ALAC issues (was: Re: [governance] Innovation)

[Bret Fausett]

On Nov 26, 2007, at 11:03 AM, Kieren McCarthy wrote:
 >If there is a bottleneck, or a procedural problem, or a structural  
issue?

I've given this a fair amount of thought recently, in large part  
because the ALAC proved itself incapable of reacting to an ICANN call  
for comments on a fairly important issue, in spite of the fact that  
the work was done for it by a long time ALAC supporter (me). You can  
see my comment to the ALAC here:

http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org/ 
2007q4/002359.html

I think one part of the ALAC's problem is that it is composed of  
organizations, but the people involved are not authorized to speak on  
behalf of those organizations in all instances. Most organizations  
need some formal approval process before they sign their names to a  
policy document, and they are usually and understandably unwilling to  
attach their names to something that is not core to their mission and/ 
or is poorly understood by their leadership. ICANN matters are rarely  
core to anyone's missions and almost always poorly understood by  
those not involved on a daily basis.

To solve this, the ALAC could (a) abandon the organizational model  
and move to an individual membership model; or (b) asks organizations  
to appoint one member from the ALS to serve as liaison to the RALO,  
but free him or her to act in a personal capacity, not as a  
representative of the organization. I'm sure there are more  
possibilities as well.

--
Bret Fausett (skype me at "lextext")
smime.p7s is a digital signature
http://www.imc.org/smime-pgpmime.html
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