Dear Board members, especially those who made it for Geneva meeting
this week, greetings!
Thank you, Wolf, for the summary of
the meeting, which is highly appreciated, especially due to my absence from
the meeting!
Below are some questions/concerns/comments I
have after reading the Summary report per concrete issues that have
been discussed during the meeting:
1.
“There are suggestions to reduce the size of the EURALO board to five
members to make it more operational and effective” – What are the
main reasons behind changing the current number of EURALO Board members?
(there is no enough information from the meeting summary on this).
2.
I see that there were discussions about organizing certain events
BUT “As we cannot count on ICANN funding for such a side event / Users
Summit PrepCom in Paris” there are ideas about „prepare and submit a
project proposal for the board to be submitted to different European
organizations for sponsoring”. In this context, I have the following
comments/observations:
If EURALO is an ICANN related/created
structure – than it should be able to function on support from ICANN. In
case certain proposals are submitted to ICANN for funding, they SHOULD NOT
BE refused/rejected, but on the contrary, improved and developed and finally
implemented.
Otherwise, if we start looking for funding from
other organizations, we are NOT an ICANN structure any longer. Requesting
funding from other donors, EUROPEAN ones, does not mean only using money for
certain purposes, but adjusting our projects/activities/mission/scope, etc.
to the priorities of the grant giver.
And here:
- EURALO
should clarify its working relationship with ICANN;
- If EURALO starts thinking about applying for sponsorship from
other organizations, then, it should re-think/review its organizational
structure, mission, etc. – that are not in line with ICANN bylaws, rules,
procedures any longer.
Also, in regards to EURALO will submit a new budget proposal
for the Fiscal Year 2008-09 to ALAC that will include several activities,
and my questions/comments are:
- Usually any budget is made based on a Action Plan/s for a
certain period of time. Where can EURALO’s Action Plan for 2008-2009 be
accessed? To what extent ALSs are involved in identification of certain
activities of this Action Plan?
3. ICANN Internet users declaration and
the preparation process of this Declaration: Preparing a Declaration of this kind on behalf of
ICANN Internet Users raises several questions vs. concerns:
-
The extent/degree to which ICANN
Internet users are aware/informed about the current problems and challenges
in the field?
-
What ARE the current challenges, main problems in
the field?
-
What are the solutions or/and alternative decisions
that are proposed OR should be taken?
-
What are the PROs and CONs of each
solution?
-
Other.
In order to find answers to the above questions, one needs
both human and financial recourses. An ideal output would be a research
report which would be disseminated among ICANN Internet users community and
vis-à-vis which ICANN Internet Users community would take a certain
attitude. This attitude is actually something that is reflected in a
Declaration, and by this Declaration ICANN Internet Users would seek
concrete changes/attitude from ICANN side.
Is this what is meant? Is this the process that is being
discussed by EURALO? I would appreciate concrete details about it, in order
to be able to come with certain proposal/solutions for how that can be
implemented, etc.
Thank you all very much for your
time and for making the Board F2F meeting become a reality for at least some
members of the Board:)!
Have a nice weekend ahead,
Veronica