cumpliendo su cometido con total determinación considerándola una sublime misión. Servas siempre le da la bienvenida a los actos de ayuda, a las palabras que animan y a las sonrisas. Todos y cada uno de los miembros de esta organización intenta lo mejor para contribuir esfuerzos de acuerdo a la posibilidad de sus recursos. Estas actividades y contribuciones reflejan la nobleza, los verdaderos sentimientos y el positivismo de los miembros de Servas hacia la humanidad, quienes siguen realizando de vez en cuando un trabajo constructivo.

Como en otras partes del país, Servas es también muy activo en Parachinar FATA (Áreas Federales Administrativas Tribales). Los miembros de Servas en FATA están haciendo trabajo constructivo todo el tiempo, en este sentido un programa de cinco días de “Plantación de Árboles” fue lanzado bajo la supervisión del Sr. Hameed Hassan, el coordinador de Servas para FATA, con referencia al medio ambiente.

Durante esta campaña más de 400 plantas fueron plantadas para que la atmósfera sea más refrescante. Junto con el Sr. Hameed Hassan y miembros de Servas otras autoridades tomaron partido activamente en esa campaña, comentando sobre el tema y recalcando la importancia de la plantación de árboles para lograr un ambiente más saludable y para hacer desaparecer la polución.

regresar a Contenidos

Pakistán: Vacunación Polio en Parachinar

Servas desea unir a la gente a pesar de cualquier dificultad, en la tristeza y en la alegría. Tiene como meta darle a la humanidad un mar de felicidad y verdadero placer. Servas se ocupa siempre de solucionar los problemas humanos; con respecto a esto veamos cómo Servas está prestando servicios en la parte médica.

Como sabemos, la vacunación ha demostrado ser una protección contra varias enfermedades mortales. En épocas recientes, tantas enfermedades se han curado con el uso de la vacunación, respecto a esto una campaña contra la Polio de 2 días fue lanzada en Parachinar FATA bajo la supervisión del Sr. Hameed Hassan en nombre de Servas Pakistán. En esta campaña se vacunaron más de 1500 niños contra la Polio, esta campaña fue lanzada para mantener la salud de los niños y permitirles crear defensas adecuadas contra dicha enfermedad.

El coordinador de Servas FATA junto a otras autoridades prometieron retomar estas actividades de la salud en el futuro, están decididos a combatir las enfermedades y darle a la gente cualquier ayuda posible en nombre de Servas Pakistán. Esta acción demuestra cómo Servas está dispuesta y sinceramente comprometida a aliviar el sufrimiento de los necesitados. Se aprecia mucho aún en esta época materialista que algunas organizaciones como Servas existan para llevar consuelo a la humanidad.

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Pakistán : 55 Aniversario

La reunion de Servas Pakistán se realizó para celebrar el 55 Aniversario de Servas Internacional en Lahore, Pakistán el 10 de octubre 04. Había 55 miembros de todo el país. El invitado principal fue el Sr. Zia Haider Rizvi, Cónsul General Honorario para Tailandia en Lahore. Él felicitó a todos los miembros de Servas Pakistán en ocasión del 55 Aniversario de Servas Internacional y destacó las perspectivas de “PAZ” a través del turismo y sus experiencias de viaje en diferentes países del mundo. El les contó a los miembros Servas sobre la importancia de la Paz y el Turismo. Comprendió que la misión de Servas es crear el ambiente de amistad a través de “Puertas Abiertas, Mentes Abiertas” en diferentes naciones del mundo entero. Rogó por un futuro exitoso para Servas.

Humaira F.Qureshi, Servas Pakistán

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India: Día Servas

El Día Servas fue celebrado en A-7 Vasant Vihar, Nueva Delhi, la residencia de Smt Ratnabali Mitra quien hizo un programa maravilloso. Nueve miembros de Servas asistieron a la reunión. Un voto de gracias le fue presentado a Smt Ratnabali Mitra por tomarse el trabajo de organizar la hermosa reunión. Yo di mis impresiones sobre nuestra Conferencia Nacional en mayo de 04 en Nasik y también sobre la conferencia 2004 de SI en la cual 6 de nuestros miembros de la India participaron.

Los miembros de Delhi que asistieron también fueron informados sobre las deliberaciones de nuestros miembros en el sur de India y la reunión entre el Dr Armes Sharma SN Dy, yo y otros 3 miembros de Delhi que tuvo lugar el 3 de octubre 04 en Lajpat Bhavan, NuevaDelhi. Nuestros miembros Servas en el sur de India, el Dr Sharma había expresado que estaban deseosos que nuestra próxima conferencia nacional se hiciera en Bangalore. Los miembros afirmaron su apoyo para dicho evento en el cual el nuevo SN será elegido. Es probable que la conferencia se realice en Diciembre 04.

Gurdev Singh, India

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Tools for Peace - Continuation:

Peace could be achieved both spiritually and physically.

People are born with desires. An infant needs warmth, and care. The child does not know about the outside world but when he grows up little by little the external influences creep into his mind and, with the expectations of grabbing these desires and to own these, greed overpowers him. Anger, hatred and revenge will then follow. It is a pain that will be there forever. It is a pain indeed.

What are the things that you could do to relieve yourself of this pain?

Be happy with what you have(contentment) and develop patience. Clothing is needed to cover yourself from excess heat and cold. As far as your clothing protects you from external hazards why cry for more expensive ones. Shoes or footwear is worn to prevent you from damaging your feet. Your feet do not know whether you are wearing footwear made of genuine leather or synthetics of even from a piece of wood. What it matters is to safeguard your feet.

You live in a world of a variety of people, kind and environment. All that surrounds you do not meet things that you admire. Hence as you have the power to develop resistancy you should be able to develop patience and thus you will be free of all these ailments and there will be peace within you both physically as well as spiritually.

(Contd......)

Nandee

Nandasena Amarasinghe

Peace Secretary – Servas International

EXCO September update

EXCO is contacting Committees, such as the Audit Committee, Development Committee and major Project Leaders. We aim to be helpful, where help is needed, but not to interfere with the flow of Committee and Project work serving national groups and the General Assembly.

EXCO is also preparing for its first meeting, hoping for a handy, inexpensive location. General purposes of our meeting:

• Building a leadership team

• Developing the Budget process and outlining the Budget

• Receiving and responding to the Audits (in preparation)

• Preparing the Distant Vote (more information to follow)

• Looking for ways to strengthen Servas and its mandate

We expect to have more details on our meeting agenda shortly. Any advice and inputs are welcome.

The General Assembly Official Minutes and handy digests of them are now on the Servas Website.

www.servas.org/siexco/index.php/Decision_of_the_eGA_2006

Several national secretaries have expressed interest in mounting a Democracy Study Group. More information to follow.

We started a process to review Areas, and Area Coordinator Elections as discussed at Latina, a project which has proceeded slowly.

We communicate mostly by "voice over the Internet", conference telephone, and webmail. Like many in Servas, all of us are busy with our private lives. Some of us have been set back by computer equipment breakdowns (Gary [who also had a flood at home], Nandee, and Pramod), and family matters, as well as forced business travel away from home.

