The document discusses extending the term of the Regional Advisory Committees (RACs) in the Philippines that advise the Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) from 2 to 4 years. The RACs play a key role in FPE's governance. Extending their term will allow the current RAC members to provide input on ongoing organizational reforms and see them through. It will also reduce the workload of regional staff who would otherwise have to prepare for new elections. Precedents show the terms have been extended before for similar reasons. The main alternative discussed is having FPE publish bulletins to share information with constituents instead of regional consultative meetings during the extended term.

1. RAC Term Extension 1
Extension of the Term of Office of FPE’s Regional Advisory Committee
(serving from July 2010 - June 2012)
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The Regional Advisory Committee (RAC) is an advisory body created by the FPE Board of
Trustees out of the Regional Consultative Groups (RCG). The RCG is convened every two years
and is participated in by civil society organizations throughout the country. There are three RAC’s
composed of 15 members each representing the main regions of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The RAC’s play a major role in FPE’s governance system through it’s three main functions,
namely:
1) It nominates the members of the Board of Trustees;
2) It advises the Board in policy-making, program development and governance
3) It serves as FPE’s link to the regions
Membership in the RAC is on an individual basis and not organizational, thus the member
represents the region where s/he comes from and not his/her organization. A member serves for a
2-year period and is eligible for only one re-election immediately thereafter. Within the 2-year term,
each member participates in an average of two regional meetings per year or a total of four
regional meetings.
The current RAC’s in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao have been elected in July 2010 and will soon
enter into their second year of service which will end in June 2012. Hence, very soon, FPE’s
regional units in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will have to begin the preparations and convene the
RCG’s in order to select the new set of RAC members unless the meetings are put in abeyance.
1.2 Rationale
The Regional Units are requesting the Board of Trustees to extend the term of the current RAC to
another 2-year term, from July 2012 to June 2014 for the following reasons:
1.2.1 Based on our collective experience of working with several RAC assemblies we have
concluded that the RAC members will only have internalized their advisory role and make
significant recommendations in the areas of governance, policy-making and program
development in their second year. The first year is a “getting-to-know you” period when the
members are just getting acquainted with each other and with FPE (during the first meeting)
and starting to understand FPE’s programs and processes (during the second meeting). We
want to harness this second year momentum with this present set of RAC’s in the light of
current institutional changes and development which may extend well into the next RAC
term.
 We see the need for the current RAC to participate more actively in the ongoing
Organizational Diagnosis and Strategic Planning processes by bringing the regional and
“from-the-ground” perspectives into the institution.
 We see their crucial participation in charting the changes and new directions that FPE will
be pursuing as a result of these processes, especially in retrofitting the REA/NEA to suit
these changes.
 And finally we need them to provide continuity, ie., to see their recommendations through to
implementation as only those who participated in crafting the institutional changes can
understand and meaningfully track the implementation of these changes.

2. RAC Term Extension 2
1.2.2 From the standpoint of the regional staff vis-à-vis the workload – We foresee the
tremendous amount of work that is needed for the preparations of the RCG’s as we would
have to convene several sub-meetings per bio-region, i.e, Visayas has the least with 3
submeetings. There are also preparations needed for the selection of the incoming BOT
members and the grand 20th
FPE anniversary celebration in January 2012.
It would be more productive for the regional staff to focus on the operationalization of the
program directions that would result from the OD and Strategic planning processes. Then
new things can be reported to our CSO constituents in the RCG’s that will be organized
later.
2.0 PRECEDENTS
Extensions of the RAC’s term of office have twice been granted in the past. The first extension was
approved by the Board in 1999 for a one-year extension until June 20001
. The reasons were as
follows:
 The RAC needed to look at the processes that would be followed in the election of the new
BOT members in May 2000;
 The RAC needed to participate in the (then) on-going process of refining the FPE CBRM
framework and formulating the FPE ecosystems agenda; and
 The RAC needed to participate in the development of the FPE advocacy agenda.
The second extension was in 2007 when the Board approved a two-year extension from June
2008 to June 20102
. The reasons for the extension were not provided in the minutes of the meeting
but at that time the CARRESI strategy was being worked out which had a bearing on the grant
mechanisms particularly on FPE’s Project Development, Monitoring and Evaluation (PDME)
systems and processes. That time, the focus was on operationalizing CARRESI which required a
lot of work and time from the management, staff and the governance bodies of FPE.
3.0 OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
A setback for extending the RAC term is that the RCG’s may have to be postponed. Apart from the
selection of RAC’s the other purpose of the RCG’s will also have to be missed out. The RCG’s
serve as the major feedback mechanism of FPE to its CSO constituents whereby the institution
gives an account of its major accomplishment and share its strategic plans and directions. It also
provides an opportunity for consultation and information sharing.
3.1. So how do we report to our constituents in the absence of the RCG’s? – In addition to the
website and the annual report, we recommend to have an FPE bulletin as an avenue of
reporting to our constituents on the events and programs at FPE and to advertise the
grants. These can be published semestrally during the 2-years that the RCG’s are held in
abeyance.
3.2. How do we proceed with the election of the new BOT which follows the RCG’s and the
constitution of the new RAC? – nominations can still be done during a regular meeting of
the current RAC later this year. RAC members can be asked to solicit names from their own
constituents and to collect the resumes which they will bring to the meeting.
PREPARED BY:
Myrissa Lepiten-Tabao, ROM Visayas
Fer Ramirez, ROM Luzon
Armand Pacudan, ROM Mindanao
________
1
from the minutes of the 33rd
regular Board meeting, June 18, 1999, Sogod, Cebu.
2
from the minutes of 63
rd
regular Board meeting, June 6, 2007, Cagayan de Oro City