[NCUC-EC] August to do [long]

[William Drake]

Hi

So sometimes events conspire to complicate things, and this is one of them.  

After returning from South Africa on 23 July I had a few nights with fever, cold shakes, sweating, and muscle aches, but then it seemed to go away.    So my wife and I did a short trip during which I got massively sun burnt (creme useless) and developed quite a lot of red itchy sores all over the upper half of my body.  Plus the fever, cold shakes, sweating, and muscle aches are all back, including during the day.   Michiko was convinced I had chicken pox, but happily I'm just back from my doctor who says it's just severe sun poisoning, which is not contagious.  So while I'm going to be an enfeebled basket case for awhile, I can continue as planned with our vacation——I'll be in NYC 8-18th, Chicago 18th-26th, and NY again 26-31.  Hopefully during that time I will not have to avail myself of the wonderful US health system, but I will nevertheless be jammed up with family and friends.

This together with Durban burnout means I'd like to pull back from NCUC admin a bit; I believe this 'job' comes with a right to vacation!  But at the same time, I'm cognizant that there are some 'putting pieces in place' things to do, particularly with an eye to a both hands re-engagement in September.  Can we go through it (please add anything really necessary), and if you want to put it on a pad or something to keep track by all means do.

1. Buenos Aires Travel

I had dinner with Glen the other night and she's fully aware that the requests to identify covered travelers are becoming progressively more unrealistic.  If we can get her something in the next week that should be fine.  Per previous I appreciate the magnanimous offers to step back in favor of someone else, but would also note that we have two or three orgs represented on the EC that generally pay for their people to attend.  It would be good to have confirmation yes or no of this from the relevant folks.  If it is correct, then all we need to do to get the full EC there is cover one person out of NCUC funds, presumably the cheapest ticket.  I'd guess that'd be Tapani or Ed.  Could you guys please price.  I favor paying per diem to NCUC's covered traveler as per Durban, there's no reason accepting this arrangement should disadvantage someone.

As to making a fixed amount available per Milton, for the AGM up to $5k seems ok.

As to 'what's on tap,' well, we are of course still in the process of enhancing our intra-organizational management, which is logically antecedent to refocusing intensively on policy.  Indeed, we don't have a established process for agreeing policy outputs, at least not one that some of you are comfortable with.  So while certain streams of activity outside the EC's remit will go forward, e.g. we have people involved in directory services and whois and the reconsideration conflict and all the rest, generally speaking my answer to 

On Aug 5, 2013, at 6:59 PM, Tapani Tarvainen <ncuc at TAPANI.TARVAINEN.INFO> wrote:

> Do we have projects that would benefit for some non-EC member's
> presence or otherwise non-EC members who would be useful to be in BA?


is that our priority this time should be to focus on finishing what we started with regard to getting the house in order.  If, closer to the date, it appears there's a non-EC member who's doing something key that could make the trip with a little cash injection, of course we can take that up then.  But for now I propose we focus on the Big Dog in the room:


2.  Bylaws Revision

I know some folks are chomping at the bit to get this going and hope we can harness that good energy into a productive group effort.  As you know, we have http://lists.ncuc.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bylaws, the subscribers of which are 
ncuc at tapani.tarvainen.info
nmutungu at gmail.com
wilson at isoc.ug
wjdrake at gmail.com
Once discussions are actually going to get going, I believe a number of veteran members who care about NCUC and have been involved in previous efforts will want to get engaged here.  We also will need to take full stock of the various versions that people have played with previously; nobody will feel good about their work being simply set aside by new folks.  So some sensitivity in managing this process will be called for.  In addition, we will need to bring into the discussion either Rob (who's got the institutional memory and was involved in the previous reworking) or Mary from staff to make sure that whatever we do fits with the NCSG Charter, the GNSO Operating Procedures, the ICANN Bylaws, etc.

Here's my suggestion: Ed and Tapani, since you're particularly eager, how about being the lead carnival barkers and get people into the tent in August?  Some messages to ncuc-discuss, and direct appeals to key vets, to join the listserv (you don't have to use the word 'team' if you don't want) and get organized during August?

Then, in September - October the group decides how it wants to proceed and online collaboration commences in earnest (IGF will cause asynchronous delays in some corners), resulting hopefully in a draft that people are like 90% ok with by BA.

=> I can ask Glen to secure a room for us for Friday 15 November in BA to do an intensive last push F2F negotiation to pull it together.  I can also ask her, and Xavier, whether any funds can be made available to cover some hotels so we can be there, but this may be difficult.  In which case, and returning to Milton's $5k, my proposal would be that NCUC makes available $2-3k as needed to cover the extra night of hotel so we can get this done.

Assuming good will all around, we could then have something to be vetted for an hour on CD, and then put to a vote along with the elected NCUC positions the weeks of Nov. 25 − 8 December…not too far off from our schedule last time.


3.  Programmatic

The response to the closed generic workshop and to us doing this sort of thing was so positive that I was severely tempted to take another whack at the piñata, taking advantage of Joy's last stand as a Councilor, and do a workshop on human rights & ICANN, what's it really mean, maybe based off a five page discussion paper.  I've also talked with Olga Cavalli about doing something together, whether within the program or off campus at a university.  But the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it'd be best to hold off on this so we can focus on getting the bylaws done.  Don't want to dilute people's energies too much.  Any bandwidth left over after bylaws can simply be applied to the GNSO issues de jour.

That said, if some folks step forward and say they are really prepared to devote the needed bandwidth, we can reconsider.

There is also the open question of whether having talked about it with the two vice chairs in Durban, we want to try to organize a full meeting with the GAC in BA.  I would only want to do this if we really really were organized with an agenda of questions to pursue and a strong NCUC contingent on the ground.  Otherwise it could wait.


4.  Toward Singapore

One other reason to keep our power dry, stick to the bylaws job, etc, is the next cycle.  As you know I have submitted a number of budget and GNSO Tool Kit requests, including for a) support for a Thursday new EC retreat and b) a Friday policy conference in Singapore.  (I'd originally wanted to do London, but there's no point trying to compete with ALAC's Atlas II conference, especially since many of us are At Large as well).

So: my suggestion for the next three weeks is

a) decide who needs travel support from NCUC of what kind
b) recognizing it's summer and responses will be slow, start a process of talking up bylaws revision and joining the group to make it happen
c) if we're doing this, get in request to Glen now for a Friday workspace in BA

Ok, I'm going to go lay down in a quivering lump.  Thoughts, please…

Best,

Bill

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