[governance] the matter of MAG rotation 2010

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 18/01/2010, at 5:52 PM, William Drake wrote:

> Could you help me to understand your concerns here?  Which important decisions exactly have been made without reference to the MAG?

A couple of examples that spring to mind are, from the last meeting, the selection of speakers for the "Taking Stock" session, and from Rio, the decision not to allow the Webcasting tool that the Brazilian Ministry of Culture had developed to be used to display (even pre-vetted) comments from the Internet in main sessions.  I can provide more examples, but I'm replying quickly for now.

> I'm not privy to its internal deliberations, but as an outsider had thought that the MAG approves the program, main session speakers, etc.  If that's not true and the MAG has been bypassed and had its authority eroded, have its members objected about this?

This doesn't happen because it isn't so much a case of trespassing on the MAG's authority, as circumscribing its authority very narrowly and treating it as something that shouldn't be questioned.  The attitude is rather one of, "Obviously, remote participation questions are matters for the Secretariat alone to decide - how could it possibly be otherwise?"

> BTW, in a related vein, I'd ask you about something previously and would still be interested in an answer:
> 
> On Jan 14, 2010, at 7:08 PM, William Drake wrote:
> 
>>> Wearing my cynical hat, this may just mean that any of the decisions that would otherwise have been made by the MAG in May will be made by the Secretariat instead, rather than submitting them to the anarchy of the open consultation meeting.  
>> 
>> How would that work?  Markus' message to the MAG suggests they meet a last time next month and set the agenda for the Vilnius meeting, and the program then would be fleshed out in two open planning meetings in May and June.  What decisions could the secretariat go off and make on its own without the two open planning meetings noticing, and why would it try to?

I think Parminder's last message to the list addresses in noting that "in all earlier years even up to the Sept meeting program documents could be fine-tuned or even amended".  Other important procedural decisions about the format and content of the meeting are often made at quite short notice, certainly later than February.

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm
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Consumers International
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