The experimental Servas "business cards" are proving very useful. A design is available for local downloading and printing – or we can arrange to print and mail. Please let us know, if you are interested?

exco[at]servas.org

uploaded by Amelia

• return to the si monthly news September

WOW!

I had been very dubious about the eGA, had voiced my opinions on it a number of times and considered it a waste of time and money. However I went.

I returned with a completely different frame of mind. It was not a repeat of Barcelona. It was a great meeting of people out to get on well together and make constructive decisions. Saturday people were arriving, greeting each other, enjoying Amir's birthday cake, having premeeting meetings all with the aim to get it right. Day 0 set the tone of working together and enjoying each other's company. The meeting flowed on from this with 3 wonderful moderators keeping events going and ensuring that everybody had the right to contribute but did not overrun the allotted time by too much.

The structure of the meeting with a mix of workshops and more formal assembly worked well. The workshops gave everyone a chance to both listen and air their point of view. The workshops produced plenty of constructive ideas ready to go straight to the GA for voting. It was good that people were often ready to accept the work that had been done in the workshops thus cutting down the discussion time during the assembly meetings.

Elections went well and at the allotted time, although they did run over to the evening. The election results are given on the New Exco page. We now have a team ready to answer to the General Assembly and so the whole of Servas.

And there was social time for people to get together and discuss what they liked, dance the night away and on Thursday afternoon enjoy a tour round the local area. Just think 2000 years ago Roman soldiers were marching down the Via Appia that we were driving along.

Overall the discussions and results of discussions can be found on www.siexco.org. Please read these so that you are aware of what goes on as part of the running of Servas. So the pages on the eGA here will be mainly looking at the unrecorded parts, that is how people felt and where they are going next.

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Comments please:

Would the people who were at the eGA but not yet sent their comments please do so. We want to share what went on with the rest of Servas. We are looking for your opinions, how you felt, how the results will be affecting what you and your country will be doing in the future.

Look forward to hearing from you all.

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Thanks

A big thanks to everybody at the eGA for all their positive, constructive comments about Servas Monthly News and SI News. It was good to put faces to all those names I have been emailing. You are now much more real. I look forward to more constructive comments so that these newsletters contain what you want them to contain. The best way is to send articles yourselves. A special thanks to Uwe Federer who puts stuff onto the website for me. He carefully explained to me some of the problems in this. From his comments I will be changing some of the layout of the newsletters to make them more website friendly. I am learning.

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Contact

We welcome articles coming to SI Monthly News. We do not guarantee that the article, or any part of it will be published. This depends on the theme for the month along with what other articles are also available for publication.

Preferred method of contact is email at: newsletter [at]servas.org or jgiffould[at] aol.com

Please make sure that Servas: Monthly News is part of the subject heading. Otherwise if the email address is not recognised it may well get deleted before being read.

The postal address is: Jane Giffould, SI Monthly News Editor 20 Weavers Row, Halstead, Essex, CO9 2JX, England.

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AUSTRALIA

SYDNEY,

Antes de llegar a Sydney, ya había intercambiado e-mails con dos Servas Australianos. Felicity no pudo alojarme, porque estaba preparandose para compartir el departamento con alguien más. Pero me invitó a cenar con ella. Adam estaba en Jamaica, pero sugirió que me pusiera en contacto con su amigo Peter, un nuevo anfitrión Servas. Lo hice y Peter aceptó alojarme. Me quedé 3 noches en un hotel (recién logré contactar a Peter durante mi segundo día en la ciudad) y luego fui a su casas, donde me quedé también 3 noches. Fue una experiencia excepcional, pero diferente de las anteriores. Pero ese es un hecho interesante cuando se viaja con Servas: el mecanismo puede ser el mismo, pero las experiencias son siempre distintas, nada se repite. Teníamos mucho en común, de modo que nos hiciemos buenos amigos. Los viajes a la casa de Opera y a los negocios de “fish & chips” en Palm Beach fueron memorables. Y la cena en la casa de Felicity ¡fue deliciosa! Una vez más, lo difícil fue armar valijas y partir hacia el próximo destino.

MELBOURNE

Susan fue la única anfitriona que visité en Melbourne. Estaba de vacaciones, pero volvió a la ciudad el día en que yo llegué. Dado que ya había reservado una cama en un hostel para jóvenes por dos noches, convinimos en que me alojaría con ella al terminar mi estadía en el hostel. Fue sensacional. Susan es una persona realmente agradable, muy animada. Hicimos caminatas juntas, fuimos al Festival Fringe, mantuvimos charlas acompañadas por una copa de buen vino, y tomamos clases de twist. El viaje continuó (Tasmania y Cairns), pero sin Servas. Cuando volví a Sydney, me quedé con Peter por dos noches más. Pero ya no éramos anfitrión y viajero sino dos amigos que se reencontraban luego de un largo tiempo (18 días).

Fue el viaje más “humano” que haya hecho jamás. Más que visitar lugares bellos, fue una experiencia de solidaridad, amistad, y fe en las personas. Me encantó la generosidad y confianza con de los anfitriones que encontré en el camino y la alegría con que compartieron su tiempo conmigo. Me sentí plenamente gratificada. ¡Cuánta gente especial hay en el mundo! Por esa razón vale la pena vivir. Volví a casa con la esperanza renovada, sintiendome segura de que la consideración y el amor por el otro aún existen, y que perecerán sólo si lo permitimos.

Maria Fernanda Vomero, Brasil

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SERVAS JAPÓN EN PRIMAVERA

Luego de tres años de estudios japoneses, decidí seguir la ola de floración de los cerezos Sakura, que barre la isla en primavera y alojarme con anfitriones Servas. ¡Qué variedad en el libro de Servas! Un traditional sock-maker, el dueño de un sushi-bar, un cultivador de girasoles que amaba las libélulas... ¿Debía ir a Kyoto sólo para conocer al maestro de etiqueta? Finalmente, el coordinador regional eligió siete anfitriones a lo largo del frente Sakura.

Primero fui recibido por la familia de mi maestro en Nagoya. ¡Fue fantástico, pero el costo de mi permanencia fue altísimo. Su madre acababa de recuperarse de un cáncer, pero no me permitía ayudar en lo más mínimo y “caía rendida” al piso, exhausta, bajo mi mirada culpable. No pude relajarme.

Mi experiencia japonesa estuvo llena de sorpresas. Ahora estoy convencido de que realmente hay Dioses Shinto en cada cima de piedra y árbol con guirnaldas. En primavera, el mundo se vuelve mágicamente rosado, bañado de pétalos. Debí abandonar varias ideas aprendidas como no sobrecargar o “minimalismo” en el campo, las casas eran enormes, las cocinas indescriptibles y la comida casera fantástica. Visité un centro para víctimas de derrame cerebral, alimenté vacas y cargué cajas de arroz. Permanecí en un monasterio Tenri en un pueblito pesquero. Tuve mucho tiempo para visitar templos en bicicleta y caminar por las montañas.

Mis anfitriones hablaban el suficiente inglés y los recorridos turísticos ocasionales eran bienvenidos porque me permitían pagar mi parte. Ví magníficos templos y castillos pero la historia japonesa es cruel. Más bella que la memoria de cualquier templo, construido con dinero robado a los pobres, es el recuerdo de los tiempos compartidos con las familias alrededor de una mesa baja o sentados en una pileta de piedra humeante, tres generaciones de mujeres bajo la lluvia. Viajar con Servas es un privilegio y es la única manera de descubrir Japón.

