Hi Dharma,
I don't argue the merits of your statement regarding the role of ICANN in the internet governance ecology. And frankly, the interactions between ICANN's internal bodies are mysterious to me. You're far from alone.
I'd hoped that the Summit session on "ICANN 101" would have helped with that, perhaps we ought to turn that into a more permanent document. But as I recall even that took many hours to get through.
I forwarded the example below for two reasons. 1) I saw people who normally don't concern themselves with ICANN raising this issue. 2) I saw multiple people who are not connected with each other raising the issue. So, for the corners of the earth that detour through my laptop, I saw the visibility of ICANN raised above the noise, getting attention from folks who don't usually pay attention - but not positive attention. The narrative getting out there is that ICANN staff is usurping civil society. Since these folks are people involved in public interest/consumer rights work, I expect that they touch a lot of North American internet users. Which means we (NARALO et al) should be concerned about the perception, if not the merit. I withhold judgement on the merit, because I'm not familiar with the details.
IMO this has nothing to do with judging merit. Even if it's just perception it needs to be addressed. When I see these emails, I see an opportunity here to do outreach. If people are mad at ICANN let's bring them in as ALSs or individuals who can participate and make a difference. There *is* a mechanism for change, even if it's immature and sometimes unwieldy. Right now there appear to be a shortage of committed people to go around, and even much of ALAC isn't holding its weight. Sometimes I see meetings or calls stacked by special interests and feel that we just need to show that we won't be intimidated. Any time I read of someone ticked off I see an opportunity to invite them into At-Large and help to chance ICANN from within. On one hand I don't want people coming in to change things ICANN cannot change -- that is an unhelpful distraction. But there is more than enough here to fix that requires an active and aware At-Large. - Evan