[Bylaws] (no subject)

[William Drake]

Hi

Seems like you folks had a lively meeting, I look forward to seeing the transcript.  In the meanwhile, just a couple quick comments on timing and participation.

On Oct 4, 2013, at 2:32 PM, Amr Elsadr <aelsadr at EGYPTIG.ORG> wrote:

[snip]
> 
> What I believe might be a constructive approach would be to see a list of topics listed (as suggested by Tim), which need to be addressed in the new set of by-laws, hopefully by mid-October or the end of third week of the month at the latest.

In developing this list, I'd suggest some outreach to veteran members who did the existing bylaws and have held NCUC together for the past decade.  Some things may occur to them that might not be immediately apparent otherwise.

> This should ideally be the result of a review of our current by-laws along with the aborted drafts Bill has provided as well as those of other constituencies in the GNSO.
> 
> I think a list of problems under each topic at this point would also be helpful. We don't need to debate them in detail right now, but at least identifying and listing issues and possible solutions would be a good thing.

Agree
> 
> If we can take a draft of these back to the main NCUC list in a timely manner for feedback from the constituency membership asking for comments/opinions/what's missing, we should have what we can consider to be a charter for this WG to be prepped and presented by constituency day in Buenos Aires. Hopefully, this would put not just the volunteers of this WG, but all the NCUC members on the same page regarding what is going to be discussed and hammered out over the next few months.


Absolutely essential.  Many people will be utterly jammed up in October-November with IGF Bali and ICANN BA-related work, including the folks with institutional memory, so you can't count on precision timing in terms of responses etc.  Given that the revision can't go to a vote for another year, and most people are not already focusing on the bylaws, I'd build in enough time to make sure that along the way everyone is informed of the main lines of the group's thinking and able to respond.
> 
> Then maybe we can have our discussions and a preliminary draft of the new set of by-laws ready by the end of February, followed by a round of feedback from the constituency membership, and amendments as needed all ready for a final draft to be prepared before the Singapore meeting in March.

Please do bear in mind that while this doesn't actually need to be done 8 months before members vote on it, there will be a lot else going on in the same time frame that is mandatory.  In this quarter we have to do everything for BA and then organize and conduct an election.  In the first quarter of 2014, Fadi wants to do a Roundtable with us (probably in Instanbul late January-early February).  ICANN has given us budget allocations to organize a one day working meeting for the new EC on 20 March, and a big policy conference on 21 March in Singapore.  We've also been given funding to launch print materials for outreach etc., like issue papers or a newsletter. These things will take a lot of time and effort to prepare, and they involve our interface with the larger community, so we have to have it together.   People will also be busy with the GNSO Council, which is our reason for being, with the NCSG (new leadership transition, CEP process with ICANN, rebooting NCSG-PC, and so on), etc etc.  

Bottom line, targets are good, but so is adaptability to changing realities, and making sure there's constituency buy-in is a must.  

Best,

Bill