FW: [bestbits] Proposal on Best Bits governance

[michael gurstein]

Note the date...

M

-----Original Message-----
From: michael gurstein [mailto:gurstein at gmail.com] 
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 11:54 AM
To: 'anriette at apc.org'; 'bestbits at lists.bestbits.net'
Subject: RE: [bestbits] Proposal on Best Bits governance

Hi Anriette,

(very quick note..

No aspersions cast or intended on any of the eminent colleagues involved with BB development and current leadership.

However, your note is basically the same as the one my original post was responding to and my response to it is the same -- trust but verify...

Also, the issue of the timing and urgency rings rather hollow since as you well know BB has been around now for about a year and a half which should be more than enough time to ensure an appropriately accountable and transparent governance structure.

In response to your proposal I have a counterproposal which would be to immediately repurpose and reopen the "the steering committee" to be an open "working group".  Have this working group report back to the BB list within a month with a proposal for a governance procedure/structure, have this proposal go to the list for approval through rough consensus and then proceed from there. 

And just to note, if your proposal and timing are agreed to, effectively all of the most significant decisions re: BB's position concerning the crucial upcoming meetings--Brazil and its follow-on, WSIS + 10, the MDG (and SDG?) summit with respect to MS procedures and policies going forward, public positioning of BB, and nominations to various MS groups -will all have been more or less finalized by the time a new and fully legitimized/representative Steering Committee will have been put into place.  Of course, I have no doubt at all that this was not the underlying purpose of your proposal but it would quite obviously be the effect.

M

-----Original Message-----
From: bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net [mailto:bestbits-request at lists.bestbits.net] On Behalf Of Anriette Esterhuysen
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2013 1:56 AM
To: bestbits at lists.bestbits.net
Subject: [bestbits] Proposal on Best Bits governance

Dear all

[Please note that this proposal is not about the Brazil meeting or civil society nomcoms.]

In some of the recent threads people have called to question the legitimacy of the Best Bits steering committee, and of transparency and accountability in Best Bits.  I agree it will be good to strengthen Best Bits internal processes, but we should do this in a way that does not undermine trust in people who have worked hard to bring Best Bits to where it is, or in one another.  We should also not undermine our ability to work together at a time when civil society is having to rise to some pretty daunting challenges.

In particular, we should try not to discourage those individuals who have been volunteering their time on Best Bits bits work - either on the SC, or on drafting inputs. Without their effort we would be in a far weaker position than we are now. We would not have had the benefit of two face-to-face meetings, or of several substantial letters/other inputs submitted in response to strategic opportunities for raising civil society voices.

I would therefore like to propose the following:

1) We ask the current Best Bits Steering Committee, a group of people who started to volunteer their time in this capacity in July 2013, to continue to serve until 31 July 2014.

2) We ask them to present us with a short overview report of the work they did in 2013 by the end of this year.

3) We ask them to, by the end of the first quarter of 2014, to propose a process for the renewal of the Best Bits Steering Committee.

Best

Anriette