At Large Council

[kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller)]

Re the Santiago resolution "that the At-Large Directors should be 
selected by an At-Large Council, the members of which are directly 
elected by the at-large members of ICANN," as posted at 
    http://www.icann.org/santiago/santiago-resolutions.htm

I recall with fondness those early, headily enthusiastic days when 
the proposed Bylaws included such phrases as 

"(c) At Large Board members
 other than those serving on the
 Initial Board shall be elected
 by a process to be determined
 by a majority vote of all At
 Large members of the Initial
 Board, FOLLOWING SOLICITATION OF
 INPUT FROM ALL INTERESTED PARTIES [see Note]
 AND CONSIDERATION OF ALL SUCH
 SUGGESTIONS. AT A MINIMUM,
 SUCH A PROCESS SHALL CONSIST OF
 NOMINATIONS FROM INTERNET
 USERS, INDUSTRY PARTICIPANTS,
 AND ORGANIZATIONS, AND SHOULD
 GIVE CONSIDERATION TO SUCH
 NOMINEES. Unless a majority
 vote of the At Large members
 of the Initial Board determines
 that it is not possible to create
 a workable membership
 structure, such process shall
 call for election of At Large
 directors by one or more
 categories of members of the
 Corporation admitted pursuant
 to qualifications established by
 majority vote of the At Large
 members of the Initial Board.
 Any process for election by
 members shall provide an
 initial means for determining
 adequate support for any
 nominee and establish
 qualifications for submission to
 the membership."  
   --From Section 9 of the IANA draft proposal for the establishment 
of ICANN as a non-profit, public-interest organization.

I'm sure it is not the intention of the Interim Board to create a 
rubber-stamp council of any sort -- for a group of 9 officers to 
appoint a group of 18 councillors to select a new group of 9 officers 
would be too blatantly antidemocratic to even think of -- but, 
to the degree that this resolution contradicts the MAC 
recommendation (as set forth by mediating staff at 
   http://www.icann.org/santiago/membership-staff-report.htm ) that 
"'Members' should be individuals, and only 'members' should vote 
for At  Large Directors," and indeed insulates the Board from the 
direct expression of the wishes of any At large Membership, it 
behooves the Interim Board to make public the detailed basis of its 
apparent determination that no other 'workable membership 
structure' could be found.

Admittedly, the staff report goes on to recommend "that the Board 
adopt the CONCEPT of an At Large Membership Council, with 
duties and responsibilities to the At Large membership..." but this 
is hardly a mandate to create a Council which (s)elects the At 
large Directors, nor is it clear that this in any way creates 'parity' 
with the Supporting Organizations.

If some analogue to the SO's Council structure is desirable, can  
its formation not be left to the at large membership as it was left to 
the DSO, the PSO, and the ASO? (Would not  this task, in fact, be 
an excellent proving ground for the ability of an at large 
membership to learn to work together as a body?) Is it the Interim 
Board's intention to _define_ the At Large membership as a 
Supporting Organization (ALSO)? (Could this decision not have 
been made several months ago?)  While the Interim Board may 
see itself as a doting parent, I'm nevertheless curious what age 
group it imagines its troublesome membership to have, that it must 
be so assidiously protected from any possible contact with the real 
administrative world.


kerry

=========
Note:

Perhaps the one substantive 'input from interested parties' (out of a 
total of 9 at http://www.icann.org/comments-
mail/membership/current/ )

is msg00005.html :

    To: membership@icann.org 
     Subject: [Membership] At Large membership discussion 
     From: Izumi AIZU <izumi@anr.org> 
     Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 07:26:21 +0800 
     Reply-To: izumi@anr.org 
     Sender: owner-membership@zephyr.isi.edu 

Hi, as I posted before [msg00001, 12 Aug], we are going to have an 
informal, but open meeting about this At Large membership staff 
report (and all related topics), here in Santiago.  

The first one is set just 60 minutes from now - (sorry for this late 
announcement), to see who are interested and discuss how to 
proceed, during the Santiago meeting and beyond. [...]