President's Welcome Letter to eGA2006

From SI Exco News

Dear National Secretaries and other official delegates to the General Assembly,

I have the honour, as your Servas International President, to send you both this one-page Programme and this lengthy Agenda for your extraordinary General Assembly at Latina , Italy running from Sunday morning, April 2, 2006 to Saturday, April 8, 2006.

For the success of this General Assembly, I am asking you to:

• Read the Agenda

• Prepare to schedule your time for both formal voting sessions and for preparatory Workshops

• Help establish a Working Group or join one

My detailed explanation of the Agenda follows.

Signed

Geoff Maltby

President - Servas International

EXPLANATION OF THE AGENDA

After I received about 100 Agenda proposals from National Secretaries and other officers before the deadline of October 2, 2005, I realized I needed help to fit them into a workable Agenda.

I enlisted an Agenda Working Group consisting of Penny Pattison (Servas Canada), Chris Patterson (Servas New Zealand), Pramod Kumar (Servas India), Muriel Gipalou (Servas France), and Rami Rafaeli (Servas Israel), all assisted by Gary Sealey (SI Peace Secretary who is serving as interim Programme Chair, extraordinary GA).

Your thanks are due to them. Responsibility for approval and any errors or omissions is mine; please let me know.

It was clear to them and to me, as it will be to you: many of the items you submitted require advance discussion and Workshops to clarify them before the formal voting sessions of the GA can decide.

Also, because several National Secretaries submitted varying recommendations on similar items I liked the idea of sorting these items into broad groups for Workshops.

In the one-page Programme you will quickly see that these groupings result in broad thematic subjects, of Development (D), Exco and Governance (E), Financial Administration (F), General Assembly (G), Host Lists (H), Membership (M) which run through the week, both for Workshops and for some formal eGA decisions. Discussions at Workshops arranged this way will save time. They will help you prepare for decisions in the formal voting sessions of the extraordinary GA or at later General Assemblies, or possibly through Distant Voting.

The one-page Programme document conveniently distinguishes Formal extraordinary GA decision-times (over 20 boxes shaded on the Programme) from Workshops (about 12 boxes in white, each indicated by W).

As you can see, and I hope you agree, I wanted to reserve your time in the formal GA for decision-sessions. All discussion has been scheduled for Workshops.

Some planned Workshops are intended for Education and Training of Servas leaders, and not for specific decisions. Other Workshops will prepare for Formal decision-making at the GA by providing a preliminary round of discussion on some of the Agenda items before these items go to the decision-making GA sessions for voting.

Thus, we have planned two distinct types of Workshops as follows:

1. Non-decisional Workshops, for education and for holding discussions on Agenda items which do not call for a decision from the GA. Such items shall not be put up for voting.

2. Preliminary Workshops, for holding preliminary discussion on Agenda items that require a decision from the GA. In some cases, National Secretaries proposed Agenda items intended for decisions but not yet in the form of clearly drafted motions. Workshops will help in drafting of their motions that will then be decided in the formal voting sessions of the GA.

I think we have respected your intent, in sorting items into the right places on the Agenda. In case you have any doubt, I am asking the Agenda Working Group to be prepared to offer consultation and assistance to you and to advise me.

To summarize, the general flow of the Agenda, outlined in the Programme is intended to show:

1. Workshops for discussion or for preparing presentations.

2. Formal GA voting sessions on those Workshop presentations of finalized proposals, which may include clearly-stated brief principles, briefly-stated reasons for the proposal, estimated benefits and costs and other likely impacts, and concise motions for GA vote;

3. GA voting sessions are limited to short questions of delegates to the Workshop group, to clarify specific points of their work.

4. GA delegates may make brief statements of support or reservation on the Workshop proposals and may offer improvements to proposals acceptable to originators in advance of the vote.

5. General Assembly formal Voting process for decision, or

6. GA request to return a specific item to a Workshop for more discussion before GA decision.

I will be asking a special Working Group to consult and assist in the development of Rules of Order. When these Rules are adopted by the GA they will support an efficient and orderly approach, while respecting principles of fair, efficient, and democratic governance of Servas.

I am asking you to indicate your interest as soon as possible, to help create a Working Group or join one, and lead Workshops on your and related agenda items. Your work will help foster clarification and understanding of items to be decided by the GA

The programme for the Zero Day Workshops is being designed separately, to help us sharpen our skills at conflict management and leadership. It will also help us to build our capacities as delegates, to participate very effectively in the extraordinary GA. It will equip us with expertise and practices proven at recent, successful meetings of Servas National Secretaries: especially at Askov; in the Americas; at Servas Pathways Alpine meeting; and at the New Delhi meeting of Asian Servas countries. I will be announcing a Working Group to advance it; your help to the Zero Day Working Group is welcome . Please let me know of your interest.

How to read the Agenda? You will find each Agenda item you submitted listed among the Formal decision sessions of the extraordinary GA session at the time when it will first be considered. Your recommended Agenda items are coded with a short form of your member-country's name, for instance ITA (Italy ). If you recommended educational activities or a workshop without requesting a decision, you will likely find your item grouped under Day Zero, not among the decision-items for the eGA.

A little time is set aside for Social activities too. But we received a strong message from National Secretaries: they want to focus most of their time on the 100 recommendations they made. Dealing with those recommendations is the main work and chief purpose of this extra-ordinary General Assembly. We are not encouraging large delegations and many "observers". It is our expectation that every single person who attends will be working.

However, beginning on Zero Day, you will be given the opportunity to join a small "Home Group". It is a proven way, very Servas-like, of sharing in a common experience, enjoying each other's company, and learning each other's culture in a small circle of friends who begin as strangers. We hope "Home Groups" will continue through the week.

To keep this letter as brief as possible, I will be using the web site www.servas.org/siexco to update you on the meeting. I am also posting there, and will later send you, the Report of the Agenda Working Group on the detailed methods used to help me consider and approve the Agenda. Full texts of the items submitted for the Agenda by National Secretaries and officers are already available at that website.

I feel you will agree this Agenda achieves the principles set out, for:

• Treating fairly everyone's suggestion

• Making sure everyone is heard

• Giving time to develop conceptual and discussion items further

• Focussing the eGA on a good, efficient and decisive process

• Helping develop the capacity of Member Groups in a Zero Day, to re-tool skills for a productive meeting

• Setting out enduring principles of good behaviour and communication in Servas.

• Developing more good Servas leaders

Volunteers both in Turkey and at the Servas Conference Secretariat in Latina will help us print the Agenda and related documents, and give it to you when you arrive, at Latina. We are trying to get it translated at low cost. If you can help translate, your help is welcome. You will also be given the opportunity to approve the Agenda at the start of the eGA and to amend it, if necessary, as the eGA progresses.

So that you get the best possible value from your Conference and from formal decision sessions of the eGA, please:

• study the Agenda now,

• network with others, to make this an excellent General Assembly,

• realize that not everything can be completed during the eGA; work must continue after we leave Latina

• help us set up the Working Groups for each of the sessions helping refining the wording of many Agenda items so they can be advanced to the formal voting sessions

I will be asking the Agenda Working Group to prepare advice and help facilitate next steps. We will inform you as work progresses.

Thank you for your energy and dedicated contribution to this Programme and Agenda. We look forward working with you towards a wonderfully productive Servas International meeting at Latina!

In peace and friendship

Geoff Maltby

President – Servas International

Dated 31 December 2005