[AFRI-Discuss] Transcript of the ICANN Board Ratifying RALO MoUs

Nick Ashton-Hart nick.ashton-hart at icann.org
Fri Mar 30 08:59:10 EDT 2007


Dear Colleagues:

I thought I would provide you the text of the transcript from the  
public Board meeting today that relates to the MoUs for the RALOs  
from Africa, Asia/Australia/Pacific, and Europe. The whole transcript  
is available at: http://www.icann.org/meetings/lisbon/transcript- 
board-30mar07.htm

----

VINT:

Next item on the agenda has to do with the Regional At-Large  
Organization which has shown a substantial dynamic in the last 12  
months, rapid growth of ALSs and RALOs. One of our board members has  
been long associated with the at-large community and I would like to  
ask Roberto to introduce this motion.

 >>ROBERTO GAETANO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In fact, it is true that  
I have been associated with the at-large community, and I would like  
to make a comment before I read the motion, if I'm allowed.

I think some of you remember the statement of Pedro related to the  
football, that the GAC football team has waited for him not to play  
once to win the tournament.

And I feel ALAC community has done this to me as well. They have  
waited until I moved out, and then -- you know, and then they went  
ahead.

But since I still feel part of this at-large community, although I  
don't have mandate from the at-large community, I am really very  
happy to see this happening and I'm glad that I've been given the  
honor of presenting this motion.

So I will go on and read the motion. With whereas -- I suppose I can  
speed up a little bit because you have the text, right?

Whereas, the ICANN bylaws, article XI, section 2, part 4 provide a  
process that allows individual Internet users to participate  
meaningfully in the work of ICANN, as the community known as "at- 
large," and; Whereas, groups representing individual Internet users  
throughout the world have made outstanding progress in their work  
together, resulting in three regions concluding their negotiations on  
creating memoranda of understanding with ICANN to create their  
Regional At-Large Organizations, RALOs, and;

Whereas, the three regions are the Asia/Australia/Pacific, the  
African and the European regions, an achievement which represents a  
considerable milestone in the development of the multistakeholder  
process which is so fundamental to the work of ICANN, and;

Whereas, the ICANN board wishes to recognize and applaud the at-large  
community worldwide and especially in the African, Asia/Australia/ 
Pacific and European regions for the achievement of this milestone in  
their development, and;

Whereas the board is pleased to highlight the fact that with the  
creation of these three RALOs, the At-Large Advisory Committee is now  
composed of eight elected members and five Nominating Committee  
members with only two remaining board-appointed members, and;

Whereas, the general counsel's office have reviewed the draft MOUs  
and determined they meet the requirements in the ICANN bylaws  
establish for the formation of a RALO and advised that a 21-day  
public comment period should be observed, and;

Whereas, the African and European user groups have met as a part of  
the ICANN Lisbon meeting and elected their representatives to the At- 
Large Advisory Committee as a part of their work, allowing for the  
diverse communities engaged in ICANN to be present to recognize this  
achievement, and;

Whereas, the Asia/Australia/Pacific region are in the process of  
formally providing written confirmation of their consent to be bound  
by the terms of their MOU with ICANN and shall formally sign the MOU  
in a public ceremony at the October 2007 ICANN international meeting  
to be held in the Asia/Australia/Pacific region, and;

Whereas, the parties to the African and European MOUs composed of  
ICANN and representatives of the at-large structures in the African  
and European regions, signed it at a public ceremony on Thursday 29th  
March, 2007 at the Lisbon ICANN meeting, the execution of the  
agreement on ICANN's part contingent upon final approval by the ICANN  
board following completion of the public comment period, and;

Whereas, the public comment periods for the African and Asia/ 
Australia/Pacific concluded on the 28th March, 2007 and the public  
comment period on the Latin America and the Caribbean region  
concluded that on 4th January, 2007. Resolved, the board ratifies the  
memorandum of understanding with the European at-large structures on  
the same basis under which it was signed, and;

Resolved, the board gives its final approval to the memorandum of  
understanding between the at-large Latin America and Caribbean region  
and ICANN and, resolved the board gives its final approval to the  
memorandum of understanding between the at-large African region and  
ICANN, and;

Resolved, the board gives its final approval to the memorandum of  
understanding between the at-large Asia/Australia/Pacific region and  
ICANN.

 >>VINT CERF: Thank you very much, Roberto. Is there a second for  
this motion? I see a second from Vanda. I'm sure that if Vittorio  
were a voting board member, he would be eager to second this as well.

Is there any further discussion of the motion? I'll ask for a vote --  
oh, I'm sorry. Njeri.

 >>NJERI RIONGE: I just want to, you know, sort of congratulate all  
those people who are involved in this process, because we now have an  
African RALO which is actually going to help to bring people together  
and I expect to and look forward to seeing more business constituency  
participation within the African community.

 >>VINT CERF: Alex, I saw your hand up and Peter also.

