Marilyn, Bruce and
fellow Councillors
Further to Marilyn's posted suggestion that Council arrange for
staff planning/administration calls every two weeks, I support this request, and in addition, have two
related requests.
1. A further
contribution to Council would be a better understanding of who and
what staff support we have available. This would be improved if each
of those staff who actively participate in Council matters provide to Council a short description of their role in the
ICANN organisation and how much of their role and time is available to support
the GNSO Council. It would be useful to have this from at least Olof, Maria and
now Liz. As an open and transparent organisation,
this should not need discussion or resolution of Council. Bruce, please
make this request to staff on my behalf as a Council
member.
2. I would like to see a
prioritised project/task list for GNSO projects and tasks, kept up to date by
staff so we can see ongoing progress and plans, not just a snapshot prior to
calls. I am familiar with open source project/task management tools which may be
suitable if ICANN does not already have
such.
Bruce, please add
these to Marilyn's agenda item for the next
call.
Also, a note to say that
I would like to contribute to the better governance of GNSO Council by
participating in the proposed admin
calls.
Regards,
Alick
Dear fellow councilors
Council has a lot on its plate regarding policy work, and I
am mindful of a recent posting by Ross Rader that reminds us that Council
needs to set priorities that drives its work, and thus our supporting
staff.
I think we will all probably agree that the monthly Council calls
should
ideally be left primarily to the task of policy management; yet
there
is a need for Council to be able to better organize itself and
its
policy-support needs, and for a constructive and ongoing interaction
between
Council and staff regarding Council's priorities; addressing
administrative
challenges they face in their policy support work, such as
competing
priorities, lack of clarity in a Council request, additional
participation
by councilors with background expertise to contribute,
discussion of whether
other external resources are needed, etc.
I am
proposing a trial approach of "planning and coordination" sessions
via
conference call with the Council chair and any Council members who wished
to
participate and supported by the GNSO support staff : (Olaf, Maria,
Glen,
plus any temporary consultant such as Liz Williams). I suggest that we
trial
the approach of a 45 minute call every two
weeks/fortnightly for the period between now and Vancouver. The outcome of
these calls would be reported to the full Council in the usual monthly progress
report we currently receive on the monthly Council calls. The
planning and coordination calls would not address policy development work, but
administrative management and coordination.
Right now, we have a number
of significant policy issues to work on as Council. This approach
would ensure that we can focus on the monthly Council calls on those issues, yet
have an effective way to better manage ourselves and provide administrative
input to the supporting staff.
I welcome feedback on this idea.
Marilyn Cade