Mike,
I
find this posting and the attached background material to be of serious concern
regarding the needed respect and regard for the full BC membership's interest,
and involvement in the Policy Development working processes.
Your
comment:
"A small and growing group of privileged observers,
none of whom are elected or appointed to represent anyone but themselves and/or
their specific organizations, are increasingly taking an inordinate amount of
Council and Staff time. In effect, they are a “Shadow
Council” that follows the Council from meeting to meeting, taking
advantage of a privilege they ought not have. This must stop, effective
immediately."
Your
response is wholly inappropriate until you bring such a topic into the BC and
have a discussion with the membership about the concerns that you have about
the ability of the Councilors to achieve and fulfill their responsibilities, and
what proposals you have for making changes, when these changes have
implications that impact on the membership itself, as this clearly does.
I
believe that it is clear that a discussion within the BC membership on issues
like this must be held BEFORE you take independent action. Last night's
gathering of the BC members would have been an excellent opportunity for you to
raise your concern, and for the BC members in attendance to have discussed your
concerns, and considered what guidance they would like to see put forward by
their elected councilors regarding proposing changes in the 'practices'
regarding the working groups held over the weekends.
Adding
in these additional working sessions, I believe, was initiated some time ago,
before you were an elected Councilor, and the 'rules of practice' have evolved
over time, and changed somewhat from Bruce Tonkin as chair, and Avri Doria as
chair. However, many BC members -- like myself -- pay their own costs and
expend equal volunteer time to following ICANN's work; participating on working
groups; reviewing and commenting on various ICANN documents, beyond the areas
that the BC councilors are responsible for -- including the budget, strategic
plan, operating plan, reviews of the organization, etc. While I pay
my own freight, your travel, accommodations and food is fully paid. I wonder
who the 'privileged observer' is here!
While
the work of elected councilors is of significant importance to the BC
membership, the involvement and participation of members is more than equally
critical, if there is to be any ability for the elected councilors to take
positions for their constituency.
I would
like to invite BC members here at
Thank
you,
RA
Ronald
N. Andruff
RNA
Partners, Inc.
220
www.rnapartners.com
V:
+1 212 481 2820 x 11
F:
+1 212 481 2859
-----Original
Message-----
From:
Sent: 2009-10-24 21:19
To: bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: [bc-gnso] FW: [council] Confirmation of new practice at face to face
open council meetings
Fyi
below from the Council Chair, in response to the attached email string
begun
by me, and subsequent discussion of Council this morning. I have had
these
very strong feelings for a long time now, and various less formal
efforts
to remedy the situation have not been effective.
The
Council appears nearly unanimous in support of the concept that
Councilors
should be given every opportunity to speak at Council meetings,
and
any public comment periods within the weekend meetings will be
structured
more as they are in the large public Council meetings held on
Wednesday
of the ICANN meetings. This is an effort to make Council more
efficient,
and to allow Councilors to do their jobs without constant
interruptions
from non-representative individuals. Of course, there are
many
other opportunities for such individuals to voice their comments and
questions
through the GNSO's bottom-up, open and transparent policy
development
practices, including the BC's internal practices.
Mike
Rodenbaugh
RODENBAUGH
LAW
(415)
738-8087
http://rodenbaugh.com
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-council@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council@gnso.icann.org] On
Behalf
Of Avri Doria
Sent:
Saturday, October 24, 2009 5:37 PM
To:
Council GNSO
Subject:
[council] Confirmation of new practice at face to face open council
meetings
Hi.
After
this mornings meeting I wanted to confirm several actions that I took
away
from the meeting:
1.
the seats at the table for open council meetings will be reserved for
council
members, liaisons and relevant staff. Chair, vice-chair
(s)
and staff will request that others take the observers seats. For future
meetings
name placards will be requested to those to be seated at the table.
2.
the observers will be requested to queue at the microphones, and the
chair
will be responsible for giving them the floor at appropriate points,
though
precedence for speaking will be given to those around the table.
3.
any further changes to the practices at open meetings will be discussed
by
the new council at its discretion.
Please
let me know if I have misinterpreted the will of that meeting.
a.