<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">"Roberto Gaetano" <<a href="mailto:roberto@icann.org">roberto@icann.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">October 1, 2009 1:26:07 PM GMT+02:00<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">"'At-Large Worldwide'" <<a href="mailto:at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org">at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Cc: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">'Marco Lorenzoni' <<a href="mailto:marco.lorenzoni@icann.org">marco.lorenzoni@icann.org</a>><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;"><b>Re: [At-Large] Fwd: Board appointments to fill 3 non-commercial seats on the new Council</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1);"><b>Reply-To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; font-size:medium;">At-Large Worldwide <<a href="mailto:at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org">at-large@atlarge-lists.icann.org</a>><br></span></div><br><div>Nick Ashton-Hart wrote:<br><br><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">I am not absolutely sure, but I'm reasonably confident the <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">best person to send comments to is Marco Lorenzoni - <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Marco.Lorenzoni[at]icann.org. <br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">He's Director for Organisational Reviews.<br></blockquote><br><br>I copy Marco in this message, but I think that the questions asked are<br>really for the Chair of the SIC to answer.<br>I am sure that we are going to have a very interesting debate in Seoul about<br>this, but I can anticipate a few comments.<br><br>First of all, the interaction with the community.<br>The process that the Board has chosen is modeled on the NomCom, although<br>simplified. This means that the first step has been a call for candidature,<br>issued, if I remember correctly (staff might correct me and/or give exact<br>references), in the beginning of August, with deadline the end of August.<br>Public discussion of the candidatures was explicitely excluded, in the same<br>way as you do not have public discussion of the candidatures presented to<br>the NomCom.<br>It is extremely unfortunate that most of ALAC has not paid attention to the<br>call, that I am sure was posted. Some parts of ALAC were well aware (I<br>remember having had a discussion on the EURALO list, for instance), and I<br>was assuming that all of ALAC was. The reason why I state that it was an<br>unfortunate fact, is that we have received only 14 candidatures. I believe<br>that at one point in time staff will publish the summary, including<br>percentages by geographic region and gender.<br><br>Second question, how the selection was done.<br>The whole purpose of the exercise was to appoint people who were part of the<br>non-commercial community that was not sufficiently represented. That<br>included, but was not limited to, geographic regions not represented by the<br>other NCSG councillors, constituencies to be formed, gender equality.<br>For geographic regions, we noted that the current NCUC councillors are Bill<br>Drake (NA, although with EU domicile), Mary Wong (AP, although with NA<br>domicile) and Carlos Souza (LAC). The obvious absence was Africa. We<br>considered, therefore, to have an African appointed as a priority.<br>For constituencies, we noted thyat the a Consumer Constituency had a<br>petition under approval process, that the technical research and academia<br>has a theoretical representation (one representative appointed yearly to the<br>NomCom) but no practical presence in the GNSO, that philantropic<br>institutions have a growing importance, that non-commercial registrants are<br>also not represented. But here comes the problem. With the narrow set of<br>candidates it has been all but easy to cover these needs.<br><br>Third question, about the individuals chosen.<br>I have to admit that I do not like to make public statements about the<br>quality of the candidates when I am part of the panel who makes the<br>decision, and even less I would like to get into discussions on possible<br>alternatives and why the SIC has ended up in not considering them.<br>However, there are a couple of things I can say.<br>About Rosemary Sinclair, she is the president of the INTUG, which is an<br>international umbrella organization who has several national consumer<br>organizations as members. The fact that ATUG, her employer, is a consumer<br>organization mainly oriented to business users has been considered, but on<br>the other hand it has also been considered that the organizations in INTUG<br>are covering a wide spectrum, geographically and in terms of interest<br>groups. There are two points to be taken into account: the first is that if<br>the objective is ultimately to build a consumer constituency, the president<br>of the largest consumer organization worldwide could be a good starting<br>point, and the second is the commitment Rosemary has made to work in the<br>interest of the non-commercial users worldwide during her tenure at the Name<br>Council. Noting also that we have checked the references, I have personally<br>no doubt that she will be very useful for the non-commercial user community<br>and instrumental in outreaching to different consumer organizations that are<br>now not involved in ICANN.<br>About Debra Hughes, I confess that I am extremely surprised by the reaction.<br>The International Red Cross has been one of the most frequently quoted<br>examples of the type of organization that we hoped to get involved in the<br>NonCommercial User community. Just few weeks ago in a letter to some Board<br>members Robin Gross pointed out the fact that now the Red Cross has joined<br>the NCUC. I find most surprisingly to have objections about having a<br>representative of this reputable international organization, twice Nobel<br>laureate, integrate the Name Council. While I do agree that she has an IP<br>lawyer backgroung, I would like to stress that she is not in the Council as<br>an individual, but as a representative of her organization. I wonder how<br>many Registries and Registrars are represented in their constituencies or<br>stakeholder groups by lawyers. And even ALAC itself has appointed years ago<br>a representative to the NomCom who was working for a Registrar. So what?<br>Maybe it would have been less contentious to have somebody with a different<br>profile, but I personally feel happy that, given the exceptionally small<br>number of applicants, we have found people who are well above the minimum<br>requirements for the job. <br><br>I would also like to add a last consideration.<br>People have different interests, wear different hats, what is important is<br>how they engage for accomplishing the mission given to them. There are a few<br>tasks for these "special" NCSG Cousellors. One of them is outreach, in<br>particular in their community. Another one is the ability to work together<br>with people who have different views, as this will be the case in the<br>Council, but even in the House or the Stakeholder Group. Staff has done the<br>ground work, and prepared tables; the SIC has discussed for several days,<br>online, by phone and in person, and has formulated a recommendation; the<br>Board has discussed the recommendation and approved it during a<br>teleconference. There has been a lot of work put in, in good faith, by a lot<br>of people for getting this accomplished on time to have the GNSO Council<br>seated in Seoul, which will mark a historic change in the GNSO.<br>What I will ask now is to give the chosen people, who have little or no<br>previous experience of ICANN, the benefit of the doubt, and judge them by<br>their actions in few months from now, and not prejudge them based on line<br>items on their CVs. The Council has to work together, the NCSG has to work<br>together, to start pointing fingers a few hours after the appointment is not<br>a good way to start. Watch their actions closely, criticize them bitterly<br>(but politely) if they take positions that in your opinion are against the<br>non-commercial community, but please wait until they act for passing<br>judgement.<br><br>Best regards,<br>Roberto<br></div></blockquote></div></body></html>