[At-Large] ATLASIII Participation

Carlton Samuels carlton.samuels at gmail.com
Tue Jul 9 21:14:44 UTC 2019


Dear John:
I know you mean well.  But I must register my profound and utter
disagreement with you here.  And, on principle.

At-Large representatives are volunteers.  Largely.

I am seethe at this indignity that a measure of my voluntarism connects to
me flying somewhere to volunteer my time, my energy, my intellectual
capital and yes, my labour, all as public goods.

I would not wish to be so judged.  And what is proposed is nothing but an
episode of the slave's torment; doing what he thinks would appease his
master by providing the hog grease for the leather whip that stipes his own
back.

I came to this opposition from bitter experience. It started when I was the
only elected LACRALO official. And in a period when travel was dangled as a
benefit to volunteers. I couldn't give a tinker's damn since by that time I
had already racked up 2 million plus airmiles. And traveling steerage class
is not my idea of a fun time.

In that period of time, LACRALO arguably provided the most egregious
examples of the ICANN tourist traveler. And I suffered the slings of my
northern metropolitan colleagues for vehemently opposing sanctions on the
then LACRALO ALAC representatives. [I am ever grateful to Evan for
supporting me on principle!] My argument was those persons behaved badly as
individuals. I told them so. One has hated me to this day. But inspite of
him, I adamantly refused to support travel sanctions against them. That
action reinforces that rather louche idea that travel is a benefit rather
than the tool that it is to get a job done. And to hypothecate the tool as
security for work to be done seems immoral to me.

Value is assigned my time and intellectual capital by others; I sell them
for fee. I got home less than 2 hours ago from Suriname.  Most in this
thread would likely not even know where that is. it is a hump to get to.
And, somebody paid me for that.

As a volunteer, my time, intellectual capital and my own coin have been
placed in trust and in the service of the At-Large. An airplane ticket in
steerage does not begin to compensate me as volunteer. It is no benefit to
me or for me.  It is rude and crude to suggest, must less legislate, that
it is.

My position has not changed in these many years because the same response
offends reason and conscience. It is for the At-Large constituents to pick
representatives. And this seemingly Pavlovian response proffered is and
remains a bad policy idea. It is inimical to the spirit of volutarism -
real voluntarism! - that premises the At-Large engagement.

Best,
-Carlton


==============================
*Carlton A Samuels*

*Mobile: 876-818-1799Strategy, Process, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround*
=============================


On Tue, Jul 9, 2019 at 9:16 AM John Laprise <jlaprise at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would like us all to consider consequences for ATLASIII participants who
> travel but do not participate (excepting reasons of illness etc). This is a
> serious, professional responsibility and should be treated as such.
>
> For a start, I would suggest that participants who fail to participate
> should be ineligible for funding and elections for 3 years.
>
> I look forward to conversation on this topic leading to action by the ALAC.
>
> Sent from my Pixel 3XL
>
> John Laprise, Ph.D.
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