[ICANN-EU] Re: how much time is a candidate-director willing to commit

[Alf Hansen <aha@uninett.no>]

Joop,

Joop Teernstra wrote:
> 
> At 06:46 28/08/00 +0200, Alf Hansen wrote:
> 
> >
> >You will never find a Board Member who will do that. If ICANN had been a
> >"World Gvernment", yes. But it is not.
> >
> I have heard this assurance often, Alf.

So have I, and in the beginning I did not beleive it either. Even if
some people think it is a "World Government", my position is that IT IS
NOT. ICANN has to do some policy decisions on names and numbers, and
these decisions will have some impact on people. But it is not a World
Government of any sort. 

> Yes, I know it will be tough to find a candidate- director  who promises
> 100% commitment.

I agree with 100% commitment, which I think is meaning soemthing else
than "...devote all your time to ICANN." To commit is different from
spending all the available time on someting.

> But, you know about the nature of bureaucratic empires, especially when
> they are given the power to tax. The Board members who are to supervise
> that will need ample resources of time.

Yes, and ICANN's mandate should be kept to a minimum (coordination of
names and numbers) making it easier to supervise.

> 
> >> Ideally the ICANN members should vote for a director who is willing and
> >> able to give all his professional time to the task.
> >> There is already the fear that the Board will continue to be driven by
> >> "ICANN staff"  and by the policy advice from the Names Council, without
> >> being able to independently study and absorb the issues.
> >
> >Of cource, the staff must be doing the day-today work. The Board Members
> >should be Board Members. Not Ministers.
> >
> "ICANN staff" has been doing a lot more than the day-to-day work.  Witness
> the bills. I'm especially thinking of Bylaw changes and the structuring of
> ICANN itself.

You are bringing up what happend in the past, and that is another story.
I thought we were discussing how we can improve ICANN.

I have a feeling that you think the ICANN organization is fundamentely
wrong and that we should have had something else instead. Please correct
me if I am wrong.

> If the Board members are content with just meeting 4 times a year plus a
> few teleconfs the supervision and independent judgement will be insufficient.
> The Members will not get the representation they need.

Agree.

> ICANN will not be a "membership organization".

And the "members" are ASO, PSO, DNSO and At-Large individuals. The
procedures for how members can influence and give advice to the Board
has to be developed further.

> 
> --Joop Teernstra LL.M.--
> the Cyberspace Association and
> the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners
> http://www.idno.org

Best regards,
-- 
Alf Hansen                     Mail address:
                                 UNINETT FAS A/S
aha@uninett.no                   N-7465 Trondheim, Norway
Home page:                     Phone: +47 73 55 79 00
http://domen.uninett.no/~alf/  Fax:   +47 73 55 79 01