Dear Olivier: It must also be said that the notice now being received by the At-Large in ICANN affairs is decidedly also a testament to the leadership of the ALAC. I for one would wish to record my own sense of the outstanding role you play in this development as Chair - lead diplomat and delegate in chief to other areas of ICANN. Yours has been an arduous task, one that you have accepted and worked with a diligence that makes some of us concerned for your wellbeing. Take a bow. -Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 *Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround* ============================= On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 11:08 AM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl@gih.com>wrote:
Dear members, staff, and friends,
as we near the end of the calendar year, the traditional holiday season allows us to take a week where we can reflect on this year's past challenges and the ones we have ahead of us.
Looking back at the year, I am really delighted with the advances this community has made. We now have active working groups with a very diverse membership. Some people take part in one or two working groups, or take part in regional activities, and they bring in the valuable diversity of input that is needed in a geographically balanced, bottom-up multi-stakeholder system. Others promote this community by performing outreach in fora outside of ICANN. Others work behind the scenes designing courses and capacity building for newcomers and for those members who are not yet taking an active part in this community. Some are very active in enhancing their RALO's capability at helping their members with understanding and taking part in ICANN processes. Some people are active in GNSO working groups. I could go on for a long time to explain all of the activities of this community. As ALAC Chair, I try to keep aware of all of the work that our members do for this community, but occasionally I am surprised by people who are taking part in an ICANN process but have not directly "advertised it" - such is the humbleness of some people in our community.
When interacting with the Board and in other fora, I often receive congratulations from people who tell me that they are so pleased that At-Large has matured over the years. They are so pleased with the quality of the Statements that we draft and send to them. I tell them that this would not be possible without the great Team that I have on the ALAC and in the RALOs. So I wanted to thank you for the work you are doing as volunteers. It is truly inspirational to a lot of people in ICANN.
Next year is about to arrive and there are a lot more challenges coming up. Our work in Policy Development will continue to grow as we now need to expand our competencies beyond commenting on ICANN processes but also in Internet Governance as a whole and the defense of the multi-stakeholder model as practised in ICANN. I have concerns that a few people have done the majority of the work in "holding the pen" when drafting Statements - so I look forward to new volunteers adding to the list of writers. Remember, you could co-draft Statements and you do not need to be an ALAC member to be a pen-holder. Policy work is very important to improve ICANN as a whole and I am thankful that many in our community care enough to take the time to propose constructive comments to improve ICANN's processes. On Organisation building, there is a lot of ongoing work in Capacity Building. This is an integral part of building our community. Outreach brings more people and organisations in At-Large to share the workload among more people and to reach more parts of the world and more diverse communities. In-reach makes sure that our At-Large Structures are more actively involved. However, after three years as ALAC Chair, I am still not satisfied that we have done enough to help engage our At-Large Structures. Thankfully this year we will have the second ever At-Large Summit (ATLAS II) which will take place in London in June 2014. This is an opportunity for every At-Large Structure named delegate to experience an ICANN meeting but also to learn about the bottom-up multi-stakeholder process of governance. It is the opportunity for participants to meet face to face and discuss the challenges facing ICANN and this community. The Summit is being entirely prepared by At-Large Structures, for At-Large Structures. It is vital that our Capacity building programs continue to expand since without knowledge, it would be impossible for At-Large Structure representatives to engage more in policy work. Capacity building is the first step to involvement of Internet end users at all levels of policy - please make sure you make use of the ATLAS II opportunity to enhance your knowledge! With efforts on the way to make ICANN more accountable after the end of the second round of Accountability & Transparency Review (ATRT 2), it is also important to recognise that our community is taking steps to make the ALAC and At-Large more accountable. Whilst I am delighted to see a significant number of organizations having signed up as At-Large Structures, it is equally as important for our RALOs to check on the existence of their members and to report back to the ALAC if an organisation's status has changed. Equally, ALAC members, selected by their RALOs and by the Nominating Committee, should be effective in their position. Non participation is to let down the community that has chosen them to assume this position and puts an unfair workload on other ALAC representatives from the region. As ALAC Chair, I am therefore delighted to see that our community is looking at Metrics to more easily identify matters which need to be improved. These are all small but significant steps to make our community more effective and more answerable to Internet end users and to therefore continue to improve its legitimacy when bringing input into the ICANN processes.
Our bottom-up multi-stakeholder model is not perfect and still needs much improvement but it is a work in progress! I am proud to be able to work with you all in what I consider to be a cutting-edge experiment in bottom-up governance. I am proud that so many of us are actively trying to make the model work, to find its limits and shortfalls, but also to find its force and its opportunities. Some days, the model works beyond my expectations - what a great surprise! Some days it fails miserably and we are then able to learn from our mistakes. You are pioneers and just being able to work with all of you has been an immensely rich experience. It is so unique, I don't believe there is any other process like it out there.
And for this, I thank you all, volunteers and staff, and I send you my Best Wishes for the Holiday Season and for the New Year 2014. Prepare for an exciting year. Prepare for a lot of work. Prepare for a lot of rewards. Expect the unexpected, but never give up.
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond ALAC Chair
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