NCUC elections for Chair and EC

[Poncelet Ileleji]

Hello Avri,

As someone new to the NCSG, I totally concur with issues you raised, its
better they are voiced out now within the framework of openness and
transparency, so the issues you raised are dealt with once and for all.
This will create more frankness and discuss on this issue.

As someone interested in seeking election for NCUC - Africa its also good
to get clarity on all issues that may touch on this subject, so in a
nutshell, if there are more opinions on transparency within the NCUC or
better still more clarity it will be good to hear it from those duly in the
know.

Thanks

Poncelet



On 14 November 2011 22:04, Avri Doria <avri at acm.org> wrote:

> Dear fellow NCUC members, with apologies to NPOC members and Independent
> NCSG members,
>
> With the election upcoming, I want to bring up an issue related to the
> transparency in the NCUC.
>
> I tried to put this issue on the Dakar agenda but other issues were deemed
> to be of greater importance.  My concern stems from the appointments the
> NCUC has been making and the lack of participation and transparency in
> these appointments.
>
> Over the last half year, the NCUC Executive Committee allegedly made
> decisions about who to nominate for NCSG Chair and who to appoint to the
> NCSG-EC, the NCSG-PC and the NCSG-FC.  Yet there is no evidence of
> discussions having been held among the entire NCUC Executive Committee, let
> alone among the entire NCUC membership.  I have spoken to several NCUC EC
> members and none of the ones I spoke to were able to say that they were
> involved in such discussions.  I can only surmise that the NCUC Chair made
> the decisions on his own, perhaps in consultation with a few friends.  If I
> am wrong, I am sure the NCUC EC members who participated in these decisions
> should speak up. In any case, the issues were never brought to the
> membership.
>
> Just recently, there was a conversation in the NCUC-EC, which due to an
> archive having finally been made available, can be seen where:
>
> <http://mailman.ctyme.com/pipermail/ec-ncuc/2011-November/000121.html>
> Milton asks whether Konstantinos can make a public call before making any
> appointment final to the NCSG-EC, NCSG-PC and NCSG-FC
>
> <http://mailman.ctyme.com/pipermail/ec-ncuc/2011-November/000122.html>
> Konstantinos say that goes without saying.
>
> And yet there was never any outreach.  I wrote a private email to
> Konstantinos indicating my interest, but got back email saying the issue
> was closed.  Hence this note to the NCUC membership.  I think the way the
> NCUC is being run is problematic and am thus bringing the issue to the full
> discuss list.
>
> For full disclosure, I admit this bothers me for several reasons. One, as
> mentioned above, I would have liked for the NCUC to have considered me as a
> candidate for NCSG-EC or NCSG-PC and the fact that it was all done opaquely
> is disturbing on a personal level. I also expect that there are many NCUC
> members who might have asked to be considered for any of these tasks. But
> since a call never went out at any time, there were no volunteers. But more
> than the personal disappointment, which I reveal for full disclosure, I am
> very concerned that the NCUC is losing its democratic nature and is
> becoming a group controlled by a small handful of people in a
> non-transparent manner.
>
> I doubt anything can be done to fix the past, it is as it was.  But as we
> approach an election for a new NCUC Chair and Executive Committee, it is
> important we know what it is that our NCUC-EC  does and to what extent they
> are involved in transparently making NCUC decisions?  I would also like to
> know more about what intentions the candidates for these posts have in
> bringing issues to the list for discussion before decisions are made and in
> increasing transparency and accountability in the NCUC.  I do not beleive
> we can have single officers, or a small group of friends, making decisions
> in the name of NCUC any longer.
>
> A related issue to this one.  It was my impression that in the past, the
> NCUC had a practice where it tried to spread around the tasks and not
> concentrate all of the officer roles in a few hands.  At the moment, we
> have several people who occupy several roles; ie. one is both NCUC chair
> and a NCUC appointed member of the NCSG-PC (a self appointment by all
> appearances), one is a member of both the NCSG-EC and the NCSG-PC,  and one
> is an elected council member and a NCSG-EC member.  While there are no NCUC
> charter rules against this to my knowledge, I do think it was previous
> practice to avoid it.  Certainly as a constituency with over 100 active
> members, we should be able to find suitable officers for all roles without
> duplication. Again nothing can probably be done about this at the moment,
> the past being the past, but I do think it is an unsatisfactory way for the
> Constituency to make appointments - we should strive for as much of a
> cross-section of our membership as possible and should share the
> responsibilities.  As the NCUC charter currently needs to be revised to
> bring it into accordance with the NCSG Charter, at least I beleive that is
> the case, it might be good for us to look at codifying this practice.
>
> Again apologies to the NPOC members and NCSG independent members who find
> the airing of NCUC internal laundry disturbing, but it is only slightly
> different from a public archive - we can put NCUC in the subject and you
> all can avoid reading these messages.  As a constituency the NCUC decided
> not have a NCUC only list, which I beleive the NCSG charter allows, so this
> is the only way to bring up internal NCUC issues.
>
> avri
>
>
>
>
>
> On 14 Nov 2011, at 13:57, Konstantinos Komaitis wrote:
>
> > Dear all,
> >
> > Yes! It has been a year and elections are upon us. We need to elect an
> NCUC Chair and an NCUC Executive Committee.
> >
>



--
Poncelet O. Ileleji MBCS
Coordinator
The Gambia YMCAs Computer Training Centre & Digital Studio
MDI Road Kanifing South
P. O. Box 421 Banjul
The Gambia, West Africa
Tel: (220) 4370240
Fax:(220) 4390793
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Skype: pons_utd
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