[Chapter-delegates] Internet Society Appointments to theNTIA/IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group

[JOHN MORE]

Global elections, elections by all domain holders. Sounds great. Makes one feel good and "democratic". But these are more great goals and principles than practical approaches to obtaining more oversight of ICANN for the benefit if the broader user community. Evan's proposal for additional at-large members is probably the best, feasible solution as well as continued pressure from everyone. 

John More
Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 4, 2014, at 11:33 AM, Evan Leibovitch <evan at telly.org> wrote:
> 
>> On 4 July 2014 07:12, Vint Cerf <vint at google.com> wrote:
>>  
>> the idea that there should be a global election for board members of ICANN by citizens of the world and users of the Internet was then and I think still is unworkable. Qualifying the electorate and running a verifiable election (ie, free of fraud) via the Internet is still out of the question. In places like Estonia where strong authentication is available it appears possible to achieve such an objective but this isn't feasible today on a global scale. I think the At-Large mechanism is about the best one can do along these lines for now.
> 
> 
> That might be workable, except that most of the advocates for this stance have become exhausted begging for it.
> 
> After the last ALAC review, The Board Governance Committee recommended that the At-Large Community be able to elect two seats to the ICANN Board. In the end, we got one and I was privately told by some Board members that we should consider ourselves lucky to get that.
> 
> During the second At-Large Summit held during ICANN50, there were calls to renew a push for that second Board seat chosen by At-Large. I believe this is indicates within the Summit's final declaration that was presented to Fadi and Stave. But without another Board-initiated review to propose this, how does it happen? When At-Large asks for it we come across to some as "just another self-serving ICANN community wanting more power". Yet more influence for At-Large, as a path to increased accountability appears NEVER to be advanced outside of ALAC itself.
> 
> The push for this can get very disheartening. At times it seems that the success or failure of greater At-Large influence hinges on unfortunate criteria, such as the performance of the sitting At-Large rep on the Board or the perceived value of ALAC/Board meetings. I have even been told that my personal scepticism about the public benefit of the gTLD expansion, in small part, has been one of many unspoken impediments to At-Large's being perceived as worthy of another Board seat.
> 
> Those of us working in At-Large to try to act, as some including Fadi have said, as "ICANN's conscience", have become exhausted at merely trying to be seen as worthy enough. One of the sub-committees of the ATLAS2 organizing group was called "Return on Investment". I find it repugnant that, so many years after it was formed, even inside At-Large we still feel the need to prove RoI. It wasn't that long ago that even consistent travel support had to be begged for,
> 
> In summary, Vint, I would agree with you that more and better use of At-Large may be capable of at least trying to address the lack of free-for-all public elections. But I really wish that there was more support for this option outside of the ALAC itself. We don't have to go far within ICANN meetings to find many Board members, senior staff and indeed Fadi himself telling us At-Largers how vital we are. The will to add more At-Large elected Board members (perhaps to replace the NomCom appointments rather than just making a bigger Board) would be the best way to put action behind that sentiment.
> 
> - Evan
> 
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