[Euro-board] Draft EURALO Outreach strategy

Fri Sep 30 13:54:35 UTC 2016

Dear Jordi,

thank you for your kind follow-up.
You suggestions for a mentoring program are very well received.

In London we had a mentoring program for each and every person that
attended. Although the aim was laudable, in practice, the level of
mentoring varied between mentors. A lesson learnt was that we should
really be selecting mentors that both *want* to share their knowledge
but also have the knowledge to share in the first place.
Other RALOs also have mentoring programs, primarily taking place when a
meeting takes place in their region. The At-Large Outreach and
Engagement working group regularly discusses mentoring and there have
been some opportunities for doing so.

There are also regular Webinars out there, which provide a good first
step into understanding a topic. These Webinars are recorded and so
EURALO members can watch/listen to them at their leisure. I have missed
a few Webinars due to travelling and managed to catch up later.
They are all stored on:

More than a Webinar, of course, is the mentoring --- With Yrjö being a
Board member, I trust he'll pick this up and get the EURALO ALS
engagement Task Force to work something out.
As a first step, I'd personally favour something quite light, a bit like
asking for any volunteers who want to be a mentor in our community, and
opening the door to people asking them any question about ICANN
activities. The next step could be the formal allocation of mentors to
our ALS representatives.

Until now, I have tried my best to help out our new ALS reps Erich (from
Austria) and Nenad (from Serbia) and they know they can ask me any
question, but it would be great to widen this to all ALSes.

I also note that there are plenty of new individual members now signing
up. In that instance, I gather that Jean-Jacques Subrenat has done an
excellent job in accompanying them to understand issues but a mentoring
program would be great, in my opinion.

Kindest regards,

Olivier

On 30/09/2016 15:29, Jordi Iparraguirre wrote:
> Thanks Olivier, great work.
>
> I agree on the program and it does address how to reach new ALS in new
> countries.
>
>
> On another page, but somehow related to this, besides outreach (to find
> them) we have an issue regarding participation ("retain them and having
> them to participate") once they are in.
>
> I think I mentioned this in ICANN Dublin. We need a kind of internal
> mentoring program to encourage and help new members (persons, not ALS)
> to participate in the Policy discussions, WG, reviews, etc.
>
> Many (if not all) of as have other jobs and can only devote a certain
> number of hours to ICANN issues. Being able to fully and meaningfully
> participate in a (or certain) WG may require to overcome an usually
> steep learning curve for newcomers (and also some of us). It might be
> interesting to find a way to connect newcomers with more experienced
> members in order to work together in a given subject. So experience and
> know-how flows and we have more seasoned members willing to engage on
> Policy issues and making Euralo stronger and better.
>
> It is may be too long to continue talking about this by mail, I'd
> propose to list it as an item to be discussed in the Euralo Engagement
> WG teleconf.
>
> cheers
> jordi
>
> El 27/09/16 a les 01:47, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond ha escrit:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> as promised, my first draft for the EURALO Outreach Strategy.
>> Please comment/suggest/amend/change!
>>
>> Olivier
>>
>> --- cut here ---
>>
>> Draft EURALO Outreach Strategy
>>
>> Our aim remains to have at least one ALS present in every country that
>> EURALO covers. Our efforts therefore concentrate on countries in which
>> there are no EURALO ALSes. This year is also seeing a rise in individual
>> members. Often, organisations that couldw be potential ALSes are unsure
>> of the benefits of becoming an At-Large Structure. Often, a first step
>> that has been taken by organisation leaders, is to join as an individual
>> to gain better knowledge and understanding of EURALO prior to applying
>> on behalf of their organisations. The EURALO outreach program has been
>> indiscriminately promoting both applications as an individual and as an
>> organisation.
>>
>> Building on the previous year outreach strategy, EURALO will pursue its
>> focus on:
>>
>>   * the annual EuroDIG events to take place in 2017 in Tallinn, Estonia;
>>   * the annual ICANN Studienkreis meetings in Europe(for what we
>>     repeatedly asked ICANN support -- in vain); 
>>   * the European Summer School on Internet Governance (EuroSSIG) in
>>     Meissen/Germany where several members are involved;  
>>   * receiving feedback on ICANN-related matters from members
>>     participating in national IGF initiatives (Germany, Switzerland,
>>     France, UK and Ukraine); 
>>   * inviting and supporting up to 5 members or potential candidates to
>>     attend EuroDIG meetings via CROPP, although that number is likely to
>>     be reduced this year.
>>
>> These Outreach opportunities are always used for identifying potential
>> new members (ALSes or individuals), discussions about EURALO and its
>> role and to attract new people. We go out of our way to speak to
>> potential candidates, distribute EURALO flyers and encourage them to
>> participate.
>>
>> One major progress over past years is the regular consultations and
>> discussion with Jean-Jacques Sahel, VP Stakeholder Engagement for Europe
>> and based in Brussels as well as Michael Yakushev, VP Stakeholder
>> Engagement for Easter Europe and Russia. We have been able to coordinate
>> Outreach at several meetings thanks to their involvement.
>>
>> With EuroDIG now running its own fellowship program, emphasis on
>> participation at EuroDIG for CROPP slots has decreased. The RALO
>> leadership is now identifying other potential events to participate in
>> using CROPP, starting with an event called "re:publica", the 2016
>> instance if which took plain in early summer in Berlin/Germany, became
>> the biggest conference and fair on Internet politics in Europe with over
>> 7’000 participants -- see: https://re-publica.de/en/about-republica
>>
>> The challenge in identifying suitable venues comes from the variety of
>> languages spoken in Europe. There are therefore few suitable
>> European-wide conference that could offer the same access to potential
>> ALSes as EuroDIG.
>>
>> Collaboration with the local Regional Internet Registry has been until
>> now through the annual EuroDIG. Indeed, EURALO is a EuroDIG partner and
>> so is RIPE. This year, we plan on building on this first link and work
>> towards a bilateral agreement based on a MoU similar to those signed by
>> other RALOs with their Regional Internet Registry. It is worth noting
>> that the partnership with EuroDIG has opened a lot of doors for end user
>> input in Europe.
>>
>> Perhaps most significantly in EURALO's strategy, EURALO has created a
>> task force on ALS Engagement focussing on our already existing ALSes.
>> With many ALSes not offering their full participation in EURALO
>> activities, this Task Force will study the reasons for this low
>> participation and methods to increase participation. Outreach does not
>> only take place by recruiting new At-Large Structures, but also by
>> recruiting more active members amongst the At-Large Structures - bearing
>> in mind an ALS has more than just one member.
>>
>> --- cut here ---
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-- 
Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond, PhD
http://www.gih.com/ocl.html