[alac] EU-RALO
Few thoughts on the latest thread. Annette (I believe) has asked why a structure that does not work for NA could work for EU. First of all, one might ask the reverse: why something that might work for EU (and AP?) cannot work for NA. The whole idea about having regions is to be able to adapt better to local needs, even applying different models, if necessary. In this sense, I think that Siavash' call for "experimentation" can be realized in practice exactly by starting in each region with the model that could best work, within the latitude provided by the Bylaws. I personally like VBret's proposal of no voting procedure. In fact, I am very surprised by some "obsession" of the vote, in the sense that whatever we do ist seems that it boils down to who votes, how many seats, and so on. And the problems of substance are pushed in the background. On the issue of timing, I agree that a timeframe of just few days would be unfair. However, this is not the case. The process is not started now, but some 3 years ago. The deadline, as Wolfgang has already noted in one mailing list, has already passed, it was the end of last year. So, on one hand we are facing criticism because we are too slow (no RALOs yet), on the other hand we are facing criticism because we are too fast (tight deadline). On one hand we are told that organizations have had little time to think about joining (only three years), but on the other hand we have ALSes accredited in Europe (six of them have applied more than two years ago) who are asking us: "Well, we did apply, now what?". We are also being told that the big problem is the lack of participation by individual users. However, the formation of the EU-RALO, which foresees in the proposal exactly the participation of individual users along with organizational members, is being delayed. Honestly, I don't understand. Outreach. I understand, and agree, that we did not do a hell of a job. However, may I know what exactly have been the outreach initiatives in these three years in Europe, and why delays would improve the situation. In other words, whoever thinks that a few months of hard outreach work would bring different organizations onboard should also explain to me why this hard work has not been done in the previous months, or why if it has been done and it has not worked, it has better chances to work now. My personal opinion is that now we need a core team to take over some work, composed by the ALSes already onboard, and the individuals that wnat to join along the organizational members. Either this core team is able to function, and then others will join, or it will not function, and then we turn the page. But to try to convince more organizations to join when we do not have a reasonable answer to the question on why we have been unable to use the resources of the existing organizations is IMHO pointless. Furtehr discussion. It is obviously welcome. However, a discussion on the formation of the EU-RALO should be conducted in a mailing list that has this as a specific purpose, not dispersing comments in different places. I am obviously interested in the opinions of the people of the GA, or IG, or other. But I do believe that it would be most appropriate, in case they care to influence the process, to post on the discussion lists opened for this purpose. Last comment is on mission and tasks. I can't speak for others, but as for myself, when I have accepted the nomination, I have accepted to participate in building, and allow functioning, a two level structure, which had organizations as atomic unit, and a regional council (the RALO) expressed by these units. This is the task I have accepted (although I was not an enthusiast myself of the two-level model), and if the decision of the ALAC is to start everything all over again, the first thing I will do is to resign. Maybe then start again with the new experiment, with a differnt hat (one more, one less, after having participated in so many failed attempts, does not make much difference), but first provide my resignation as acknowledgement of the failure of this one. So, in short, I agree with Vittorio on the need to proceed without further waiting. Roberto GAETANO ALAC ICANN BoD Liaison _________________________________________________________________ On the road to retirement? Check out MSN Life Events for advice on how to get there! http://lifeevents.msn.com/category.aspx?cid=Retirement
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