Hi All, Evan thanks for starting this excellent discussion.  The nomcom position and responsibilities have very little to do with ICANN policy topics, but much to do with recruiting good people to the leadership positions that the NOMCOM seeks each year.  It is best to have people within NARALO or At Large who are very familiar with the work that At Large and the ALAC are doing. This is important when the NOMCOM reviews applicants for ALAC it is best to know the ALAC and At Large well so that you can provide so guidance to the other members of NomCom who are asking and who help decide on the best applicants to shortlist. Otherwise, it is very helpful to know about ICANN, its role and the work that it does since the person chosen need this information to help assess the other candidates.  It is why this position should only be given to a person who has been involved with ICANN for several years and is not for newcomers. We need experienced people within At Large and ALAC to apply and join the nomcom. This is why the ALAC appoints the NomCom person and many or may not choose the person who won the election.  It is essential that the person whom NARALO or any other RALO sends to the NOMCOM be very knowledgeable about ICANN and At Large As Glenn states--Discretion and professionalism is one of the major expectations and a legal obligation for the NOMCOM team. You cannot tell anyone what discussion happen within the NOMCOM discussions, and this includes who has submitted applications. Everyone needs to be silent about who has even applied and if they applied whether they have gotten or made it to the first cut, the second cut or even the finals. This is even true for senior people trying to get on the board. In response to Chuma's comments in that people want to get involved. The best way to get involved is to contribute to the policy discussions either in the CPWG or the OFB,  Write Policy statements, join the small teams.  This is the way newcomers can get involved.  If in NARALO, organize sessions, organize briefings attend events. This is ow you get involved and become active. After doing this for a whole than you can run for one of the leadership posts. Hope this is helpful. Best, Judith _________________________________________________________________________ Judith Hellerstein, Founder & CEO Hellerstein & Associates 3001 Veazey Terrace NW, Washington DC 20008 Phone: (202) 362-5139 Skype ID: judithhellerstein Mobile/Whats app: +1202-333-6517 E-mail:Judith@jhellerstein.com Website:www.jhellerstein.com Linked In:www.linkedin.com/in/jhellerstein/ Opening Telecom & Technology Opportunities Worldwide On 4/16/25 10:38 AM, Glenn McKnight via NA-Discuss wrote:

Hi All As a follow-up on the NOMCOM position, I reiterate Evan's comment that the NOMCOM position or responsibilities have little to do with policy issues, but in simple terms, it's grunt work. As a person who has been on a few NOMCOMs I think you need to understand your job

* Attend all the meetings( which become more intensive in the duration of NOMCOM since you are obligated to be part of a team that dues deep dives or due diligence on the skills and history of the applicants for the job. * In the early phase of the NOMCOM you are also expected to be a "booster' and promote in your networks the opportunities at ICANN . everyone is expected to be a marketer * Provide insights when applicable to your SO/AC on their responsibilities and expectations based upon your constituencies * Do your homework as expected on specific individuals. It's surprising how some people think it's a cake walk and just try to bluff their way through * Discretion and professionalism is one of the major expectations and a legal obligation for the NOMCOM team. * Each cycle, the peers perform a review of the individual's performance * NOMCOM does become intense and alot of work

G Glenn McKnight, MA Virtual School of Internet Governance Chief Information Officer www.virtualsig.org <http://www.virtualsig.org> *YOUR SOURCE FOR INTERNET GOVERNANCE EDUCATION * *Mobile  437-237-4655*

On Wed, 16 Apr 2025 at 07:09, Chuma Akana via NA-Discuss <na-discuss@icann.org> wrote:

Hello,

I believe the reason there are several nominations is that people want to get involved, even if it means starting in a role that is less leadership intensive. From past experience, we've seen that people interested in leadership roles may not be selected if they're not familiar to the decision-makers. However, if someone shows interest in a role, that's enough to demonstrate their commitment, and they should be considered for it. By doing so, we can encourage participation and give everyone a fair chance.

