10 April 2015

ALAC Nominations Open (from NARALO Operating Priniciples: At least once a year, on or before the First of July, or whenever a vacancy arises, the NARALO shall issue a call for nominations (including self-nominations) for members of the North American Internet community to serve on the ALAC. The call for nominations shall be open for at least 30 days. New ALAC members will be selected and announced sufficiently in advance of ICANN's annual meeting to allow them to be seated as required by Paragraph 10. Nominations other than self-nominations must be accepted within one week of the close of the nomination period.)

Other positions: The NARALO Operating Principles are less specific but are aligned with the ALAC selection.

9 May 2015

Nominations Close.

11 May 2015

NARALO Monthly Meeting – for positions where all nominees have either accepted or rejected the nomination (if required), the NARALO Chair will attempt to seek consensus on who to select.

16 May 2015

Deadline for Nomination Acceptance. Self-nominations need not be accepted.

18 May - 25 May 2015

For any position(s) where consensus was not reached during the NARALO meeting, an electronic poll of NARALO ALSes and unaffiliated members will be conducted.

Note: The vote procedure will be conducted based on relevant sections outlined in the NARALO Operating Principle. In an event of a tie for the NARALO ALAC Member (2015 AGM - 2017 AGM) selection, Section 19 of the NARALO Operating Principle will be applied as the current NARALO Chair Garth Bruen is a candidate for this position.

Newly selected ALAC Members and RALO leaders shall be seated at the close of the 2015 AGM on Thursday, 22nd October 2015. The newly selected NomCom Delegate will be seated when the 2016 NomCom convenes.

As a three-year Chair of NARALO I have seen various needs that need to be filled within At-Large, especially in under-represented communities. The recruitment we have done in NARALO has received recognition from other regions and from ICANN itself. We need to take this to the next level. As a community we have done a fantastic job of including our concerns in the policy debate and monitoring what ICANN and the contracted parties do. However, we need to hold ICANN to its claim of truly representing the global Internet user and consumer. Without representation and reach into all cultures, languages and levels of accessibility, ICANN’s reach is actually marginal. Developing methods to truly reach all Internet users and making the policy layer accessible to all will be a major part of my work if elected to ALAC. 

Thank you Joly for the nomination for ALAC.  As mentioned on the list at the time of the nomination, I do accept it.

While I have been an active, and somewhat visible, member of the GNSO for the last decade, my first introduction to ICANN was through the At-Large. Before being selected for a GNSO Council seat by the Nomcom in 2005, I was an ALAC groupie.  And through all my years in the GNSO, have participated in the At-Large, mostly in working groups, but also in the ALS I serve as a director of.  I have also been a WG co-chair for an At-Large working group and a member of several others.

I had decided before I ever ran for my current GNSO Council seat as an NCG representative, that it would only be for a single term - the one in which the GNSO review was determined. Having been responsible for implementing the reorganization of the GNSO several years ago, I wanted to see that process through to the review. That is nearly done.

During the years before this term I had gotten much more involved with At Large, and found that when I had to drop back on At-Large activities, I missed it. I also want to move beyond the GTLD focus on gTLDs to work on broader ICANN issues.

My interest in ALAC has to do with several drives:

• I want to continue pushing the importance of the ALAC forward, relative to the other AC/SO and before the Board. ALAC has come along way since the beginning, but it still does not get the hearing I think it deserves. As we enter a time when ICANN has a strategic mandate on Global Public Interest, I think that this is the perfect time for ALAC.  I have pushed for greater AC voice over the years and I think I can help. The At-Large is one of the more important groups for ICANN accountability. I think many have forgotten this or may have never realized it.  But it is power the AC must assert and one we must put a lot of work into. I think my personal history at ICANN has shown that I am good at asserting the role of the organization I represent and will work tirelessly to achieve the goals of the group I represent.

• I want to contribute to work on bringing the ALSes more into the ICANN picture.  One of At-Large's greatest powers lies in its global spread and diversity. At-Large as the representative of the users - the people of the Internet, is an engine of the constant outreach ICANN needs to do. But ALSes have to not only join, they should become involved; there has to be consultation with the ALSes and bottom-up activity from those ALAses.  As part of this I would also like to see a greater effect of the RALOs on the ALAC.

• With the new gTLD process starting up again, I want to make sure that the things that At-Large tried to get done last time, actually get done this time. Personally, I want to see a round devoted to developing economies and to communities that could not otherwise participate.

• I want to see the auction money used for developmental and other global public benefit projects.  While some may question the long term viability of domain names as money makers, there is no doubt that they are bringing tons of money into ICANN's coffers. That money needs to be directed to developmental activities. Funding the remedial round referred to above is just one possibility.

• There are numerous other ALAC priorities like capacity building where I think I can contribute.

I am open to any questions, and I hope that people will consider voting for me.

Evan Leibovitch, Sunish Gupta

Glenn McKnight

I have been involved with At-Large since the end of 2006 when I was appointed to the ALAC by the Nominating Committee to represent North America. With the exception of 2 years, I have served in this capacity since that time. I was also the ALAC Liaison to the GNSO for 2006-1014 and I served on the ALAC Leadership team for four of those years.

