[NCUC-DISCUSS] Nomcom, responding to Ayden - Re: Nomcom

[Anriette Esterhuysen]

Dear Ayden

Your question is interesting. I am not entirely sure I understand it
fully, but you can always as follow-up questions.

I have pretty actively involved in proposing candidates to Nomcom for
the ICANN board and other positions for more than 10 years (through NCUC
representatives)  and I have acted as a reference for many - some who
have been successful and some not. I made myself available for board
nomination last year so looked into the process quite carefully.

It has not been that easy to find people to nominate, primarily because
of the time commitment. It became a bit easier when ICANN started
remunerating board members as, particularly in the case of people from
the non-for-profit sector, it meant that their time did not have to be
subsidised. For other positions in ICANN this is still a challenge -
although I believe strongly in the principle of voluntary service.

I would say that the types of impediments I have encountered (and it
would be good to hear from previous Nomcom members about what they feel
the main impediments are) fall into the following categories:

1. Lack of time.
2. Concern that they lack knowledge of ICANN and/or they are not
'insider' enough to qualify or be seen to be qualified.
3. Concerns about ICANN itself (legitimacy, policy-relevance)

1. I probably the most common concern I have heard. People who have the
right skill set based on the stated criteria are often just too busy to
be able to make the commitment. That is an impediment that one can try
to address by:

- encouraging candidates and the organisations, companies, they work in
and pointing them to information that helps make the case for why
spending time being an ICANN board member is worthwhile in terms of
contribution to IG development
- connecting candidates with past board members who can give them a
first-hand account of the required effort
- pointing to diversity challenges on the board and with regard to other
positions (e.g. gender or in terms of perspective) and urging them to
try and be part of addressing this (gender clearly needs attention and
so does geographic diversity).
- It is worth noting that Nomcom only appoints 8 board members, so the
board diversity challenge is not one that it can deal with on its own,
but it can and should make a difference.

2. Depends a lot on the position that one is nominating for - some
requires more understanding of internal ICANN procedures than others.
Again I would address this by pointing candidates to resources, and
connecting them to people to talk to. I will, based on my own
experience, tell people that once one tries to be more involved in ICANN
there are people willing to spend the time to provide support. And there
is a lot of information available.

3. This is perhaps the most difficult impediment to address. Lack of
confidence in ICANN's internationalness and independence from specific
interest groups in the DNS industry is not uncommon. I have also found
that candidates who would provide diversity (e.g. women and critical
thinkers) are concerned they would just be token voices, adding
legitimacy rather than really being able to influence.

I will address this concern by pointing to the way in which ICANN works,
that change needs to come from within and without, and the many ways in
which individuals and constituencies can be influential - but I would
also warn candidates that this can take time, and that it is not easy,
but that there is opportunity to speak and be heard.

But rereading your messages... I am really not sure I understood you
fully. Please elaborate a bit more :)

Anriette


On 28/07/2017 18:28, Ayden Férdeline wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am glad to hear that we have two nominations for this position. Like
> Renata, I also have a question for our candidates:
> 
>   * One of the jobs of the Nominating Committee, as best I understand
>     it, is to ensure that the maximum number of qualified people are
>     willing to offer themselves as nominees for a given role. If you
>     uncover impediments which discourage people from being nominated who
>     might otherwise be qualified and willing to volunteer their time,
>     how would you go about eliminating or reducing those impediments?
> 
> I ask this because this is not just a problem which you might face on
> the NomCom. We as NCUC members might face it soon too. In the coming
> months we are going to have elections for a number of important roles
> (as many as four seats on the GNSO Council, as well as leadership roles
> on both the NCSG EC and NCUC EC). Not having a complete slate of
> candidates could be problematic from the perspective of diversity and in
> terms of making sure we have enough people both with new views and the
> right amount of institutional knowledge. Have you any tips you can share
> with us on how to build large nominee pools?
> 
> Thanks again for stepping forward.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Ayden Férdeline
> linkedin.com/in/ferdeline <http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline>
> 
> 
>> -------- Original Message --------
>> Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Nomcom
>> Local Time: July 28, 2017 3:04 PM
>> UTC Time: July 28, 2017 2:04 PM
>> From: raquino at gmail.com
>> To: NCUC-discuss <ncuc-discuss at lists.ncuc.org>
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> It is such good news we have 2 nominations for Nomcom.
>> And both women from Africa. 
>>
>> As NCUC LAC member, I'm happy to see Global South representation. 
>>
>> LAC is not represented in numbers well enough in the ICANN community.
>> We do hope that changes.
>>
>> Will the chosen representative be appointed be EC or vote?
>>
>> Whatever path taken, I believe who decides will have a better chance
>> of assessing if we hear more from candidates.
>> I'd personally would like to know:
>>
>> - What are your thoughts and strategies for advancement of diversity
>> in ICANN, especially Global South participation?
>>
>> - If Ines is chosen, do we have to choose a new EC Africa? 
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>>
> 
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
----------------------------------------
Anriette Esterhuysen
Director - global policy and strategy
Association for Progressive Communications
anriette at apc.org
www.apc.org
IM: ae_apc