[registrars] Registrar Executive Committee 101

["Michael D. Palage" <michael@palage.com>]

Hello All:

Nice to see some lively discussion on the list :-)

I would like to give a little insight how the Executive Committee works.
First, it is a thankless job for which we get paid nothing. On average I
spend approximately 5-10 hours a week on Registrar Constituency related
matters. The Registrar Executive Committee are not benevolent dictators, we
are elected to represent your interests within the ICANN process. No one of
the elected representatives are perfect, but for the most part I think we
collectively do a good job.

When I first served as only elected registrar representative, aside from the
Names Council representatives, I was over whelmed. One of the reasons that
the Executive Committee was formed was to delegate duties. Again for the
most part this delegation has worked. When the Registrar Constituency amends
its by-laws in connection with the upcoming ICANN restructuring, I think
some of the problems we have encountered in connection with the WLS debate
will help us avoid future pitfalls.

Rick Wesson headed the Registrar discussion of WLS since I recused myself
last fall. When we learned about the upcoming vote in connection with the
WLS it was decided to have a constituency wide vote. I tried to recuse
myself, but Tim and Bryan stated that I should help in getting the vote out,
as long as I did not advocate or count ballots. Rick informed me last week,
that our normal votebot provider was unavailable. Tim and Bryan scheduled a
call for Friday afternoon. Somewhere along the past couple of days the ball
got dropped. Sunday night after enjoying a wonderful weekend celebrating my
son's third birthday, I became concern that there was next to no traffic on
the list and our Names Council and Task Force representative had no guidance
on this week's votes aside from previous votes.

I respectfully disagree with Rick's comments that I am trying to subvert the
process. To the contrary, having the registrar constituency be silent or do
nothing would probably have been in SnapNames best interest. Instead, I lit
a fire under the constituency's ass and I do not think I have to apologize
for that.

Now that the WLS is almost done for better or worse, I think we need to get
back on track with issues that impact registrars businesses. That is why in
my draft letter to Stuart Lynn I am trying to advocate transfers and whois
data mining for this fall's meeting.

During last week's Executive Committee call it was discussed about having
another registrar meeting like the one we had in Dulles this past February.
The attendance was excellent and I think a lot of constructive process was
made. Issues that would be the topic of discussion for this tentative
meeting scheduled for approximately the third weekend in September would be:

- Transfers
- Whois data mining
- .org, with the decision to be made by ICANN we could have the winning
bidder brief us on the .org transition
- Code of Conduct
- Restructuring - particularly discussion about the .25 fee that was
referenced in the Blueprint document

In summary, Tim, Bryan, Rick, Phillip, Ken, Bruce and myself, as well as
Ross as a Task Force representative try our best to represent your interests
within the ICANN process. I view the recent debate as a sign of the strength
regarding the health of the constituency. While other under-represented
constituency's let a few elected representatives quote speak for the
constituents with no public archive of their discussion, our constituency
engages in lively debate in an open transparent manner. And I have trust in
our elected representatives to do the right thing in representing our
viewpoints.


Best regards,

Michael D. Palage