Quoting Patrick Vande Walle <patrick@isoc.lu>:

> Danny Younger said the following  on 07/02/07 21:23:
>> We have been pursuing this experiment for four long years
>> during which time the DNS policy-related contributions
>> offered by the ALS organizations has been almost nil.
>>
> Danny,
>
> You are correct. On the metrics at least.
>
> Here's the view of an ALS:
>
> What has been done by the ALAC and ICANN to involve the ALSes into the
> debate ?  It has only been a week or so that we actually receive the
> ALAC mailing list in our mailbox. And this is in read-only mode. As an
> example, this reply will be moderated once it goes to the alac list.  Is
> this the treatement that ALSes deserve ?

The ALAC mailing list is an open list, anyone can join, as far as I know. The ALSes were all subscribed to the regional lists. All the lists are new, and Nick is now setting them up and getting them to work properly. I've only now started to get LAC messages via the new list  about 3-4 weeks now. Until recently, there weren't many ALSes and we didn't have the regional lists. One thing that would work is to give Nick feedback on how the list management is working so he cna fine-tune it to become a useful tool for communication.
>
> My understanding is that much of the work of the ALAC is done through
> teleconferences, which ALSes cannot attend. Another part of the work is
> done face-to-face during ICANN meetings, where most ALSes cannot afford
> to send a representativefor a week.
>

teleconferences are recorded and the minutes are posted-used to be on ICANNWiki, but now on a new site that Nick is orgnaising. I'm sure he'll let everyone get the url when he's finished (hopefully soon) and then you can actually sit and listen to the 2 hour long mp3s of the discussions on administrative issues, which are mainly what the teleconferences are about. Much more work is done via email and wiki than via the telecon. There's also a videoconferencing tool that is being tested - in which case it would be easier for everyone to attend the meeting. But if ALSes want to participate in the next teleconference, I'm pretty sure that this wouldn't be too much of a problem. (unless we have 50 people - in which case it would be pretty unwieldy)

> In short, ALAC and ICANN seem out of touch viewed from here.
>
> There seems to be a willingess from ICANN to go forward with the ALAC
> and RALOs. ICANN has assigned a budget for this. There are new mailing
> lists, wikis and most importantly staff dedicated to bring this all
> together. I still believe something useful can come of out this.
>
>> I don't want a powerless ALAC model that offers no
>> hope of representation on the ICANN Board.  I want our
>> community to have the benefit of a Supporting
>> Organization model that seats its members on the ICANN
>> Board.
>>
> I think this is what we all want to achieve in the end. And indeed, it
> is not with sleeping ALses that we are going to reach that goal. How can
> we wake them up ?
>

Start specific policy discussions on specific policy issues. Assist the other ALSes and their members who may not  be fully up to speed to  get the information and be able to articulate their concerns and issues.

Get auto-translation software goingfor the lists so that everyone feels comfortable communicating. (actually Nick is also working on this)

Jacqueline
> Best,
>
> Patrick Vande Walle
>


--
Jacqueline A. Morris
www.jacquelinemorris.com