<div>Forwarding on behalf of Stephanie -</div><div> <br></div><blockquote class="protonmail_quote" type="cite"><p><span class="size" style="font-size:undefinedpx"><span class="font" style="font-family:Lucida Grande">I agree with Ayden
          that we could use some cat herders here.  Also drafters of
          course.  Had someone hounded me, I might have dragged myself
          away from a different drafting deadline to go over the draft
          comment.  Cat herding is a great job for someone who feels
          they might not have the expertise to write the comment....a
          team of cat herders who could help us watch deadlines would be
          most appreciated.  Some of us are on several committees and
          working groups, and we just plain forget the time.  We do need
          more people to get engaged, and help.</span></span><br></p><p><span class="size" style="font-size:undefinedpx"><span class="font" style="font-family:Lucida Grande">cheers Stephanie
          Perrin</span></span><br></p><div><br></div><div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2017-05-02 17:56, Ayden Férdeline
      wrote:<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>Hi Michael,<br></div><div><br></div></div><div><div>It is true that cc'ing an extra email into a thread is not a
        difficult task, and I try to do it where I can. However, it is
        not that the NCSG's procedural complexity is beyond
        comprehension, it is that the issues we are responding to often
        require background knowledge. Please don't misunderstand me
        here; I think a lot of what we do at the moment in terms of
        gathering input is mere tokenism and we need to somehow
        implement a framework with more contemporary notions of
        participation, but this is not easy to do. <br></div><div> <br></div><div> I think the challenge is less that these issues are complicated
        (though they are) but that we are volunteers and do not have
        people here who are solely responsible for communicating
        concepts, facilitating input, herding the cats... I see
        participation as a lot like eating spinach. No one is against it
        in principle because we all accept it is good, but there's a
        real difference between going through the empty ritual of
        participation and doing it in a way that actually affects the
        outcome of the process.<br></div></div><div><br></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block "><div class="protonmail_signature_block-user "><div>Ayden Férdeline<br></div><div><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline" title="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdeline" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">linkedin.com/in/ferdeline</a><br></div></div><div class="protonmail_signature_block-proton
          protonmail_signature_block-empty"><br></div></div><div><br></div><blockquote class="protonmail_quote" type="cite"><div>-------- Original Message --------<br></div><div>Subject: Re: comments on the ICANN budget<br></div><div>Local Time: 2 May 2017 10:17 PM<br></div><div>UTC Time: 2 May 2017 21:17<br></div><div>From: <a href="mailto:mike.oghia@GMAIL.COM" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">mike.oghia@GMAIL.COM</a><br></div><div>To: <a href="mailto:NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU" class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">NCSG-DISCUSS@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU</a><br></div><div><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div>Hi all,<br></div><div><br></div><div>Great suggestion Nadira, and perhaps more of this kind of
            delegation would strengthen engagement, lighten the load on
            those already volunteering, and provide more decentralized,
            bottom-up, and inclusive governance.<br></div><div><br></div><div>With that said, I also want to stress that adding an
            email to CC is far from a difficult task. Not including the
            community in open deliberations is unacceptable. If our
            procedural complexity is beyond comprehension, then we need
            to seriously reevaluate how we expect anyone without 5-10
            years of experience and a PhD or JD to get involved.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><br></div><div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size:13px">Best,</span></span><br></div><div><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size:13px">-Michael</span></span><br></div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 10:57 PM, Nadira Alaraj <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nadira.araj@gmail.com" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">nadira.araj@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0 0 0
                .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Dear
                    Tapani and all,<br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">I
                    wanted to give a suggestion based your following
                    paragraph regarding lack of resource.<br></div><span class=""><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">"<span class="font" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif"><i>I don't see any reason to accuse
                          or blame anyone here, the fault lies</i></span><br></div><div><i>simply in our lack of resources, too much
                        work for too few people.</i><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small;display:inline">"<br></div><div><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div></span><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Given
                    the fact that "<b><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(85, 85, 85)"><span class="font" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif"><span class="size" style="font-size:14px">NCUC's membership has
                            reached 570 members, including 119
                            noncommercial organizations and 451
                            individuals. </span></span></span></b>"<br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">When
                    there is a lack of resources, the community
                    membership is not engaged and that is alerting
                    because no one wants to end up of mere number of
                    membership. <br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Instead
                    of putting the load on the Policy Committee to do
                    the comments on behalf of the whole community, why
                    not to split their tasks to increase the
                    productivity, by creating different sub-teams to the
                    PC to utilize the diversity of knowledge among the
                    community by assigning theme to each sub-team to
                    prepare the comments with the lead of experienced PC
                    before being shared with the community as a whole.  <br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">The
