Very helpful suggestions Bruce. I have a couple questions for you in this regard: 1) Are meetings and operating planning the two biggest areas that you have seen where support in your role of chair have been or could be helpful? Are there any other areas in which vice-chair support could possibly spread the work load out for the chair? If we do consider going this direction, I think it is important to not restrict the vice-chair roles to simply the two categories suggested. Whereas the primary responsibilities could be meetings and operating planning as Bruce suggests, each vice chair should also be responsible for leading in other areas as well such as liaisoning with task forces and working groups, filling in for the chair in leading Council meetings, in representing the GNSO in various other forums, etc. In my opinion it would not be very difficult to define the roles in an effective and yet flexible way. If we followed Bruce's suggested approach or something like it, I think that it would be better to elect the chair and the vice chair(s) separately so that we can better capilize on individual Council member strengths. Vice chairs of course should have the leadership skills for serving as chair but they should also more specific skills related to the defined role for the particular vice chair position. Holding one election where the highest number of votes determines the chair, second highest is 1st vice chair, etc., may not maximize our chances of using peoples' strengths. To pull something off in the short time we have will require some added work. I for one would be willing to work with two or three other Councilors to develop some ideas if there is interest and if there are some other volunteers. We would need to do our work in the next week so that the Council could consider any recommendations before the nomination period begins. One approach that might work would be to elect slates of candidates; slates could involve various combinations of chairs and vice chairs with the same candidates filling different roles on different slates. Regarding Robin's concern about Power distribution, it might be healthy to have Chair/Vice-Chair combinations that as much as possible balance various interests on the Council (e.g., users vs. providers, commercial interests vs. non-commercial interests, etc.) but I personally think that the abilities to provide leadership, to commit the time necessary and to be neutral should not be compromised just to achieve balance. Chuck Gomes "This message is intended for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any unauthorized use, distribution, or disclosure is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify sender immediately and destroy/delete the original transmission."
-----Original Message----- From: owner-council@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council@gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Tonkin Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 4:23 AM To: Council GNSO Subject: [council] Possible roles for GNSO vice chair/s
Hello All,
Having been in the role as chair for a while, I can see at least a couple of vice-chair roles that would help spread the workload:
(1) vice-chair for meetings
- work with staff to schedule the various GNSO related meetings at each major ICANN meeting, as well as help plan any inter-sessional meetings
(2) vice-chair for operating planning
- work with staff to develop the budget for GNSO related expenses to feed into ICANN's annual operational plan/budget - e.g travel costs, as well as work with staff to plan for both staff and GNSO volunteer resources for various projects (task forces, working groups etc)
- identify projects that provide efficiency improvements (e.g website updates, new use of collaboration tools, document management systems etc)
- maintain a rolling 12 month operational/work plan - ensure we don't over commit projects to the available resources
Note that in either case the vice chair would work with staff to essentially prepare documents for review by the Council as a whole, and publish the relevant material in sufficient time to allow Council feedback and discussion at a Council meeting.
Note that at various times these roles have existed - but never really formalised. Marilyn Cade often assisted in meeting planning, and we did have a planning committee chaired by Grant Forsyth at one time.
Regards, Bruce Tonkin