Re: [council] Administrative planning and coordination Council/Staff working sessions

[Thomas Keller <tom@xxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

in general I agree with both views especially with Alik on the use of project
tools which I would greatly welcome. I'm mostly concerned with the 
effectiveness 
of the council as well as the effectiveness of staff. One thing we have to be 
cautious about is that more council staff meetings lead to less time for council
and staff to do actual work. 

They situation we have right now is that the process of how council is working 
for itself and together with staff is not very clear and should be better 
defined.
Meetings to discuss process every two weeks is certainly a step in the
right direction but, as time passes on and the process becomes clearer, might 
be 
unnecessary and lead to a micro management of staff through the council.

My thought would be to form a working group with a defined scope and
timeframe (nothing fancy we would not need to spend hours on the
definitions) which should meet with staff to work on how a future
process in regard to planning/administration could look like as well as
to work on actual action items during this timeframe.

Best,

tom

.

Am 11.08.2005 schrieb Ross Wm. Rader:
> I concur with both Marilyn's original suggestion and Alick's suggestions.
> 
> On 8/11/2005 2:11 AM Alick Wilson noted that:
> >Marilyn, Bruce and fellow Councillors
> >
> >Further to Marilyn's posted suggestion that Council arrange for staff
> >planning/administration calls every two weeks, I support this request, and
> >in addition, have two related requests.
> >
> >1. A further contribution to Council would be a better understanding of who
> >and what staff support we have available. This would be improved if each of
> >those staff who actively participate in Council matters provide to Council 
> >a
> >short description of their role in the ICANN organisation and how much of
> >their role and time is available to support the GNSO Council. It would be
> >useful to have this from at least Olof, Maria and now Liz. As an open and
> >transparent organisation, this should not need discussion or resolution of
> >Council. Bruce, please make this request to staff on my behalf as a Council
> >member.
> >
> >2. I would like to see a prioritised project/task list for GNSO projects 
> >and
> >tasks, kept up to date by staff so we can see ongoing progress and plans,
> >not just a snapshot prior to calls. I am familiar with open source
> >project/task management tools which may be suitable if ICANN does not
> >already have such.
> >
> >Bruce, please add these to Marilyn's agenda item for the next call.
> >
> >Also, a note to say that I would like to contribute to the better 
> >governance
> >of GNSO Council by participating in the proposed admin calls.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Alick
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> >Behalf Of Marilyn Cade
> >Sent: Monday, 8 August 2005 10:21 a.m.
> >To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: [council] Administrative planning and coordination Council/Staff
> >working sessions
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Dear fellow councilors
> > 
> >Council has a lot on its plate regarding policy work, and I am mindful of a
> >recent posting by Ross Rader that reminds us that Council needs to set
> >priorities that drives its work, and thus our supporting staff.
> >
> >I think we will all probably agree that the monthly Council calls should
> >ideally be left primarily to the task of policy management; yet there
> >is a need for Council to be able to better organize itself and its
> >policy-support needs, and for a constructive and ongoing interaction 
> >between
> >Council and staff regarding Council's priorities; addressing administrative
> >challenges they face in their policy support work, such as competing
> >priorities, lack of clarity in a Council request, additional participation
> >by councilors with background expertise to contribute, discussion of 
> >whether
> >other external resources are needed, etc.
> >
> >I am proposing a trial approach of "planning and coordination" sessions via
> >conference call with the Council chair and any Council members who wished 
> >to
> >participate and supported by the GNSO support staff : (Olaf, Maria, Glen,
> >plus any temporary consultant such as Liz Williams). I suggest that we 
> >trial
> >the approach of a 45 minute call every two weeks/fortnightly for the period
> >between now and Vancouver. The outcome of these calls would be reported to
> >the full Council in the usual monthly progress report we currently receive
> >on the monthly Council calls.  The planning and coordination calls would 
> >not
> >address policy development work, but administrative management and
> >coordination.
> >
> >Right now, we have a number of significant policy issues to work on as
> >Council.  This approach would ensure that we can focus on the monthly
> >Council calls on those issues, yet have an effective way to better manage
> >ourselves and provide administrative input to the supporting staff.
> >
> >
> >I welcome feedback on this idea. 
> >
> >Marilyn Cade
> >
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> 
> 
>       -rwr
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> "In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one 
> indispensable condition for social progress."
>       - Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926)
> 
> 

Gruss,

tom

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