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[ga] Consensus & Names Council Task Forces
Patrick Corliss wrote: "Could you confirm, for example, that there are seven
task forces and that you are the GA representative on three of them?" This I
can confirm.
It was my expectation that GA members that purportedly represented the
interest of domain name holders would have clamored to join these particular
task forces, but it appears that these petty parliamentarians instead
preferred to devote their time playing king of the hill and engaging in
relentless sniping and back-stabbing rather than getting any meaningful work
done on behalf of the registrant community... that left it up to me to
represent the GA and registrants on these task forces in the absence of any
articulated interest on the part of these so-called champions of domain name
owners.
These task forces are invariably long term projects that require
participation at several plenary sessions, participation in
regularly-scheduled teleconferences, and hundreds of hours of work. They
require a commitment of time, travel and money. Yet every time that I
presided over a GA session and looked out into audience, I noted that the
"active" GA membership was never there. Yes, they are perfectly willing to
bitch and complain, but they are rarely prepared to participate to the same
degree as every other constituency that has chosen to work within the ICANN
process.
Why is it that even the NCDNHC (that successfully operates even without an
acknowledged Charter) always manages to get its members to ICANN sessions
even though many are at a severe financial disadvantage, while GA members
from wealthier nations that ostensibly represent the registrant community
can't even bother to show up? In my view, this is because those NCDNHC
members are dedicated individuals and have made a commitment to the process
even while knowing that their positions will routinely be voted down in the
Council. Because they have demonstrated their resolve through physical
attendance, their minority views are, at the very least, respected. When
they comment on the At-Large Study report, the Board listens...
By contrast, when the GA speaks, decision-makers pay scant attention because
the GA has earned absolutely no respect. It's active membership is almost
never there to either engage or lobby the members of the Board, nor is it
there to interact with other constituencies -- it has demonstrated no
commitment, and it is viewed by many as nothing more than a haven for
crackpots and malcontents. The GA as a collectivity of individuals is not an
organization, it is nothing more than a discussion list for DNS afficionados
and future tyrants. It will never become more than it currently is because
individually its members are not prepared to make a commitment to necessary
involvement -- even those GA members that ran for ICANN Board seats would not
commit to actually showing up at an ICANN meeting.
If someone in this group wants to step up to the plate and become a Task
Force member, I will willingly give my seat to that individual. Perhaps in
such fashion there might actually be more than one or two people from the GA
at the next Ghana session... but I doubt it. It's easy to give lip-service
to development and discussion of work items, draft document preparation, and
participation in committees and task forces... it's entirely another matter
to actually do the work.
In the three years that an individuals constituency has been discussed, has
anyone even bothered to raise the necessary funds required for participation?
Of course not, that would imply responsibility and a true commitment to a
cause. Perhaps we should just pretend that the $14,000 annual dues will
magically appear or be graciously waived by the other constituencies that
have conscienciously put their money up. You can talk about restructuring as
much as you like but there will never be a self-funded individuals
constituency in the DNSO because there is no motivated membership, there are
only those that use the cause of registrants to promote their own
self-interest.
I see no hope for the GA as currently constituted and have to ask, why should
our Board members even want to have a GA in the restuctured ICANN? There
will be an elected At-Large to represent the user interest. The GA will be
nothing more than a useless appendage in the DNSO, a structural redundancy
that will not be needed or desired when the At-Large is established. If the
Board Restructuring Task Force recommends the abolition of the GA, this will
come as no great shock to me.
I will also not be surprised to see all of you attempt to bolt to the
At-Large the moment that the SO is created. Not that any of you will
actually involve yourselves in building the At-Large, organizing its
structure and raising the necessary revenues, that would be too much too
ask... instead you will wait until it is handed to you as a finished product
by the ICANN staff and the ALSC, and then proceed to gripe about it's Charter
and everything else because bitching is all that most of you are prepared to
contribute to the process.
It's easy to be a critic of ICANN. It's harder to support its mission and to
work to get things done. Soon you will have a new Chair and Alt. Chair for
the General Assembly... I offer them my sympathies.
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