Michèle O’Connel, Inglaterra

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Memorias de Nueva Zelanda

¿......todavía están allí?

Hace 20 años visitamos una familia definitivamente en la isla sur, en Christchurch, creo. Tenían una oveja muy amistosa como mascota. Recuerdo la cena pero no puedo hallar la foto. Nos reunimos informalmente en la sala. Yo me senté en el piso, con un bol de comida, charlando con alguien. La oveja estaba sentada con nosotros ¡y miraba un programa en la TV!

Pregunta: ¿Aún tienen ovejas que miran la TV?

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From the President

2005 started with more than 20% of member countries of Servas International requesting that an additional General Assembly be held. Accordingly, Exco has arranged for an Extraordinary General Assembly (EGA) to be held at Latina (Italy) from 2 to 8 April 2006. A considerable amount of time and effort is required in the initial discussion stages together with financial budgeting and planning arrangements to convene a General Assembly. Whilst I know that the Exco ‘team’ with valuable assistance from some Servas officers have made adequate plans to convene a high quality General Assembly in Italy – there remains the fact that the time spent on this project could have been used on the much needed development of Servas globally.

The ‘buddy’ system has been well and truly used this past year. Servas countries who are financially well placed offer to ‘buddy’ another Servas country by providing the funds to publish that country’s Host List. or for another country’s delegate to travel to Italy to attend the EGA.

In September India held a Servas Asian meeting in New Delhi. Exco members attended the meeting together with representatives from the Servas countries of China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It was a good meeting with lengthy discussions on current issues, which will be discussed and voted upon at the planned EGA in April. From this meeting plans were also made with Servas Kyrgyzstan for the future development of Servas in Central Asia.

Transparency has been and still is the theme of the current Exco team and decisions made, actions taken and correspondence can all be viewed or downloaded from our website at www.servas.org/siexco

In peace and friendship

Geoff Maltby, President – Servas International

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From the Host list Co-ordinator

When I decided to stand for Servas International it was my intention to give my experience and ability to help it over come some obvious problems it has experienced in the last years. I wanted to help transform it to a real organization where decentralisation, cooperation and volunteer approach was the basis and "sensitive team work" was routine.

As written in last Italian newsletter from current Italian Peace Secretary we are doing a quest to:

- appreciate and enhance each person and the common cooperation,

- share experience, values and problems,

- stimulate a constructive handling of conflicts.

My work in Servas in 2004 and 2005 had been quite diverse and covered many fields out of the strict Host List Coordination activities. In doing them I’ve been greatly helped by all the helpers, people from each countries and especially my friends in EXCO, who I really want to thank for their continual support and back up that was very needed.

Here is a very rough and partial resume of some of them:

- keylist group establishing, keylist survey and hostlist request

- facilitation on some Buddy projects for hostlist electronic/ physical preparation and distribution,

- Active Participation in the Paris conference in November 2004 and preparation for eGA in Latina in April 2005,

- Help organize India and Servas Asia meeting in Sept, Delhi

ICT Caretaking tasks:

- established siexco "wiki" as a more transparent, public communication model from Servas International to each Country, Officers and Servas members, - experimented some communication models for exchanging information and opinions among the members.

- Set up Servas forum.

- Maintained Keylist and general infrastructure of the website (except Whale, not connected with SI, handled by Germany),

- Enhanced Keylist so that can be now updated locally by Local Keylist editors.

Claudio Pacchiega, Host List Co-ordinator

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Peace in Servas and beyond: SI Peace Secretary's Report

Learnings since the GA in Spain

People are not born with rules; they learn them or make them. Through its UN observers, Servas witnesses creation of new rules, like those for managing Climate Change.

EXCO Challenges

At my election in 2004 I wanted to help Servas rise to the great goals of the world: Peace, living together in harmony with each other and with nature. I wanted to encourage networks of Peace volunteers and stronger UN Servas' observation posts, attracting new Servas hosts and travellers. About 45 people attended workshops on Peace Activism in Servas.

Servas is moving to a federated network of many local clubs and big associations. Big Servas groups may have to live by tough rules and maybe under government supervision. Small Servas groups live more informally. These differences between big and small, between friendship and formal, call for dialogue. Watch the new maps on www.servas.org -- could a Map of Servas change the way we see each other? My first job was to help EXCO. None of us had worked together. I facilitated a meeting at Paris where we learned from each other, trying to understand old and continuing arguments.

To build understanding, I set out a format for discussion: Principles before opinions, clearly state the issues, evaluate alternatives and consequences. Avoid gossip. Work toward the positive, energy-giving side of life. With some risk, I worked with the Moderator of ServasNet.

I promoted teleconferencing to connect EXCO and volunteers more closely. Servas has much to learn in its own international regions. For that reason, I encouraged international meetings in Western Europe, Asia, the Youth Project. These preparations have been successful because of the remarkable people in Servas.

Gary Sealey, Peace Secretary

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Full text of Agenda Items - Distant Voting motion From SI Exco News

Full text of Agenda Items - Distant Voting motion

Received 29/09/05 from NEW ZEALAND

ITEM No. COUNTRY

NZE-003 NEW ZEALAND

Distant Voting motion for eGA - Final Version, 29 Sept 2005

A motion to amend the Servas International Statues to establish Distant Voting as a procedure for decision making by the member groups of Servas International between meetings of the General Assembly.

This final version of the proposed motion reflects comments received on the third draft as noted.

The first draft was prepared following the first Distant Vote conference call facilitated by Gary Sealy, SI Peace Secretary, on the 30th May 2005. The participants were people interested in working on a "Distant Vote" proposal for consideration at the eGA in 2006. This first draft was circulated by Gary to more than twenty people around the world, the call participants and a wider interest group. It was also posted on the on the www.servasforum.org website.

The second draft was prepared following discussion of the first draft on the Distant Vote conference call on the 16th June 2005, again facilitated by Gary Sealy. This draft attempted to respond to the many issues raised in the discussions and e-mail correspondence up to that time. It included a partial first draft of rules for the Distant Voting process. Draft Two, dated 23 June 2005, was also widely circulated by Gary, myself and via the www.servasforum.org website.

The third draft attempted to address and reflect the few comments received on Draft Two and included a complete first draft of the Servas Rules for Distant Voting. An updated set of the explanatory notes and a brief summary of the process to date was also included.

The third draft was circulated to the Distant Vote working group and made available for discussion at the Northern Europe meeting in mid-August and at the Asian Meeting in September. It was also again posted on servasforum - having received 26 "views" to date.

We look forward to further comment and feedback - either via servasforum or direct to myself or Gary Sealy - so they can be considered prior to the discussion at the eGA2006.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the many people over many years that have worked to give Servas International a process for making decisions between meetings of the General Assembly. I understand that the idea has been around since the GA in Thailand in 2001 or before. The S3 proposal considered in 2004 at Barcelona included "an annual proxy vote/ballot". This provided the starting point for the workshop that prepared the Member Group Voting Proposal adopted at Barcelona as a process for consultation of member groups between GAs. The final step is to amendend the Servas International Statues.

