Re: [council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public Board Meetings

[Stéphane Van Gelder <stephane.vangelder@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Ching. Personally, I must admit to not understanding your line of 
reasoning on pay. Many ICANN attendees are not paid to come to meetings. To 
them, cost reduction is a serious issue.

As for the Board, I don't think pay is the right tack here either. Board 
members are not paid, they are compensated (if they choose to accept the 
compensation) a rather measly 35k$ for what is in essence a full-time job all 
year round. I do think we as a community need to be mindful of what we ask of 
the Board. I often get the feeling this community considers that Board members 
are a limitless commodity to be used at will, and that should they dare 
complain about their workload, then tough!

I think if we want to continue to attract the right people to the Board, we 
also need to understand that after (more than) a week's work, the Board may not 
feel the current Friday organization is the best and that they want to 
experiment with different configurations.

I do agree, however, that this should not be done at the cost of transparency. 
Until I see this new format in Prague, I am unable to say whether that is the 
case or not.

Once again, all these are personal statements.


Stéphane Van Gelder
Directeur Général / General manager
INDOM Group NBT France
----------------
Head of Domain Operations
Group NBT

Le 3 mai 2012 à 17:42, Ching Chiao a écrit :

> I think we are mixing meeting efficiency and transparency here. What's 
> important to the community, IMHO, is transparency. Some inefficiency (shorted 
> / longer length of ICANN week) can somehow can be tolerated as most of us are 
> part-timers / volunteers. If we are all getting paid for what we're doing for 
> ICANN, we should be able to make rather quick and simply decision for this 
> issue -- cut it short. Does some (if not all) Board members get paid for 
> their services to ICANN ? 
> 
> If shorter meeting time can help boost efficiency (i.e. decision has to be 
> made in X time), that's fine. If longer meeting time can help ensure quality 
> of decision (including the rational), that's fine too. If ICANN struggles in 
> half way, then it should at least ensure transparency (and public increase) 
> is always there. 
> 
> Just my two cents. 
> 
> Ching
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 9:16 PM, Stéphane Van Gelder 
> <stephane.vangelder@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks Wolf and Wolfgang for your comments.
> 
> If there is more decision on this, could I urge others to chime in so that we 
> can ascertain whether a full agenda item is needed on this, or whether the 
> discussion can be had on the list.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Stéphane Van Gelder
> Directeur Général / General manager
> INDOM Group NBT France
> ----------------
> Head of Domain Operations
> Group NBT
> 
> Le 3 mai 2012 à 11:38, <KnobenW@xxxxxxxxxx> <KnobenW@xxxxxxxxxx> a écrit :
> 
>> My personal view on this is mixed.
>>  
>> Saving of time and money is always preferable - but not at the expense of 
>> transparency when the board is taking decisions at public meetings. SO/AC/BC 
>> reporting could be removed by providing them in written form only.
>> But it makes a difference
>> - to hold "a one-hour session following the Public Forum on Thursday 
>> afternoon..... and outline what they have heard during the week from their 
>> meetings with AC/SOs and their constituent parts and identify those matters 
>> they expect to be dealing with...", to decide upon during non-public board 
>> sessions and at the following ICANN Public Meeting to "report to the 
>> community on what they have dealt with since Prague"
>> or
>> - to discuss and take decisions publicly
>>  
>> I'm curious to know whether this board decision was based on the survey 
>> ("Improving Global Engagement") ICANN started in March where they solicited 
>> community input on improving e.g. effectiveness. For me the Public Meetings 
>> - with all their facets - are per se the highlights of global engagement.
>> 
>> Best regards 
>> Wolf-Ulrich
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> Von: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Im 
>> Auftrag von Stéphane Van Gelder
>> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 2. Mai 2012 22:52
>> An: Margie Milam
>> Cc: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Council
>> Betreff: Re: [council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public 
>> Board Meetings
>> 
>> Thanks Margie, much appreciated.
>> 
>> In the meantime, let me add some more context for the benefit of the Council.
>> 
>> In CR, Steve asked me what I would think of the idea of shortening the ICANN 
>> meeting week by doing away with the Friday. This was floated to me as just 
>> an idea. I was given no indication that it would be implemented one day, let 
>> alone in Prague. And I was given no details on its possible implementation.
>> 
>> When Steve discussed this with me, I did not get the sense that he meant to 
>> do a public consultation on this decision. This was a private conversation 
>> and not one where it was at any time made clear to me that I should break 
>> Steve's confidence and discuss this publicly. That is why I did not discuss 
>> this here.
>> 
>> This week's announcement has, as Jeff says, generated some negative 
>> comments. Those that I have seen are that this decision was taken without 
>> any consultation and that doing away with the Friday Board meeting is 
>> detrimental to transparency.
>> 
>> My own personal view is otherwise. I believe that cutting the Friday out of 
>> the ICANN week is a step in the right direction towards reducing costs and 
>> time challenges for meeting participants, including the Board. Over the past 
>> year, I have seen the Board work hard to improve its transparency. We now 
>> have detailed rationale on votes at every meeting and explanations of the 
>> issues being considered. So I am comfortable with giving the Board a little 
>> of the benefit of the doubt in trying out new ideas such as this one.
>> 
>> Stéphane
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Le 2 mai 2012 à 22:10, Margie Milam a écrit :
>> 
>>> Hi Stéphane,
>>> I’ll follow up internally to provide the requested information.
>>> Best regards,
>>> Margie
>>> From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
>>> Behalf Of Stéphane Van Gelder
>>> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 2:08 PM
>>> To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Council
>>> Subject: Re: [council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public 
>>> Board Meetings
>>> Is someone from Staff able to provide the requested information, whether it 
>>> be on the list or during the next Council meeting?
>>> Stéphane
>>> Le 2 mai 2012 à 20:38, Neuman, Jeff a écrit :
>>> 
>>> 
>>> All,
>>> Given the announcement yesterday of the elimination of the public Board 
>>> meetings at ICANN, I would like to put this on the Council agenda as a 
>>> discussion      item.  I would like it if someone from ICANN that is 
>>> familiar with the rationale behind this decision could give us an 
>>> explanation of how and why that decision was made. 
>>> Also, if the ICANN Board can unilaterally declare that all of its meetings 
>>> will be private, does this set a precedent for its Supporting Organizations 
>>> to do the same thing?  I have not reviewed the bylaws with respect to the 
>>> Council in a little bit, but does the Council have the discretion to 
>>> declare that it will no longer hold a public GNSO Council meeting at ICANN?
>>> 
>>> I think there has been enough disapproval expressed within the community in 
>>> the last day or so that at least merits a discussion of this decision at 
>>> the Council level.
>>> 
>>> Thanks.
>>> Jeffrey J. Neuman 
>>> Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Business Affairs
>>> 21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166
>>> Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: +1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / 
>>> jeff.neuman@xxxxxxxxxxx  / www.neustar.biz
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Ching CHIAO
> Vice President, DotAsia Organisation LTD.
> Chair, Asia Pacific Networking Group
> Member of ICANN GNSO Council & RySG
> =====================================
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