To clarify my position on the ALAC excom: I voted against it because A) we hadn't really discussed it regionally, or, at least, reached conclusion as I recall. B) having an excom in the way it was described only institutionalizes the ALAC's dysfunction (in other words, I agree with the frustration behind Alan's proposal, and see clearly why he wants to do it, but I think the better approach is to fix, reorganize or disband the ALAC) C) I agree with Carlos that the ALAC is already an executive committee in the sense that it's elected by regions or members named by the nominating committee. D) In my opinion it's putting the cart before the horse. What "powers" will the executive committee be given? Can anyone reasonably expect them to later give them up? Or to reliably exercise the recall process should something go far wrong? I cite the Star Wars saga as an example: The republic was frustrated with the dysfunction of the Senate, so they voted Chancellor Palpatine special executive powers, which he then refused to give up. And then look what happened! I'm not comparing anyone on the current ExCom to the Dark Emperor of the Sith, however, I doubt that, once given executive powers, the ALAC excom would vote to give up those powers should the ALAC begin to function properly. Also, I'm feeling Danny's frustration at this point. We spent almost the entire Cairo meeting discussing internal procedure again: ALAC review; our response to the ALAC review; performance criteria for ALAC members, etc. Today, we got through one hour and 25 minutes of a 90-minute call without bringing up a single policy topic. To paraphrase an Australianism: We are too far up ourselves. All the work on policy seems to get done outside the ALAC meetings, while the ALAC meetings consist of little more than self-analysis. It needs to be the other way around. Finally: I apologize to the NA RALO for missing the vote on liaisons two weeks ago. As I had informed the ALAC, following Cairo I was traveling to Ethiopia, and at the time of the vote was traveling in the northern part of the country with no Internet access. I tried to vote on Monday and managed to get the ballot up and tick the boxes, but the button said, "vote closed." So I guess it would have been great if they could have kept the vote open a little longer. Does anyone know the result of the vote, by the way? Did I miss it? -----Original Message----- From: na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Danny Younger Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 10:50 AM To: NA Discuss Subject: [NA-Discuss] Today's ALAC meeting 1. Robert Guerra was again not in attendance, nor did he submit the SSAC liaison report (again). In my view, a recall of this representative (who doesn't even show up for NARALO meetings either) is now warranted. 2. The ALAC decided to create yet another structural layer on top of all the other byzantine structural layers that they have imposed on the user community. They have formalized the existence of the Executive Committee (that's the group that has been in charge of the horrible agenda process we have had for the last year) and has given them the power to act on behalf of the ALAC in urgent situations. My thanks to Beau Brendler for voting against this proposal (introduced by Alan Greenberg) that saw no regional or local discussion before it was introduced for a vote. 3. No issues raised by the user community were discussed, neither were any such issues placed on the agenda by the Executive Committee. 4. As usual, a whole bunch of liaison reports were not submitted. 5. No RALO reports were submitted 6. No WG reports were presented 7. No Cairo recap was offered 8. The Letter to the Board on participation issues has not been finalized 9. No issues were raised to be brought to the attention of the Board 10. No ad-hoc committee reports were presented 11. A decision was reached in the last few minutes of the session to hold a special briefing on the RAA amendments within the next three weeks. 12. No response was provided to the many users that wrote into the RAA-WG with their concerns. Another typical ALAC session with the bulk of the time devoted to internal navel-gazing. ------ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge-lists.ica... Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org ------ *** Scanned ** This e-mail message is intended only for the designated recipient(s) named above. The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments may be confidential or legally privileged. 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