[NCUC-EC] For Friday's Meeting

[Michael Karanicolas]

Hi all,

I see that our meeting to discuss workflows and EC efficiency has been
scheduled for Friday at 16:00 UTC. As I indicated in the poll, I won't
be able to make this, as it coincides with the launch event for my
Assessment of Open Government in Canada, so I thought I would spell
out my thoughts here, and a proposed solution.

First off - I think this is a good conversation for us to be having.
We're all juggling multiple roles here, both within ICANN and between
our professional and volunteer lives, so the question of how to
streamline operations is in everyone's interest. I think we should
also acknowledge, at the outset, that it might be frustrating for the
Chair to send out emails and have people not replying or engaging -
especially in the context where a majority of votes is required to
move things forward. This is inefficient for everyone.

So here's what I propose, in terms of an avenue forward:

Rather than emailing us on each issue as it arises, the Chair would
consolidate the material together into one weekly email, which gets
sent to the EC every Wednesday and contains all the docs we need to
review, decisions we need to comment on, etc. I don't expect this
would be substantially more work for the Chair - as it would just be a
matter of collecting the material together and waiting to send it out
until Wednesday (rather than pushing it out to us as it arrives on her
desk). To be clear - this is not an EC digest, or anything like that,
that would have to be drafted - it's just a question of collecting the
issues together and emailing once, rather than multiple times.

The other side of this is that the rest of us on the EC would commit
to responding to the weekly email, and any issues that are raised, by
the end of the day on Thursday. Having just one consolidated email a
week would make this easier for us, as we could budget out a couple of
hours on Thursday, each week, to devote purely to NCUC EC stuff.

I think that this would be more efficient for everyone. For the EC, it
would be far less work than having to sort through a trickle of emails
every day, and we could plan the time to devote to NCUC rather than
doing it as emails come in. For the Chair, it would also, I think, be
less work to write one consolidated email than 20-30 thematic ones,
and it would save the Chair having to come back and keep reminding us
that there are consideration processes which remain open.

Sorry again I won't be able to join you Friday - hopefully we can find
a solution which makes life easier for all of us.

Best,

Michael Karanicolas