[EURO-Discuss] Follow up of EURALO GA comments on engagement

Veronica Cretu veronicacretu at gmail.com
Tue Jun 28 10:20:05 UTC 2016


Dear Jordi, many thanks for this acknowledgment and you are exactly in line
with my thinking!

In addition to what you have described in your message, I would like to add
the following observations/suggestions/comments:

- big corporations, companies, initiatives, etc that aim to be transparent,
inclusive, participatory and engaging have to dedicate much more resources
these days when it comes to those they need to consult, engage, involve.

- limiting engagement only to the level of one time events, workshops or
meeting/s is not sustainable neither for the corporation/organization nor
for the people supported to attend/participate. Unfortunately, many of the
priorities for the region articulated by ICANN staff today referred mostly
to the importance of events, creating content in particular languages, etc.


- constructive engagement of people or organizations on the ground happens
only if there is an overlap in terms of personal and professional
development related ambitions along with the broader objectives and goals
of the organization (in this case of the ALSs). If ICANN wants more engaged
ALSs, it has to start providing organizational support - some examples here
might include: provision of organizational capacity assessment
tools/expertise that might help the ALS understand what are most
underdeveloped components of the organization, what is needed to strengthen
those, and how the broader vision of the ALS is in line with ICANN, IG and
the broader ICT4D related objectives globally or regionally.

In addition to this, the organizational capacity assessment
exercise/process, might help  ALSs review the kind of services they
provide, the kind of activities they need in place in order to be
sustainable organizations, fully operational organizations that have the
ambition to engage meaningfully in ICANN and other fora of interest to
them.

- PLS - Peer learning and Support might be smth of value at this point
within EURALO - that would allow ALSs learn from each other and create a
community in which things related to organizational development, outreach
and others, might be explored in addition to spefic ICANN related issues.

All the above would be taking place in between the meetings, and would make
the face-to-face events/activities/fora much more meaningful and valuable.

And finally, ICANN staff needs to put much more efforts into the
co-creation processes - co-creating its local/regional/global strategies
together with ALSs in other forms/means and ways. But this is a separate
topic!

As ever,
Veronica



On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 11:14 AM, Jordi Iparraguirre <ipa at josoc.cat> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> first, please accept my apologies for not being present during the
> complete GA, it overlapped some early morning family duties.
>
> I'd like to stress what Veronica said (typed) during the last minutes of
> the meeting.
>
> It would be nice (and a milestone in our engagement endeavour) if ICANN
> staff (regional and HQ) and fellow ALAC members could drop a line and
> try to meet with local ALSs whenever they get close to an ALS place.
>
> ALS members not directly involved in the IG/ICANN processes experience
> low involvement, and thus face a low barrier to leave the ALS, so
> difficulting ALS growth, participation and renewal.
>
> They join the ALS because they somehow feel identified with our goals,
> but many do not have time or wish to actively participate in the policy
> development processes. To increase engagement, having the opportunity to
> meet or to listen to other people directly related to these processes
> may help. They may feel identified and satisfied to have this 2nd row
> seat to the process.
>
> Warn enough in advance. Let's keep in mind that many members of the ALS
> do have a job not related to IG and cannot ask for a free day to attend
> and/or organize a formal meeting. So sending them as much in advance an
> invitation to attend your presentation, or reserve some minutes for an
> informal afterwork meetings might be very well received.
>
> For any average ALS member, to fully participate in the ICANN policy
> development process asks for high involvement; learning curve is long
> and almost flat, you need quite a lot of time to read, understand and
> participate, and quite often you need free time during standard working
> hours to join a teleconference or other activities. Not easy.
>
> BTW, this is something that we have also proposed to ISOC staff.
>
> rgds
> jordi
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>



-- 
*Veronica Cretu *

*MA in Contemporary Diplomacy*

*President, Open Government Institute**Republic of Moldova
- http://opengov.si.md/ <http://opengov.si.md/>*

*Member of the Steering Committee, *
*Open Government Partnership (OGP);*
*http://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/steering-committee/role-and-current-membership
<http://www.opengovpartnership.org/about/steering-committee/role-and-current-membership>*

*Email: veronicacretu at gmail.com <veronicacretu at gmail.com> and/or
veronica at cretu.md <veronica at cretu.md>*

*Skype: veronicacretu Phone: 373 067435000*
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