Hi Vittorio and all, thanks for your remarks and for suggesting some basic points. Jeanette mentioned this “cleavages“ or split among our EURALO ALSes already, as you did, and I think we all agree that we have to overcome this difficult and hampering situation as soon as possible. I agree that we have to do our utmost, and in particular the future Co-/Chair of EURALO, to be “inclusive” (no chair function should be “polarizing”!). Living and working in Switzerland since almost 17 years now I have learned to appreciate diversity – in terms of language, culture, regional/geographic particularities or priorities etc. The Swiss typology of federalism with its strong autonomy of cantons, its system of direct democracy always goes along with a high level of controversies. BUT: this political systems couldn’t work without a special sense and ability to seek compromises, which are acceptable to all, at the end. That means: I am not afraid about controversial debates and discourses, to sort out different approaches, opinions and principles or values -- as long as we can bring it down to compromises, or “rough consensus”, as you said, “if not by full”. The more we share some basic principles the easier it will be. Such basic principles to me are: *that the results should be “people centred” in the very interest of the Internet end users or the public, *procedures and decision making processes should be inclusive, transparent and accountable. I further agree that the first challenge for the board and Chair of EURALO will be “to bridge the sort of divide” among the EURALO ALSes we have seen over the last month. I also agree with you, that “one main activity for our next months should be outreach: we should increase diversity, bring many new organizations in the EURALO, and become more representative and thus more credible." I am not aware about the extend to which a Co-chair option would "bend" our Bylaws, and I leave this up to further discussions and elaborations on the list. Your suggestion, Vittorio, also matches with the announcement of Jeanette (“I want to be frank though as I am afraid of over-committing myself. As some of you know, I am going to move to London in early autumn and start a new job. Thus I cannot commit a lot of time to this task in the coming months and I would see myself rather in the role of assisting Wolf and the board with whatever objectives they plan to accomplish.“) Best, Wolf Vittorio Bertola wrote Sat, 23 Jun 2007 20:33: (...)
I am fine with whatever person wants to be Chair, including you and Jeanette, as long as this person can agree to some basic points.
It is clear that, unfortunately, there has been a sort of a split among two groups of ALSes. Some people were a bit bitter after the elections - that happens in all elections, and maybe has been overcome now, but I think that we have to commit to work to be inclusive.
In other words, I would like that whoever wants to be Chair explicitly commits to working by rough consensus, if not by full, and tries to bridge this sort of divide that has emerge. Also, one main activity for our next months should be outreach: we should increase diversity, bring many new organizations in the EURALO, and become more representative and thus more credible.
I would like to hear what you think about this, and hopefully your commitment to this working programme and philosophy :-)
About the co-chair issue, I don't have a problem with it in practice, but I am a bit concerned by the idea of starting to "bend" our Bylaws, because that might lead to further controversies if we start to adapt them in other ways. I would be happier if we could have just one person formally elected as Chair, with the other sharing the work. Maybe we could rotate after the first term ends.
Ciao, -- vb. Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu <-------- --------> finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/ <--------
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