Letter from a NCSG Volunteer

[Raphael Beauregard-Lacroix]

Thank you for everything Rafik, and enjoy some responsibilities-free rest!



On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 4:46 PM Bruna Martins dos Santos <
bruna.mrtns at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Rafik,
>
> Adding another* thank you note* to you this week. But it was indeed an
> honor to work with you over the course of these years and more importantly
> - learn from this experience.
>
> Thank you so much for your dedication and meaningful contribution to NCSG
> and NCUC, and enjoy the "vacation"!
>
> Best,
> Bruna Santos
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 12:42 PM Raymond Mamattah <
> mamattah.raymond at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello Rafik,
>>
>> Thank you for your service to the NCSG community. I am sure with this
>> rich experience future councilors can count on you for your mentoring.
>>
>> Cheers.
>>
>> Raymond Mamattah
>> [image: linkedin]
>> <https://www.linkedin.com/in/raymond-selorm-mamattah-02637610> [image:
>> facebook] <https://www.facebook.com/selorm.mamattah> [image: skype]
>> <https://join.skype.com/invite/bWJCTPbNPkIF> [image: twitter]
>> <https://twitter.com/RMamattah>
>> Accra, Ghana
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 21, 2020 at 2:13 PM Rafik Dammak <rafik.dammak at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>>
>>> Today is officially my final day as councillor and I wanted because of
>>> that to share some thoughts with you. I am not planning to seek any elected
>>> role within NCSG or NCUC in near future and hoping to have some time away
>>> from ICANN. Sorry as it will be a long message but I hope you will find
>>> time to read it and use it as it fits.
>>>
>>> It was a great 4 years on the council and I believe I could participate
>>> in achieving some projects there. I do think the GNSO council is evolving
>>> in its role of PDP manager and changing its working methods. However, there
>>> are still challenges coming and our representatives there have to be ready
>>> and prepared to step up.
>>>
>>> PDP 3.0: I had the chance to be involved in that project as a member of
>>> the council leadership team till being the lead for the implementation. I
>>> really urge everyone to read the final report for the implementation to
>>> understand the different areas covered and to listen to the webinars
>>> presenting the recommendations. No, PDP 3.0 is not the silver bullet, not
>>> solving all problems in council or PDP. It is aimed to create a new dynamic
>>> of continuous improvement and so the work will continue.  PDP 3.0 is an
>>> opportunity and challenge for NCSG. For example, using a representational
>>> model can ensure that we are not overwhelmed like in an open working group
>>> and give us weight. However, it also means that we have to have enough of a
>>> pool of candidates and people who will participate effectively there and
>>> keep us updated regularly. The PDP 3.0 needs be also seen with the broader
>>> context of board initiative for multistakeholder model initiative or now
>>> the new proposal for Operational Design Phase for gTLD Policy
>>> Implementation and possibly later the one for PDP lifecycle. We have to be
>>> vigilant and ensure that GNSO remains the center point and sole responsible
>>> for gTLD policy making and management.
>>>
>>> GNSO Council: the council is being more assertive in terms of program
>>> management and planning the activities. It also added new tools for
>>> managing such the overhauled Project list, the new ADR (Actions Decisions
>>> Radar) and Project management tool. We don’t want to have 3 heavy PDP WG
>>> running at the same time with 2 extending their timelines for almost 4
>>> years and another being terminated before delivering. The council also
>>> spent time to outline the roles and responsibilities of WG leadership,
>>> council liaisons etc. Our representatives have an important role to be
>>> aware about the council discussions and topics brought for council
>>> attention, report them and participate on all the small teams and drafting
>>> activities, review all the documents, ask the right questions and get
>>> detailed responses from ICANN staff. Definitely it is not just about
>>> attending the monthly council call. Our representatives also have to
>>> continue the coordination and be able to vote following NCSG membership
>>> positions. Regarding the reporting, we have some experiments with the
>>> council meeting summary but personally I couldn’t continue because of the
>>> workload. I hope things will improve in that area.
>>>
>>> Council leadership: I had the privilege to be council vice-chair for
>>> NCPH for 3 years and work with 2 different teams. It was a good learning
>>> experience and let me participate in setting the council agenda, being
>>> aware about the topics discussed and participating at a different level in
>>> term of working with staff, WG, board and other SO/AC. I acknowledge that
>>> was not a light workload and sometimes I had to balance between being a
>>> NCSG representative and vice-chair. We have now new leadership team and we
>>> got Tatiana to be the next vice chair for NCPH. I trust she will do a great
>>> job there. It is important to keep asking the leadership the right
>>> questions and not just count on them to do everything.
>>>
