[NCUC-EC] GNSO call on threats and opportunities last week

[Raphael Beauregard-Lacroix]

Dear EC,

A short recap of the GNSO meeting last week, regarding threats and
opportunities facing the Council and Councillors, generally.

The usual suspects showed up as far as threats are concerned: workload,
EDPD eating up all resources, having a small group of volunteers, at the
SG/C level, do all the work, etc.

A few worthwhile points as far as we are concerned:


   - IPC mentioned the difficulty of obtaining consensus and working with
   colleagues who have different points of view.
   - The GNSO review was also mentioned as both a threat and an
   opportunity, along the following pattern: a challenge that can be used as
   an opportunity, in order to make the GNSO better... Now that doesn't mean
   we all agree on what "better" means, and that's where the rubber hits the
   road, I guess. IPC, BC, and ISPCP mentioned it.
   - Bruna highlighted the fact that NCSG managed to put together an EPDP
   team composed of newcomers and veterans alike, but that we otherwise have
   already reached our (NCSG) limits in terms of workload/active volunteers
   ratio. In this case, what goes for NCSG goes for NCUC, as we can all
   attest...
   - There was a lot of discussion about scoping of work, prioritizing of
   resources, and what could/should the council and councillors do about that.
   - There was mention of having an internal page which would list the
   various skills (e.g. web development, project management, languages) of the
   councillors. I think that's a good idea, that could be replicated
   internally for us, at the C and eventually at SG level too.
   - Julf highlighted how Org and Board are more carefully listening to the
   GAC, and he related that to the general global climate of internet
   governance.


There seems to be a general interest by the Council to further engage with
SG/Cs, which in turn should prompt us to think about how we want/should
engage with the council and the councillors - although that's most likely a
reflection that should be held at the SG level for us, with an eventual
distribution of labor among members and leaderships.

Rafik stressed the importance, for the council and councillors, of saying
no to some projects, imposing delays, postponing, etc., in order to
better manage the workload. Hence, on our side, one thing we should
think about, as a C (and then SG), is what do we want to see prioritized.
Then, when the day comes and the council takes decisions, we can, through
the SG, work with our councillors to make sure our priorities are the ones
that get prioritized.

Finally, much like it will be the case for our councillors, we all need to
become familiar with PDP 3.0, and that should probably be an integral part
of our capacity building efforts. Additionally and more generally,
knowledge of procedures for a given WG (and for the GNSO, if one is aiming
at a Council position) is an important and appreciated skill - which may
explain why we have so many lawyers at ICANN. That being said, even for
non-lawyers, it is still a perfectly approachable topic.

I was thinking of sharing a slightly trimmed down/fleshed out version of
the summary above to the whole NCUC list - let me know what you would think
of that and which parts appear to you to be the most relevant in that
sense. I'll add that as a topic for our meeting tomorrow.

Have a nice day,
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