Re: [ICANN-EU] [Q&A] the exciting adventures of a nominee - Offer of assistance to ICANN At-Large...

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Griffini and all,

  We [INEGroup] and I have offered assistance to ICANN on several
occasions and on a couple of occasions directly to Andrew himself.
These offers went ignored....

  So I will again offer some assistance with the At-Large needs to get
the PIN's out and /or otherwise re-issued and other AT-Large matters
for a simple expenses recovery only....  Please Andrew or Esther,
advise...

Griffini Giorgio wrote:

> 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 ?
> > [
> > [
> >
> >

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman INEGroup (Over 112k members strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
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