Proposed Election Call Message for ALAC Board Liaison

Election of the ALAC Board Liaison for 2010-2011

As Chair of ALAC, I am pleased to pre-announce the beginning of the process by which ALAC will select its Board Liaison for the term beginning at the close of the ICANN Annual General Meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

Based on discussions between the ALAC and members of the Structural Improvements Committee and the ALAC Review Committee, and in conformity with the current Rules of Procedure (ROPs) regarding selection of the ALAC Board Liaison, the ALAC will take this opportunity to explore the effectiveness of a more formal, bottom-up process to create the pool of candidates which the ALAC will then vote on. Thus, this election call will serve as a trial-run of the type of process that could be used if the recommendation of the At-Large Review Working Group for the At-Large community to appoint two Directors to the ICANN Board were approved.

This may be the final appointment of a Board Liaison from the ALAC (assuming voting Board position(s) are approved by Board). If that is the case, it is assumed that there would be no obstacle to the liaison selected by this process from standing as a candidate for a Board Directorship, were he or she to choose to do so.

Duties of Liaisons

As stated in the Draft Position Description for ALAC Members and ALAC Liaisons, ALAC Liaisons are expected to carry out the following duties (numbers added):
> 1. Attend and participate in ALAC meetings
> 2. Provide updates on their activities as liaisons
> 3. Attend the meetings of the body they are a liaison to (the 'receiving body')
> 4. Participate effectively as an advocate for At-Large in the receiving body and
> 5. Where necessary propose responses from the ALAC to the receiving body on policy or other questions.

Level of Commitment for Board Liaison

The following should be kept in mind by all candidates for the Board Liaison position:

1.You will be expected to commit to championing and promoting the activities, positions, and interests of the ALAC, within its current (post ALAC Review) structure of RALO's and ALSes to the ICANN Board.

2.You will need to commit to and assist with the development of the ALAC and At-Large to best meet their purpose within ICANN which has four key elements:

> a. providing advice on policy;
> b. providing input into ICANN operations and structure;
> c. being part of ICANN’s accountability mechanisms; and;
> d.being an organising mechanism for some of ICANN’s outreach.

3. You will need to commit to support and further the Key Points and Recommendations of the ALAC Review as endorsed by the ICANN Board. Amongst other things, this includes supporting the position that At-Large is the primary organisational home for individual Internet users and that the Board must clarify the relationship between ALAC and the User House currently being developed within the GNSO.

4. You will be required to commit a considerable amount of time without recompense (excepting for expenses of certain kinds as are ICANN Board members). In particular, you will be expected to live up to the time and work commitments of members of the ICANN Board (a description of these requirements may be found at (http://nomcom.icann.org/positions-2009.html) as well as maintaining interaction and involvement with the ALAC as an ex-officio member of the ALAC, and an ex-officio role in the work and meetings of the Chair, Vice Chairs etc. At the same time, the successful candidate will need to maintain a close and regular interaction with the Regions and the Regional leadership.

5. You will need to commit to actively represent to the Board the views and opinions of the ALAC and At-Large regardless of whether such opinion or advice is in keeping with your personal views or beliefs, and if giving a piece of advice or comment from a personal perspective you will need to ensure that is noted as such for the record.

6. You will need to ensure that you are aware of and routinely bring to the attention of the Board the policy work being done by the ALAC, RALOs, ALSes and wider At-Large Community so that the voice of Internet Users is clearly recognized as a critical and effective part of ICANN's multi-stakeholder bottom up policy development process.

7. You will need to be able to communicate comfortably in both written and spoken English about complex subjects and technical matters, as the Board of ICANN operates exclusively in English.

8. You will need to commit to abide by the ICANN Code of Conduct (see http://www.icann.org/en/committees/coi/coi-policy-04mar99.htm) and the ALAC Code of Conduct found in ALAC's Rules of Procedure (AL/2007/1/1.Rev10)

Process for Election of Board Liaison

The ICANN Board has not discussed the mechanism for appointment and/or election of ICANN Board members by At-Large; indeed the Board has yet to decide upon whether or not At-Large shall elect or appoint Board members at all. However, as a community we need to explore and discuss this, possibly in parallel to these formal ALAC election processes or our Liaisons and Appointments.
Rules 4, 5, 9, and 10 of the ALAC's Rules of Procedure (AL/2007/1/1.Rev10) set out the procedure for the presentation of candidates, conduct of elections, as well as the obligations, privileges, and duties of the ALAC Liaison. You may find English, French, and Spanish versions of the text at the URL referenced above.

1. Each RALO is requested to forward the names of nominees that have been endorsed by the RALO, through whatever mechanism they wish to use for this purpose or which their Rules of Procedure provide, to the public At-Large list not later than 15 September 2009. Those selected shall provide:

> a. Acceptance of the Nomination to the position. Acceptance automatically means the nominee accepts the commitments listed above under "Level of Commitment for Board Liaison";
> b. A brief bio, written in clear English, taking into account the above commitments as well as the obligations and qualification criteria for liaisons as found in the ALAC Rules of Procedure;
> c. A statement, not longer than two pages in length, stating why the nominee believes he or she would be an effective representative of the ALAC and At-Large to the ICANN Board;
> d. A conflict of interest statement, disclosing any conflicts as provided at http://www.icann.org/en/committees/coi/coi-policy-04mar99.htm. Where the referenced uses the term 'Director' this shall be understood as meaning Liaison; it is further understood that Section 4 in that document is not applicable, as a liaison does not have a vote.

2. The list of candidates upon which the ALAC shall vote shall consist of the entire list of all nominees provided in step 1 above. The Staff shall publish the list of candidates not later than 17th September 2009 to the ALAC announcement list, including links to the materials provided by the nominees in Step 1.

3. A special purpose teleconference shall be arranged not earlier than 18th September and not later than 20th September at which the candidates shall be provided an equal length of time to speak about their candidature (the length to be determined by the Chair of the ALAC in advance). Q&A will follow this. All members of the At-Large community shall be invited to attend the teleconference, which shall be recorded and transcribed and conducted in English, Spanish, and French through the use of interpreters.

4. The ALAC shall vote on the list of candidates using the Instant Runoff Voting system, as provided in Rule 10.4 of the ALAC Rules of Procedure. This means they will rank each candidate, from most preferred to least preferred, using the electronic voting system regularly used for ALAC voting. The vote shall last for a period of 10 days, commencing 21st September at 12:00 UTC and closing at 18:00 UTC on 31st September.

5. The Staff shall announce the result of the voting on 1st October 2009 to the ALAC Announcement list, and notify the Secretary of the ICANN Board of the result immediately thereafter.

Many thanks in advance for your participation in this important appointment.

Regards,

Cheryl Langdon-Orr

Chair, At-Large Advisory Committee

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contributed by guest@socialtext.net on 2009-10-05 14:55:43 GMT