RE: [council] Possible roles for GNSO vice chair/s

["Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Very helpful suggestions Bruce.  I have a couple questions for you in
this regard: 1) Are meetings and operating planning the two biggest
areas that you have seen where support in your role of chair have been
or could be helpful?  Are there any other areas in which vice-chair
support could possibly spread the work load out for the chair?

If we do consider going this direction, I think it is important to not
restrict the vice-chair roles to simply the two categories suggested.
Whereas the primary responsibilities could be meetings and operating
planning as Bruce suggests, each vice chair should also be responsible
for leading in other areas as well such as liaisoning with task forces
and working groups, filling in for the chair in leading Council
meetings, in representing the GNSO in various other forums, etc.  In my
opinion it would not be very difficult to define the roles in an
effective and yet flexible way.

If we followed Bruce's suggested approach or something like it, I think
that it would be better to elect the chair and the vice chair(s)
separately so that we can better capilize on individual Council member
strengths.  Vice chairs of course should have the leadership skills for
serving as chair but they should also more specific skills related to
the defined role for the particular vice chair position.  Holding one
election where the highest number of votes determines the chair, second
highest is 1st vice chair, etc., may not maximize our chances of using
peoples' strengths.

To pull something off in the short time we have will require some added
work.  I for one would be willing to work with two or three other
Councilors to develop some ideas if there is interest and if there are
some other volunteers.  We would need to do our work in the next week so
that the Council could consider any recommendations before the
nomination period begins.  One approach that might work would be to
elect slates of candidates; slates could involve various combinations of
chairs and vice chairs with the same candidates filling different roles
on different slates.

Regarding Robin's concern about Power distribution, it might be healthy
to have Chair/Vice-Chair combinations that as much as possible balance
various interests on the Council (e.g., users vs. providers, commercial
interests vs. non-commercial interests, etc.) but I personally think
that the abilities to provide leadership, to commit the time necessary
and to be neutral should not be compromised just to achieve balance.  

Chuck Gomes
 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
> [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bruce Tonkin
> Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 4:23 AM
> To: Council GNSO
> Subject: [council] Possible roles for GNSO vice chair/s
> 
> Hello All,
> 
> Having been in the role as chair for a while, I can see at 
> least a couple of vice-chair roles that would help spread the 
> workload:
> 
> 
> (1) vice-chair for meetings
> 
> - work with staff to schedule the various GNSO related 
> meetings at each major ICANN meeting, as well as help plan 
> any inter-sessional meetings
> 
> 
> (2) vice-chair for operating planning
> 
> - work with staff to develop the budget for GNSO related 
> expenses to feed into ICANN's annual operational plan/budget 
> - e.g travel costs, as well as work with staff to plan for 
> both staff and GNSO volunteer resources for various projects 
> (task forces, working groups etc)
> 
> - identify projects that provide efficiency improvements (e.g 
> website updates, new use of collaboration tools,  document 
> management systems
> etc)
> 
> - maintain a rolling 12 month operational/work plan - ensure 
> we don't over commit projects to the available resources
> 
> 
> Note that in either case the vice chair would work with staff 
> to essentially prepare documents for review by the Council as 
> a whole, and publish the relevant material in sufficient time 
> to allow Council feedback and discussion at a Council meeting.
> 
> 
> Note that at various times these roles have existed - but 
> never really formalised.  Marilyn Cade often assisted in 
> meeting planning, and we did have a planning committee 
> chaired by Grant Forsyth at one time.
> 
> Regards,
> Bruce Tonkin
> 
> 
> 
> 
>