[ga] Message from the Chair

[R.Gaetano@iaea.org]

Dear GA Members,

As some of you may have noticed from the announcement amidst the heavy
traffic, I have been elected Chairman of the GA ;>).

As a first step, I would like to thank those of you who participated in the
nomination/support process, and invite all the others - the majority - to
get more engaged in all aspects of the life of the GA.
It is my strong belief that without participation, we will not have any hope
to count in the future.

Secondly, I would like to confirm every single word of my statement of
acceptance (see
http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/ga-nominations/Archives/msg00011.html). My
first priority will be to take actions to "improve the effectiveness of the
GA". My goal is to contribute in making this body one of the cornerstones of
the DNSO, a vehicle for "ideas and proposals on Domain-Names-related issues,
in particular for, but not limited to, the individuals that do not belong to
recognized constituencies".
I believe that this GA has among its members some of the brightest brains in
DNS-related issues, covering expertises ranging from technical to legal,
with a collection of different approaches and cultures that best represent
the multiplicity of approaches and interests to the DNS-related issues.
This exceptional group of people did not have, yet, the chance to count much
in this process, also because of lack of common goals and organization. I
think that we are still on time to reverse the tendency - if this was not
the case, I would not have accepted the nomination.

I am expecting to see lower traffic in the next couple of weeks, due to the
Christmas + New Year holidays (I will be offline myself for few days),
therefore it makes little sense to me to force a jump start in the last days
of this century, but I would like us all to think about a couple of things.
First of all, if we really want to engage ourselves in a process of change
of the current situation (of the position and role of the GA in ICANN, but
also of the dominant themes of debate in the GA itself).
Second, if the answer to the first question is positive, what are the
priorities and suggested actions to achieve this change, also keeping in
mind that the first deadline is the ICANN meeting in Cairo (2000-03-07 to
2000-03-10, see http://www.icann.org/cairo2000/cairo-details.htm).

That's all, folks.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it,
Happy New year to those tuned with the Gregorian Calendar,
Have a nice time, to everybody.

Roberto