[lac-discuss-en] Voting for the At-Large Board Director - Why We Vote

[Carlton Samuels]

Dear Friends & Colleagues:
As we say in Jamaica, 'we fly de gate', meaning, the race is on.  For the
Board Seat #15, that is.

This is not a job for the faint of heart; it will take a heavy investment of
time and interest to do it right.  It is not a job for a bomb thrower nor an
anarchist; you can't and won't influence - and with one vote that is your
biggest stick - if you piss off people.  It is definitely not a job for a
single issue candidate. Because the At-Large agenda goes beyond a single
issue and shall hardly take the form we are most familiar.  Thus its
coverage will transcend any single issue and will embrace all of the issues
decided by the Board in some way or other.

So, what kind of representative are we are looking for?  It is rather a job
for someone who can and will have the time and disposition to invest of
themselves in learning the issues before the board, inclusive of the
mind-numbing minutiae that tends to host the devil and all his works.  In
fact, this requires a diligence to be more familiar with the issues than the
other members BEFORE it reaches the board. For that is the single best way
to 'manufacture' consent in collaborations.

This job is for someone who has demonstrated a mastery of information
gathering and sharing, for someone who can represent ideals even as you
understand you must work with the situation at hand to shape outcomes, not
to wish it be; you dance with them that brung ya.

This is a job for someone with excellent listening skills, a mastery of
nuanced speech and body language.  Because winning coalitions are based on
everyone thinking the other fella has his or her back.

More than anything else, it demands trust; the trust from all of us that the
ideals we have are shared.

Having myself served on a few corporate boards, it is the best I can think
of.  For ICANN - for the nth time - is and remains an American corporation.
   And I see nothing in its behaviour that points to a socialization other
than that one would expect of a corporation.

Vote early.  And vote well.  [If this were 'machine politics' I'd exhort you
to vote often! :-)]

Carlton

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Carlton A Samuels
Mobile: 876-818-1799
Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround
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