I those various capacities, I helped bring the ALAC to the position that is in today, a respected part of ICANN and, finally, having a voice that is listened to (if not always acted on). I take some pride in being the person who figured out how the ALAC could actually initiate GNSO Policy Action, and have seen that process through two PDPs; it is through such actions and more recent ones on new gTLD Public Interest Commitments that At-Large can show its true worth to ICANN.

When I became Chair last year, I recognized that my overall goal was to continue to increase the credibility of ALAC and At-Large. This would involve:

-          Improving the quality of ALAC statements so that when we spoke, people would know that we had something important to say;

-          Strengthening the overall At-Large organization from ALSes and individual members up through the RALOs so that they were the true power behind the ALAC.

Although many of us have been more than a little distracted by the IANA transition and accountability efforts, I believe that we are making headway on these goals, and I am optimistic that we will move forward quickly.

We have just had budget approval for several measures (activities at upcoming ICANN meetings) that will measurable improve the ability of the ALAC and regional leaders to work effectively together and to more than double the amount of face-to-face time that we spend on substantive policy and organizational matters.

All told, I am looking forward to continue to serve the ALAC and At-Large and bring them to a new level of maturity, just as my two predecessors as Chair have done. They both served as Chair for 3-4 years and then continued for another year to provide a smooth transition. This seems to be the optimal combination factoring in the rather steep learning curve for the Chair, stability, and new blood to re-invigorate the organization.

As an ALAC member selected by NARALO, I hope that I will have the opportunity to serve the ALAC and At-Large in the coming years, just as my predecessors have done, and to do all I can to help NARALO attain its full potential.

My decision to stand for the  NARALO chair position comes from careful and thoughtful analysis of the current NARALO political landscape and I believe that NARALO needs solid leadership especially with the departure of seasoned leaders leaving a substantial hole in the leadership. NARALO has its challenges and we need a clear vision and strategy to mobilize more our membership to get involved with NARALO activities. We need more active volunteers and this will require effort and dedication. 

Over the past five years I have made substantial contributions to NARALO in specific and ALAC in general from NOMCOM, Secretariat and ALAC positions, providing me a great overall perspective to the value and contributions ALAC  provides to the ICANN ecosystem. In addition, my senior position with ISOC Canada IEEE Canada provides invaluable insights. 

In closing, I believe I provide leadership, organizational skills and experience that is an essential combination for the Chair position. 

My decision to run for the Secretariat Position is to continue the work that I have been doing as acting secretariat since December 2014 when Garth took a leave of absence and also have been vice chair.  I have much experience in this area and would like to continue to serve NARALO.  As Secretariat, I have been advancing NARALO's positions and outreach both in the technology area and in the accessibility area where I have been championing the need for captions not only for those with hearing loss but also for those with limited bandwidth and who's native language is not English.  Because of my advocacy on this issue and through the work I and Glenn McKnight have done on the Technology Task Force we have made staff at ICANN aware of this need and they are working working hard to meet these goals, first with a new website and also hopefully with captioning. After winning funding for a captioning pilot during the ICANN Special Request Funding we hope to launch a pilot program for captioning in October 2015. I plan on continuing my advocacy and outreach on these efforts to different communities if you elect me as Secretariat. 

Additionally, I am working with Glenn McKnight to create a new template for the RALO monthly reports so that they can be more informative, provide important data for the metrics group, and also give other RALOs a template they can use to write reports. NARALO has its challenges and we need a clear vision and strategy to mobilize more of our membership to get involved with NARALO activities. We need more active volunteers and this will require effort and dedication.

I believe strongly in having an open and transparent process that respects the opinions of all our members. It is only by having an open process that people can have trust that their representative will work for them and for what they believe. I will seek consensus opinion and get more of our ALSes involved in different working groups. I have managed the process of obtaining regional advice for new ALSes. I also have worked with Staff to coordinate strategic issues and also for special budget proposals.

In closing, I believe I provide leadership, organizational skills, attention to detail and experience that is an essential combination for the Secretariat position. Here is the link to my SOI Judith Hellerstein SOI, which lists the committees and groups I have been active in during my time at ICANN.

I have the pleasure to be part of the NARALO since its inception. I participated in ICANN meetings remotely at the beginning, but when I've been elected chair of ISOC Quebec in 2007, I started to participate in person as my interest for ICANN kept growing. I appreciated my involvement in the NARALO Capacity Building meetings and received a certificate during the 45th ICANN meeting in Toronto in 2012. Since 2009, I focussed on the DotQuebec application that is now in service among many other new TLDs and, as you know, I'm a member of the NomCom team since 2014 and I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity. The NomCom 2015 is now in the evaluation process of the 81 applications received for leadership positions and we now meet remotely on a weekly basis.

I think that my background as a journalist, a communication expert and a manager for the Quebec Government could be useful to keep improving the NARALO communications and outreach within the ICANN community and among the ALs.

Alan Greenberg, Stephanie Perrin, Judith Hellerstein, Evan Leibovitch, Sunish Gupta

The history, perspective and experience that I have acquired during all these years with ALAC, At-Large, NARALO and ICANN as a whole will be put to good use as a NomCom delegate.