That is not the way I see it. The only "face to face" meetings will be day-long seminars, twice a year. There will be no "around the table with experts" technical discussion, as used to occur at RAPAC meetings.
That is the CASA proposal, but there is discussion in the background on this obvious deficiency. As proposed it is not going to work!
Otherwise, the ONLY interaction will be via the AVSEF website, which of course allows the powers that be/proponents of a change to simply ignore any suggestion or counter view. You can't get away with that at a RAPAC meeting; you can when you are hiding behind a keyboard.
Agreed, however the proof will be in how it might come together in the New Year. I don't believe the RAPACs are dead as they are not "owned" by CASA, but by Industry which CASA do not seem to appreciate. The role of CASA and its predecessors over the past 40 odd years has been to facilitate the forums, arrange specialist attendees and provide minutes etc. Much will depend on how the TOR are finalised. It is sad that these changes have been brought about in an apparent attempt to save on costs at the expense of effective two-way transparent consultation.