Individual representation in NCUC

[Milton L Mueller]

Thanks, Cheryl. 
I do hope we hear from more members on this topic. If members want to
move faster on bringing individuals into the constituency, along the
lines suggested, we can indeed move faster. The fastest we could move
would be to alter the charter alongside our annual elections, some time
in the late Fall. 

But we cannot instantly admit individuals, we do have to modify the
charter. And given some of the ambiguities and potential for
manipulation, the idea of provisional membership for the short term is a
good one. It allows us to see how the new policy works and what problems
it might cause before we give the provisional members voting rights


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Non-Commercial User Constituency [mailto:NCUC-
> DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Cheryl Preston
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:54 AM
> To: NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Subject: Re: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Individual representation in NCUC
> 
> I have thought at greater length about the proposal regarding
> individuals, which we received just before our meeting on Tuesday.  I
> wanted to concentrate on and be involved in the other issues being
> discussed during the meeting Tuesday, so I postponed full
consideration
> of this proposal until I could read and think about it and take an
> official stance.
> 
> However, after reading and considering this statement on individuals,
I
> feel strongly that we must admit individual members as they apply into
> full standing, unless they fail to meet our requirements in terms of a
> non-commercial interests and goals.
> 
> We may want to strengthen the wording of the non-commercial objective,
> but I see no reason to deny a vote to those individuals who are
clearly
> and unquestionably legitimate as individuals who have a civill society
> and public interest commitment.  We will be voting, as NCUC, on a
number
> of important issues in the fall.  The NCUC has been notoriously
limited
> in representative participation and had extraordinary low numbers of
> participation (20+- votes total last fall).  I sense from discussion
> with other constituencies and GNSO board members that the very
> legitimacy of the NCUC in on the line.  We either out-reach and become
a
> more balanced representation of the range of valid non-commercial
> interests, including families, religions, consumers, cybercrime
victims,
> etc., or continue as invisible and loose votes in the ICANN system.
> 
> I think input from the members on this issue needs to be accounted for
> before we vote on accepting this statement.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> 
> Cheryl B. Preston
> Edwin M. Thomas
> Professor of Law
> J. Reuben Clark Law School
> Brigham Young University
> 424 JRCB
> Provo, UT  84602
> (801) 422-2312
> prestonc at lawgate.byu.edu
> >>> Robin Gross <robin at IPJUSTICE.ORG> 06/24/08 2:20 PM >>>
> Thanks, Kathy!   I also strongly agree with the proposal to include
> individuals in NCUC as outlined below.  This is a very exciting time
> for NCUC and terrific opportunity to significantly grow our
> constituency.
> 
> Best,
> Robin
> 
> 
> 
> On Jun 24, 2008, at 12:29 PM, KathrynKL at AOL.COM wrote:
> 
> > To Milton, Robin, and all in Paris,
> > Thank you for making today's meeting so easy to participate it.
> > Milton did a terrific job of leading the discussion today with
> > people in the conference room, and others (like me) coming in
> > online. The hour and a half I was on the call was a good and
> > substantive discussion.  In the end, I wound up supporting the
> > proposition below.
> >
> > I hope the rest of the meeting went as well, and I look forward to
> > reading the notes.  All the best in the Names Council meeting and
> > other meetings coming up.
> >
> > Kathy
> >
> >
> > <dear all: A proposition to be discussed at our meeting today.>
> >
> >
> > In preparation for the GNSO reforms, which we anticipate will open
> > up both the commercial and noncommercial stakeholder groups to
> > individuals, NCUC wishes to extend an invitation to interested
> > individual registrants to formally register with and participate in
> > NCUC on a provisional basis.
> >
> >
> >
> > In line with our previously stated position on GNSO reform, we
> > believe that individuals who register domain names and take an
> > interest in domains for personal use, and/or are mostly concerned
> > with the public interest aspects of domain name policy, should be
> > admitted into the Noncommercial Users stakeholder group. Examples
> > of such individual users would be a person with a personal domain
> > for an email account, a domain name holder with a family web site
> > or blog, or individual academics or members of noncommercial
> > organizations who find it too difficult or lack the standing to get
> > their organization to formally join on an organizational basis
> >
> >
> >
> > (Individuals who register domain names for business purposes -
> > e.g., investors in the domain name market, small businesses, and
> > consultants - and are mainly concerned with the way domain name
> > policy affects their business activity s> Until the GNSO reforms are
> completed, we propose to add
> > noncommercial individuals as provisional, nonvoting members. This
> > period can also serve as an experiment to see how the
> > representation of individuals can best be formally structured.
> >
> >
> >
> > We anticipate asking interested individuals to sign a commitment
that:
> >
> > They are not currently members of any other GNSO constituency
> > Their interest in domain name policy relates to their individual
> > use and public interest aspects
> >
> >
> > We will be announcing a signup process soon.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Gas prices getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient
> > used cars.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> IP JUSTICE
> Robin Gross, Executive Director
> 1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA  94117  USA
> p: +1-415-553-6261    f: +1-415-462-6451
> w: http://www.ipjustice.org     e: robin at ipjustice.org