FW: Follow-Up to NCSG Charter-Structure Questions

[Robin Gross]

Thanks, Milton.

You are right that we have to continue to remind the ICANN staff and  
board that the constituency model that the staff is proposing  
encourages stake-holder groups to be in a perpetual power struggle  
within themselves (and between constituencies) to hold on to counsel  
seats.  The way staff is trying to organize the GNSO it appears they  
are trying to disempower the GNSO even further by requiring all  
energies to be consumed in un-ending administrative tasks and  
political battles.   Too bad.  This "GNSO reform" was a real  
opportunity for ICANN to reform some of its more nasty tendencies  
(like staff dominating the board, the GNSO, etc.)

We should revise our draft SG proposal for submission by 1 March  
(taking into account the feedback we've received so more).

Should we schedule a call this week to discuss the submission  
further?  Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Robin



On Feb 21, 2009, at 9:46 AM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> Hello, all
> You will remember that I sent questions to the staff questioning  
> the practicality of certain aspects of their favored model for a  
> NCSG. The good news is that they have taken the inquiry seriously  
> and responded. The bad news is that, as I feared, the only way to  
> make their favored model work requires enormous amounts of  
> organizational overhead – an additional bureaucratic overlay that  
> creates not only complexity but the possibility of top-down  
> manipulation of constituency election results. Interestingly, the  
> more workable approaches start to look a lot like the integrated  
> election process we already proposed. Read for yourself.
>
> From: Robert Hoggarth [mailto:robert.hoggarth at icann.org]
>
> Milton:
>
> Thank you for your recent email (below) in which you posed a couple  
> of questions for the Staff concerning the new Stakeholder Group  
> model.  The questions are challenging and we have done our best to  
> provide what we think are reasonable recommendations as to how they  
> might be addressed.
>
> Q1: How does a constituency-based model produced balanced  
> geographic representation in Council seats?
>
> We envision geographic diversity as a representational  
> responsibility of each Stakeholder Group (SG) in fulfilling its  
> role of allocating GNSO Council seats to member Constituencies.  We  
> are currently working with the General Counsel to draft Bylaw  
> amendments consistent with that approach.
>
> Using your example, if the SG has six seats and three  
> Constituencies, it may choose to allocate seats evenly although it  
> would not be required to do so.  In the simplest case, if there are  
> two seats assigned to each Constituency, the SG would alert its  
> members that it needs to have all five geographic regions  
> represented with no more than two Councilors coming from the same  
> one.  In order to accomplish that goal, the SG might ask certain  
> Constituencies to produce its candidates from a limited set of  
> geographic regions.
> Another option might be to solicit a larger candidate pool, e.g.  
> three from each Constituency or nine total (voted from within), and  
> choose those six that best satisfy the SG’s geographic diversity  
> needs.  In a situation where the number of Council seats to be  
> allocated is not evenly divisible, the SG might decide to designate  
> certain seats to specific geographic regions and candidates from  
> various Constituencies could campaign for those available slots.
> MM commentary: note the last line: “designating certain seats to  
> specific geographic regions” and allowing “candidates from various  
> Constituencies [to] campaign for those available slots” sounds  
> suspiciously close to an integrated, Stakeholder Group-wide  
> election, which is what we proposed! In other words, Council  
> candidates would have to appeal for votes from across the entire  
> SG, not just inside their constituency
> We believe that the SG, working collaboratively with its member  
> Constituencies, can continue to ensure that its GNSO Councilors  
> reflect a profile consistent with the organization’s geographic  
> diversity goals.
>
> Q2: How does a constituency-based model apportion Council seats  
> among Constituencies when they are of different size?
>
> While the decisions may be challenging, we think that one principal  
> role of the SG’s leadership team[ 1] <see footnote below> is to  
> establish the very criteria (and methodology) that would allow such  
> apportionment determinations to be made.  A SG could utilize  
> factors other than size, for example, geographic diversity and  
> possibly others.  To take a concrete example, if there were six  
> seats and four constituencies, the SG could end up with a 2-2-1-1  
> or 3-1-1-1 configuration utilizing whatever decision-making  
> criteria it adopted (and had approved, via its Charter, by the  
> Board).  You raise the possibility of gaming the system and, of  
> course, such behavior is theoretically possible in any proposed  
> model including your own.  In that circumstance, the SG leadership  
> should reexamine its methodology and adjust, as necessary, to  
> minimize any undesirable outcomes.  Once the seats are allocated,  
> if a new constituency is subsequently admitted to the SG by the  
> Board, we recommend that, at its next annual cycle, the SG  
> reallocate seats taking into consideration five members vs. four.   
> The most likely Council member configuration, given the limited  
> combinations, would be 2-1-1-1.  We do make the tacit assumption  
> that any Constituency approved by the Board would have satisfied  
