[governance] MAG meeting

[Katitza Rodriguez]

Hi there,

I am joining the meeting remotely after lunch. I have been flying back
from Strasbourg to SF in an airplane, and I wasn't able to join the
conference remotely. I am now coordinating with Seitti and I am able to
make the point. 

FYI: It was not clear that a MAG meeting was going to be held. I made
other commitments and I wasn't able to work around funding and work
commitments once the informal MAG meeting was announced. Katitza


On Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:33:27 +0900, Adam Peake <ajp at glocom.ac.jp>
wrote:
> Parminder, there is no chair, how can there be chair's advisors? Not
> everything is about you, relax please.
> 
> We should be in an open MAG meeting.  The first time the MAG met
> without its mandate being renewed  was 3  or 4 years ago (I was still
> a member, or "non-member" depending on how we can confusingly refer to
> the title :-)) and I remember all in the room were able to speak. You
> were there and you spoke and it was an important precedent for the
> evolution of the MAG and process.  That openness is what we should be
> enjoying this morning. That we are not is a problem, the process has
> moved back to how we started in 2005.
> 
> Adam
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 7:16 PM,  <parminder at itforchange.net> wrote:
>> When the MAG assembled in the morning today, the secretariat asked MAG
>> members to sit in the middle and observers on the sides, so that they knew
>> who is who.
>>
>> Normally, MAG members have been liberally interpreted to include Special
>> Advisors. And special advisors have till now largely meant that there were
>> a few more civil society members in the room. At this point, Adam
>> pointedly asked the status of Special Advisors in regard of who sits
>> where, which was obviously to be connected to speaking rights during the
>> meeting. The secretariat, in the form of Chengetai, answered that since
>> there is no chair there are no advisors to the chair. Which may be a
>> little unsure interpretation. In fact there is even no MAG  today, as even
>> Chris Disspain said during the meeting without being challenged by the
>> secretariat or the chair. Things are rather informal. BTW, Chair advisors
>> are like all other positions attached to a position not a person, in the
>> same way that MAG may not disappear simply if for some reason the UN
>> secretary general remits his position suddenly. These kind of things can
>> be very disruptive and that is why things continue till alternative
>> arrangements are made. So, in the same way, since there was some kind of
>> chair-ship of today's meeting, there would informally continue to the
>> special advisors doing the same role as earlier. As i said, everything is
>> more than a bit fuzzy and a bit informal at present.
>>
>> So, Adam, I really do not understand what made you put Hartmut, Wolfgang
>> and me (and Jovan if he is to come in) out of circulation during the
>> meeting today. Any specific reason or strategy behind it? I understand
>> that all these are political events and situations, and our responses are
>> always political (and not just 'technical) and contextual. So I was
>> wondering what prompted you to do what you did (esp when some of IGC
>> members have actually been seeking that CSTD WGIGF should allow CS reps
>> also to take in advisors, basically the effort is to get into the room and
>> participate in all ways one can)
>>
>> I dont mind it too much though personally:).  Kind of used to it. Happens
>> in political work but one knows that this kind of thing goes with a civil
>> society advocacy role.. Just in the last meeting I was told by Markus that
>> this was primarily a discussion among MAG members, and therefore , well,
>> to be blunt,  to basically shut up. I may remind you, Adam, and others in
>> the IGC, that before I accepted the Advisor's position, I wrote to Nitin
>> and Markus giving my understanding of the Advisor role, which including
>> speaking up, and I was specifically told that my understanding was right.
>> I did share my letter, and also if I remember right, Markus's response to
>> my letter, with the IGC, since at that time I was IGC co-coordinator,
>> before I accepted the position. I have also, at least once, been told off
>> by a technical community MAG member on the MAG list that it is MAG members
>> views that count (and by implication special advisor's doesnt).
>>
>> But I wasnt expecting a CS member to do something like this, in a context
>> where he clearly knew the exact and specific outcomes - that three or four
>> of the very few CS members in the room will not be able to speak in the
>> MAG meeting. Any explanations, Adam?
>>
>> Parminder
>>
>>
>>
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> ____________________________________________________________
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