Role
Of The Co-Chairs
(Draft v 1.0)
Introduction
At
the first
meeting of the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group
(ICG) it was
agreed that there would be three co-chairs. A call for volunteers was
opened among
committee members. It
was further
agreed that the roles of the co-chairs, supported by the
secretariat, would be
mostly related to the organization and running of the
coordination group –
keeping the trains running on time was a description often used
by analogy. The number
of co-chairs was clarified not to
have any necessary linkage to the three main “operational
communities”;
co-chairs were to be chosen on their own merits. The ability of
co-chairs to
execute the needed functions and work collaboratively was seen
as essential to
the role. It was also
suggested by some
that considerations of diversity would be desirable in the
choice of the chairs.
Finally it was suggested that a more precise resume of the roles
would be
useful, which is the purpose of this draft.
Comment and
Selection Process
Please
provide
comments to this draft of the co-chair role by COB on Tuesday
July 22nd
by posting to the list with the subject line “Role of the
Co-chair draft
v1.0 for comment”. A
final draft version
will be posted on the list on Wednesday morning July 23th with a
final deadline
for comments and additional volunteers by COB on Wednesday July
23th to the
list under the subject “Role of the Co-chair draft v 2.0 for
comment and
volunteers”. The Role of
the Co-chair
(final) document and list of volunteers will be posted on
Thursday. ICG members
must make their preferences for
co-chairs known one week from that date (COB July 31). If ICG members are in
agreement (please
suggest alternative procedures to the list, if not), preferences
can be manifested
by sending a post to the list with your three preferred
candidates. The three
with the highest number of endorsements will become the
co-chairs. We would ask
that all co-chair volunteers be sure to have submitted their
bios to the
secretariat as requested so that they are available for review. Any volunteer wishing to
provide further
information may do so by e-mail to the list.
To date, there have been 5 volunteers:
Russ Housley (IAB)
Alissa Cooper (IETF)
Partrik Faltstrom (SSAC)
Keith Drazek (GTLd Registries)
Jean-Jacques Subrenat (ALAC)
Co-chair Role
Processes and
Responsibilities:
Operational
Processes
·
There
will be three co-chairs of equal footing (selected from
volunteers) that will
serve for the duration of this exercise.
·
The
ICG will reserve the right to change the number of the
co-chairs, their role or
who will serve as co-chairs, as appropriate, through its
established operating
procedure of rough consensus.
·
If
for any reason a co-chair is no longer able or willing to serve
in that capacity,
they will inform the secretariat who will communicate this to
the ICG and
request that it seek volunteers to fill the vacancy or otherwise
determine to
proceed with the existing number of co-chairs.
·
Co-chairs
are explicitly able to participate in ICG discussions on their
own or their
constituency’s behalf and are just requested to take appropriate
precaution
that there is no confusion related to their role in such
participation.
·
The
operational modalities of the co-chairs, who is undertaking what
function, moderating
the conversation for example, maintaining the que…, is left to
their
self-organization. It
was the view of
the ICG that we did not wish to micro-manage the co-chair
operations, but ICG
obviously reserves the right to suggest or make changes pursuant
to rough
consensus.
Responsibilities:
·
The
role of the co-chairs are to assure that meetings and conference
calls are
properly scheduled, planned, prepared, organized and efficiently
conducted
including:
o
finalizing
this version of the timeline and other work in process
o
planning
for appropriate outreach and consultation
o
timely
developing agendas in appropriate consultation with ICG,
o
organizing
volunteers (for themes, discussion topics and other needed
functions)
o
moderating
discussion and other elements of meeting function
o
overseeing
minutes and summaries being taken, reviewed and circulated in a
timely fashion
supported by the secretariat as well as the drafting,
circulation and
publication of other needed papers and documents, and
o
assuring
that action items are captured, completed or otherwise followed
up; including
between calls and meetings.
·
Co-chairs
will be appropriately supported by the Secretariat in the
executing these
functions.
·
Co-chairs
are not meant to have independent decision-making in substantive
issues of the
ICG on behalf of the group, but are rather the coordinators of
the process
elements related to the calls, meetings and related functions. Decisions must remain
inclusive and
collaborative. There was discussion, however, that where rough
consensus does
not emerge organically or cannot be recognized, the co-chairs
lead the ICG in a
process to finalize rough consensus.
·
There
is no current spokesperson or press liaison role associated to
the co-chairs,
but the ICG may revisit that function as needed and subject to
whatever
conditions (only speak from agreed points, etc) it feels
appropriate.
·
Co-chairs
should also recognize that by virtue of their title they are
clothed with
apparent authority and should make clear across all
situations what their role and representative capacity is (on
behalf of
themselves, their consistency…)
·
Co-chairs
need to be mindful of and support the needs of transparency of
this process in
the planning, organization, conduct and reporting back of calls
and meetings as
well as the drafting of papers and other supporting documents