Thus, while I have picked up the responsibility for drafting the proposed motion, I have tried to build on the ideas from earlier proposals as well as drawing on input from as many people as possible, so we can make the appropriate change to the SI Statutes.

Chris Patterson, on behalf of the Distant Vote working group, Joint National Secretary, Servas New Zealand servasnz@pl.net

Table of Contents Introduction Page 2 Motion 1 - To amend Statutes to allow Distant Vote Page 4 Notes on "Distant Voting" clauses of Motion 1 Page 5 Motion 2 - Adopting "Servas Rules for Distant Voting" Page 8 - Principles " - Responsibilities and Procedures " Notes on The "Servas Rules for Distant Voting" Page 11 - Principles " - Responsibilities and Procedures " Thoughts On the roles of e-mail & internet in Distant Voting Page 13

Introduction

The aim of the Distant Voting process is to provide Servas International, its member groups and Executive Committee, with a means of addressing significant issues that may arise between meetings of the General Assembly. Thus it is not intended to take over the role of the Executive Committee or to replace the General Assembly. It is intended to provide an additional tool to facilitate the orderly and harmonious governance of Servas International.

When reading this proposal and the motions it is important to remember that: • the voters in the Distant Voting process are the member groups of Servas International, ie. national groups with 10 or more members that have been accepted as members at a General Assembly meeting. Thus we are considering around 70-80 potential voters who are distributed around the world; • it is likely that most of the persons authorised to receive and cast the vote on behalf of member groups will be the national secretary or some other officeholder in the member group and so we can expect that they will generally be familiar with the operation of Servas International; • the Distant Voting process is not a referendum involving thousands of Servas hosts and travelers who have limited knowledge of Servas beyond their own experiences as a host or traveler or both.

There are three background items, agreed by the working group in early discussions, that underlie the proposal: 1/ That the name for the process should be Distant Voting. Distant Voting is a verb (as used in the current SI Statues, Section VI). The terms Distant Vote (a noun) and Distant Voting (as a adjective), as in Distant Voting process, may also be used as appropriate.

2/ That the appropriate way of amending the Statutes was to simply add a Distant Voting section to the Statutes. ie. Renaming section VI Voting at Meetings and then inserting a new section VII Distant Voting and renumbering current sections VII to IX.

This simple and direct approach made the prime focus for the group the drafting of a motion to make Distant Voting a way for SI to make decisions between GAs.

3/ That the details of the Distant Voting process should be put in a set of Rules for Distant Voting and that a majority vote of the General Assembly would be enough to amend or replace the rules. This means that: • the Statutes can be simpler with the details put into the rules • the rules can be changed without changing the Statutes • a lower voting threshold can be used to change the rules at the GA • the rules can be changed by using the Distant Voting process itself • the rules can be evolved as we get more experience with the Distant Voting process.

The Distant Voting procedure as proposed aims to provide the member groups of Servas International with a decision-making power similar to that of the General Assembly between meetings of the General Assembly. Concern has been expressed that the Distant Voting process should be limited to "paper based" decisions. For example, votes on the annual accounts and the auditor's report are "paper based" decisions - in the sense that they relate to written material.

The Distant Voting process should be used to address a wider range of issues and decisions. This should be possible if the subject of the vote is a clearly written motion supported by written material covering the background to the decision and setting out both sides of the argument. The process and the information provided needs to be at least as robust and open as those associated with meetings of the General Assembly. The rules aim to set out these requirements.

Words such as "sending", "voting paper", "written material" and "distributed" have been used both in the proposed new statute and the rules. This does not mean we see the Distant Voting Process being restricted to paper and postal delivery - far from it! They have been used to represent the function or process rather than the method of "sending" the message or information. Thus we expect Distant Voting to use e-mail, internet and faxes as well as paper and snail mail.

The Distant Voting proposal is presented as two motions. The first is an amendment that adds a new section to the Servas International Statues in three steps:

The existing section VI Voting is changed to "Voting at Meetings" to open the way for a new section VII "Distant Voting". The addition of the new section VII Distant Voting. The renumbering of the following sections accordingly.

The second motion adopts an initial set of Servas Rules for Distant Voting.

Motion 1: That the Servas International Statues be amended as follows: a/ That section VI of the Statutes be renamed "Voting at Meetings". b/ That the following be added to the Statutes as a new section VII Distant Voting

"VII Distant Voting 1) The member groups of Servas International may pass resolutions affecting Servas International between meetings of the General Assembly using the following Distant Voting process. 2) Each member group of Servas International shall have one vote on each resolution to be decided by the Distant Voting process. Votes may be cast by mail or electronically using a verifiable voting process. 3) The Distant Voting process shall not be used to amend the Statutes or to vote on the dissolution of Servas International. 4) At least one Distant Vote shall be held each year, the Annual Distant Vote, to vote on the annual accounts and auditor's report. 5) The Distant Voting process may be used to vote on: a) urgent matters that need to be resolved before the next meeting of the General Assembly; b) a resolution to suspend or remove from office any officer of Servas International; c) the election of officers to fill Executive Committee or other Servas International vacancies by secret vote; d) resolutions arising from decisions of the General Assembly. 6) An additional Distant Vote may be held between Annual Distant Votes. The closing date for the vote shall be at least four and no more than eight months after the preceding annual Distant Vote and at least six months before or after any meeting of the General Assembly. 7) The Executive Committee shall determine items to be voted on under Sub Clauses 5a), 5b) and 5c). 8) The General Assembly may specifically authorise a committee or working group to prepare and submit resolutions to be voted on by the Distant Voting process. 9) The Distant Voting process shall include three voting options for each resolution, "support/yes", "against/no" and "abstain". 10) Resolutions to be decided by the Distant Voting process as well as the voting procedure to be used must be distributed to member groups in writing at least three months before the closing date for the vote. 11) Proposals receiving "support/yes" votes from more than fifty percent of the member groups eligible to vote in the Distant Vote shall be declared adopted as if they had been passed by a meeting of the General Assembly. 12) The procedures for the conduct of the Distant Voting process shall be governed by the Servas Rules for Distant Voting. The Servas Rules for Distant Voting may be amended or replaced by a majority vote of the General Assembly."

c/ That the current sections VII to IX of the Statutes be renumbered VIII to X and any references to them adjusted accordingly.

Notes on "Distant Voting" clauses of Motion 1:

Clause 1) The purpose of clause 1) is to clearly empower Servas International to use Distant Voting (DV) to make decisions. The revised clause is a merging of previously offered options: The member groups of Service International are empowered to use the Distant Voting process to make decisions on specific proposals between meetings of the General Assembly. OR Decisions affecting Servas International may be made using the Distant Voting Process between meetings of the General Assembly.

Note: There has been some discussion around whether the Swiss Civil Code (the legal basis for the SI Statutes) permits Servas International to include Distant Voting in its statutes. We believe we should be able to - with the appropriate wording. we understand that EXCO is seeking legal advice on this matter before the eGA in April 2006.

