Re: [ICANN-EU] European At Large Council

["Roberto Gaetano" <roberto_gaetano@hotmail.com>]

Vittorio,

Let's try to see where we are on this.

>
>1) Should it be a closed group, or an open one?

There seems to be a rough consensus on open.

I personally think that eventually we will end up with an elected (therefore 
closed) group, because I don't think that this free form structure 
(basically, this mailing list) can address issues like polling the 
membership on specific issues, coordinating the membership of different 
regions, and so on. But it is OK, we need to start from somewhere anyhow.

If we maintain the "free form", your question below is moot:

>If it will be open:
>	- How do we avoid the group being taken over, flooded, or accused
>	  not to be representative?
It will not have as a target to be representative, and will therefore not be 
able to "speak on behalf of the Membership".

>
>2) What should its mandate be?
>	- Should it advise the Director?

Will the Director accept its advice ;>)

>	- Should it promote participation, organize open forums, lists etc.?

Definitively yes.

>	- Should it try to work out a proposal on official At Large councils
>	  and further At Large membership enhancements?

That's the point.
Should this structure be some kind of "bootstrap" organization, with the 
objective of shaping up a more formal "Council"?
I do believe this is the way to go, but I am not sure there is agreement.

>	- Should it explicitly state in its mandate that it wants to defend
>	  At Large members rights and prerogatives?
>	- Should it try to issue press releases and get attention from the
>	  media?
>	- Should it be temporary and expire when an official At Large
>	  council is formed by ICANN?

Yes to all the above.
In practical terms, as has been already noted, the GA mechanism of two lists 
can be proposed.
On top of that, it is obvious to me that we will have in a pretty natural 
way some other lists, that will either have a "geographic" focus (and also 
the capability of attracting members that are not comfortable with English) 
or a "subject" focus (sort of Working Groups on issues that will become 
relevant).

>	- Should it explicitly support one or more candidates in the final
>	  ballot?
>

Definitively not.
We take the risk of resurrecting a proposal that was dead and buried in 
Cairo, and namely to have an AtLarge Council that in turn was electing the 
Directors.
I think that the role of the Director and of the Council should be kept 
separate.


For the rest of your proposal, obviously if we keep the free form we don't 
have to worry, for the time being, of composition of this body.
Open to all those who are willing to contribute.

As a final remark, I think that as time goes by we may find inevitable the 
need for meeting physically. It has been mentioned before (by Andy, maybe?), 
and while I believe that most of the work will be done online, the physical 
contact may play a role.

Regards
Roberto

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