> ICANN’s fundamental stakeholder representational requirements and,  
> thus, would be entitled to at least one seat on the Council.
>
> In terms of oversight, we believe that the Board’s role will be not  
> only to ensure that each of the SG Charters is structured in a  
> fair, open, and transparent manner; but, it will also likely  
> monitor SG activities, especially in the period immediately after  
> initial implementation.
>
> We would be happy to continue discussing this matter with you and,  
> of course, we would welcome another set of questions if there are  
> still unresolved issues in your mind.
>
> Regards,
> Denise Michel
>
> [1] <#_ftnref> We would envision an Execeutive Committee comprised  
> of one delegate from each recognized Constituency.
>
> MM comment: This proposal creates a potential nightmare. It  
> requires a group of delegates from each constituency to fight among  
> themselves, with no pre-set criteria, to decide who gets how many  
> Council seats. Unacceptable, and unnecessary. In our proposal, size  
> differences among constituencies are automatically reflected in  
> voting totals for Council seats. There is no need for top-down,  
> negotiated allocations. Those negotiations create all the  
> rigidities that the Board Governance Committee was trying to get  
> rid of, and present all kinds of opportunities for abuse. Even when  
> they are not abused, they will consume enormous amounts of time. It  
> is apparent that ICANN’s professional staff – which gets paid to do  
> this work – still does not appreciate the way in which imposing  
> additional layers of bureaucracy and a constant need to contend and  
> negotiation for power inside a SG saps the energy of noncommercial  
> groups and prevents them from doing the real work of policy  
> development. I ask for your support to tell the staff that this is  
> not an acceptable option.
>
> MM’s Original Email of 6 February, 2009:
>
> Robert, Denise and Ken
>
> Thanks a lot for your valuable feedback on our draft Charter  
> (v4.0). It is clear that we are making progress, although there is  
> a long way to go.
>
> In respect to some of your questions or requests for explanation,  
> let me turn the tables on you a bit. The presumption in many of  
> these exchanges is that there's something complicated or  
> "different" about what we are proposing, and that the "constituency- 
> based SG model" is straightforward and poses no problems. In many  
> ways, however, an integrated SG structure is far simpler, and we  
> have no idea how a constituency model would work even if we thought  
> it desirable to implement it.
>
> Let me give you two examples. I will pose them in the form of  
> questions because it genuinely would like to have answers from you  
> or any other defender of the constituency-based SG model.
>
> Q1: How does a constituency-based model produced balanced  
> geographic representation in Council seats?
>
> Think about this. Let's say there are 3 independent constituencies  
> in a SG, and each of them elects 2 Council seats without reference  
> to the other. So Constituency A elects (in accord with its own  
> geog. representation rules) a person from North American and a  
> person from Latin America; Constituency B elects a person from  
> North America and a person from Latin America; and Constituency C  
> elects a person from North America and another from Latin America.  
> End result: each constituency has, on its own, produced as much  
> geographic diversity as it possibly could, and yet the end result  
> could be that only two world regions are represented on the Council.
>
> I would be very interested to see how you propose to avoid this  
> problem while staying in the constituency model.
>
> An integrated SG model, by contrast, can impose proportions on the  
> six seats as a whole, thereby ensuring that most if not all regions  
> are represented.
>
> Q2: How does a constituency-based model apportion Council seats  
> among Constituencies when they are of different size?
>
> Let's suppose there is an "old constituency" that has 50 members,  
> and a "new" constituency that starts and gets recognized by the  
> Board, and has only 10 initial members (or even less). How many  
> Council seats does each constituency get? Do they inherently get  
> the same number of seats simply by virtue of the fact that they are  
> constituencies? Or does their representation on the Council reflect  
> their relative size? If the latter, who decides what allocation  
> principle is used, when there is no pre-established SG decision- 
> making method? And once Council seats depend on membership size,  
> what is to stop one constituency from extending membership in an  
> overly easy way, regardless of appropriate criteria, to inflate its  
> relative size? Will the Board monitor this?
>
> These questions are not impossible to answer, but they obviously  
> impose a very complex layer of organization, monitoring and  
> procedure that an integrated SG model does not have to worry about.
> Frankly, Bob and Denise, I could produce about a dozen more  
> questions like this. But let's see how you do with these two first.
>
> My point is to put this discussion of SG models on a more solid  
> footing with an equal burden of proof. If you can convince us that  
> a constituency-based model handles such basic and obvious issues as  
> well as an integrated model,we'd be more inclined to change our view.
> --MM
> [1] <#_ftnref> We would envision an Execeutive Committee comprised  
> of one delegate from each recognized Constituency.




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



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncuc.org/pipermail/ncuc-discuss/attachments/20090222/373de445/attachment.html>