Clauses 4) & 5) This Clause defines the matters that may be considered by the Distant Voting process. In line with a number of comments we have narrowed the range of items that can be considered by Distant Vote, in particular we have removed the discussion and polling type of proposal and the right of national groups to submit items. This leaves EXCO responsible for determining what matters should be voted on under Sub Clauses 5a), 5b) & 5c) - as set down in Clause 7.

There appears to be wide agreement that the annual accounts and auditor's report should be voted on each year using the Distant Vote process - this requirement has been set down in Clause 4) and has the effect of establishing an Annual Distant Vote.

There has been considerable discussion as to what other matters the Distant Vote should be used to vote on:

5a) Voting on "urgent matters" has raised the most comment. The concern seems to be that it may be difficult to adequately present the issues involved in the matter being considered. We have tried to cover this in the rules. 5b) This provides an explicit way of either suspending or removing a Servas International officer from office between meetings of the General Assembly. Suspending a Servas officer would mean that they are no longer responsible for their duties, but that they cannot be replaced until their status has been reviewed at a General Assembly. Removal from office would mean the position is vacant and steps can be taken to fill the vacancy. There appears to be wide agreement that this is a suitable matter to be resolved by Distant Vote. 5c) There also appears to be agreement that using the Distant Vote process to fill Servas International vacancies is appropriate. The Statutes currently provide for the election of officers to be by a secret vote (Section VI, 2). Thus this provision is carried over to elections that use the Distant Voting Process. This also raises the question of whether the right to request a secret vote on any issue should also apply to Distant Voting. At this point we have addressed this in the Rules by letting EXCO decide if the voting on a Distant Voting resolution should be secret. 5d) There has been support for the General Assembly making decisions that result in a matter being considered in a later Distant Vote.

Clause 6) The Annual Distant Vote (ADV) to deal with the annual accounts etc. is established by Clause 4). This ADV could also include votes on other matters. This clause allows for another DV between the annual votes, but requires that there is at least 4 months between DVs and that they cannot be held "just before" or "just after" a GA. We have used 4 months to separate DVs since we realised that using 6 months could lead to the annual DV creeping thus delaying the consideration of the annual accounts. We believe it may be useful to have the option of two Distant Votes in a year - we trust this is a clear way of spacing DVs. It has been suggested that DVs be once in each "civil year" (We assume this is equivalent to a fiscal or financial year which relates to the period covered by the annual accounts - as opposed to a calendar year which is 1 January to 31 December). We have stayed with the less formal definition "annually" since this provides some flexibility - we feel we may need this as we are a voluntary multi-national organisation and the timing of GAs tends to vary within the year.

Clause 7) This clause puts the onus on EXCO to explicitly decide that a matter is urgent and cannot wait until the next GA and that it should be considered by Distant Vote. We hope this provides a balance between avoiding a flood of Distant Vote resolutions while leaving EXCO the flexibility to resolve urgent and important matters should they arise.

Clause 8) While this is somewhat open, this openness is limited by requiring a decision of a GA. The GA might also decide to refer matters discussed but not voted on at the GA, to be decided by Distant Vote.

Clause 9) While an earlier draft included the 4th option "requires further consideration", we have limited the voting options to three. Several people have said "discussion" votes or polling does not need to be explicitly included in the SI Statutes. We would agree. EXCO could use them on their own decision. The motion passed at Barcelona in 2004 provided a mandate and a basic procedure for a "discussion" process. If necessary, the procedures for this distant discussion or polling or formulating process could be added in the Rules proposed below at some later date. In particular the "discussion" process could use an option "requires further consideration" to prevent proposals that are seen to have merit but are not yet ready to be adopted being simply defeated and the work put into them wasted.

We have been advised that in some countries a vote on accounts and the auditor's report, as required under Clause 4), must be decided with only the "support/yes" and "against/no" options. This does not appear to be a requirement for Servas International at present, resolutions on the accounts have been voted on in the same way as other matters. Also, there is no reference, in the Statutes or the Swiss Civil Code, to different voting being required for votes on the accounts and the auditor's report. Thus there appears to be no reason for Servas to change the current practice.

Clause 10) This Clause is similar to the requirement in the SI Statutes (Clause IV, 2) that members must be given "at least three months written notice of the agenda, time and place" of the GA. By the time this notice is sent out the text of the resolution must be finalised as well at the details of the voting process and timetable. It is assumed that additional information giving background to the resolutions would normally also be included.

Clause 11) The use of the phrase "eligible to vote" in this clause has been questioned - on the basis that to vote is a right of all the member groups. That is agreed. However, the reason for using "eligible to vote" is to make it explicit that a majority, ie. more than 50%, of ALL members is required, not just a majority of the members who voted. This is a more demanding requirement than for a vote at a GA where all that is required is the majority of the members voting (they can only vote if they are present at the meeting). A more demanding requirement is appropriate since Distant Voting does not allow the same face-to-face discussion provided by a meeting and as a resolution passed by the GA is "binding on the activities and priorities of Servas International" (Statutes Section IV, 7).

Clause 12) As noted earlier, the Rules provide a formal document that sets out all the detail of how the Distant Vote process is to be conducted, thus allowing the Statutes to remain simple and concise.

Motion 2: (to be considered if Motion 1 is accepted) That the following be adopted as the Servas Rules for Distant Voting.

"Servas Rules for Distant Voting

Principles 1/ The Distant Voting process shall operate by sending voting papers and information to one person, the Authorised Voter, from each member group who has been authorised to receive and cast the Distant Vote for that member group. 2/ The aim of the Distant Voting process is to allow all member groups to participate without being unduly disadvantaged by issues of language, distance, available finances and access to information technology. 3/ The procedures for deciding who receives the voting papers and then how the Distant Vote is cast shall be determined locally by each member group. 4/ The Distant Voting process shall be conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner with information about the Distant Vote and the results available on request to all Servas hosts and travellers. 5/ To assist member groups to make an informed decision all resolutions will be accompanied by a balanced outline of the issues involved and information on where additional information can be obtained. 6/ To protect the integrity of the voting process details of how each member group voted shall be available on request to all member groups, except where the resolution was to be decided by secret vote. 7/ These Principles shall be used to clarify particular issues relating to the Distant Voting process that are not clear or have not been anticipated in the Responsibilities and Procedures set out below.

Responsibilities and Procedures 1/ The President shall be responsible for the organisation of the Distant Voting and for ensuring that the process is conducted in accordance with the Statues and these Rules.

2/ For each Distant Vote the Executive Committee shall be responsible for: a) deciding that a Distant Vote should be held and then determining: • the closing date for the vote • the date by which the resolutions and supporting material must be sent to member groups • the date by which any changes to Authorised Voter details must be received; b) appointing an independent person, the Distant Vote Officer, to be responsible for running the Distant Vote process and to receive and count the votes; c) authorising, if considered necessary, one or more indpendent persons or organisations to assist the Distant Vote Officer in running the Distant Vote; d) determining the wording of the resolutions to be decided by the Distant Voting process; e) determining which resolutions, if any, are to be decided by secret vote; f) determining the languages that the voting information and supporting material is to be translated into for distribution to member groups.

