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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">I am writing this, purely as an individual, to get some
feeling for how civil society members feel about expanding the membership of the
Civil Society Coordination Group (CSCG).</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">CSCG was established a few years ago as a conduit for
the selection of civil society members to outside bodies. In the last 12 months,
it has been successful in being recognised by bodies such as IGF, UNDESA, 1Net,
and NMI. In particular, in last years MAG nominations, we were able to get
significantly better representation than in previous years.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">There is no thought to expand the limited and specific
scope of what CSCG does; it’s mission is purely to work on selection of civil
society members to outside bodies. But there has been discussions since its
inception about its make up and how that might evolve.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The current members of CSCG are NCSG, Best Bits, Just
Net Coalition, IGC, and APC – all large coalitions of civil society groups and
individuals, and all represented by busy individuals. Until recently, Diplo
Foundation was also a member; however, while still very supportive of CSCG, they
felt that, as they were not a civil society specific organisation nor a
coalition, perhaps their membership was not appropriate as an
organisation.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">My own role is as an independent chair for a fixed term.
I am happy to continue facilitating processes where civil society
representatives need to be chosen for outside bodies, but I am not in a position
to carry out other tasks that would be useful for CSCG at this time – getting
together a simple charter, a web presence, etc.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">It is these issues, plus the more overall question as to
how we can best represent the diversity of civil society voices, that lead me to
suggest that perhaps the group should be expanded to include say 2-3 individuals
well respected people actively involved with civil society networks and
organisations.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">I am interested in what people think of this idea. On
the one hand, it would move CSCG away from the pure “coalition of coalitions”
model; but on the other hand, it would allow the involvement of other
organisations and individuals.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Comments please. There are differing opinions within
CSCG about this, I am interested in a wider consultation to see what the broader
group thinks.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">If there was broad support for moving in this direction,
I would imagine CSCG would conduct an Expressions of Interest (EOI) process to
identify interested parties.</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Feel free to copy to other lists – but as I might not
read them perhaps copy any suggestions back here or send to me
directly.</FONT></P>
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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 10pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 13pt"><FONT
style="FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Ian Peter</FONT></P>
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