[NA-Discuss] ATTENTION REQUIRED: Re: ARIN Participation at the Nonprofit Technology Conference

Thu Mar 27 17:18:48 EDT 2008

Our (collective) constituency is the "most general" of ICANN
constituencies.  We're not NCUC, and we're not NCUC lite.  These are issues
of (global and inclusive) governance.  It's the same challenge our political
systems face in terms of meaningful involvement in  ongoing work of the
polity or community.   The interest of NCUC members would be to serve their
particular constituencies.  Our interest in at-large is in extending
involvement in  civil society and collective inclusive governance.  Any and
all means of conveying the relevance of Internet/ICANN policy questions to a
diversity of stakeholders should be welcome.

Any of us who might question (or may have questioned) the legitimacy of the
At Large project - in it's prior and extended formation phase or in its
newly emerged phase will recognize that the limited involvement/exposure
we've had is something we need to overcome.  To be truly legitimate
representation of the concept of At-Large we need to be inclusive, welcoming
and make extensive efforts of outreach, and we have to learn to be
productive together, and to have clear paths to show newcomers how to get
involved.  (Clear marking of the paths).  I'm not speaking of us as separate
organizations, but collectively as NA RALO.

Frankly, most people - even socially active people - will not consider the
Internet policy questions of ICANN important to their life, or to their
experience of the Internet, let alone explore it's meaning to wider society
except in most general terms.  This leads to neither  action nor
involvement.

On Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 3:39 PM, Danny Younger <dannyyounger at yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Sorry Darlene, but I don't buy the argument.
>
> I look at the NCUC which is a bunch of similarly
> situated noncommercial organizations that each
> contributes membership dues to support the work of the
> NCUC.
>
> Why is it that each of these orgs can manage to
> support the efforts of their umbrella body, but ALSs
> can't pony up anything to support the NARALO?
>
> ICANN is not the home of the "free lunch"; responsible
> orgs have an obligation to financially support their
> own initiatives -- every other constituent group in
> ICANN is self-supporting and most will pay to support
> their own Secretariat services and other activities.
>
> Look around -- what other active constituencies
> engaged in policy work don't pay their own way?
>
>
> regards,
> Danny
>
>
> --- "Thompson, Darlene" <DThompson at GOV.NU.CA> wrote:
>
> > Danny,
> >
> > The criteria that you state that each ALS needs to
> > be self supporting is
> > completely outside of this discussion.  Each ALS IS
> > self supporting but
> > as most of us represent completely cash-strapped
> > organizations, there is
> > no way that we can afford to fund ICANN processes.
> >
> > For example, N-CAP can fund its own programs and
> > projects but it has not
> > got the money to fund ICANN outreach.  This
> > completely falls within the
> > scope of that third criterion that you mention.  It
> > would be completely
> > laughable, though, to expect non-profits to use
> > their limited funds to
> > support a private corporation's outreach activities.
> >
> > Having said that, we are each willing to donate our
> > limited time and
> > effort into promoting this which DOES have value and
> > which means that we
> > ARE putting resources into this project.
> >
> > D
> >
> > Darlene A. Thompson
> > Community Access Program Administrator
> > Nunavut Department of Education/N-CAP
> > c/o P.O. Box 1000, Station 910
> > Iqaluit, NU  X0A 0H0
> > Phone:  (867) 975-5631
> > Fax:  (867) 975-5610
> > dthompson at gov.nu.ca
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Danny Younger [mailto:dannyyounger at yahoo.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 3:57 PM
> > To: Thompson, Darlene; Nick Ashton-Hart; Brendler,
> > Beau; Evan
> > Leibovitch; NA Discuss
> > Subject: Re: [NA-Discuss] ATTENTION REQUIRED: Re:
> > ARIN Participation at
> > the Nonprofit Technology Conference
> >
> > Perhaps some of you might recall this ALS
> > requirement:
> >
> > Minimum criteria for an At-Large Structure:
> > 3.  Be self-supporting (not rely on ICANN for
> > funding).
> >
> > In principle I am opposed to wasteful spending of
> > dollars that flow into ICANN from the registrant
> > community.  This is not "free money" that you can
> > just
> > tap into simply because ICANN is more cash-flush now
> > than it used to be in the past -- it comes from the
> > pockets of those that we have pledged to protect.
> >
> > If this group wanted to put forward a matching funds
> > proposal to demonstrate that its activities can
> > reasonably be described as self-supporting, then I
> > would have less objection to supporting this type of
> > an outreach initiative.  So, are you willing to dig
> > into your organizational pockets to support this
> > initiative, or not?
> >
> > As I see it, ICANN has professional Staff that
> > engage
> > in outreach activities.  Doubtless some of that
> > Staff
> > will be at the upcoming Dubai session.  I would see
> > a
> > greater value in pushing ICANN to finally recruit a
> > North American liaison whose duty it would be to
> > properly engage in outreach activities on this
> > continent.
> >
> > ICANN has already budgeted for that function.  Do we
> > really need to spend more money on what may well
> > turn
> > out to be duplicative outreach work when the NA
> > Liaison assumes his/her duties?
> >
> > Danny
> >
> > --- "Thompson, Darlene" <DThompson at GOV.NU.CA> wrote:
> >
> > > Would anybody be against suggesting such a thing?
> > > Can we agree to this
> > > on-line?  It seems fairly reasonable to me.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> ________________________________________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
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