Preparations are going on for the ICA 2023 General Assembly which is scheduled to take place in Brussels, Belgium, on 28 June. It will be a statutory General Assembly as convened annually in accordance with Belgian law without an international conference held in conjunction.
Several Indian co-operators are likely to attend the Assembly as more than two dozen co-ops from India are its members. According to unconfirmed news, IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi is likely to participate in the assembly.
The General Assembly is the highest authority of the ICA and the voters are representatives appointed by ICA full member organisations. Official Meeting Documentation includes the agenda, deadlines, information on how to participate, voting rights of all members, and the items for discussion and decision.
Given the size of the documentation, it has been separated into 2 parts for ease of download. In a notification, ICA has asked members to carefully read the attached convening notice for important information about proxies including the deadlines and how to fill and submit the proxy template.
Members have been given Registration & Voter Designation Form to register representatives (voters), observers and interpreters for those who have not already done so.
Proxy Templates have also been given to grant vote(s) by proxy. ICA insists “Please carefully fill this form as per the instructions provided in the convening notice and on the template because they are legally required fields. Do not delete the French text on the template as this is legally required.”
Standing Orders for Board Elections have been issued which says “The Election Committee invites each ICA Sectoral Organisation to nominate a representative who may be the president of the Sectoral Organisation or any other person nominated by the concerned Sectoral Organisation.
The ICA General Assembly 2023 is only open to attendees from ICA member organisations. Each ICA member delegation will be able to register one attendee (including representatives, associates and observers) and one interpreter with no registration fee. Additional registrants will be charged a registration fee of EUR 500 each (including VAT), reads the notification.
Extra “Personal” interpreters (for languages other than English, Spanish and French) will be charged EUR 121 each (including VAT). The number of personal interpreters is limited to two per delegation, considering that one interpreter is allowed for delegations of less than 6 attendees and two for delegations of 6 or more attendees, it says.
One will need a Schengen visa to travel to Belgium and he can do so by requesting an invitation letter from the ICA by filling in the visa letter form available for download.
June is high tourist season in Brussels, so thus hotels are not offering any discount, cautions the ICA notification. There are no official hotels nor reduced rates for this General Assembly as hotels are not willing to offer such advantages due to the high demand in Brussels, it underlines.