[lac-discuss-en] [ALAC] [ALAC-ExCom] ALAC/At-Large Improvements Project -- important update

[Beau Brendler]

Why don't we appoint someone from the RALO level (who is not on ALAC) to work with each RALO chair to help resolve issues from below. That would not necessarily help evaluate the performance of the nomcom appointees, but it would help evaluate the bulk of the ALAC elected people. People in each RALO and the chairs could be invited to e-mail that person with concerns which could, in turn, be discussed with the chairs and evaluated. Then that material could be presented in a quarterly report or tri-annual report at the ICANN meetings to the excom. I wouldn't want to use the term ombudsman, but maybe that person could also work in conjunction with the ombudsman's office (since we are, in effect, dealing here with HR issues, but with no HR department, and with, after all, volunteers) to make sure proper procedure and good manners are followed.

My guess would be that someone from the secretariat would make a good candidate for such a new "position." And maybe that "position" could come with some kind of stipend to sweeten the deal a little bit. Whoever did it would have to have a good sense of what's right and wrong, good common sense, and preferably some HR experience or interest.

Most organizations that lean on a lot of volunteers have a "volunteer coordinator" position that is paid staff, who deals with these sorts of issues. We have no such thing. Instead we keep hand-wringing about it year-in and year-out. The ICANN staff currently assigned to us have their hands full with meeting procedure and whatnot, and it wouldn't be appropriate for ICANN to be evaluating performance in this manner anyway. I mean, we are talking about a lot of volunteers here, at least 30 or so, who are providing free labor worth hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. To not have a basic system of evaluation and "job performance" for a fluid administration of people who have enormous learning curves, and are sometimes thrown into these positions without much preparation, is absurd. It's also a poor return on investment. And asking everyone to do busy work or be judged on the number of (often pointless and time-wasting) conference calls they show up for is a substantial penalty on the people who actually do good work -- it is not the solution to a problem.

Just a thought.

Beau


-----Original Message-----
>From: Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg at mcgill.ca>
>Sent: Oct 13, 2011 12:58 PM
>To: "Thompson, Darlene" <DThompson1 at gov.nu.ca>, 'Carlton Samuels' <carlton.samuels at gmail.com>
>Cc: "lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org" <lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org>, ALAC EXCOM <alac-excom at atlarge-lists.icann.org>, At-Large Worldwide <alac at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
>Subject: Re: [ALAC] [ALAC-ExCom] ALAC/At-Large Improvements Project -- important update
>
>I am not sure they are difficult to assess, but they are most 
>definitely subjective. And we tend to have an aversion to making 
>subjective decisions in this sort of area (although in real life, we 
>are continually called upon to make them).
>
>Alan
>
>At 13/10/2011 11:29 AM, Thompson, Darlene wrote:
>>Exactly Carleton,
>>
>>I've always maintained that we need to track both quantitative and 
>>qualitative measures - but the qualitative measure are MUCH more 
>>difficult to assess.  I would really like to see suggestions on how 
>>this can be done - because it must be done.
>>
>>D
>>
>>Darlene A. Thompson
>>Community Access Program Administrator
>>Nunavut Dept. of Education / N-CAP
>>P.O. Box 1000, Station 910
>>Iqaluit, NU  X0A 0H0
>>Phone:  (867) 975-5631
>>Fax:  (867) 975-5610
>>E-mail:  dthompson at gov.nu.ca<mailto:dthompson at gov.nu.ca>
>>
>>From: Carlton Samuels [mailto:carlton.samuels at gmail.com]
>>Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2011 11:13 AM
>>To: Thompson, Darlene
>>Cc: Evan Leibovitch; Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond; 
>>lac-discuss-en at atlarge-lists.icann.org; ALAC EXCOM; At-Large Worldwide
>>Subject: Re: [ALAC] [ALAC-ExCom] ALAC/At-Large Improvements Project 
>>-- important update
>>
>>On Wed, Oct 12, 2011 at 9:11 AM, Thompson, Darlene 
>><DThompson1 at gov.nu.ca<mailto:DThompson1 at gov.nu.ca>> wrote:
>>The members of the region, right now, have no idea if their ALAC rep 
>>is showing up to meetings or giving any kind of substantive input 
>>while at these meetings.
>>
>>Ah, there's the rub.....emphasis on 'substantive input'!
>>
>>Carlton
>>
>>
>>==============================
>>Carlton A Samuels
>>Mobile: 876-818-1799
>>Strategy, Planning, Governance, Assessment & Turnaround
>>=============================
>>_______________________________________________
>>ALAC-ExCom mailing list
>>ALAC-ExCom at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>>https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac-excom
>
>_______________________________________________
>ALAC mailing list
>ALAC at atlarge-lists.icann.org
>https://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/alac
>
>At-Large Online: http://www.atlarge.icann.org
>ALAC Working Wiki: https://community.icann.org/display/atlarge/At-Large+Advisory+Committee+(ALAC)