3/ The General Secretary shall be responsible for: a) advising member groups promptly of any Executive Committee decision to hold a Distant Vote, including the closing date for votes, the date by which the resolutions and supporting material will be sent to member groups and the date by which any changes to Authorised Voter details must be received; b) keeping a record of the name and contact details of the person designated by each member group to be their Authorised Voter for the Distant Voting process; c) providing the Distant Vote Officer with a list of the member groups eligible to vote and contact details for the Authorised Voter for each member group; d) assembling the supporting material to be sent with the voting information; e) sending advise of the results of the Distant Vote to member groups within one month of receiving them from the Distant Vote Officer.

4/ The National Secretary of each member group shall be responsible for advising the General Secretary of: a) the name and contact details for the Authorised Voter for their member group; b) the preferred methods of communication for the Distant Voting process; c) the preferred language for written material and if possible, one or more other languages that would be acceptable; d) any changes to this information, in particular when an upcoming Distant Vote has been notified.

5/ The Distant Vote Officer shall be responsible for: a) preparing a report to the Executive Committee, including recommendations on a budget and timetable for the Distant Vote process, the method of electronic voting, the postal address and the vote authenticity checks to be used, for approval by the Executive Committee; b) sending the resolutions, the voting instructions and supporting information to the Authorsied Voter for each eligible member group as advised by the General Secretary; c) receiving the votes cast, verifying that they are eligible to be counted, and then recording how each member group voted on the resolutions. Votes may be disallowed on the grounds that were not received on time, are not authentic, the voter's intention is not clear or the vote cannot be counted for any other reason; d) counting the valid votes received, "support/yes", "against/no" and "abstain", to determine the result of the vote on each resolution and to identify any resolutions passed by more than fifty percent of the member groups eligible to vote and thus having the same effect as a General Assembly vote; e) reporting the results to the General Secretary within one month of the closing date for the vote; f) preparing a written report to the Executive Committee on the Distant Vote within two months of the closing date for the vote. The report shall include the voting results on each resolution, the number of member groups eligible to vote, a detailed list of how each member group voted on non-secret resolutions and the number of votes received but not counted with the reason they were disallowed; g) holding all votes received in a secure place and keeping the votes and the results confidential until member groups have been advised of the results by the General Secretary; h) handing over all voting papers and such other information as may be requested as part of an independent recount and audit of the Distant Vote; i) destroying all votes received and any other confidential information if no request for a recount has been received within three months of the date the result of the Distant Vote are sent to member groups; j) disposing of any confidential information and other records relating to the Distant Vote process in consultation with the General Secretary.

6/ The supporting information to be sent to the Authorised Voter for eligible member groups shall in all cases include details of the voting procedure, the date by which votes must be returned to be counted and a voting paper containing the resolutions to be voted on. One or more of the following shall also be included as is appropriate for each of the resolutions to be voted on: a) a copy of the annual accounts and auditor's report, with comments from the Treasurer and/or Executive Committee if they wish; b) a balanced outline of the background to the resolution with a summary of the key issues for and against the proposal, - estimates of the financial implications, if any, of adopting or not adopting the resolution, - additional information or submissions in support of and against the resolution or details of how this additional information can be obtained; c) a statement of the grounds for the suspension or removal from office of the Servas International officer concerned and their statement in reply; d) brief CVs and statements from the candidates nominated for election and a job description for each position to be elected; e) any other information that the General Secretary or Executive Committee determine will assist member groups to make an informed decision. The voting information and supporting material shall be translated and distributed in English, French, Spanish and any other languages as determined by the Executive Committee.

7/ If the matters to be voted on in a particular Distant Vote create a conflict of interest for the President or the General Secretary the remaining Executive Committee members shall appoint a replacement to carry out their Distant Vote responsibilities until the voting process has been completed.

8/ An independent recount and audit of the results of the Distant Vote may be called for by a written request to the President by: a) any Authorised Voter for the Distant Vote; b) or any Servas International officer who is the subject of a resolution under Sub Clause 5b; c) or any candidate for election under Sub Clause 5c; d) or the Executive Committee. The request must be made within three months of the date the result of the Distant Vote is sent to member groups. The President shall be responsible for appointing an independent person to conduct the recount and audit of the running of the Distant Vote. The results of the recount and the audit report shall be completed and given to the President within two months of receipt of the request. The result of the recount shall be declared as the result of the Distant Vote and advised to member groups. Details of the recounted voting and the audit report shall be available on request to member groups. Any further challenges to the results shall be resolved at the next meeting of the General Assembly.

9/ The term of office of the Distant Vote Officer shall end no later than four months after the date for the Distant Vote result is sent to member groups."

Notes on the Servas Rules for Distant Voting

It is anticipated that these rules would be added to the Servas Handbook.

Principles The purpose of these principles is to provide an overview of the intent of the Distant Voting and how the process should operate.

In particular the principle is established that a nominated individual receives and casts the vote on behalf of the member group. It is up to the member groups themselves to decide who will receive and cast their vote and also the extent to which the voter is required to consult with the member group's board or committee etc. This is a similar arrangement to that for the appointment of delegates to the General Assembly.

An important thread running through the principles is that the Distant Voting process should be inclusive, fair and open - so that all member groups are able to participate and to cast an informed vote.

The Principles can be used to clarify particular issues that may not be clear as set out in the Responsibilities and Procedures or when something arises that has not been anticipated.

Responsibilities and Procedures 1/ Following the style used in the Statutes the President has been made responsible for the overall Distant Voting process - the President already has a similar responsibility for meetings of the General Assembly (Statues Clause VII 1 f ).

2/ The Executive Committee (EXCO) has been made responsible for the decisions that need to be made for each Distant Vote. It is anticipated that this will be done by EXCO formally adopting and recording a resolution to hold a Distant Vote. This assumes that each Distant Vote, which may include several resolutions, will be managed as a separate activity. It also makes EXCO the gatekeeper for the Distant Vote process, leaving open the possibility of member groups raising issues with EXCO that eventually become the subject of a Distant Vote resolution.

3/ The General Secretary has been made responsible for keeping records of who the Authorised Voter is for each member group. This is in line with the responsibilities of the General Secretary as set out in the Statutes (Clause VII 3 ). It is not clear from the Statutes who is responsible for maintaining the list of member groups - those national groups with 10 or more hosts voted in as members by a General Assembly.

4/ The National Secretary of each member group is made responsible for advising the General Secretary of the name etc. of the person who is to receive and cast the vote on behalf of their member group. This means that the General Secretary does not have to rush round just before each Distant Vote to find out who is to receive the voting papers for each member group. The voting papers are sent to the last recorded Authorised Voter, unless this is changed before the deadline for advising changes.