Regards Chuma Akana ICANN78 Fellow

On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 3:18 PM Evan Leibovitch via NA-Discuss <na-discuss@icann.org> wrote:

Hi all,

I am intrigued to see what I believe to be FIVE nominations (so far!) for the position of NARALO representative to the ICANN Nomination Committee. And I see that some of you have already posted qualifications.

I would note that this particular position is quite different from that of being a rep on ALAC or a delegate to other ICANN communities. It does not require great strength in policy or ideology. Rather than demonstrating your own background in ICANN issues, should you win your role will be to work in a group to assess OTHER people's grasp of both the issues and their perspectives.

That is, this is more of a human resources task to choose leaders than one which demands leadership itself. Discretion and the ability to work intensively within a small group are paramount.

I am hoping that the candidates will consider this when posting their Statements of Interest. I am looking for people who would excel at being judges of potential leaders rather than being leaders themselves.

I look forward to reading what each of the candidates has to say in asking for my vote.

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You’d think that this intense work of insiders picking insiders — which was put into place after the Ghana meeting to prevent candidates with actual popular support from joining the board — would, along with the Board members’ secret compensation packages, produce a string of bright shining stars to populate the ICANN Board. I mean, why listen to Internet users when experts know best?

On Apr 16, 2025, at 4:01 PM, Evan Leibovitch via NA-Discuss <na-discuss@icann.org> wrote:

Hi Chuma,

On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 7:09 AM Chuma Akana <akanachuma@gmail.com <mailto:akanachuma@gmail.com>> wrote:

...

I believe the reason there are several nominations is that people want to get involved, even if it means starting in a role that is less leadership intensive. From past experience, we've seen that people interested in leadership roles may not be selected if they're not familiar to the decision-makers. However, if someone shows interest in a role, that's enough to demonstrate their commitment, and they should be considered for it. By doing so, we can encourage participation and give everyone a fair chance.

I cannot emphasize enough that the position of NomCom rep is *not* entry-level.

While it is true that being on the NomCom does not require deep policy expertise, it does require a good familiarity with ICANN's different constituencies, their relationships and indeed the politics between them. You need to be aware of everything ICANN does -- or at least needs to do -- so that you can sufficiently choose people for its Board. You also need to know about the committees -- besides ALAC -- to which the NomCom chooses delegates.

Furthermore, as Marita said, being on the NomCom separates you from the rest of the community. You may travel to ICANN meetings but won't be spending much time with At-Large colleagues. Your meetings will be intense, with the same small group, and you will be sworn to secrecy so that you really can't even tell anyone what you're accomplishing. Meanwhile, you'll be doing fairly little relationship-building beyond the NomCom even if staying at the same venue as everyone else.

And finally, I take issue with the assertion that "people interested in leadership roles may not be selected if they're not familiar to the decision-makers". In NARALO the "decision makers" are your peers -- the other members and ALS reps that make up this community. It is they who choose committee chairs, vote for NARALO leaders, and select two of the three North America members of ALAC. Showing interest alone does not demonstrate commitment, it is not enough just to show up. You need to do things -- speaking, writing, meeting, convincing, and above all learning. Earn your colleagues' respect and trust first, and then go for their vote.

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Because the current system is incestuous, rotten, opaque, and consistently produces time-serving telecom-industry ciphers to fill Board seats. How many reasons do you need?

On Apr 17, 2025, at 8:02 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evanleibovitch@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 10:36 AM Antony Van Couvering <avc@avc.vc <mailto:avc@avc.vc>> wrote:

...

You’d think that this intense work of insiders picking insiders — which was put into place after the Ghana meeting to prevent candidates with actual popular support from joining the board — would, along with the Board members’ secret compensation packages, produce a string of bright shining stars to populate the ICANN Board.

That spilled milk dried up and evaporated decades ago. Why rehash now?

