Participants: Cintra Sooknanan, Sergio Salinas, Xylvia Herlein Leite, Natalia Enciso, Carlton Samuels, Jacqueline Morris, Dev Anand Teelucksingh, Andrés Piazza, Antonio Medina, Olivier Crepin-Leblond, Carlos Aguirre, Fatima Cambronero, José Arce, Philippe Boland
Apologies: Carlos Vera
Staff: Heidi Ullrich, Matthias Langenegger
LACRALO Bylaw Modifications
Carlton: We had an informal meeting on the LACRALO Bylaws. The topics we discussed were participation. We need aparticipation measures that lead to better participation. We need participants that are fully prepare. We are discussing a number of measures to constitute participation. Another issue is representation. Since 2006 there have been a siginificant number of voices in the Caribbean that believe that the Caribbean are not sufficiently represented. Discussion on this topic will continue offline. Another issue is changes in teh Governance structure e.g. a Board such as EURALO.
Andres: thanks. This was a complete summary.
Carlos: There is only one region: LACRALO.
Jacqueline: One clarification. It was not only Caribbean ALSes. We had a discussion on a possible sub-region. We need a mechanism to take our perspective into consideration.
It was decided to defer the discussion on the Bylaw modification.
Andres: I would like to reiterate that we will need 2/3 of the ALS votes for the modifications to pass. This obliges us to find common ground.
Sergio: We had an informal discussion with Sylvia. We discussed that we should mirror the WG which worked well in the ALAC in our region.
Andres: We have discussed this before. It resulted difficult to create WGs.
Carlton: I think it is better for us to get involved in the ALAC WGs. It does not make sense to me to create our own WGs.
Andres: I agree with Carlton said. Our proposal would have to bring something new to the table.
Jose: We have discussed this before.
Olivier: If LACRALO has its own WG, would they still participate to the ALAC WGs?
Andres: In my opinion yes.
Sylvia: The idea came up in the context of inreach. Many of the Spanish speaking ALSes cannot participate in the policy development process because of the language barriers. I will take this up in the ALAC.
Sergio: I think WG would be a way to get some of the recently absent ALSe back to the table. It could be very beneficial.
Jacqueline: It would make sense for local issues. However, it we duplicate the issues that we have already discussed at the ALAC level I do not support it.
Dev: I agree
Carlos: I agree. I do not agree that participate is a way of participating.
Cintra: I tend more towards a mentoring program.
Jacqueline: My intervention did not have anything to do with participation. I am just against duplicating the efforts undertaken in other At-Large fora. However, if people do not participate, we need to find ways to have them included.
Antonio: We we join LACRALO we comit to this organization. We expect our members to participate and work.
Sergio: The LACRALO WG would also lead to a better representation of the regional view.
Andre: We will not decide on this topic today. However, my suggestion is that we do the following:
1) identify who can join the ALAC WG. if the issues are not covered by the ALaC, we can look into creating our own WGs.
2) in three month we will review our progess.
3) We identify relevant issues in our region
Segio: we can start with identifying the WGs.
AI: LACRALO will identify relevant policy issues for our regions.
AI: LACRALO will identify who will join the existing ALAC WGs. if the issues are not covered by the ALaC, we can look into creating our own WGs.
Carlton: Participation is not rocket science. You need to educate yourself about the issue and comit to the communications channels. That`s all there is to participation. You participate until you know enough to make an informed statement.
Carlos: We fought hard to get interpretation. That's what we need to participate. Today we have them. We have documents on almost all important docuements. Not only in Spanish but in 6 languages. No more excuses, let's start the engine.
Sergio: Now with regards to automatic list translations.
After a lenghty and spirited discussion, it was decided that the list translations will remain in place until the new Google translation based system will be in place which will probably be the case in mid January.
AI: Staff will organize a presentation with David Closson during the January LACRALO call to introduce the new Google list translation tool.
The meeting was then adjourned.
