RE: [council] At Large Members

["Andrew McLaughlin" <mclaughlin@pobox.com>]

Dear Tony:

Thanks for the note.  A few points:

(1)  The membership stats <http://members.icann.org/pubstats.html> show that that the system is successfully processing thousands and thousands of applications every day.  Total applications are approximately 150,000, which is far larger than the 10,000 initially anticipated, and are growing quickly.

(2)  The volume of queries is still so large that some people will get overload messages before being able to sign-on successfully.  This is a sign of the great success of the membership program;  however, it means that some people who want to join will not be able to (at least not without trying repeatedly).  There are still slow periods (for example, when it is night in the Asian region) when it is much easier to connect quickly.

(3)  The large number of applications presents several problems, including human and financial.  On the human side, keep in mind that ICANN has not grown any larger -- we are still about 10 people, with a lot of work to do (IANA, new TLDs, registrars, ccTLDs, etc., etc.).  We have been pushing the staff to work *very* hard to keep up with the massive number of applications, to improve the software, make upgrades, answer email queries, etc.  On the financial side, we have long ago exhausted the Markle Foundation grant, which was our only source of funds for the At Large membership elections.

(4)  Any deadline will be arbitrary.  If the deadline were extended, the election schedule would be disrupted, and many people would still be get overload messages before being able to apply.

(5)  Look on the bright side -- the membership program was a massive success, and we got what we wanted:  a global, diverse, large pool of members who will select Directors in October.

(6)  Plus, this experience will be studied in detail over the next 6 months to figure out how to make it work better in the future.

Best regards,

--Andrew

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andrew mclaughlin           |    chief policy officer & cfo
internet corporation for assigned names and numbers
<mclaughlin@icann.org>  |     <http://www.icann.org>
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-----Original Message-----
From: owner-council@dnso.org [mailto:owner-council@dnso.org]On Behalf Of Antonio Harris
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2000 12:22 PM
To: ajm@incann.org
Cc: council@dnso.org
Subject: [council] At Large Members


Andrew,

It became easier to register as a member as from Monday last, but yesterday (Thursday)
the problem came back, and people were turned away.

I have heard that the decision is to keep the deadline to July 31. Pity, an extra week might
have helped in view of the circumstances.

Regards

Tony Harris