 >>ALEJANDRO PISANTY: Thank you. Vint, I think that if one looks at  
the organizations which were actually participating in the signing or  
in the announcements yesterday -- or in the announcements, because  
Asia-Pacific will still be signed in a few months, it's remarkable  
and has to go down on the record the diversity of types of  
organizations that are coming together. The principles and the social  
functions of these organizations are very different, yet they are  
coming together because they find it important to represent the  
general user of the Internet in matters that are general to ICANN.  
Mostly concerned of course we know related to domain names but the  
stability of the Internet, first of all, and also IP addresses and  
all other aspects of ICANN's work are attracting this interest.

I would further underline that many of the organizations coming  
together in the at-large structures are chapters of the Internet  
Society. This underlines, first, that there's an ongoing, growing  
level of cooperation and shared interest with the society and the  
field which ICANN covers. The goodwill that's coming together here is  
extremely important at all levels, from the individuals to the  
chapters to the general working of our groups, and it's continuing to  
validate so now we will also be able to test the concept on which we  
have built the at-large representation which is this Web of trust.

There's an enormous number of similarities between the way the at- 
large chapters are recognized and come together and, for example, the  
ways in which ISOC chapters are created and recognized. It's very  
much based on someone knowing someone having concrete positive or  
negative provable references of the good work being done by some of  
these organizations and people, and this Web of trust concept is the  
one that gives me, as it has proven -- it gives me much encouragement  
to assist in continuing this specific form of the at-large effort. It  
has taken time. We can all complain that it has taken much time to  
finally get these organizations built up and signing the MOUs, but  
that's also coming from the concept itself and the ones it has got up  
some speed, as it is now, it's sure that we can responsibly make sure  
that we address the concerns of these communities that we -- as  
ICANN, as a board, and from staff go ask not only for them to express  
themselves but go ask and consul!

t explicitly on specific things, craft a specific program of work  
that's geared to our better and better planning which includes now  
the planning with the GAC, and which validates further -- and  
apologies for the reiteration here -- the work that we've been doing  
in the joint working group, the work that's being done in the ALAC  
and so forth. It's really this WSIS [non-English word] ALAC character  
of ICANN that is also extremely important and that should be  
underlined. The resolutions that we've taken today, which are some of  
the most momentous ones in the -- in the history of ICANN are very  
well-grounded in this multistakeholder approach. Every part of the  
community has expressed itself repeatedly in a structured way, in it  
a way that has made sure that their voice gets incorporated into the  
final resolutions, and the growth of this ALAC part is very well  
connected to that aspect.

 >>VINT CERF: Thank you very much, Alex. Any other comments? I see  
Peter and then Francisco. Peter?

 >>PETER DENGATE THRUSH: I just wanted to add my congratulations to  
all of those who have worked so hard over the last few years to bring  
that to fruition, and it was a pleasure to be on stage with a glass  
of champagne yesterday at the time of the signing. I think a most  
appropriate ceremony. Well done.

 >>VINT CERF: Francisco.

 >>FRANCISCO DA SILVA: So thank you very much. I see that from Sao  
Paulo to Lisbon, good progress was achieved in this area, and I am  
very content and glad with it. The only thing that I'd note, that we  
have three speaking -- Portuguese speaking in this board and we have  
no organization in this from any Portuguese speaking country in any  
region, so I -- this is only to stimulate those of the Internet  
community that are Portuguese speaking to adhere to this movement  
that is in the beginning and I have already yesterday spoken with  
someone from Africa, from Tanzania, that they are taking -- paying  
attention to this, and if we can help, I think I can speak on behalf  
-- I have not spoken with my fellow Portuguese speaking, Vanda and  
Demi, but I think we are open to helping and supporting what is  
needed. Thank you. And anyhow, congratulations and I hope this is  
only a first step to a more rich -- a richer environment concerning  
the at-large.

 >>VINT CERF: Thank you very much, Francisco. I see one more comment  
from Vittorio. Yes.

 >>VITTORIO BERTOLA: Very briefly, I just wanted to thank all the  
board members for the support. Yes, it was a long and painful  
process. It started over four years ago. It took a lot of time and  
effort by not so many but not so few people, actually, and so I'm  
really glad we are at this point. There's still a lot of open issues  
and things to be done and -- but perhaps the thing I'd like to point  
out is that when we started this, it was -- well, two years before  
the WSIS, I'd say, and we looked a bit insane of this idea with  
continuing to involve final users in so-called civil society, if you  
want, in ICANN, but time has proven that perhaps the need that we  
were feeling at that point in time was actually true, and in the end,  
I think it's been a great value for ICANN to have this part of its  
structure in place during the last years. So I think we -- we wanted  
to be one of the more forward-looking constituencies of ICANN and I  
think we can continue to provide that value !

as well.

 >>VINT CERF: Thank you very much. Are there any other comments  
before we go to a vote? If you vote in favor of the resolution, we  
will be approving or ratifying a collection of MOUs that are  
integrating the at-large structures into our organization.

So let me call for a vote. All those in favor, please raise your  
hand. I count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,  
ten, eleven, twelve -- I see Susan -- thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.  
Thank you very much. Fifteen to zero, Mr. Secretary.



-- 
Regards,

Nick Ashton-Hart
Director, At-Large
ICANN
PO Box 32160
London N4 2XY
United Kingdom
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