RE: [ICANN-EU] [Q&A] the exciting adventures of a nominee

["Griffini Giorgio" <grunz@tin.it>]

Andrew McLaughlin wrote:
> Giorgio:
> 
> The problem is not "allocation" of budget -- the problem is that ICANN is a
> small non-profit which has only about half the funding it needs to conduct a
> full set of normal operations, not including special projects like the At
> Large membership.  The problem is not a willingness to spend -- it's a
> complete lack of funds.  As a technical coordinating body, we have to
> perform day-to-day technical coordination tasks, the funding for which comes
> from the various registries and registrars.  We cannot divert it from the
> fundamental technical responsibilities of the organization.
> 
I understand your concern but this will put some of the responsabilities on 
the Board which allowed for such election undestimating expected support 
efforts in doing this. Of course and as usual, if someone will point out this 
fact to the board they will blame at your staff for not giving them enough 
advice of such kind problems...a common story common to many 
corporation out there.  By the way I think you should make clear that you 
cannot do two good jobs at one price only so they should almost choose 
directly by themselves what to do.

> As of now, ICANN has fewer than 10 employees.  We all work extremely hard to
> keep things going, but you must understand that we have only one person
> working on At Large.  Also, as you can tell, I spend a portion of my time on
> membership, but I have a long list of other responsibilities.  I would
> *love* to hire more staff to work on membership -- the At Large manager
> received something like 6,000 emails last weekend;  obviously most of them
> will go unanswered.
> 
I was about understanding some sort of lack of staff for these election when I 
was asking to have an edit on my page as candidate. This was confirmed on  
the next help I had to ask and I think you may recognize I was not pushing 
you on having this last one done quickly even if the problem I was incurring 
on (the published email address was not working) was quite severe respect 
to be able to do my endorsement campaign. 

> Looking forward, I'm interested in your thoughts on this question:  Why do
> you think that no one in Europe (no government, no foundation, no company,
> etc.) offered so much as US$1 to support the At Large membership program?

I think this happened because, maybe, ICANN expected to have such 
funding coming from more-than-a-single-hop interested parties. 
Here in Europe most companies, government, etc. deal most with ccTLD 
registries rather than with ICANN directly. And ccTLD registries do not show 
up so clearly their relation to ICANN. I think if this funding need were being 
directed to more 'interested party' (that is some NGO or foundation related to 
development or study of Internet social impacts (which will include elections 
events) probably ICANN had better response)

> Anyway, I think Jeanette's complaint is not a fair one -- the nominations
> period closed late on Friday, and she is unhappy that she must wait until
> Monday morning (California time) to reach a staff assistant in the ICANN
> office, to start using the Q&A Forum (which will be available for 1 month).
> I repeat:  the election is not for Master of the Internet, but for the Board
> of Directors of a small non-profit body in California that is responsible
> for some specific, but important, technical coordination tasks.
> 
Please understand that candidates are 'on stage' and under pressure and 
any thing that seems to limit their will to be responsive to the electorate will 
make them more nervous (any candidate not just Jeanette)
And she (talking of Jeanette now) maybe also unaware of such kind of 
staffing problem and related consequences. (I just had to learn by myself 
about Labour day vacations issues. :-)
Yes, you are right. These are not elections for the 'Master of Internet' but 
they almost rate as for being similar (as extension of electorate) to a 
principal of a small town but they are being looked at on a worldwide 
emphasis and scope. This impact on candidates is not so negligible. 
 
> These are all matters to keep in mind for the post-election study;  in the
> meantime, it would be helpful for everyone to keep this process in
> perspective.  Like anything that depends upon 1 or 2 human beings, there are
> limitations.
> 
Yes, I agree and your talk about such staffing problems etc will allow for 
better considerations for next upcoming problem we will have to face. 
But please let me place a question now.
Now is probably too late...but if someone would voluntarily offer his/her help 
to ICANN in handling such elections to a proper level (proper =expected by 
most of their partecipants in any region) ICANN will accept this help ? 

Best regards
Giorgio Griffini

> --Andrew
> 
> 
> [ -----Original Message-----
> [ From: grunz@box1.tin.it [mailto:grunz@box1.tin.it]On Behalf Of Griffini
> [ Giorgio
> [ Sent: Monday, September 11, 2000 1:59 AM
> [ To: mclaughlin@pobox.com
> [ Cc: icann-europe@fitug.de; Jeanette Hofmann
> [ Subject: RE: [ICANN-EU] [Q&A] the exciting adventures of a nominee
> [ 
> [ 
> [ Andrew McLaughlin wrote:
> [ > Jeanette:
> [ > 
> [ > Please relax!  The ICANN staff does not work 24 hours a day, 7 
> [ days a week.
> [ > You'll get your login IDs on Monday, when the staff returns to 
> [ work, after
> [ > very long days on Friday and Saturday.
> [ > 
> [ > --andrew
> [ > 
> [ Yes, we understand the staff is not organized to have a 24x7 coverage but 
> [ don't you
> [ think that this maybe considered a miss about a worldwide election ? 
> [ Time zones were not invented now, and altough we are quitely used to live 
> [ with, dont you think that there is a little bit of 'unequity of 
> [ support' if we ,for 
> [ example , have to stay up the night to talk to someone and have problems 
> [ solved quickly while instead better time zone favoured regions may do it 
> [ under the light of the sun ?
> [ This is not a complaint now, but it will easily became on the 
> [ next election 
> [ run I think.. so please consider this msg just as a hint on 
> [ considering also 
> [ time zone problems when approaching elections next time.
> [ 
> [ Best regards
> [ Giorgio Griffini
> [ 
> [ PS. Ok. There is no budget now.  
> [ Hope some will be alloted for next run uh ?
> [ 
> [ 
> 
>