<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:trebuchet ms,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On 8 August 2015 at 09:37, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:ocl@gih.com" target="_blank">ocl@gih.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span class="">
> 3. The latter ones come to meetings, perhaps attend some meetings,<br>
> enjoy the local offerings, and go home and forget about us until the<br>
> next trip. THOSE are the ones that I have a real problem with.<br>
<br>
</span>And unfortunately whenever the time comes for having face to face<br>
meetings, we treat those people the same way as we treat the people who<br>
genuinely want to get involved.</blockquote><div> </div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">So long as At-Large leadership is selected bottom-up by a reasonably democratic process, it will not always include the "hardest workers". Politics of various sorts can happen in any region, and it is not a stretch to say that "number of hours spent on ICANN in the past" can often be rended insignificant in an election campaign next to social skills, global geopolitics or other factors.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">Somebody may be elected based on nothing more than a promise to vote a certain way on ALAC statements or to advance a very specific agenda on a narrow range of issues. How do you confront that without threatening the democratic process?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">The easy answer is to ask ICANN for more travel spots as Olivier suggests, so that (as one possible example) working group chairs (which are usually in their posts by merit rather than politics because of the workload). Well, that's an easy answer for us -- to the rest of ICANN's constituencies, most of which already take At-Large to be a charity case, this will be a tough sell.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">(Then again, ICANN could if it chooses help At-Large look for outside participation sponsorship -- yet it is unwilling, or unable, to do so.)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">Anyway... back when I was more deeply involved in At-Large, I resisted and even belittled the various attempts to push, prod, measure and silo us. Most of these efforts deserve continuing ridicule, for they remain largely navel-gazing exercises which are more effective at distraction and time-burning than anything else.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">IMO, there are three overarching needs of At-Large:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><ul><li>How do we make ICANN and its dilemmas more accessible to the global public?<br></li><li>How can we best determine what is important to that public?</li><li>How can we best advance those priorities within ICANN without being marginalized? <br></li></ul></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">Everything we do must serve one of those needs. This means frankly answering:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">Who needs to do what at F2F meetings?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"> (Maybe some of our most important travel is NOT to ICANN meetings?)<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">How are we engaging with the public outside ICANN?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"> (If CROPP is as good as it gets let's not even bother)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">What staff support do we need in research and communications?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"> (Can we get stats and opinion polls to back our policy actions?)<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">How do we mobilize pubic opinion?</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"> (First, we get the public to care)</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">Wringing our collective hands over how to deal with laggards and tourists -- who happen to be popular enough to get elected -- pre-occupied ALAC before I got involved, and it continues to suck energy out of addressing the real reason the At-Large community even exists.<br></div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">Meanwhile, the other parts of ICANN that prefer At-Large weak and ineffectual, delight in our tail-chasing.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif">- Evan</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms',sans-serif"><br></div></div>
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