[Chapter-delegates] On Board Diversity

[Richard Hill]

The usual way to ensure that a Board (or committee, or whatever) is diverse is to split the electorate into groups and have each group elect their representatives. This is exactly what ISOC does by having IETF, Chapters, Organization Members each elect a certain number of Trustees.

 

Geographical diversity can be ensured by that, or by other mechanisms, see for example 5.5 of the ChAC Charter at:

 

  https://www.internetsociety.org/chapters/chapters-advisory-council/charter/ 

 

Perhaps the system used for the ChAC Steering Committee, or something similar, could be used for the ISOC Board as a whole?

 

Best,

Richard

 

From: Chapter-delegates [mailto:chapter-delegates-bounces at elists.isoc.org] On Behalf Of Veni Markovski via Chapter-delegates
Sent: Friday, 8 October 2021 23:55
To: John Levine
Cc: Chapter Delegates
Subject: Re: [Chapter-delegates] On Board Diversity

 

Warning: It's a long(ish) email. 

 

On Thu, Oct 7, 2021 at 13:57 John Levine via Chapter-delegates <chapter-delegates at elists.isoc.org> wrote


As Ted pointed out, ISOC's board selection process gives each of the
three groups full control over who they choose as board members. If
you want to require geographic diversity, how do you plan to do that,

 

Here's one possible solution: Include such a requirement in the ISOC by-laws and let the three groups figure out how to comply?

 


and what would you have done about the 2020 election in which the chapters
voted for a petition candidate who by most measures made the board
less diverse than any of the nomcom's candidates would have?

 

Nothing needs to be done, because — as it was already pointed out! — the total number of chapter-elected Trustees is 4, 3 (three) of whom are from the global South. Now that we have established the facts, would you agree there’s a solution to this issue, or would you also suggest that the ISOC trustees, who are elected from the global South, have “taken” the seat of someone more qualified? And if you have such evidence (that a candidate from a non-US/non-EU country has "taken" the seat of a more qualified and skilled person), would you publish it? 

Also, from your other argument, would you agree that there are enough skilled and qualified people working for the ISOC organizational members and contributing to the IETF, who are not based in the USA or the EU? Perhaps these two constituencies groups could be encouraged to spread the word around their hundreds of thousands of members/employees around the world, so that they can run for the BoT. Keith Davidson reminded us last year, that there was time, when the NomCom was proposing a gender-balanced slate of candidates, and as a result the BoT had more balance than today.

 

And a small personal note. 

Coming from Bulgaria, some of your comments remind me of similar attitude towards my fellow Bulgarians, when we were (and in some cases - still are) confronted by West Europeans, so I definitely know how one feels, when being told he or she does not belong somewhere, because he or she is not skilled enough, or because is from “the poor East”. We have seen that not only vis-a-vis East Europeans, of course. Unlike other cultures, though, it is totally OK in Eastern Europe to question such opinions. I could give you examples from many areas of life, where people from Bulgaria have not “taken” anybody’s seat, but have fought to be where they are... And where many Western Europeans would be without any fight, but by the mere fact where they were born. I hope this is helpful in figuring out why for me, as a chapter leader, is totally fine that while all the chapters have 75% of their elected Trustees from the global South, could agree - through a democratic procedure - that an old White dude from the USA could also run (he got enough support from the chapters, so that his name was in the competition), and then would be elected - not least of all, because he has spent decades working with chapters and Internet pioneers around the world, in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, and we all appreciate what he has done for the development of the Internet in our respected countries. 

 

And to add more positive spirit, and end on such a positive note - please, talk to your colleagues from the IETF who appointed you to the BoT, talk to any of the Org members you know, and kindly suggest to them that they should start taking an example from the chapters, and provide candidates, who are not necessarily from the USA. I am sure that within these organizations there are enough skilled people, who are not from the USA, and would be great Trustees. 

 

 

Best, 

Veni 

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