Alternative Charter - simple outline

[Cheryl Preston]

Dear All,

Attached is a simple 2 page outline of the changes in the Alternative Charter.

Below are responses to Milton's questions:

Cheryl B. Preston
Edwin M. Thomas
Professor of Law
J. Reuben Clark Law School
Brigham Young University
434 JRCB
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-2312
prestonc at lawgate.byu.edu

>>> Milton L Mueller <mueller at syr.edu> 11/28/2008 8:18 am >>>
Cheryl:

I don't want to totally dismiss your efforts but it is a bit quixotic
for you to prepare an "alternative" draft when you have not obtained any
noticeable support for your proposed modifications to the draft we have
already submitted on behalf of the constituency. You claim to have
support from other NCUC members, but none have spoken out on this list,
so that claim will be disputed. The constituency you claim to speak for
also _does not exist_ yet. 

There seems to be very little attention and activity on the NCUC List of any kind.  I don't think that means that there is no support for a more carefully crafted Charter.  It takes some time for people to actually read and study the proposals.

Moving on to substantive issues the structure you have proposed is
excessively complicated, and would not be implementable as far as I can
tell. You create two entirely new structures (a constituencies' chairs
council and a membership committee) and give it all kinds of additional
work to do when we are already concerned about our ability to populate a
smaller number of structures. This is simply not feasible. And it is
unclear what these new structures accomplish, other than proliferating
procedures and creating a risk of paralysis among all the moving parts. 

There is very little, if any, "additional work."  The Alternative Charter splits up responsibility for some discretionary functions to provide checks and balances, but it does not create activities that would not occur in any event (except for the accountability).  Indeed, the NCUC has had trouble in the past finding bodies to identify with the required offices.  However, some of these offices would have been filled if the NCUC had been willing to accept the volunteers who didn't share their majority ideology.  

The idea of the GNSO reorganization is to make the structure more inviting to more people, and provide an outlet for those views that have been absent.  Moreover, new forms of outreach and recruitment are included.  We have every reason to believe there will be more than 5 people involved in the new organization.

The 2 new structures under the Alternative Charter are made up of a representative of each Constituency.  If only a handful of Constituencies form, then there will only be a handful of participants.  The structures will not fail.  The Alternative Charter does not require searching for additional workers beyond those who have indicated a willingness to establish a Constituency.

The Alternative Charter does not create work, it just shifts power to allow for some accountability and some point in creating Constituencies.  See the Statement of Purpose for the Alternative Charter.

So you will need to propose these as amendments to the real charter
submission to the board and you will need to demonstrate some support
for them within the constituency. 

There isn't a "real" charter for the NCSG until the ICANN Board accepts one.  The Board is unlikely to find a lack of support for these provisions when there has been no meaningful substantive discussion at all.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Non-Commercial User Constituency [mailto:NCUC-
> DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Cheryl Preston
> Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 1:15 AM
> To: NCUC-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU 
> Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Alternative Charter draft 2 - with footnotes
> 
> to note substantive changes from the NCUC Proposal.  I hope I flagged
all
> of the substantive content changes.  Please let me know if I missed
any.
> Other changes of formatting and editing are extensive and not marked.
If
> you have a question on a particular section, please let me know.
> 
> I look forward to some discussion on this Alternative Charter.
> 
> Cheryl B. Preston
> Edwin M. Thomas
> Professor of Law
> J. Reuben Clark Law School
> Brigham Young University
> 434 JRCB
> Provo, UT 84602
> (801) 422-2312
> prestonc at lawgate.byu.edu 

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