                    question that occurs in any one's mind, what would
                    be the motivation of the volunteers in the
                    sub-teams? What I can think of right now, but others
                    might have other ideas, is to give sub-team members
                    priority over other applicants for fellowships. <br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Best,<br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">Nadira <br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"><br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small">  <br></div><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:small"> 
                     <br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 7:29 PM, Tapani
                            Tarvainen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ncsg@tapani.tarvainen.info" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">ncsg@tapani.tarvainen.info</a>></span> wrote:<br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px
                            0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
                            rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><div>Hi Michael,<br></div><div><br></div><div>Policy Committee is in charge of
                              endorsing comments on behalf of NCSG,<br></div><div>so decisions about that have to take
                              place in PC list and the way for<br></div><div>people to get their comments endorsed
                              as NCSG comments is to ask for<br></div><div>support from the PC.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Of course discussion could and in
                              general should occur on this list,<br></div><div>too, but when time is short, as it
                              regrettably often is, people tend<br></div><div>to do only what *must* be done. It
                              would have been nice for for some<br></div><div>PC member to relay discussion about
                              this to the general list (and as a<br></div><div>member of PC I'm guilty here as well),
                              but sometimes we aren't able to<br></div><div>do things in an optimal way.<br></div><div><br></div><div>You can read the entire thread about
                              Ed's comment in the PC list<br></div><div>following the link he posted below. Ed
                              made a comment and notified the<br></div><div>PC, there was talk about endorsing it
                              as NCSG comment but for whatever<br></div><div>reason that never got anywhere -
                              probably people were simply too busy.<br></div><div><br></div><div>I don't see any reason to accuse or
                              blame anyone here, the fault lies<br></div><div>simply in our lack of resources, too
                              much work for too few people.<br></div><div><span class="m_3774417797213394390gmail-HOEnZb"><span class="colour" style="color:rgb(136, 136, 136)"><br>--<br> Tapani Tarvainen</span></span></div><div><div class="m_3774417797213394390gmail-h5"><div><br></div><div>On Tue, May 02, 2017 at 05:36:09PM
                                  +0200, Michael Oghia (<a href="mailto:mike.oghia@GMAIL.COM" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">mike.oghia@GMAIL.COM</a>)
                                  wrote:<br></div><div>><br></div><div>> Thank you Ed for the
                                  clarification. Does anyone know why
                                  this wasn't<br></div><div>> discussed more on this list?<br></div><div>><br></div><div>> Best,<br></div><div>> -Michael<br></div><div>><br></div><div>> On Tue, May 2, 2017 at 5:30
                                  PM, Edward Morris <<a href="mailto:egmorris1@toast.net" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">egmorris1@toast.net</a>>
                                  wrote:<br></div><div>><br></div><div>> > Hi Milton,<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > As too often is the case,
                                  you rush to personal attack without
                                  first<br></div><div>> > determining the facts.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > From the NCSG PC list (<a rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-pc/2017-April/">https://lists.ncsg.is/piperma<wbr>il/ncsg-pc/2017-April/</a><br></div><div>> > 000515.html )<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > ___<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Hi Rafik,<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > I’d like to thank those
                                  who stepped in to contribute to the
                                  budget<br></div><div>> > comment. I sadly disagree
                                  with the tone and much of the content
                                  of the<br></div><div>> > document. I do not
                                  endorse it.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > There was no way for me
                                  to edit the document without
                                  completely deleting<br></div><div>> > much of what had
                                  previously been written there. I just
                                  didn’t feel that was<br></div><div>> > an appropriate thing to
                                  do.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Rather I have completed
                                  and submitted to the Comments Forum a
                                  Personal<br></div><div>> > Comment, which I am
                                  attaching to this post. I welcome
                                  those who have<br></div><div>> > stepped up to do the NCSG
                                  comment to consider what I had to say,
                                  borrow<br></div><div>> > from my post, or
                                  disregard it completely.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > My objection to the NCSG
                                  comment as written consists of the
                                  following<br></div><div>> > objections:<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > 1. I believe it is too
                                  negative and accusatory and fails to
                                  recognize the<br></div><div>> > hard work done by Finance
                                  and the unique nature of the first
                                  year of the<br></div><div>> > Empowered Community.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > I have major problems
                                  with the process, and have expressed
                                  them in my<br></div><div>> > Comment, along with
                                  suggested ways of improving
                                  cooperation and community<br></div><div>> > input. However, I don’t
                                  believe any slights were deliberate or
