Sébastien Bachollet comments - currently under discussion within At-Large / ALAC
Sébastien Bachollet comments - currently under discussion within At-Large / ALAC Introduction The following comments, included in this document were composed by Sebastien Bachollet, Chair of the At-Large working group on the Future Structure and Governance of ICANN, are currently proposed to At-Large / ALAC to become the base for official comments. It is publish to stay on the calendar of the comments period. It is being made available for comments from the At-Large working group on the Future Structure and Governance of ICANN and then to the Community, after which a final text will be produced and voted on by the ALAC. [End of Introduction] Comments are in green in this document. Response to recommendations from the independent reviewer Recommendation #1: Reduce the size of the board: I (and hopefully At-Large / ALAC) fully support ?the specific nature and unique governance model of ICANN?. The representativeness of the board is very important but it is strange that it is for related issues like geographic, cultural and stakeholder diversity and not for the entity that elected them. The role of the NomCom to provide balance and diversity is essential because in the other bodies selecting board members there is no possibilities to have any balance. For example with the 2 GNSO board directors who will come from each house or At-Large / ALAC with just one board member we are not able even to have a gender balance. CcNSO council and ALAC are good examples for real geographic balance but still a lot to do for other type of balance even with the help of the NomCom. Historically 9 at-Large directors were suppose to be elected by At-Large (5 were elected by a worldwide election in 2000). In the ICANN 2.0 organization 2 bodies were in charge of representing At-Large. The NomCom to select 8 board members and At-Large / ALAC to elect one Liaison and to organize the voice of the Worldwide End Users into the ICANN processes. Now with the election by At-Large / ALAC of one board member, ICANN is back to this number of 9 board seats. In fact NomCom represent the voice of all the constituencies of ICANN ? it is an ?inside? At-Large and At-Large / ALAC represent the voice of all the End Users ? it is an ?outside? At-Large. Therefore in the future ICANN may decide to decrease the number of board members selected by ?inside? to increase the number of board members selected by ?outside?. We thing that right now 2 seats elected by At-Large / ALAC will allow us to have a gender balance and 2 regions represented. And we will be more confidante that the voice of the End-Users will participate better to the Board of ICANN work. We are still questioning on how the advisory role to the board of ALAC will be continued. At-Large / ALAC is working on the election (selection?) process for one board director but we would like to clarify when she/he will be seated? Do we need to have a director seated by the 2010 ?mid-year meeting? or by the ?2010 AGM?? ?The WG expects that the selection process will be designed, approved and implemented in time for the new Director to be seated at the latest at the 2010 AGM.? ?On balance of these views, the WG recommends to maintain the current arrangements, but to seat all the incoming Directors at an ICANN meeting (i.e., the mid-year meeting for SO and At-Large appointees, and the Annual General Meeting for NomCom nominees), in order to facilitate their transitioning.? Recommendation #4: Broaden the skills of the board: I (and hopefully At-Large / ALAC) request that the community work on giving weight (or a ranking) to the following items to allow a better mix within the Board and the other bodies of ICANN: · skill · experience · independence · geographic · cultural · stakeholder diversity · gender · language · ability · competency We would like to amend the recommendation 4(g) by (g) Occasionally invite prominent company [and not-for-profit organizations] directors to meet the board over dinner to talk about 'the role of the director'. Regarding recommendation 4(d) At-Large / ALAC is already giving inputs to the NomCom by informal exchanges between the two Chairs. Sébastien Bachollet Président d'honneur - Isoc France <mailto:sebastien.bachollet@xxxxxxx> sebastien.bachollet@xxxxxxx <http://www.egeni.org/> www.egeni.org <http://www.isoc.fr/> www.isoc.fr Attachment:
AL_ALAC_1109_Board_RWG_sbt_V00.docx |