IPC calling for secret ballots

[Alex Gakuru]

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 9:29 AM, William Drake
<william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch> wrote:
> One might add to this that the council voted, unanimously except Mary and I
> (I think Avri was not voting on anything at the time due to a CSG attack on
> her for joining NCUC), to have a Sunday morning conclave that will closed
> door and off the record.  This was framed by proponents as a gripe session
> where councilors will be able to vent about our "pet hates" and grievances
> against each other.  No joke, we're actually doing this. I suggested we
> bring a Festivus pole. Maybe Frank Costanza could facilitate. Originally
> they wanted to start off the week of collaboration with this on Saturday
> morning, so I guess Sunday's a slight improvement.  Our biz colleagues
> insisted, with a straight face, that it had to be secret inter alia because
> of possible legal actions and effects on share prices, and suggested calls
> for transparency were just empty rhetoric.

There won't be any 'irreconcilable differences'?

> Anyone with a macabre taste for examples of the council's community dynamics
> should have a look at the thread called GNSO Meet and Greet
> at http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/thrd123.html.  It's
> pretty priceless and gives new meaning to bottom up.

Amazing!

I never mind "in-camera" of anything, but for no record to exist?
Heard somewhere that "democracy dies behind closed doors"


> Cheers,
> Bill
>
>
> On Oct 15, 2009, at 7:41 PM, Robin Gross wrote:
>
> Thanks to Bill for weighing in against this.  I was surprised by the strong
> reaction of the IPC member who threatens to NOT vote unless she can vote in
> secret.
> Now a Commercial Constituency member wants to keep all non-counselors silent
> during the weekend sessions in Seoul.
>    http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg07642.html
> Our members have not yet had an opportunity to dialogue on many of these
> issues: - they are new, Seoul will be their first meeting, etc.   The idea
> that we must be kept silent and can only watch the counsel would be a
> terrible precedent to set for the new "reformed" GNSO.   These meetings have
> been open and allowed for participation from any member of the GNSO before
> now, so I hope we don't move in the direction of silencing the community who
> is traveling to Seoul (most on their own dime) to work on these issues.
> Robin
>
> On Oct 15, 2009, at 9:02 AM, Robin Gross wrote:
>
> I noticed that on the GNSO Council email list, the IP Constituency is
> calling for secret ballots for the chair/vice-chair positions on council.
> That is really surprising to me considering how ICANN claims to be "open and
> transparent" in its activities.   And it is a bit disturbing that elected
> representatives in a governance organization are afraid the public will know
> how they vote on an issue.   I thought when a person is elected to represent
> a group of people on policy issues, those people have a right to know how
> their elected representatives are voting and handling that representation
> given to them by the public.
> What part of open and transparent public governance does the IPC not
> understand?
>
> Best,
> Robin
>
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> ***********************************************************
> William J. Drake
> Senior Associate
> Centre for International Governance
> Graduate Institute of International and
>  Development Studies
> Geneva, Switzerland
> william.drake at graduateinstitute.ch
> www.graduateinstitute.ch/cig/drake.html
> ***********************************************************
>
>
>