5/ The position of Distant Vote Officer has been created to be responsible for running the Distant Voting process. It has been assumed that this person will be appointed by EXCO to plan and implement the voting process and that their term of office will end when this has been done. Thus it is not a permanent position, although the same person might be re-appointed several times. • By making it a separate position an additional person is available to do the work involved and they are able to make the Distant Vote their prime activity for Servas. It also removes the immediate responsibility for the Distant Vote from EXCO and other officers giving it a degree of independence. • The provision for the Distant Vote Officer to be supported by other persons or organisations would allow them to have a lawyer or the like receive the votes or a computer firm to provide an electronic voting facility. This provides some flexibility for an evolving process. It also provides the opportunity for experience and the workload to be shared. • These rules have not detailed the methods of electronic voting to be used. It is left to the Distant Vote Officer to research available methods and then to recommend an appropriate method to EXCO for approval. This means that the electronic voting method can easily be changed as our understanding of our needs develops and new technology becomes available. • The votes are to be kept confidential by the Distant Voting Officer until the results are advised to member groups. This is to ensure that voters do not get any information about the voting before they cast their vote. However, once the results have been announced detailed information on the votes cast by each member group will be available on request. This is no different from a "paddle" or show of hands vote at a General Assembly. The availability of the information is seen as an important way of protecting the integrity of the Distant Vote process. All member groups have the opportunity to check that their votes have been recorded and counted as they intended.

6/ As noted earlier there have been concerns that the Distant Voting process should only be used for "paper based" votes. This rule aims to set out the type of information that should be included with the voting papers. For some issues there will be many pages of supporting information - however this is necessary and essential if the process is to be fair and allow voters to make an informed decision. It will be the responsibility of the General Secretary to gather together the appropriate information - it may be written by many different people who have an interest in the issues to be decided - and to ensure that the result is informative, fair, accurate and balanced.

To break down the barriers of language it is proposed that the voting material be translated into at least three languages. If the matter is important enough to warrant being the subject of a Distant Vote then it is important enough to be translated.

7/ This rule requires the President or General Secretary to step aside from their role in the Distant Voting process if the Distant Vote creates a conflict of interest for them. Again this is intended to protect the integrity of the Distant Voting process.

8/ This rule provides that a review of the results may be requested by any of the people who have an interest in the results of the Distant Vote. It has been assumed that the recount results will replace the result of the first count. It is left to the next General Assembly to resolve any further challenges to the results.

These rules have been restricted to matters relating directly to the Distant Voting process.

As indicated earlier, there has been some discussion among the working group of the role of less formal means of consultation, such as discussion papers and polling of member groups, by EXCO. Our understanding is that there is nothing to stop EXCO using these means of consultation at present. This raises the question: Do we need rules for these processes?

Since these consultation tools are non-binding on EXCO or the member groups the procedures for them can be determined by EXCO or delegated to a working group and a more formal set of rules does not seem to be necessary at present. Restricting these rules to the Distant Voting process also makes a clear distinction between the formal and potentially binding Distant Voting process and any other informal and non-binding consultation processes.

Some thoughts on the roles of e-mail & Internet in Distant Voting (From Chris Patterson - Prepared for this final version without the benefit of feedback.)

Clause 2) of the proposed Distant Voting statute provides that: "Votes may be cast by mail or electronically using a verifiable voting process".

The second Principle in the rules is: "The aim of the Distant Voting process is to allow all member groups to participate without being unduly disadvantaged by issues of language, distance, available finances and access to information technology."

Given the wide diversity in the resources available to Servas member groups I expect that ordinary mail - stamps, letters, and postal delays - will be an essential part of the Distant Voting process for some time to come. Thus I see the role of e-mail and the Internet as optional extras in the Distant Voting process rather than central to its smooth operation.

I say this not because I am against technology - far from it, I work at a computer most days. I say it because I believe Servas, a global multinational organisation operated by volunteers with many different mother tongues, must be practical and pragmatic if the above principle is to be honored.

I know many people have been pondering and exploring the implications of an "electronic solution" for Distant Voting. I see seven separate steps or requirements within the process:

• Sending notification of the Distant Vote and details of the key dates • Updating details of the Authorised Voters • Distribution of the resolutions, voting papers and background information • Discussion of the issues • Returning the votes and verifying their authenticity • Counting the votes • Publishing the results of the vote.

Sending Notification… This is a clear opportunity for the use of e-mail and the web site - as we are doing. This provides a fast, economical and efficient method of sending out this limited amount of information. But I believe that it is essential that members groups have the option of receiving this information by post or fax as well as e-mail.

Updating details of the Authorised Voters Again e-mail offers a fast, economical and efficient way of member groups sending this information to the General Secretary. But where e-mail is not a viable option post or fax will do the job.

Distribution of the resolutions, voting papers… For most Distant Votes I would expect the information to be distributed at this stage will run to many pages. The more significant the issue the more background information there is likely to be. And the greater the need for member groups to have printed copies of the information so they can be read and digested at leisure.

While e-mail attachments and the web site allow larger volumes of information to be distributed, they also transfer the work and cost of making printed copies to the local member group. In doing so we are likely to swap more efficient high speed double sided coping for one sided printing using slower home printer. As was demonstrated at Barcelona distribution of "conference papers" via the web site is really a second best option when member groups need the information to meaningfully contribute to the decision making.

Thus I again expect that many member groups will appreciate the option of a mailed copy of the papers.

Discussion of the issues This is certainly an area where the Internet and e-mail come into their own - for those who have reasonable access to them. The operation of the Distant Vote working group is a good example. The challenge is how do we include those who have limited access to these technologies.

Returning the votes and verifying their authenticity A simple way of providing verification of the authenticity of the votes is to assign a unique number/code to each voting paper/member group. The number can be large - 9-10 digits and/or letters and randomly generated. The Distant Vote Officer keeps a private register of the numbers issued and checks incoming votes against this register. Duplicates and counterfeits can easily be detected and disallowed. For an additional cross check, two different numbers might be sent independently to the member group - both to be returned with the voting paper….

This approach allows voting papers to be distributed by letter, fax, e-mail etc. and for the votes to be returned the same way to the Distant Vote Officer at a designated address, fax number or e-mail address. Receipt of the voting paper and details of the vote might be sent back to the voter as confirmation that the vote had been received.

I personally believe that progress counts of the voting, if any, should be kept confidential by the Distant Vote Officer until the voting process has been completed. I also believe that details of how each member group voted should be available - just as it is when a vote is taken at a General Assembly.

Counting the votes We are not going to have more than around 80 votes - the voters are only the 80 or so member groups, not the many thousands of hosts and travellers! Thus counting the votes manually is no big task. I feel we need to keep this in mind when considering "electronic solutions" for Distant Voting.

A simple spreadsheet will allow the votes to be recorded and tallied very easily. In this way there is no problem, in handling votes of different types, mail, fax, e-mail etc. and the spreadsheet can easily be converted into an e-mail or text document for publication.

Overall, I feel that for the Distant Vote process an elaborate "electronic solution" to vote counting is not an appropriate use of time and effort for something that will at most be used twice a year.

Publishing the results of the vote Again this is an opportunity to make use of e-mail and the web site to quickly disseminate the Distant Vote results. With mailed copies as required and a summary/backup included in the next SI News. As indicated above, detailed results from a spreadsheet can easily be converted to text for publication.

In conclusion, I believe we should keep the whole process as simple and flexible as possible - particularly until we have some experience of the process in action. A hybrid postal/e-mail/internet system that allows member groups to advise the mode of communication they want to use should work well.

