[PC-NCSG] Follow-up on Council Chair Elections

[Amr Elsadr]

Yes. Thanks Matt. And thank you to everyone who made it to yesterday?s meeting on such short notice.

Amr

> On Oct 23, 2015, at 9:17 AM, Matthew Shears <mshears at cdt.org> wrote:
> 
> Amr
> 
> Thank for this - fully support.  One note inline.
> 
> See you all next time round.
> 
> Matthew
> 
> On 23/10/2015 00:48, Amr Elsadr wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> A few of the PC members met today following the the GNSO wrap-up session to generally discuss a strategy for our SG on the council chair elections, but more specifically on a course of action regarding nomination of an interim council VC from the NCPH.
>> 
>> Those present were:
>> 
>> Amr Elsadr
>> Stefania Milan
>> Matthew Shears
>> Sam Lanfranco
>> David Cake
>> Stephanie Perrin
>> 
>> I will try to summarise what we discussed this afternoon, but would appreciate others pointing out anything I may have missed.
>> 
>> As you?ve seen on this list, I have been trying to coordinate a possible way forward with Greg Shatan from the IPC and James Bladel from the RrSG. I did inform them that any correspondence or informal discussion between us would need to be relayed to the full NCSG PC. I would prefer to avoid any miscommunication similar to what we have experienced over this past week, and they have indicated their agreement.
>> 
>> Here are the discussion points from today:
>> 
>> 1. Greg indicated to me this morning that the CSG would like the NCPH to appoint an interim VC until a council chair is successfully elected, however, he did indicate that David Cake would not be an acceptable candidate for the job. He did not explain why, and I did not press him for an explanation. He later sent an email (which I have circulated on this list), which suggested that the CSG are now open to any considerations. He also explicitly informed me that the CSG intent regarding an interim VC was that there is no expected obligation on their side that an interim VC would be a candidate in any upcoming chair election (for example, in the event that Heather would be the interim VC).
>> 
>> 2. James Bladel (during the wrap-up session) indicated to me that a repeat of the failure to elect a council chair in one month is a realistic possibility. He also expressed concern that this may impact the council?s ability to conduct its business in the short term, especially should motions be submitted as council agenda items over the next few months.
>> 
>> 3. Members of the NCSG PC present at today?s meeting agreed to only support David Cake continuing as an interim council VC pending a resolution to the council leadership void we are dealing with. Part of the motivation of doing this is to provide incentive to the CSG not to continue to block a council chair being elected. Another is the rationale that since we have failed to elect a new council chair (also impacting the NCPH?s ability to select a new VC), it would make sense to continue with the previously selected NCPH VC until a more permanent change in leadership is achieved. As we had a majority of our councillors present, as well as at least one representative from each constituency, I will consider this a consensus decision of the NCSG PC.
> I would just like to emphasize that the continuation of the VCs is, most importantly, the right decision from a governance perspective - the continuity and stability of the GNSO and its ability to act is paramount.  Any other option would be to add further uncertainties.
>> 
>> 4. The NCSG needs to be fully aware of any scenarios and implications of decisions that we make regarding agreeing to a council chair candidate from the NCPH, and any communication between the NCSG and other SGs of the GNSO.
>> 
>> 5. The NCSG will formally communicate any positions we have to other groups within the GNSO. This has been made clear to the IPC and the RrSG, however, there is no confirmation that this has been communicated to the full CSG or the RySG. This will need to be done tomorrow during the full-day GNSO session starting at 09:30.
>> 
>> 6. Last night during the NCPH reception, Rafik and I met with Greg Shatan and Steve Metalitz. I expressed to them my regret of the miscommunication that has led to us down this path, and conveyed my personal apologies for the role that I played in not communicating the NCSG?s full position of no guarantees to supporting Heather Forrest during the council chair election. The CSG were understandably under the impression that we would support her, as we agreed to her candidacy, and we had not effectively communicated to them that this did not represent a commitment on our part to vote for her during the elections.
>> 
>> 7. We need to encourage our CSG counterparts to use the NCPH leadership email list to coordinate our communication. I will ask Glen to add some missing members of the NCSG PC to that list, namely, the constituency representatives to the PC as well as Stefania, who has recently been elected to the council.
>> 
>> END OF NOTES.
>> 
>> As has been our tradition, I hope that the NCSG will not decide to direct our councillors voting for the GNSO council chair elections. I will personally not support a decision to direct our councillors votes under any circumstances. However, a consensus of the NCSG PC is required to confirm a VC (interim or permanent) from the NCPH.
>> 
>> Following the meeting of the PC members, James Bladel informed me that the CPH will continue to support his candidacy for council chair. This has not been formally announced, but once/if it is, we will need to decide whether or not we will consider supporting a NCPH candidate to run against him.
>> 
>> Finally, I will send a recording of yesterday?s informal meeting to this list in a separate email. This meeting took place prior to the council public meeting.
>> 
>> If anyone has any comments, questions or concerns, please speak up.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>> Amr
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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> Matthew Shears
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> Center for Democracy & Technology
> mshears at cdt.org
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