Re: [ga] A Farce in a Pretty Package

[Bret Fausett <fausett@lextext.com>]

Gomes, Chuck wrote:
> I certainly agree with your general theme even if I don't agree with
> everything you say.  In my opinion, the group is recommending a perpetuation
> of a current failure, just as you say.  Although I am not neccessarily
> opposed to the task force concept, I personally think the current
> implementation of it is a joke.

In retrospect, it probably would have been a good idea if the advisory group
responsible for the recent draft had prepared a more detailed overview of
its thinking. I certainly can't speak for the group, but perhaps this will
help peoplee understand the draft better.

A majority of the group's members (though not all) shared your view that
task forces were too important in the current policy-making scheme. So there
was a deliberate attempt to dilute their importance to the process by making
them boring. As you'll see in the draft, task forces primarily exist to
coordinate data gathering efforts. Mapping out policy concerns and solutions
has been pushed down, in the first instance, from task forces to the
constituencies. Task forces assimilate the constituency reports and the
public comments and then package them for debate in the Council. (Also
remember that in the Blueprint, additional GNSO constituencies are expressly
contemplated. We may well see an individuals constituency, a small business
constituency and/or an academic constituency.) In my view, this is a step
closer to "bottom up" policy development than in the status quo.

Read the draft again with that in mind, and I think you'll see some
significant improvements.

Also, keep in mind that the policy process was greatly constrained by the
Blueprint's requirement that it occur in "60 days or less." We simply
couldn't do it and so recommended a process that will take 95 days or less.
Personally, I'm hard pressed to devise a system that is more bottom up that
could take place on anything close to the Blueprint's tight schedule.

    -- Bret




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