Risultati delle elezioni dei nuovi organi statutari di Servas Italia

Comitato Esecutivo n. Voti, 7 membri

1 Cozzi Lavinia 89

2 Fortezza Vito 88

3 Borsa Maria Gloria 74

4 Pellizzari Giuliana 52

5 Careddu Andrea 48

6 Ramella Nella 40

7 Federer Uwe 39

--

8 Tosetto Francesco 25

9 Nicolli Fabio 24

10 Prodomo Antonio 19

11 Brintazzoli Maria Teresa 18

12 Brillante Bruno 13

Collegio dei Probiviri n. Voti, 3 membri

1 Abiuso Fernanda 83

2 Guarato Francesca 67

3 Beccaceci Paolo 56

--

4 Brunello Mariangela 22

5 Mattalucci Caterina 18

6 Accordino Francesco 16

Collegio dei Revisori dei Conti n. Voti, 3 membri

1 Arosio Mario 74

2 Zagaria Mimma 70

3 Mello Grand Rita 62

--

4 Tosetto Francesco 42

5 Beccaceci Paolo 25

Incarichi del comitato esecutivo

Incarichi interni Comitato Esecutivo Servas Italia

Presidente Vito Fortezza

Vice presidente e Segretario per la Pace Giuliana Pellizzari

Segretario Uwe Federer

Tesoriere Lavinia Cozzi

Coordinatrice dei coordinatori Nella Ramella

Responsabile liste straniere Andrea Careddu

Responsabile informazione Maria Gloria Borsa

• return, ritorno

Time Zone differences

• I sent my email at 10.00 last night. I wonder why I got a reply from A in North America before B in Asia.

• It is 3pm here in Britain, I think I will just check that point with C in Japan on the phone.

• I want to check out staying with D in France, it is 8.30 pm here (UK) so not too late.

• Exco teleconferencing, now ranging between Canada, USA, Italy, India and Sri Lanka

A few scenarios that have happened or might happen. And they are all having to deal with one thing - different countries run on different times. We all know that. Yet how often do we really consider it?

Look at the examples:

• 10.00 pm in UK, time to think of sleeping, but in North America it could be up to 8 hours earlier, maybe end of lunch time with all the afternoon to go. Whereas Asia could be 6 hours later and so probably still fast asleep in the next morning.

• 3pm in Britain is midnight in Japan. A phone call would not be very welcome.

• In France one is asked to not call after 9pm. Whoops that makes it 9.30pm. Now to apologise for calling at the wrong time.

I know that Exco diligently try to find a time that is suitable for all. That is often difficult enough for people in one country with one time zone. Now consider people in different time zones. Look at the spread of times between Sri Lanka and North America. There are 14 hours difference which could include Sri Lanka being a day ahead of North America, with Europe in the middle. Hence they work their meeting times on GMT, Greenwich Mean Time. This is the international recognised time by many organisations including aviation. So a teleconference at 16.30 GMT would be 22.30 for Sri Lanka - bedtime, and 8.30 GMT for North America Pacific coast, just after breakfast perhaps with Europe coming in at 17.30.

Understanding the communication problems for instant contact around the world can help people communicate better. They will understand then what the people they are talking to might be doing, and it will not be the same as themselves.

Travel tips

Travel tips is a new column. This issue it is introducing itself and giving the first column. The author, John Gunther, would welcome people’s comments about the articles.

Meetings

Lots of meetings are emerging. I am aware that it is past the date due for registering for the meeting in Turkey. However I included the detail so that people could be aware of what is going on. There is no harm in asking if any places are available.

Note the Youth meeting for next year on p10. More detail will be coming, hopefully next month.

Websites

I have asked for people to send in ideas for useful/interesting/relevant websites.

Gary Sealey has sent the following one. It covers a range of in country tours and forums on many issues. There is a block on Peace issues which could be especially relevant to Servas.

www.globalexchange.org/tours/byIssue.html#6

return to contents

uploaded by Amelia

Extraordinary GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2006

eGA2006 Update No. 10

Dear National Secretary and officers of Servas

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

You should arrive early at Park Hotel, Latina, to work on Sunday, 2nd April 2006 all day.

We are going to try to get through as many as possible of the over 100 agenda items for eGA2006. At least, we will schedule whatever the eGA determines to be highest priority of all those items, which range from the profound to the practical.

To make sure you have the best use of time available we calculate we need to start Sessions first thing on Sunday morning 2nd April 2006.

This means you should please make arrangements to arrive at Latina (one day earlier) on Saturday 1st April 2006.

Payment for accommodation and meals for Saturday will be at the rate of Euro 45 for rooms on a 'share basis' and Euro 55 for those requesting 'sole use' of accommodation.

We have alerted the Park Hotel which has told us you are indeed welcome to arrive Saturday afternoon. However, if you have already pre-registered with the Park Hotel – in order to confirm your reservation for Saturday 1st April and for payments, you must contact the management at info@parkhotel.it to say when you will arrive on Saturday.

Your note of confirmation will also give them authority to debit you for your accommodation on Saturday.

Those of you who have not yet completed and forwarded your Registration Application form please note that Registration fees for those occupying a room on a 'share basis' for the seven nights accommodation will be Euro 315 and for those requiring 'sole use' accommodation Euro 385.

Dedicated volunteers preparing the sessions: Logistics, Secretariat, and official Working Groups and Nominations/Elections are expected to arrive by Saturday a.m. so that all their preparations for the eGA can be well completed before the eGA starts on Sunday morning 2nd April 2006.

For participants receiving funding from S.I. we will ask the Park Hotel to expect you on Saturday afternoon or evening. Please make your final transportation plans accordingly.

You will be getting much more information on the Agenda for the eGA shortly. We think you will agree it will be a wonderful Conference: the best yet!

In peace and friendship

Geoff Maltby

President – Servas International

Note:

If your country has submitted an agenda item for eGA2006, would you please check that this item has been listed as being received on Exco’s website www.servas.org/siexco

You will find the eGA2006 agenda items on the Main Page under the heading “eGA Materials and Information”.

I believe that we have included every agenda item received but it would be good to check that your’s is there!

Hard workers preparing for the eGA in Latina.

SI President Geoff making photocopies.

return to index of eGA 2006 newsletter

 Dag Eirik Eikeland was going to make some enquiries; Penny Pattison has a couple of ideas, too, but no one has actually said, "here they are!"

All preparatory work to be completed at the Park Hotel by afternoon of Saturday, April 1 – Secretariat, Elections Group and provision for vote counting (vote counters), Agenda Working Group, Logistics, Special Advisory Group, on issues extending from Audit and Financial Report, Social Sessions Group and Workshop leaders.   Several of these people must arrive before Saturday, to achieve this goal. 

*So that two "popular" items can be considered at the same time as some more specialized items (and, if, say, 70 attend the eGA), then perhaps there should be 2 meeting rooms with capacity for 25 or more each, and three meeting rooms or meeting areas with capacity for 12 or more each. 

 :Education and Training (zero day)  this is a core part of the Conference, and every delegate is expected to attend.

A few people will stay on Sunday, including perhaps some of the old EXCO, to clean up accounts, etc.  

As above: A travel agent could "sell" these trips in advance.  The travel agent's offer could be included in the Conference materials.  People could deal directly with the travel agent.

60 Years India

Servas India 60 Years

Date 18 – 22nd Jan 2010

Registration information

Servas India 60 Years Registration Form

Location of Event