World Meteorological Organization Working together in weather, climate and water

1. World Meteorological OrganizationWorking together in weather, climate and water WMO Sixteenth Congress Geneva, 16 May – 3 June 2011 Doc 10.3 – General Regulations Plenary, Agenda Item 10.3 WMO www.wmo.int

2. Outline WMO • Part 1 – General Regulation 155 • Part 2 – General Regulation 111 • Part 3 – gender neutral language • – modernization and consolidation of terminology • –Annex 2 current borders between WMO Regions • Draft Resolution 10.3/1 (Cg-XVI) 2 Doc 10.3 - General Regulations

3. GENERAL REGULATION 155 WMO • Resolution 16 (EC-LX) noted that the General Regulations make no distinction between its three ordinary sessions preceding an ordinary session of Congress and its shorter ordinary session consecutive to Congress. The Council considered that there will be efficiency gains if the shorter ordinary sessions of the Council consecutive to Congress would be recognized in the General Regulations. Doc 10.3 - General Regulations 3

4. GENERAL REGULATION 111 • The Council at its fifteeth session and the Thirteenth Congress decided to dispense with the preparation of minutes for their plenary meetings, except where there is a specific request by the plenary for minutes to be prepared and distributed. • The Council decided in session LXI to recommend consolidating this practice in the amended Regulation 111 and adopted Resolution 17 (EC-LXI) to this effect. Doc 10.3 - General Regulations

5. Amendments to the General Regulations • At session LXII the Council adopted Resolution 23 (EC-LXII) in which it recommended to Congress: • to amend the general regulations to ensure that the regulations contain gender neutral language, • to replace ‘long-term planning’ is by ‘strategic planning’ and • to amend the definition of geographical limits of WMO Regions. Doc 10.3 - General Regulations

6. Proposed decisions (I) WMO Congress XVI is invited to: Decide to include the following paragraph in General Regulation 155: “The agenda of an ordinary session of the Executive Council consecutive to an ordinary session of Congress shall contain only those matters requiring its immediate action.” • ts immediate action.” Doc 10.3 - General Regulations 6

7. Proposed decisions (II) • Decide to amend Regulation 111 as follows: • At sessions of a constituent body the substance of the discussion and the decisions arrived at for each agenda item shall be recorded in the general summary of the work of the session. • Summarized minutes of the discussion at plenary meetings of constituent bodies shall be prepared by the Secretariat only where there is a specific request from the plenary. • Audio recordings of plenary meetings shall be made and retained for record purposes. • Summarized minutes shall be distributed as soon as possible during the session or by correspondence to all delegations, which may submit their proposed corrections in writing to the Secretariat. Any disagreement on the proposed corrections shall be decided by the presiding officer after consultation with the person concerned. • Summarized minutes will be adopted by the plenary in session or by correspondence. Doc 10.3 - General Regulations

8. Proposed decisions (III) • Decide to amend the General Regulations as follows: • (1) To insert a footnote at the bottom of the first page of the document to read as follows: • ** In the General Regulations, the use of one gender shall be considered as including a reference to the other unless the context otherwise requires; • (2) To replace ”long-term planning” with “strategic planning” in Regulations 135 (10), 155 (4), 173 (6) and 190 (6); • (3) In Annex II, to replace “USSR boundary” with “former USSR boundary”. Doc 10.3 - General Regulations