[Chapter-delegates] Board composition (Was Re: Unfortunately, the Internet Impact Toolkit is unsound)

[George Sadowsky]

All,

[The following remarks reflect my own personal opinion and not necessarily that of any component or function of ISOC.]

I think that this has been a useful discussion, and I hope that it does not stop here. As the Internet has expanded to connect more and more users in more countries, it becomes increasingly important for voices from those new parts of the world to be heard in the institutions that administer the Internet, such as ISOC. While this has been difficult initially because the historical roots of the Internet have been in developed countries, we are now at a time when not only the impact, use, and importance of the Internet is well recognized in all countries, but the skills to manage the Internet and the understanding of policy issues that affect all countries are reaching critical mass at the national level.

I have just been elected to the ISOC Board, and am Chair of the Nominating Committee this year. I take Andrew's point that previous nominating committees have been quite aware of the issue more diversity and have worked to try to provide it.  The more important point that Andrew has stressed is that the members of the board are elected by their constituent groups and that if there is a sufficient interest in diversity among the membership of a constituent group, then the resulting collection will favor that interest. I am fully committed to  working toward a ballot this year that provides sufficient choice to result in diverse additions to the board, but I need  help from all three constituencies to ensure success.

Remember that in addition to those candidates that are selected by the nominating committee for the ballot, there is the possibility of becoming a petition candidate and adding your name to the ballot. There is no barrier to having a diverse valid in any of the three constituencies (IETF, ISOC organizational members, ISOC chapters) if there is sufficient interest to do so among the membership of that constituency.

Finally, this is a subject that is relevant for the soon to be formed Internet Society Governance working group, which has the charter that provides for an examination of the current governance structure and possible modifications to it. Each constituency will have representatives on this working group, and those of you who have a particular interest in governance diversification should learn who your representatives will be on the working group and communicate your desires through them.

Regards,

George Sadowsky


> On Sep 11, 2020, at 12:48 PM, Veni Markovski via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> Couple of points below.
> 
> On 9/11/20 11:56, Andrew Sullivan via Chapter-delegates wrote:
>> Diversity is clearly a larger challenge that the IETF struggles with, but I think they hear this from the Board. 
> Good. We'll see if that was effective next year, when they put their candidates for the BoT. 
> 
>>> Also, the Board could decide, when there’s a vacancy, to appoint someone 
>>> from another region, too. 
>> 
>> There's been some discussion of this.  I will note that this Board is already quite large, and adding more people could make it seriously unwieldy. 
> I didn't mean to add *more* people, but when filling in a vacancy; it has happened in the past - when I stepped down from the BoT, Alejandro Pisanty was chosen to finish my term. So, one East European was replaced with one person from Latin America. IMHO, this was a good choice from point of view of geographic diversity.  
> 
> -- 
> 
> Best regards, 
> Veni
> https://www.veni.com <https://www.veni.com/>
> pgp:5BA1366E veni at veni.com <mailto:veni at veni.com>
> 
> The opinions expressed above are those of the 
> author, not of any organizations, associated 
> with or related to him in any given way. 
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
George Sadowsky                                    Residence tel: +1.301.968.4325
8300 Burdette Road, Apt B-472                          Mobile: +1.202.415.1933
Bethesda MD  20817-2831  USA                                    Skype: sadowsky      
george.sadowsky at gmail.com                http://www.georgesadowsky.org/ 



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