[ALAC] ALAC Newsletter? (was Re: FW: Fwd: Cherine Chalaby to Alan Greenberg ...)

[Maureen Hilyard]

Evan.. I think that one of the review issues was communication and we have
to address this in some way.

I liked Hadia's suggestion about a newsletter before we go to a meeting -
as preparation for what is coming up across ICANN that At-Large might be
interested in participating in - with short briefs to introduce what the
session is about. As she said, it doesn't have to be long, but it could
give some people a reason for participating remotely if they have a better
idea of what is on top for At-Large.

ICANN puts out a great summary of what took place in each constituency
after the meeting, but I like the idea of a newsy-letter rather than a too
formal newsetter that invites people to join us at the meeting. As Evin is
our policy person, I think she would be perfect for presenting this (in
conjunction with Heidi and Gisella). And it would be a great way for us all
to prep for the meetings.

On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 6:43 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:

> [ Note: I seem to be blocked from the ALAC list but am receiving this
> thread through personal CCs. Thank you for that.]
>
>
> The beginning of this thread talked about the Board asking for executive
> summaries of its commentaries. Somehow this has morphed into doing an ALAC
> newsletter along the lines of what is now done by NARALO and ICANN's Latin
> American community.
>
> I suggest caution.
>
> First, be sure there is an audience. It should be possible to collect
> statistics to see how many hits have been on the NARALO and other existing
> newsletters. We're already doing such policy debriefs in webinar form (such
> as this week's Ottawa readout -- how well was that attended by the intended
> audience?) What's the point of spending all this volunteer effort to write
> something that nobody will read (and arguably is already being done)?
>
> Second, what is the newsletter's purpose?
>
>    - To introduce ALAC to an outside audience?
>
>    - To create in-depth summaries of issues to enable ALSs and individual
>    participants to give informed policy feedback to ALAC?
>
>    - To provide a summary of ALAC positions taken (which is what the
>    Board has asked for)?
>
> Each of these choices requires very different choices of content and maybe
> even different writers. It also requires someone to be already deeply
> involved within ALAC policy to be able to describe the "what is ALAC
> thinking right now" subject matter that Maureen suggested. Is there a good
> supply of such specialized writers eager to help?
>
> Lastly, ICANN At-Large is full of really good ideas that simply die when
> their champions leave, or when advocates for such good ideas presume that
> "someone else" will do it, and in a volunteer body such assumptions can be
> dangerous. This is especially so if there is a commitment to a schedule of
> future activity.
>
> While ICANN is going into austerity mode when it comes to finances,
> At-Large seems to be in the midst of a lengthy austerity mode regarding
> volunteer talent. The number of person-hours available for ALAC projects,
> especially those that require good awareness of ICANN's issues and ALAC's
> stances on them, is very small. Is it reasonable to channel such resources
> into a newsletter that nobody outside ALAC has asked for, rather than into
> the original research and analysis that ALAC so badly needs?
>
> - Evan
>
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