                                  intentional.<br></div><div>> > I believe the Community,
                                  including myself, erred in placing so
                                  many hard<br></div><div>> > deadlines on Finance as
                                  part of the budget process in the new
                                  Bylaws. This<br></div><div>> > is a year of adaptation
                                  but generalized critical comments
                                  without specific<br></div><div>> > proposed solutions serve
                                  no purpose. And that is what much of
                                  the proposed<br></div><div>> > NCSG comment consists of.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > 2.  I find the objections
                                  to ALAC expenditures to appear as a
                                  stand alone<br></div><div>> > attack on the AC. There
                                  are a number of areas of expenditure
                                  that many of<br></div><div>> > us would find
                                  questionable. Why focus only on these
                                  in the absence of<br></div><div>> > criticism of other
                                  questionable expenses?<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > 3. I don’t find staff
                                  retreats to be among the most pressing
                                  fiscal<br></div><div>> > matters. After all, as a
                                  supplemental request components of the
                                  NCSG asked<br></div><div>> > for their own retreats
                                  and the GNSO Council was actually
                                  granted one.<br></div><div>> > Should we not first
                                  oppose these retreats or is there a
                                  reason staff<br></div><div>> > retreats are so onerous?<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > 4. As noted in my
                                  personal comment, my biggest concern
                                  involves the lack<br></div><div>> > of funding priority for
                                  core policy activities. I have focused
                                  on one<br></div><div>> > unfunded proposal – that
                                  of $100,000 for external PDP support –
                                  and would<br></div><div>> > encourage the NCSG to
                                  consider adopting this view.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Although I can not
                                  endorse the comment, out of respect
                                  for the work done<br></div><div>> > on the document I will
                                  not oppose it. I will abstain and hope
                                  my comments<br></div><div>> > above as well as those in
                                  my personal comment will be considered
                                  by the PC.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Regrettably, I have some
                                  domestic responsibilities to attend to
                                  this<br></div><div>> > evening that must take
                                  priority over my volunteer activities
                                  here. Consider<br></div><div>> > my abstention to be a
                                  permament one and feel free to borrow
                                  from, or<br></div><div>> > ignore, my offerings on
                                  this matter.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Best,<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Ed Morris<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> >
                                  ______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>______________<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Public comments are the
                                  purview of the NCSG Policy Committee,
                                  not the NCSG<br></div><div>> > Finance Committee. With
                                  rare exceptions, discussions of the
                                  content of the<br></div><div>> > public comments occur
                                  within the PC and not on the DISCUSS
                                  list. Maybe that<br></div><div>> > is something we should
                                  re-think, however that problem is not
                                  unique to this<br></div><div>> > comment. If you’d like to
                                  know why the NCSG did not submit a
                                  public comment<br></div><div>> > on the budget I’d suggest
                                  you read the NCSG PC archives, ask the
                                  NCSG PC<br></div><div>> > Chair or ask those who
                                  volunteered to write the comment at
                                  the last NCSG PC<br></div><div>> > meeting.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Contrary to your
                                  assertion, Milton, as above, I did
                                  share my comments with<br></div><div>> > those who stepped forward
                                  to draft the comment for the Policy
                                  Committee. I<br></div><div>> > should note that I was
                                  not one of those who volunteered to
                                  draft this<br></div><div>> > comment for the PC. As a
                                  member of the P.C., though, I saw
                                  things I<br></div><div>> > disagreed with in what
                                  was being done and shared my views. We
                                  were all on<br></div><div>> > deadline, though, which
                                  made things difficult.  In fact, one
                                  P.C. observer<br></div><div>> > suggested the NCSG might
                                  want to endorse my comment (although
                                  qualifying<br></div><div>> > her comment by stating
                                  she had yet to read my comment and may
                                  not even<br></div><div>> > agree with her
                                  suggestion) (<a rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="https://lists.ncsg.is/">https://lists.ncsg.is/</a><br></div><div>> >
                                  pipermail/ncsg-pc/2017-April/0<wbr>00518.html
                                  ).<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Not much else I can say
                                  Milton. You seem to delight in
                                  attacking me<br></div><div>> > personally, facts
                                  notwithstanding. I hope you had fun.