- Evan

In turn, not disagreeing with that analysis. The money ICANN spends on sandbagging ALAC and other groupings at ICANN in order to provide it with the window-dressing of consensus-based decision-making is, at least, some money *not* being spent on expensive staff offices, travel, and dinners. Worthy people get some assistance to travel the world, to inform themselves about interesting issues, and to meet like-minded people. As such it is a net positive. However, as NARALO members have obviously discovered, to judge by their leisurely communications, the stakes are very low, in that really nothing ALAC says will be given much heed by ICANN staff. So enjoy the travel! The state that ICANN finds itself in is due to its relative irrelevance to the internet, which you point out, coupled with a flawed governance structure. I don’t mean to shock anyone, but the multi-stakeholder governance model that everyone prays to has some serious issues, which are on full display at ICANN. First and foremost, deciding who is and who is not a stakeholder, and deciding who goes in what group, is the whole game. The government of Hong Kong prior to the Chinese takeover. It had constituencies, they each had a vote, but some consisted of 12 rich members and some of many many thousands of poor ones. The same groups that were there at the beginning of ICANN, way back in the Clinton administration, are there today. The internet is unrecognizably different, but ICANN looks the same. Second, it is a system highly prone to capture by the groups that care the most and have the most resources. Those who have less skin in the game bow out before the furious passion of those who have something to lose. In ICANN’s case, these are governments, IP interests, and VeriSign. If you doubt this, ask yourself why all the board members are and have for some time now been indistinguishable not only from each other, but from grandees sitting on telecom advisory bodies all over the world. Third, with power by design being held by different groups, the vacuum in the middle has been filled by a massive ICANN staff and budget that naturally wishes to perpetuate itself. John Jeffrey has built an empire with VeriSign’s cash. Anything that is in the Internet’s interest, but not in the interests of the ICANN staff, has no chance. All of these are symptoms of the overarching problem with multi-stakeholder governance, which is that it is undemocratic. Extremely so. I have titled at NARALO’s own structure, which I won’t do again, but suffice it to say that there is no way for an individual user of the Internet to participate in a vote for anything without have first been approved by the gatekeepers of one of the ICANN groups. Quite apart from any feelings about democracy as a system, the myriad of barriers erected by those within against effective outside participation, even as it proclaims openness, have left ICANN with two distinguishing features: irrelevance, and a pile of cash. This is not a recipe for longevity. Multi-stakeholder governance has come to mean that powerful interest groups consult with one another to protect their mutual interests. They were there at ICANN’s baptism, they have captured the process by making it time-consuming and expensive, they know how to work the powerful staff, and they could care less about democracy if it serves their interests. Today they are the stakeholders. Everyone else is a spectator. So forgive me if I can’t get excited about participation in one of the processes put in place precisely to squelch any democratic input. Antony

On Apr 17, 2025, at 11:07 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evanleibovitch@gmail.com> wrote:

On Thu, Apr 17, 2025 at 11:24 AM Antony Van Couvering <avc@avc.vc <mailto:avc@avc.vc>> wrote:

...

Because the current system is incestuous, rotten, opaque, and consistently produces time-serving telecom-industry ciphers to fill Board seats.

Not disagreeing. But we're so far beyond being able to do anything about it that whining about it now -- and here -- serves zero purpose. The last window of opportunity for serious change came and went, with no real pushback to the whole "empowered community" insider-driven bullshit, at the time of the IANA transition. So we're stuck with this.

The rot in the system that you describe might have been a greater cause for concern, except that the world cares less and less about web domains as a resource of interest in these days of Internet searches and AI chatbots. I haven't typed a URL into my browser for many months. While ICANN continues to make lots of money from domain rentals and thus has the largesse to hold grandiose meetings and subsidize participation, the world cares less about it than ever. It's devolving into the Internet equivalent of your local water and sewage utility, except that it's forever trying to figure out ways to get people to buy more sewer pipes. The best example of this is the annual orgy of futility known here as Universal Acceptance, desperately trying to sell Punycode to a world that has long since moved on. It's now just amusing to watch from a distance, just as amusing as when ICANN insiders think they have something to teach the world about effective Internet Governance.

At this point, very few people outside ICANN care what it does so long as (the technical function of) the DNS doesn't break. Just like the sewer utility.

In the meantime ... This thread isn't trying to fix the system, just make the best out of what's here.

- Evan