[At-Large] ALAC Director

[Ray Plzak]

Roberto,

Well said my friend,

Ray

> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-large-bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:at-large-
> bounces at atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Roberto Gaetano
> Sent: Friday, September 03, 2010 6:21 PM
> To: 'At-Large Worldwide'
> Subject: [At-Large] ALAC Director
> 
> As the deadline for applications is approaching, I would like to give
> my
> contribution to the ongoing debate.
> 
> First of all, a disclaimer. Some people have asked me whether I was
> going to
> submit my candidature. As the first ALAC Liaison to the Board, and
> later on
> voting Director, it might seem almost natural.
> However, my answer is no, and the reason is simple. As a Chair of some
> Board
> Committees and Working Groups, I feel I have contributed in the past
> years
> to the process of establishing the voting seat on the Board for ALAC.
> As
> such, I believe that it would be ethically incorrect to apply for a
> seat
> that I have contributed to establish.
> ALAC has many fine potential candidates who are able to do the job even
> better than me, and without being perceived to be in a sort of conflict
> of
> interest position.
> 
> On the issue about remuneration of the Directors, I think that Thomas
> (Narten) has well summarized the lively discussions that the Board had
> on
> the subject. Opinions were widely different, and all points raised on
> the
> ALAC email thread have been abundantly discussed, but leaving still the
> situation without a Board consensus.
> My personal opinion is that an ICANN Director should not be
> remunerated.
> Incidentally, the case for the Chair is a different one, as we are
> talking
> about a task that is almost a full time job.
> The problem is that in ICANN there are lots of people doing work as
> volounteers. I don't think that the contribution of a Director is more
> important, or more time consuming, that other positions like the Name
> Council Chair. Why should the former be remunerated and the latter not?
> And
> then we could go on. Where to draw the line?
> I fully respect the opinions of, inter alia, Karl. I understand the
> issue of
> fiduciary responsibility, the need for legal advice, and so on.
> However, I
> still think that to have people that base their decision to be or not
> to be
> a Director on whether they get a sufficient amount of money would be
> risky
> to say the least. I believe this being true for "generic" Directors,
> but
> even more true for a person that has to represent the interest of the
> AtLarge community.
> To represent this community I believe that we need to have somebody
> that has
> the enthusiasm of fighting for what he/she thinks to be the good thing,
> somebody who has the strength to overcome the difficulties, somebody
> who
> would never be looked at by some internauts in developing countries
> like a
> white collar who makes a living pretending to represent them in the
> ICANN
> Board while getting paid for it.
> ALAC needs indeed a "doer", to continue stealing words from Karl.
> However, I
> disagree with the part of the analysis from some contributors (was it
> John?)
> who claim that you cannot afford to be on the Board unless you are
> sponsored
> by your employer or have other funding.
> I believe, although I might be wrong, to have been on the Board enough
> of a
> "doer". The only contribution I had from my employer was to be granted
> 10
> extra days off per year (and only for 2 of the 6 years I have spent on
> the
> Board) to attend meetings. All the rest was my own time. It is doable,
> if
> you believe in what you are doing, and if you like this job. It is the
> willingness to fight for your ideas that gives the strength to stay up
> at
> night during a 3h teleconference in a foreign language, not the
> remuneration. It is the satisfaction for doing something useful for the
> community that allows you to land after a long flight coming from some
> ICANN
> event, go home for a quick shower, and go back to your day job. Of
> course,
> it puts some stress on you and on your family life, and severely limits
> your
> ability to do other activities. Of course, when your term is over, you
> are
> happy to have a break and to get time for the things you have neglected
> for
> years. But somebody else will pick up the flag and continue the
> process, and
> continue to move things forward.
> 
> All this might sound very "fairy tale-ish" or old fashioned.
> Icidentally,
> maybe I do am idealistic and old fashioned, and the world is going in a
> different direction. But this is my opinion, and I wanted to express
> it.
> To be clear, I am not going to the extreme that, if one day some
> remuneration is granted to Directors, the ideal ALAC Director should
> refuse
> it: I am just saying that I would personally not be in favour of
> electing a
> candidate who considers remuneration a condition to accept this task.
> 
> Have a nice weekend,
> Roberto
> 
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