                                  You can criticize me<br></div><div>> > for being late to the
                                  conversation, but this is a volunteer
                                  position and I<br></div><div>> > was busy elsewhere early
                                  in the comment period. I guess that
                                  doesn’t fit<br></div><div>> > your narrative, a
                                  narrative which has little to do with
                                  fact.<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> > Ed Morris<br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> ><br></div></div></div><div>> >
                              ------------------------------<br></div><div><br></div><div class="m_3774417797213394390gmail-HOEnZb"><div class="m_3774417797213394390gmail-h5"><div>> ><br></div><div>> > On Tue, May 2, 2017 at
                                  4:17 PM, Mueller, Milton L <<a href="mailto:milton@gatech.edu" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener">milton@gatech.edu</a>><br></div><div>> > wrote:<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> I was interested in
                                  the public comments on ICANN's budget
                                  - I believe<br></div><div>> >> this is the first one
                                  since the transition.<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> I noticed that all
                                  stakeholder groups and constituencies
                                  except NCSG<br></div><div>> >> filed comments on the
                                  budget. I was disappointed to see that
                                  instead of a<br></div><div>> >> NCSG comment we have
                                  a lone individual, Ed Morris,
                                  commenting with his<br></div><div>> >> personal opinions.
                                  Since Ed is supposed to be the chair
                                  of our NCSG finance<br></div><div>> >> committee, one would
                                  have thought that he would post his
                                  comments to the<br></div><div>> >> NCSG list for some
                                  feedback.<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> Ed's comments (<a rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="http://mm.icann.org/pipermail">http://mm.icann.org/pipermail</a><br></div><div>> >>
                                  /comments-fy18-budget-08mar17/<wbr>attachments/20170428/440be454/<br></div><div>> >>
                                  budgetcomment-0001.pdf) make it clear
                                  that they are his personal<br></div><div>> >> opinions and not
                                  necessarily those of the NCSG, but I
                                  find this very odd.<br></div><div>> >> Normally, if you file
                                  comments individually, it is because
                                  you tried to<br></div><div>> >> achieve NCSG
                                  consensus but could not. In that case,
                                  it's OK for folks to<br></div><div>> >> file comments to
                                  reflect the different views.<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> In this case, Ed made
                                  no effort to inform the group of his
                                  views on the<br></div><div>> >> budget, much less
                                  attempt to gain some support for them.
                                  I think this is<br></div><div>> >> not acceptable. The
                                  Chair of our Finance Committee needs
                                  to think of<br></div><div>> >> himself as a delegate
                                  of the SG, not as someone who goes off
                                  into a silo<br></div><div>> >> and does whatever he
                                  wants, without even informing the
                                  members who<br></div><div>> >> appointed him.<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> This becomes more
                                  serious when one realizes that in his
                                  comments, Ed<br></div><div>> >> basically threatens
                                  ICANN with rejecting the entire budget
                                  because of a<br></div><div>> >> disagreement over a
                                  small item. He says:<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> "Unless bound by my
                                  Support Group to support this budget,
                                  I would be<br></div><div>> >> inclined to favor
                                  rejecting the entire budget when it
                                  comes back to the<br></div><div>> >> GNSO Council if this
                                  amount is not restored to the budget
                                  prior its final<br></div><div>> >> adoption."<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> I am not sure what Ed
                                  means by his "support group" but
                                  presumably that<br></div><div>> >> means his Stakeholder
                                  Group and/or Constituency. But how are
                                  we supposed to<br></div><div>> >> "bind" him to favor
                                  or oppose the budget if we don't even
                                  know that he has<br></div><div>> >> made this threat?<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> In sum, I am sure we
                                  all appreciate the willingness of
                                  volunteers to go<br></div><div>> >> through the budget
                                  and make sense of it, but our
                                  delegates to these<br></div><div>> >> committees have to
                                  understand that they are agents of
                                  NCSG and it is their<br></div><div>> >> responsibility to
                                  liaise with the SG and inform the
                                  membership of their<br></div><div>> >> actions, and to build
                                  consensus on positions when possible.
                                  It's not that<br></div><div>> >> hard to write an
                                  email to the list and attach a draft
                                  of your proposed<br></div><div>> >> comments.<br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >><br></div><div>> >> Dr. Milton L Mueller<br></div><div>> >> Professor, School of
                                  Public Policy<br></div><div>> >> Georgia Institute of
                                  Technology<br></div><div>> >> Internet Governance
                                  Project<br></div><div>> >> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener" href="http://internetgovernance.org/">http://internetgovernance.org/</a><br></div><div>> ><br></div><div>> ><br></div></div></div></blockquote></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><div>-- <br></div><div class="m_3774417797213394390gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><br></p><p style="margin:0in 0in 0pt"><span class="font" style="font-family:Calibri"></span> <br></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div></blockquote></blockquote><div><br></div>