Dear Ana Maria (Servas Colombia) and Byung Wan (Servas Korea),

cc; Danielle Serres, SI Peace Secretary

Thank you so much for meeting by Skype with Danielle Serres, SI Peace Secretary, and me. It was so nice to hear your voices and to be able to discuss the upcoming SICOGA 2018 with you.

I confirm that Servas Colombia and Servas Korea are the only two Member Groups who are interested in hosting SICOGA 2018. SI Exco feels very fortunate to have two groups who are eager to volunteer their time and expertise for Servas International. SI Exco met on Sunday December 18, 2016, and we discussed the process and next steps to choose the SICOGA 2018 host country.

The following words are taken from the minutes of the SI Exco December 18, 2017 meeting:

5.       SICOGA 2018

a.       Skype meeting with Servas Colombia and with Servas Korea

·         PP and DS met by Skype with Servas Colombia and Servas Korea

·         Both Member Groups are interested in hosting the SICOGA 2018

·         Action: PP  will send Servas Colombia and Servas Korea a summary of their Skype meetings, and will ensure that they have the criteria analysis chart and the New Zealand Feasibility Study

b.      Next Steps

·         Both Member Groups have partially provided responses to complete the criteria analysis chart

·         DECISION: Prior to the SI Exco 2017 face-to-face meeting, enough information will be gathered from the two Member Groups to allow SI Exco to make a decision. If replies are late, this may affect the decision.

·         DECISION: It was agreed that the location of SICOGA 2018 will be decided at the SI Exco face-to-face meeting at the end of March 2017.

·         DECISION: Correspondence and discussion related to choosing the SICOGA host country will be in English

·         DECISION: Information from Servas Colombia and Servas Korea is required by March 6, 2017 to allow time for clarifications before the SI Exco face-to-face meeting

·         Action: PP  will send both Servas Colombia and Servas Korea a description of the decision-making process and time frames

·         Action: PP  will correspond individually with each of the groups to define what information is still required 

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I have attached the evaluation template and New Zealand Feasibility report.

In the coming weeks, I will fill in the evaluation template with the information that I have from each of you, and send each of you my summary of our Skype discussion. Then we can decide what additional information is required.

The New Zealand Feasibility Study is included to let you see the kind of information that New Zealand provided before the final decision was made to choose them to host SICOGA 2015. SI Exco agreed that it is a good example of the different things that we need to know,  to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each location. A similar study from each of you will be very helpful for us. For this exercise as well, I will work individually with each of your groups to identify what information we need, to give SI Exco enough information to be able to make a decision. It will be important to identify the challenges as well as the strengths, so that we can address them at an early stage. As SI Exco decided at our meeting, we will require this additional information by March 6, 2017, to allow us to prepare for our face-to-face meeting at the end of March 2017.

Thank you again for your work for Servas, and your willingness to offer your country as the host for SICOGA 2018.

In peace,
Penny Pattison
Servas International General Secretary

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