[lac-discuss-en] Recent LACRALO List postings

[Cintra Sooknanan]

Dear Olivier,

In the interest of transparency it is important that such complaint is
sufficiently recorded and that those who such complaints are being levied
against have enough scope and opportunity to publicly respond. Also it is
necessary that any and all complaints are dealt with in turn to demonstrate
equality, I do not have the ALAC rules of procedure in front of me (and the
ICANN website is timing out at the moment) but a rule against
discrimination and defining equal opportunity must be present in such an
organisation (if you are able to assist with this citation I would be most
grateful).

In fact for WELL OVER ONE YEAR ago the Caribbean Alses have on record (via
the mailing list, the conference calls, through public comments on the
wiki, face to face conversations, the General Assembly and at the ombudsman
meeting) several past and ongoing complaints against LACRALO Leadership.
Unfortunately such complaints have gone unanswered by the ones they are
levied against and not attracted a similar immediate response even though
these actions have already proved to have a debilitating effect on
participation.  Notwithstanding this a handful of us have sought the best
interest of LACRALO, ALAC and At Large and tried to continue to work in
such hostile environment in the hope that leadership (ALAC and LACRALO)
will offer some solution. While these few work, they rightly continue to
represent and share the interests and viewpoint of end users and some other
Lacralo Members. Your email can be interpreted as an attempt to silence
these interests and viewpoint, can you please clarify?

Three weeks ago I requested and implored you and the Ombudsman (as well as
LACRALO leadership) to come up with some firm path forward to avoid further
degeneration and hardening of positions and while I acknowledge your
confirmation that a response would come, to date we have no clear plan of
action. In effect no one is asking you or the ombudsman to exercise
favouritism, but in the least we expect fairness and professional conduct.

I am a firm believer in Mediation, it is part of my job. For this reason I
took the time to listen to the Ombudsman and limited my contribution at the
meeting in Costa Rica, not because I thought it was a success (certainly
that would not happen in one meeting) but because I was interested in his
mediation style and defined objectives. To believe that the parties in the
region would drive the process is foolish and for there to be no response
even now is highly unprofessional. Perhaps I am mistaken, and I look
forward to an explanation if it exists. If no explanation is available then
please consider the blatant negligence that is being demonstrated and give
immediate attention to this lacuna (perhaps by the Future Challenges
Working Group).

It is sad for me to say it, but in effect the postings you are seeing is a
result of both sides finding the only recourse they can because mediation
has (to this date) failed them. Let's be real, there was no excellent work
from Costa Rica but a failed GA clearly demonstrating deepening divergence
and bitterness, which has continued to grow due to lack of action. Further
please let's recognise that there is a problem which can no longer be
limited to a small select group but has bled into all of LACRALO. The
ombudsman discussions must now take place with full transparency and with
engagement by all members. This is a problem that exists for all of us!

I know this is not an easy situation and it is difficult to stay
optimistic... this was not an easy email to write, but I hope you do not
take the above as criticism rather as a heartfelt plead by someone who
cares about the region enough to recognise there is a problem and try to
find a solution.

Thank you and looking forward to your response,

Cintra



On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 12:35 PM, Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond <ocl at gih.com>wrote:

> This is the English Version. Spanish Version will be sent to the Spanish
> language list.
>
> Dear All,
>
> I have received complaints from members of the region about several
> recent postings on the LACRALO lists. Those postings relate to ongoing
> disagreements between several individuals relating their point of view
> regarding the running of LACRALO.
>
> I am concerned about those postings because they do not appear to be of
> help towards improving Internet user input in LACRALO and in ALAC. Quite
> the contrary, they re-iterate established positions from several
> individuals and end up turning other volunteers off from being involved.
>
> The time spent discussing these issues on the list ends up taking
> precedence over the time that members from the region could devote to
> more productive tasks such as commenting on Current Comment periods and
> other activities which were advertised on the ALAC-Announce list.
>
> Some of the postings contravene parts of Rule 22 of our ALAC Rules of
> Procedure. They are inappropriate according to:
>
> 22.9 Unprofessional commentary, regardless of the general subject,
> 22.10 Postings libelous being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten
> others,
> 22.11 Postings that are, knowingly false, ad-hominem, or misrepresents
> another person,
>
> I am not going to stand accused of taking sides, nor will I contravene
> the very rules I have quoted here by pointing the finger at anyone.
> However, I will kindly ask you all, Ladies and Gentlemen, that you
> please moderate your language.
>
> We are working with ICANN staff and LACRALO leadership in order to
> continue on a dialog to improve relations, by making use of the
> neutrality and fairness of the ICANN Ombudsman who can act as a
> mediator. This mediation takes place out of this forum and has no place
> on public mailing lists.
>
> An excellent amount of work has taken place in Costa Rica and the region
> should be looking at building on this. Like every region, this takes a
> lot of time and effort. We, the At-Large community and ICANN as a whole,
> have some serious challenges coming up in the form of a threat to the
> multi-stakeholder system. We clearly have to work smarter with each other.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Olivier MJ Crépin-Leblond
> ALAC Chair
>
>
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