Article 4 of the Organization Act of the Overseas Community Affairs Council stipulates "OCAC shall appoint 90 to 180 Council Members for a three-year term without pay." Article 8 of the "Discussion Procedure Regulation for the General Assembly of Council Members of OCAC” stipulates "the meeting will be held once a year, with ad hoc meetings held if needed."
As OCAC council members reside across the globe, convening a full meeting has always been challenging. Therefore, prior to 1981, only ad hoc meetings were held annually in Taiwan, along with regional discussion meetings overseas. It was not until 1981 that a General Assembly of Council Members of OCAC was convened. In recent years, an annual General Assembly of Council Members of OCAC has been held, or the Global Conference on Overseas Community Affairs has been organized on a larger scale.
After the relocation of the ROC government to Taiwan, five Global Conferences on Overseas Community Affairs have been held, namely in 1952, 1990, 2001, 2008 and 2017.
General Assembly of Council Members of OCAC date, venue and number of council members attending in recent years: