Beau,
By the way, is it true what I heard that the three newly appointed GNSO people have now been hard-wired in to two-year terms? I don't really see a constituency model working under those circumstances. Who's going to join a constituency if they have to wait two years to be able to directly elect a representative? No consumer group I am aware of is going to want to do that.
I think that we will need to clarify many things in Seoul, one of which is the reason for certain decisions of the SIC. For instance, the SIC has decided, after long discussion, not to have an automatic link between creation of a constituency and establishment of a seat in the Council. The reasons against this position include what you correctly point out, i.e. that it will be more difficult to get people's interest if there's no immediate representation in terms of voting rights. However, there are also reasons for taking this approach. One of these is that we have to avoid the "frivolous" creation of constituencies for the simple purpose of getting a vote. A bit like create empty shells as registrars to have a higher firing power for getting valuable names. Another observation is that in the "old" council it was exactly the fact that the creation of a new constituency would have altered the voting balance that de facto prevented the creation of any new constituency in 10 years. But the main point for the SIC to maintain the concept of constituency, against the open opposition of NCUC, but to keep it without an automatic voting power, against the obvious concerns of who wants to build new constituencies, is the leit-motiv that has guided the whole process of the review: move the focus away from the vote, which is by its nature divisive, onto the consensus building process. New constituencies will not have the right to appoint their "own" councillors, but will have the right to participate in WGs and other policy making processes and bodies, will have support from ICANN staff and resources to self-organize, will be able to participate with their own representatives in the Executive Committee of the NCSG, etc. In simple words, what we have tried to do is to create a balance and hopefully a possible way to coexist and, in time, to collaborate, for all the different components of the wide and diverse non-commercial internet community. Somebody on this list has spoken about "reconsideration" of the Board's decision. This is surely possible. But what I would propose is to try to discuss and understand if what the SIC has proposed can work in practice, although it is not going to be perfect for anybody, before shooting it down and start all over again. This discussion is for me one of the main priorities, if not the first priority altogether, in Seoul, which as you all know will mark the end of my term as Director. The ALAC and the NCUC are two big parts of this picture, the only organized bodies in ICANN so far (for non-commercial users), I personally think that the first step can be to have a joint discussion in Seoul. Bill's proposal of meeting in an event that is not only work, but also social, goes in this sense, methinks. Cheers, Roberto