[NCUC-EC] NCUC Bylaws Revision

Sun Sep 8 11:47:00 CEST 2013

Hi

Further to yesterday's message: again, while we won't be able to put revised bylaws before NCUC voters in December, there's no reason not to begin addressing the issues, some of which like policy work are fairly pressingly in need of clarification.  In some cases, it may be the solution requires a bylaws tweak.  In other cases, it may be that the EC can just adopt a internal rule or operating procedure that we'd list on the website for institutional memory etc.  Some items might be handled other ways.  Let's see as we start to go through them.

In any event, Ed's 22 August boot up message announced the creation of a Bylaws Committee with a listserv http://www.ncuc.org/bylaws-revision-committee  (I'm not sure why this is a 'committee' with a page separate from the 'teams' http://www.ncuc.org/participate/working-teams, but whatever).  I see there are sixteen people subscribed and presumably expecting smoke signals on how to begin.  Ed, this was your baby and you'd indicated sometime ago a desire to lead the charge, so I hope that's still the case and there'll be a follow-up boot-up.  

One other concrete action is required.  You'll recall that in response to the 22 August call to arms and the (now dashed) hope that we'd be able to revise Sept-October and finalize and put to a vote in November, I'd asked Glen to secure a room for us in Buenos Aires where we'd conduct a F2F drafting finale.  She did so, drawing on the GNSO Tool Kit budget line; we have a reservation for Friday 15 November, kitted out with Adobe, recording and transcription.  We need to decide if we still want it.  While we presumably won't be finalizing a revised text, I suppose we could use the room to have a focused, F2F overview conversation on the bylaws.  Or, we could instead select out a pressing issue like whether/how to reconstitute a Policy Committee (under the extant bylaws or with revision), replace it with a different policy approval process, etc.  

This would be useful, but of course there are costs involved.  ICANN will not provide BA funding beyond the trips of Ed, Tapani and myself, so if we wanted other EC members there we'd have to pay out of NCUC's funds.  Ditto the extra night of hotel for the covered travelers.  This could run into quite a significant draw on NCUC's bank account, given the costs of flight/accomodation/per diem for BA.  There's also the question of whether/how many regular members with no funding we might actually get to BA a day early.  Not much point asking ICANN to fund a room if we end up with just a few bodies in it.

Accordingly, I'm inclined to hold off on this and save the money for Singapore, where we're committed to a new EC retreat and policy conference and will have a greater need to have as many EC members present as we can manage.  But I'm open to persuasion if folks think there is a pressing need to go ahead with a BA meeting irrespective of costs, body count, etc.  So let's discuss.  

Please let me know what to do, rooms and resources are hotly contested so we should give Glen a clear answer soon.

Thanks,

Bill

On Sep 7, 2013, at 5:37 PM, William Drake <william.drake at uzh.ch> wrote:

> Hi
> 
> Yesterday afternoon I had a long chat with Rob (the staffer responsible for us on operational matters) on a number of matters, e.g. bylaws revision, budget allocations, civil society roundtable, and proposed outreach and administrative funding.  I'm rushing to deal with something else at the moment but will send a summary tomorrow.  But before getting to that, I thought I should pass along the below.  His bottom line is that there's no way our proposed timetable for revising the bylaws can work due to the turn around time need by the Board SIC committee, the public comment period, etc.  So there's no point killing ourselves to complete a revision in October, since it can't go to NCUC members during the November election anyway.  That said, there's also no reason not to begin dialogue and work on the issues with an eye to member adoption of a SIC-approved revision down the line somewhere, and in particular to address the most pressing outstanding item, which is whether to reboot the PC or establish some other formal process for the adoption of policy positions and statements.
> 
> More to come,
> 
> Bill
> 
> Begin forwarded message:
> 
>> From: Robert Hoggarth <robert.hoggarth at icann.org>
>> Subject: Re: NCUC Bylaws Revision
>> Date: September 5, 2013 5:39:52 PM GMT+02:00
>> To: William Drake <william.drake at uzh.ch>
>> Cc: Glen de Saint Géry <Glen at icann.org>
>> 
>> Hi Bill;
>> 
>> I think staff can certainly help the NCUC complete its internal efforts to amend its Charter by November, but I don't think you would have the second step --- Board approval --  completed by that time.
>> 
>> Even after a community elects to make charter amendments, those changes need to be "approved" by the ICANN Board.  Even if you gave me formal notice today that the NCUC had voted to approve a charter change, I doubt that we would be able to get them approved by the Buenos Aires Board meeting. That is primarily because the current Board-approval process (at present less-than-formal, but soon to be formalized – see http://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/structures-charter-22jun13-en.htm) includes the requirement for a Public Comment Forum for community review and comments on any proposed charter changes. So there is a minimum 21 – or 42 day -- period built into the process. 
>> 
>> My observation is that these efforts always take longer than expected.  It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a group started asap even if its just to discuss and outline potential changes and staff (me and our experienced consultant Ken Bour) would be delighted to support the effort. Staff is not an "approval" bottle neck in any effort, but in my experience the Board is more comfortable with charter changes when they know that community leaders and staff have been engaged in an active dialogue. We can also highlight potential problem areas and suggest solutions so that any Board concerns can be anticipated and resolved before the changes/amendments are announced. 
>> 
>> I am happy to chat about this with anyone from the NCUC you designate on this.  Please feel free to share this note with any of those folks who are itching to get started. Let's discuss on our call tomorrow.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Rob
> 
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**********************************************************
William J. Drake
International Fellow & Lecturer
  Media Change & Innovation Division, IPMZ
  University of Zurich, Switzerland
Chair, Noncommercial Users Constituency, 
  ICANN, www.ncuc.org
william.drake at uzh.ch (w), wjdrake at gmail.com (h),
  www.williamdrake.org
***********************************************************

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