14 July 2010 BCEC Meeting - Summary Minutes

Participants: Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Yaovi Atohoun, Hong Xue, Raj Singh, Veronica Cretu, Jacqueline Morris, James Corbin, Annalisa Roger
Apologies: Christopher Wilkinson
Staff: Seth Greene, Gisella Gruber-White

ROLL CALL AND ADOPTION OF AGENDA

Agenda adopted.

REVIEW OF SUMMARY MINUTES AND ACTION ITEMS FROM 09 JUNE (AND 07 JULY) 2010 MEETING

Action items: Edits have either been done by BigPulse on the SoI or are in process of being done.

Word "submit" in Chinese: Fine now.

Consistency of periods (punctuation) in SoI: Done

AI: Auto-response: Done, but must be checked before going live.

Translation: Legal has raised issue of need to translate SoI, since Board members expected to work in English.

AR: SoI then should be show of English usage.

YA: Should use one language for simplicity

Veronica: Let’s clarify what we want re language.

AR: Advantage to put call out in different languages (gaining attention, global reach, etc.). But submissions in English only has advantage that Board works in English.

Raj: Sending call for SoI out in multiple languages might give wrong/mixed message that a high level of English is, in fact, not required.

CLO: Of course, responsibility of BCEC to short list candidates who only have the required criteria, such as working ability in English.

Hong: Our emphasis on language diversity should be continued, encouraged – as long as candidate is proficient in working English, we should not require SoI submitted in English.

CLO: As At-Large Community has been champion of multilingualism, concept of putting call out in many languages fits our core values. Can meet Raj’s concern by putting on top of interactive SoI form note that Board works in English and responses to SoI questions must be in English. (Can put this on interactive form and also in Call for SoIs.)

Veronica, James, Raj: All agree

See below section “Approval of Interactive Statement of Interst” for exact note (regarding English) to be added to Call for SoIs and other edits needed. In total, four edits needed to document. Also, as Cheryl says above, the note should also be put on top of the interactive SoI form.
Summary: Put out call for applications multilingually. SoI and BigPulse tool should say at top that Board works in English and responses to SoI should be submitted in English. Copy of SoI that goes out with call should be multilingual. But BigPulse tool, and any forms that can be printed, etc. and submitted to BCEC will all state that Board works in English (at top of forms) and that responses must be in English.

Annalisa: If receive application not in English, do we contact applicant and explain they must resubmit in English?

CLO: It is the BCEC’s prerogative to that, if it wishes.

DISCUSSION OF INFORMATION RELEASE DETAILS (TIMING ETC.)
CLO: Name, address, e-mail, citizenship, etc, plus section B & C of SoI will be released (as established by ABSdt). There has been much discussion of timing of the release, which BCEC must decide. Can release at various times: when they arrive, when you okay a candidate, all at once (at end), etc.

Jacqueline: Suggests everything released at once at certain time after all applications received (after closing date).

Annalisa: Agrees.

Yaovi: I am concerned about where on Web this material is made public.

Hong: RALOs can only petition for candidates who have gone through the due diligence but have not made the slate. So, should the timing of the release be adjusted to make RALO petitions more doable. Perhaps 48 hrs (period time now under consideratbeing considered) after closing is not enough time for due diligence.

Jacqueline: Concern that released material about candidates be on a wiki page on which public can comment – legal issues, etc.

CLO: Could release info on a wiki page on which no comments are allowed (a read-only page). This protects us from libel issues. Then, if anyone wants to give information to BCEC about a candidate, he/she can do so by contacting BCEC in various other ways. Should put e-mail address on same page if people reading page would like to offer information to the BCEC.

Jacqueline: Easier for RALOs (re petitions) if we release all/each candidates as early as possible.

James: Should get all applications in, release within 24 hours at same time, then do due diligence – because this is only a serious position and only serious people should apply for it (without embellishing).

CLO: We are talking here about publishing the applications.

CLO: According to Legal, BCEC needs to know that any candidate on slate has gone through due diligence. Hong has brought up possibility that there’s a petition candidate who has failed due diligence. If failure was due to a minor matter, BCEC may still choose to put candidate on slate. Therefore, timing issue that Hong has raised is not so pressing. However, degree of failure of due diligence might be significant. In such a case, the independent chair is in a position of telling RALOs (publicly) that, if they put forward this petition candidate who has not made the slate for significant due diligence reasons and that petition candidate is then selected, that candidate would not likely pass final due diligence and would therefore not be seated on the Board. Result would be that selection process would have to be started again.

Jacqueline: Raised concern that some items that would likely cause candidate to fail due diligence (such as, for example, a crime) might be considered political matter by some.

Summary (CLO): Release of information will be 48 hours after the application period closes.

APPROVAL OF INTERACTIVE STATEMENT OF INTEREST AND OF CALL FOR APPLICANTS

CLO brought to floor the formal approval of Call for Applications and interactive SoI form:
Approval granted (no objections made), contingent on changes listed below. Intention is for the Call for applications to go out as soon as possible – preferably no later than next week.

AI: Approval granted contingent on:

• Current version of the interactive SoI must be tested
• Auto-response to interactive SoI must be tested
• The interactive SoI should have a note placed at its top saying that the form must be completed and submitted in English. This note can be the same one (same wording) that is also added to the Call for applications (see below).
• Four edits listed below must be made to Call for Applications document. (Note: Below these notes, Cheryl pasted a copy of the Call for SoIs, in which she made these three edits; she also made them to the version on Google Docs. (Of course, these edits should be reviewed.)

Edit 1
In “How to Apply” section, following note must be added: All SOIs must be completed and submitted in English.
Edit 2
Date of document must be changed to July 2010.
Edit 3
End of the last line should be deleted so it now simply with: …Annual Meeting in December 2010.
Edit 4
In “How to Apply” section, the “must be received” date should be changed to either August 15 or August 21

• It depends on which week the call actually goes out – this one or next week. If this week, make it August 15; if next week, make it August 21. Bottom line is that this date should be 30 days after the call goes out.

AI: Review all the above edits as placed in the Call for Applications (SoIs) by Cheryl during the meeting.

AI: When the Call for SoIs actually goes out, a notice should be sent to BCEC containing all final documents.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

No other business was brought up.

NEXT MEETING
Next meeting of the BCEC was set for Wednesday, July 28, 2010, at 22:00 UTC.
It was agreed that the rotation of meeting times between 20:00 and 22:00 UTC would be discontinued, and all meetings would now be held at 22:00 UTC. If this proves to cause problems in the future, the BCEC might go back to the rotation system.

AI: Make the above change to the times of future BCEC meetings.