Background
On yesterday's call
I used the word crazy to describe a part of the debate I heard around the agenda
item on abusive practices and the request for an issues
report.
My apologies again
for being late to the meeting as my day job responsibilities intervened.
However, I would like to clarify what I meant.
It is my burden to
have been a member of Council
for some time and thus have a certain institutional memory. I also helped write
the current PDP (and advised strenuously against putting it in the bylaws so
that we could fine tune it every quarter).
What is
crazy then?
I use the term in
the sense of unsound.
Crazy
1
A Council member
requests that before an issues report we have a pre-issues report to determine
if the issue is in scope.
"the
opinion of the ICANN General Counsel regarding whether the issue proposed to
initiate the PDP is properly within the scope of the ICANN policy process and
within the scope of the GNSO."
Crazy
2
Even after the
Council member has requested this and in advance by e-mail no staff member
intervenes to explain this.
Crazy
3
The Chair of the
meeting does not rule the motion out of order.
Crazy
4
We debate on
whether policy staff are sufficiently resourced to act on our
request.
It is NOT
the job of Council to micro-manage staff. We request what we
want.
It IS the job
of the Vice
President, Policy Development to manage policy
staff and tell Council when we need to make priority
choices.
Crazy
5
In the same light we
start to negotiate with staff on the timelines in the knowledge that we all know
the PDP timelines are hopeless (and as mentioned above ill-advisedly enshrined
in the bylaws).
Council should make
its request.
Then Staff should
advise on the art of the possible with respect to the request and other
requests. Then if necessary we advise on priorities.
As we move forward to revise
PDP etc lets us bear the above in mind.
And lets please
empower our professional staff to advise, to act, to counsel and to
guide.
Philip