[EURO-Discuss] Should EURALO sign a petition? Should you?

Matthias Markus Hudobnik matthias at hudobnik.at
Fri Feb 23 09:01:34 UTC 2018


Dear all,

 

Oksana thank you for raising this issue - it is an essential point to discuss in my view and also to Olivier for emphasising this with us again.

 

I totally agree with most of the points of the majority of the discussion participants. Nevertheless, I think that the way ICANN did it was kind of rough - just saying cutting half of it and that’s it with no really proper strategical plan or may I missed something?

 

In terms of the Fellow program there are of course a lot of points which can be improved in my opinion if you compare the obligations with the NextGen program e.g. the selection process, obligatory attendance and participation at the whole conference sessions. NextGenners also have to hold a short presentation of an idea which is connected to IG/ICANN and they have to do some pre work to be prepared for the conference to take as much out of it as possible. Of course the Fellow program has a different approach but ICANN could still bound people with more obligations. Moreover, I think almost 60 people at every meeting are way too much to efficiently work with them. Finally, an end-report would be very helpful for outreach and feedback/improvement assessment.

 

I have not signed the petition even though if I am thinking that it is an important thing also to keep the diversity upright and getting new people involved which do not have the money for travelling but this is not the right way and platform for it.

 

Regarding the CROPP I just want to say that in my case I was very thankful to get one of these slots to participate at the last EuroDIG. Especially, as newcomer it was very good to see all the important European stakeholders and get deeper involved. Cuts of this would at least mean less attendance of a miscellaneous range of people at the meetings. This does not directly mean that the result is worse but it would mean more exclusiveness…the question is more what is ICANN’s goal and in which direction do they want to go with this development?

 

I totally agree with Andrei’s assessment that you can see in the new budget this US-centric approach again.

 

Have a nice day,

Matthias

 

_________________________

Ing. Matthias Markus Hudobnik

 <mailto:matthias at hudobnik.at> matthias at hudobnik.at

 <http://www.hudobnik.at/> http://www.hudobnik.at

 

Von: EURO-Discuss [mailto:euro-discuss-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] Im Auftrag von Andrei Kolesnikov
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 22. Februar 2018 14:16
An: Roberto Gaetano
Cc: EURALO Discuss
Betreff: Re: [EURO-Discuss] Should EURALO sign a petition? Should you?

 

NB. I draw your attention to the personnel cut in Eastern Europe region FY2019. 2 FTE becomes 1 FTE. It means moving toward US-centric corporation from regional perspective. I would cut 2 SG&A US lawyers and hire 12 regional managers as COR and still cut the expense. 

--andrei

 

2018-02-22 14:03 GMT+03:00 Roberto Gaetano <roberto_gaetano at hotmail.com>:

Juhani, 

You raise a good point about the sightseeing vs attending the meeting, I can tell similar experiences in the early days of ALAC.

However, I would like to avoid throwing away the baby with the dirty water. I believe that to cancel a programme that has produced tangible benefits interns of bringing new people to ICANN that are now active participants just because there is some abuse is not the right answer.

However, I wonder whether the real reason for this cut is something that has nothing to do with abuse, but is simply the sign that Fadi’s Global Equal Multi-Stakeholder approach is definitively gone and we are back to a situation in which some stakeholders are more equal than others.

Cheers,

Roberto

 





On 22.02.2018, at 08:49, Juhani Juselius <juhani at juselius.fi> wrote:

 

Hello all,

I agree budget cuts hurt, but I can well understand it's something ICANN has to do. 

In my opinion fellowship program should be part of those cuts too. ICANN has very important core functions to run, so if ICANN has to reduce costs, I'd prefer cutting fellowship costs more than cutting for example IANA related costs.

In general, fellowship program is good (as long as ICANN can afford having it), but it's not perfect. Most of the program participants are motivated and active in ICANN meetings, but not all of them. For example, during the Hyderabad meeting I took a day off after the ccNSO meeting days (which was my main interest) and had a full-day city sightseeing. And I shared the tour with two persons that were there under the fellowship program - chosen by their cultural background. While talking to them during the day it became obvious that they were happy with free traveling to India, but they couldn't care less about the meeting itself. So I hope that possible budget cuts would force ICANN to re-evaluate selection criterias to fellowship program more carefully dropping off those not so motivated participants.

I prefer not to sign the petition.

Juhani

 

 

Stéphane Van Gelder - Milathan kirjoitti 2018-02-21 23:15:

Completely agree with Andrei. I oppose the signing of a petition to oppose cuts. I would add to his reasons the fact that the Board Chair and the CEO have both laid down extremely well articulated arguments for why budget cuts are needed. I would worry that a EURALO response through a petition would not only look political, it would look immature. 

 

If we have strong arguments as to why some cuts should not happen, let's produce them through the usual ICANN discussion channels open to us.

 

Thanks,

 

Stéphane 

 





On 21 Feb 2018, at 21:24, Andrei Kolesnikov <andrei at rol.ru> wrote:

I'm against signing any petition on change.org <http://change.org/> , because it sounds political. If community  is against the cut, this must be articulated with facts, numbers and names. I don't like personnel cost increase, but this is another issue. --andrei

 

2018-02-21 20:06 GMT+03:00 Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com>:

Dear colleagues,

on yesterday's EURALO monthly call, the following Action Item was recorded.

:

Olivier Crepin-Leblond <https://community.icann.org/display/%7Eolivier.crepin-leblond>  Olivier to follow up on the EURALO mailing list on the suggestion from Oksana for EURALO support the petition against reduction of the ICANN fellowship as well as to write an EURALO statement against the CROP elimination.


As you know, the ICANN FY19 budget is undergoing to reduction. This will mean that some programmes are frozen, whilst others are actually reduced. The current draft of the program is showing drastic cuts in community engagement and policy. The Fellowship is being slashed, and so is the NextGen program. The Community Regional Outreach Pilot Program (CROP) which was confirmed into the main budget as it was seen as being so helpful, is being cancelled altogether. It is a terrible state of affairs, as it appears that ICANN has targeted community initiatives for outreach and engagement to a much greater extent that other programmes and the cuts, as a percentage of the budget for outreach and engagement initiatives are way larger than for other programmes.

You might has seen a petition out there, entitled "Stop the ICANN Budget Cuts and Save the Fellowship Program!"
On last night's EURALO call, Oksana Prykhodko asked whether EURALO could be inclined to sign this petition:
https://www.change.org/p/icann-stop-the-icann-budget-cuts-and-save-the-fellowship-program

The signing of a petition is highly unusual for a RALO. I can recall several occurrences of a RALO releasing its own Statement. I can also recall EURALO supporting EuroDIG as a partner - and this translates to the EURALO Chair (previously Wolf Ludwig and now yours truly) being active in the organisation of EuroDIG. If my memory serves me right, the only time EURALO has signed a Petition, might be the signature for support of NetMundial outcomes. Perhaps can Wolf help with other potential occurences?

At the end of the day, there are no rules on whether EURALO may or may not sign this petition. So the decision is in your hands, the EURALO members. 

Should EURALO sign the petition?
Should your ALS sign the petition? 

Kindest regards,

Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond
EURALO Chair


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Andrey Kolesnikov

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Andrey Kolesnikov

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