>>> Policy Committee, I have been chair of NCSG PC for almost 4 years and I
>>> think we did well but there are a lot of things to improve and move to the
>>> next level. The PC has an important responsibility for NCSG to shape its
>>> policy positions and follow closely all PDP and non-PDP activities, council
>>> work etc. That can be only done if all PC members participate actively,
>>> between councillors and constituencies representatives. In terms of
>>> challenges, the PC has to continue the work on improving the working
>>> methods (such operating procedures), improve the reporting to members and
>>> how to scale out our participation taking into the new trends and incoming
>>> changes in PDP and committees. We had some webinars this year for EPDP but
>>> we could do more in several policy  topics more regularly to complement our
>>> monthly calls but I acknowledge that will require more work and
>>> preparation. Our engagement in ICANN is all about policy and that is what
>>> matters. Other issues are more means to achieve that and we need to be
>>> careful about where to spend our attention and effort to be effective. it
>>> is always tempting to jump between too many issues and forgetting what is
>>> essential i.e. defending the rights of non-commercial registrants and
>>> users.
>>>
>>> I also had the chance to work with different NCSG chairs and my
>>> conclusion is important to have a supportive chair who else understands
>>> their role and limits within what the charter describes. NCSG charter set a
>>> clear division of labor and scope for the committees. We just need to make
>>> that work more effectively. There is so much to do and few people to
>>> volunteer to make it.
>>>
>>> Regarding participation, I know this topic that was in the agenda of
>>> many leadership and candidates, that was discussed several times and many
>>> ideas or initiatives suggested or implemented such as policy writing. My
>>> take is that participation is at the end depending a lot of personal
>>> engagement and commitment. We can create favorable conditions and prepare
>>> but there are limits to that. Personally, I believe I grew up and learned a
>>> lot as an elected officer but that meant being active and participating.
>>> Some experience is needed and effectiveness is required. if you read the
>>> GNSO operating procedures, you have already understood a lot about GNSO
>>> council and PDP. There are now other resources like ICANN learn. There are
>>> regular webinars and policy briefings that anyone can listen or read. My
>>> observation is those who volunteered for drafting and/or joined working
>>> groups were able to move faster than just counting on any kind of capacity
>>> building. I want also to emphasize that most of the work is done between
>>> F2F meetings, in numerous calls, exchange in mailing lists and volunteering
>>> to draft or review proposals and documents.
>>>
>>> Future topics: if you check the GNSO work plan , project list and more
>>> importantly the ADR you can get an idea about what is coming as work at
>>> GNSO level. there is RPM phase 2, the endless list of RDS related tasks due
>>> to EPDP etc. But it still doesn’t cover everything. We have to deal with
>>> all recommendations coming from the review teams and being assigned to GNSO
>>> or even recommendations from WS2. We have possibly also the GNSO review
>>> coming and this requires everyone to understand the background of the first
>>> GNSO review and how the structuring helped us to be more vocal and
>>> influential in council. I am pragmatic and not keen on pessimistic
>>> approaches. We need to identify what is coming calmly and strategize how to
>>> respond to that by building our initial positions, understanding the
>>> parameters and terms of the activity to be initiated and more importantly
>>> preparing the volunteers who lead there. We also have new activity now in
>>> NCSG that might propose some changes. I think there are a lot of
>>> expectations from new leadership to make changes but first it is critical
>>> to identify the issues and right priorities. Things can change anytime.
>>>
>>> I believe in self-criticism and acknowledge that getting criticism or
>>> feedback is not that easy. I acknowledge that I made mistakes and failed on
>>> some issues. I can only apologize sincerely and take responsibility. It is
>>> easy to deny and deflect but it is definitely not the right way. I can only
>>> state that I worked with good faith and what I believed aligned with NCSG
>>> interests and values. There is temptation to object all the time, to make
>>> strong statements but the real work in the trenches is about building
>>> consensus and finding common ground. It is not visible, it is not sexy but
>>> I believe it has a lasting impact.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Finally and with this,  I will be only active as a member and will try
>>> to attend calls as much as possible or participate in discussion if I can
>>> help. I will be glad to support our elected officers and representatives
>>> and give them feedback. Thanks everyone for your confidence and trust that
>>> you gave for all those years I was representing NCSG in different roles
>>>
>>> Best Regards,
>>>
>>> Rafik Dammak
>>>
>>> NCSG member
>>>
>>>
>
> --
> *Bruna Martins dos Santos *
>
> Skype ID: bruna.martinsantos
> @boomartins
>
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