RE: [liaison6c] RE: [council] Draft Revisions to the ICANN Bylaws Relating to GNSO Restructure

[Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 05/04/2009 09:12 PM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> Alan:
> There are arguments to be made on either side of this issue. At this 
> stage, that is not the point. The issue is whether one staff person 
> decides for us or whether ICANN follows its legitimate process and 
> allows the stakeholders in the GNSO and the Board to come to an 
> agreement on this.

At 05/04/2009 09:31 PM, Milton L Mueller wrote:

> Alan, please note that the NCSG charter NCUC proposed allows a 20% 
> minority within the SG to bind _all_ NCSG Council representatives to 
> support the creation of a WG on a topic that that minority supports. 
> This is either a 20% of the Policy Committee, which represents 
> constituencies, or 20% of the membership.
> (does anyone actually read the charters we are debating?)
>
> So minority viewpoints on policy can be represented quite well on 
> the Council without the distorted process of binding constituencies 
> to a specific number of Council seats.
> Perhaps Denise's comments were made in ignorance of this feature of 
> the proposal, because it completely refutes her arguments. However, 
> staff members involved in this discussion sat in and listened as the 
> NCUC meeting debated and discussed it in Mexico City, so I know that 
> Ken Bour at least is fully aware of it.
> Anyway, as I said before, I am happy to discuss and debate the issue 
> with you, Alan, and other legitimate stakeholders in the process. 
> But this is our debate and the Board's decision. The staff has no 
> business intervening in the debate the way it has; they are only 
> involved to facilitate our discussions and not to act as a 
> substitute for the Board.

Milton, I was not arguing for or against ANY of the various 
positions. I was just responding to Tim's comment that since policy 
will be formulated in Working Groups, it is THERE that having a voice 
will be important.  As true as that is, I was pointing out that 
having a voice (direct, indirect or whatever) in Council will ALSO be 
important. This is clearly a position that you agree with, since you 
are reiterating that in drafting the NCSG charter, the need to be 
heard on Council was factored in.
Alan