[EURO-Discuss] Regional advice on France at Large application needed

Vittorio Bertola vb at bertola.eu
Mon Apr 28 05:31:23 EDT 2008


Wolf Ludwig ha scritto:
> Dear all,
> 
> EURALO and its board is asked for opinion and advice on new ALS
> applications in its region. In previous cases our verifications
> didn’t show any difficulties or inconsistencies. Unfortunately in a
> recent one, the application from France @Large, we face some problems
> to come up with an unanimous recommendation.
> 
> Repeated and detailed verifications of France at Large’s application by
> the staff and some of the board members showed the following
> inconsistencies: 
> 
> *the type of organisation and its membership is rather unclear. In
> the application form, some of the crucial questions (2 d-e) on the
> participation, role and influence of individual Internet users, are
> answered with “No”. In question 2 f-j it is stated that the
> applicant/ALS has “no organizations as members“ and „ governmental
> bodies or quasi-governmental bodies as members“ neither. That means
> that the organisational character of the applicant is not evident
> after repeated checks.

I'm not sure I understand. According to the English application that was 
posted to the EURALO list almost two months ago, in 2 d-e they say the 
exact opposite of what you report, they say that decisions are taken by 
their members. And in 2 e-f they say that they have no organizational 
members and no governmental members, which is a good thing. That's why 
we are asking those questions - to be sure that they are not controlled 
by companies or governments.

> *the membership development,
> 
> *the exact activities and
> 
> *the financing/funding of the applicant.
> 
> Therefore the Co-Chair and other board members cannot support
> France at Large’s application under consideration of the given
> information. If there is no objection from other board and EURALO
> members -- with any further reasons to be considered -- we would like
> to recommend non-approval to ALAC.

I am a EURALO Board member, but this is the first time I am asked an 
opinion about this application. Can you explain me how and by whom this 
application was discussed, to come to the recommendation above? I 
remember the application being posted to the EURALO list, but I don't 
remember any comment there. Was there any request to all Board members 
or to the EURALO list for comments? If not, why not? In any case, I am 
forwarding this message to the list so that everyone is informed and we 
can have an open discussion.

In general, we have to be very cautious about rejecting new 
applications, as it might look like a form of capture by the existing 
RALO members. I do not have a final opinion yet, but I have known Jefsey 
Morfin - the France at Large leader - for years, and even if he often has 
very controversial opinions, he exists and he has been participating to 
the At Large since the year 2000, which is more than can be said of 
several accredited ALSes. There should be a clear reason to reject this 
application, not just "we're not sure" or "we don't like him". That's a 
guarantee for a new Ombudsman case.

> Please note that we need to know your opinion within the NEXT 2 DAYS.

Nothing has happened for two months, so why all this hurry now?

Regards,
-- 
vb.                   Vittorio Bertola - vb [a] bertola.eu   <--------
-------->  finally with a new website at http://bertola.eu/  <--------



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