Re: [Membership] Re: Individual Memberships

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Sun, Feb 14, 1999 at 02:30:21PM +0100, Daniel Kaplan wrote:
[...]
> 
> - So Kent's proposal to have organizations designate a representative, and
> let this representative vote there barring him from voting again as an
> individual, is logical. But then, it is true that in this case, it looks
> like an individual vote.
> 
> Where's the difference? I don't know the correct term in English, but in
> French it's called "mandat imperatif" ("imperative mandate"?). When an
> organization joins, it designates one representative, but this
> representative MUST vote according to his/her organization's policy.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is too strong.

> He/she can be replaced as the organization's representative in ICANN.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This single statement is sufficient.  When an organization joins, it 
designates a representative.  It can change that designation at its 
option, probably with some notice.  We don't need to worry about 
whether the individual votes as the organization wishes -- that's 
the organizations problem.

In practice, IBM might join ICANN, but the Gerstner certainly won't
be IBM's rep... 

Another thing about organizational vs individual membership -- the
distinction is partly illusory.  The gLTD-MoU expected organizations
to be signatories; I signed as my DBA, Songbird.  It was, and is, to
all intents an Individual membership. 

There are really two issues, and the rest is smoke, IMO: 1) How many
votes a single individual human participant can wield; and 2) what
are the barriers to joining, and what effects do they have on the 
population of interest.

1) I think there is widespread agreement that every human 
participant in the general membership should have equal weight in 
the voting system, whatever it is.

2) The barriers shouldn't be too high, but they shouldn't be 
non-existent, either.  Forming a one person or two person, or 3 
person organization (3 if I include my 3 year old daughter) is a 
relatively small barrier, and, if it requires legal action, it punts 
on the difficult identification problem.  On the other hand, why 
induce such contortions?


-- 
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair				"Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com				lonesome." -- Mark Twain