[NCUC-DISCUSS] Intersessional meeting

[Rafik Dammak]

Hi Farzaneh,

Thanks for the question.

having participated in planning for several intercessional meetings and
participated in some physically and remotely, I am really ambivalent about
the value of those meetings. it takes time to organize and discuss for the
agenda. and in many occasions, we were not really ready for the discussions
there.

in the last time we had discussion in the mailing list for the meeting in
Iceland, I stressed that we need an evaluation of those meetings and their
supposed benefits. I can understand some arguments about discussing with
our counterpart in non-contracted party. however, I would notice that we
rarely had a real follow-up from those meetings that can justify them. For
example, the board seat election was resolved by the usual means in
discussing with CSG by emails and not at the intercessional meeting.

I am concerned about the inflation of meetings in general. GNSO Council
will also have a strategy meeting of  3 days in January. adding that to the
intercessional and usual ICANN meetings, we have 4 weeks (1 month) of
meetings for ICANN with all the travels it includes (and not counting the
preparation for the meetings in term of substance and the time apply for
visa for some of us). That is definitely a barrier for several of us and
limitation for participation.  We need to explore other means to cooperate
with CSG. I suggested last time that we explore the opportunity to have the
intersessional (and maybe also a retreat) combined with the policy forum.
it makes it longer but at least doesn’t add more traveling and provide the
opportunity to involve more people.

working with CSG can happen by other means like regular confcalls (for
example monthly or quarterly), organizing joint sessions during regular
ICANN meetings (last ones was in Hyderabad meeting) as we did before. we
need to look for effectiveness and efficiency here.

I would suggest pausing for next year and rethinking the format and the
expectations on the intercessional meetings. with regard to preparation, it
is not just for interessional but it is also needed for ICANN meetings,
otherwise, it put more burden on few among who has to carry the load for
the rest.

Best,

Rafik

2017-07-23 6:39 GMT+09:00 farzaneh badii <farzaneh.badii at gmail.com>:

> Dear All,
>
> For a couple of years, the noncontracted party house (NCPH, that means
> Commercial stakeholder group and noncommercial stakeholder group, for some
> information about NCPH refer to this page:https://community.icann.
> org/display/ncph/About+Us) have been having annual meetings separate from
> the main ICANN meeting. These meetings are called:
> "intersessional meetings".
>
> ICANN is asking NCPH whether they want to hold another meeting in 2018.
> The last meeting which was held in 2017 in Iceland was well received by the
> attendees and 100% of the attendees found the meeting useful.
>
> The attendees of the meeting are usually the leaders and active members of
> the group. This means both NCUC and NPOC Executive Committees and NCSG
> Executive Committee as well as NCSG representatives on GNSO Council.
> Sometimes we receive one or two travel slots to allocate to active
> participants of NCUC.
>
> There is support for the meeting from other groups.
>
> I would like to know if you have any opinion about holding an
> intersessional meeting in 2018, if you are either for or against it. In any
> case please provide reasons. I will communicate your ideas and positions on
> this to the organizers.
>
> My personal opinion is that intersessional is an additional burden on the
> volunteers, especially noncommercial groups, and I am not convinced that
> the meeting is that beneficial for getting to know the other groups, we can
> interact with the other groups in other settings. But it is not up to me to
> make a decision, there has been support for the meeting from the other
> groups and NCUC leaders as well. I have however informed ICANN that if
>  intersessiona take place it should consider the following conditions:
>
> 1. it is held in a visa friendly country, preferably where ICANN has an
> office so that it will not cost too much to hold the meeting. I think
> holding the meeting last year in Iceland was too burdensome and costly.
>
> 2. I have said this before and reiterate, those who want to attend the
> meeting should actively participate in its preparation, setting the agenda
> and be prepared for the meeting. This means they should attend at least
> some of the preparatory meetings leading up to the annual meeting. If they
> are allocated the travel slot late in the process, then they should read up
> on materials and contribute fully.
>
>
>
> Please discuss until Wednesday 26 July. I will send a note to the
> organizers with your comments.
>
> Best
>
>
>
>
> Farzaneh
>
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>
>
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