Dear Friends & Colleagues: As we say in Jamaica, 'we fly de gate', meaning, the race is on. For the Board Seat #15, that is. This is not a job for the faint of heart; it will take a heavy investment of time and interest to do it right. It is not a job for a bomb thrower nor an anarchist; you can't and won't influence - and with one vote that is your biggest stick - if you piss off people. It is definitely not a job for a single issue candidate. Because the At-Large agenda goes beyond a single issue and shall hardly take the form we are most familiar. Thus its coverage will transcend any single issue and will embrace all of the issues decided by the Board in some way or other. So, what kind of representative are we are looking for? It is rather a job for someone who can and will have the time and disposition to invest of themselves in learning the issues before the board, inclusive of the mind-numbing minutiae that tends to host the devil and all his works. In fact, this requires a diligence to be more familiar with the issues than the other members BEFORE it reaches the board. For that is the single best way to 'manufacture' consent in collaborations. This job is for someone who has demonstrated a mastery of information gathering and sharing, for someone who can represent ideals even as you understand you must work with the situation at hand to shape outcomes, not to wish it be; you dance with them that brung ya. This is a job for someone with excellent listening skills, a mastery of nuanced speech and body language. Because winning coalitions are based on everyone thinking the other fella has his or her back. More than anything else, it demands trust; the trust from all of us that the ideals we have are shared. Having myself served on a few corporate boards, it is the best I can think of. For ICANN - for the nth time - is and remains an American corporation. And I see nothing in its behaviour that points to a socialization other than that one would expect of a corporation. Vote early. And vote well. [If this were 'machine politics' I'd exhort you to vote often! :-)] Carlton ============================== Carlton A Samuels Mobile: 876-818-1799 Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround =============================