ESEAP Hub/Interim Committee Meetings/11 January 2023

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The second meeting of the ESEAP Hub Interim Committee focused on finalizing its internal decision-making progress, as well as proceeding with discussion relating to broadening its membership, including its recruitment of a Japanese representative as well as considering further members that did not have the chance to attend the ESEAP Conference 2022. Before concluding the meeting, the Committee briefly touched on the declaration document that one Committee member has started drafting.

Ongoing Work

The Interim Committee is currently working on the following things:

• Executing the plan for recruiting a member from the Japanese communities; the need for this seat was identified during the Hub discussions at the ESEAP Conference 2022. Current East Asia representatives presented their plan in the meeting and sought feedback from the whole Committee before proceeding with the open call.
• Drafting the declaration document for ESEAP Hub.

Decisions

• The Committee decided that they will use simple majority for internal decision-making, and supermajority will be the threshold for a meeting to take place (At least five people according to the current composition of the Committee - seven members in total). Therefore, in general, decisions will only take place in Committee meetings. It was also decided that in rare cases of key decisions, full committee consensus will be needed. The Committee did not discuss nor decide what would qualify as rare cases in this meeting.

• The two East Asian representatives will proceed with the plan of recruiting a member from the Japanese communities. The goal is to wrap up the recruitment by the end of February. The Committee agreed to prioritize having a member who is positively perceived by the Japanese communities rather than having English fluency - which the Committee and support staff will aim to clear the potential language barrier and ensure inclusive participation as much as possible.
• The Committee decided that since their setup is geography-based, they will recruit further members from communities and other ESEAP countries that did not have a presence or strong presence in the ESEAP Conference 2022. The Committee agreed to proceed with further outreach targeting communities from countries that have not yet been represented - namely Pacific islands and other ASEAN countries apart from Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The Committee agreed to also conclude this search for further members by the end of February, and they will discuss the assessment criteria for new members in the next meeting.