NCA allocations on council

[William Drake]

Hi,

I've been reminded that I didn't pass along a bit of good news to the  
members list.  This concerns the allocation of the three noncomm  
appointees (NCAs), where they'll sit in the new council.  Anyone  
interested in the full and somewhat tortured story on this can have a  
look at the relevant threads in the council list archives, but the  
very abbreviated version is this.

Avri facilitated a discussion among the NCAs to see where they'd each  
like to be. Olga Cavalli (Argentina, academic, past advisor to the  
government in the GAC) was willing to take on any of the three  
positions (Contracted Parties House, Non-contracted Parties House, or  
Independent, non-voting); Andrei Kolesnikov (Russia, .ru's director)  
was willing to be in either of the two houses, but in any event wanted  
to be able to vote; and Terry Davis (US? Boeing Corp.) only wanted to  
be in Non-contracted Parties House.  Hence, they suggested that Terry  
take the Non-contracted slot, Andrei take the Contracted, and Olga  
take the Non-voting.  This would have meant a) CSG would have an  
additional councilor, asymmetric with NCSG in the Non-contracted  
House; and b) Olga would have been in the Contracted House, meaning  
that all three candidates to replace Avri as Chair---Chuck, Stéphane,  
and Olga (who we nominated)---would have been from contracted.  As  
Olga has been pretty neutral on inter-SG politics (and is a friend to  
many of us in civil society) having her as the additional NC counselor  
was preferable.

Under a Sept. motion, council members were to indicate whether they  
agreed to this allocation.  If there was no consensus in council by  
October 7, Avri would do a  random selection using the power ball  
lottery.  Due to various back channel considerations, by the deadline  
only the CSG had expressed support for the NCA's suggestion, so Avri  
ran the lottery as agreed, and it resulted in Olga being assigned to  
the non-contracted, Terry to the contracted, and Andrei as the newbie  
to the non-voting.  Long story short, the three industry stakeholder  
groups balked at this outcome, complained that Avri shouldn't have run  
the lottery when agreed, and pushed hard for council to set aside the  
result and put Terry in the NC slot.  NCSG alone among SGs argued on  
procedural grounds that it is not fair or good for the GNSO to agree a  
process and then toss it aside just because someone doesn't like the  
outcome, and hence that the lottery result should stand.   
Consternation with us ensued, with some industry folks questioning  
whether the decision really had to be consensual and whether NCSG  
couldn't just be ignored.  But Avri concurred that council should  
follow its own rules, and in the end the other SGs backed off and the  
NCAs said they're fine with whatever the council decides.

So, the Non-contracted Parties House will have another non-industry  
councilor, one with whom we (and I believe, CSG) can work well, and  
there's a Non-contracted candidate for chair, which is better than  
having only people from one house.

FYI,

Bill


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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
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