Sixth Annual Meeting of the WG: Governance issues Beth Rasch U.S.A.

Membership Members selected by their national statistical authority Membership is voluntary Country can have multiple representatives but primary representative must be designated

Membership There will be representation of persons with disabilities on the WG via international organizations representing persons with disabilities Well-recognized international organizations with formal relationship to NSOs and with expertise in disability statistics may be adjunct members

Membership This year, we updated the mailing list by re-contacting heads of National Statistical Offices of all member states of the UN We also added representatives from countries that conducted WG pre-tests if they were not already on the WG membership list

Membership Using this method, we added representatives from 36 countries to the WG membership list, some of whom are attending this meeting We also added representatives from 2 national organizations representing persons with disabilities

Membership We agreed to use this procedure to update the list every other year since it is cost and labor intensive On the alternate years, we will update the list by contacting current WG members and asking them if they wish to remain on the list as specified in the plan for governance

Steering committee rotation Seven representatives Past, present and future meeting hosts 4 reps from each major geographical region Secretariat is non-rotating ex-officio member Rotating body; < 3 members replaced yearly

Steering committee rotation Volunteers solicited via country reports Members selected at annual meetings by full WG membership 3-year terms with option to complete 2nd term if WG membership agrees

Steering committee rotation When electing new member, a balanced regional representation will be sought Africa / Middle East North / South America Asia / Pacific Europe Steering committee will select committee chair

Steering committee rotation This year: Ireland moves into the future meeting host position UNESCAP (4 th meeting host) rotates off the SC Philippines rotates off the SC We need to select 1 new SC member, trying to maintain a balanced regional representation

Steering committee rotation 15 volunteers (from country reports) Asia/Pacific region: 2 Europe: 2 Africa/Middle East: 4 North/South America: 7

Workgroups Workgroups formed each time a major work topic is agreed upon at annual meetings Roughly 3-4 workgroups will exist at any point in time When the task is completed the group will disband

Workgroups Responsible for preparing / presenting work (which might include position papers) at annual meetings Leaders will solicit comments on position papers from the full WG membership via the secretariat Leaders included on SC calls to provide a brief report of progress

Workgroups Current workgroups Short measure Implementation Extended measure/s Data analysis Methodological issues Do we need to maintain existing groups, establish new workgroups, and/or reformulate workgroups based on outcomes of this meeting?

Updates to governance plan based on current practices Current version: March, 2004 Secretariat is responsible for monitoring compliance of the WG with the governance plan Potential areas for revision Uses term “general measure” Membership list updated through correspondence with current members

Updates to governance plan based on current practices Potential areas for revision: Final meeting report has been an executive summary rather than a detailed report of meeting proceedings Since workgroup leaders have been included in all SC conference calls for reporting purposes, there has not been a need for a semi-annual report of workgroup progress to the SC

Updates to governance plan based on current practices Potential areas for revision: In practice, the planning committee for meetings has been the SC Composition was originally to include present meeting host and workgroup leaders and was to be geographically representative SC in conjunction with workgroup leaders (who participate in SC phone meetings) have fulfilled this requirement There has been no written report of overall progress at each 3-year mark

Need for other revisions? Other comments on WG governance? Wrap-up