[NCSG-PC] GNSO call on threats and opportunities last week

[David Cake]

One thing I have certainly noticed in the EPDP, and the RDS before it, and a few other  WGs is that policy work now often gets into legal areas that exceed even legal expertise of the lawyers involved in the PDPs - a number of WGs have had to call in outside legal expertise, the EPDP fairly extensively. It can be a problem for participation in the WGs when even professional lawyers find it difficult - and especially for the NCSG, who is lucky enough to have several experienced and accomplished attorneys both now and historically, but tends to have to rely on them fairly heavily. 

Of course there are a few WGs that rely on other skills, particularly technical ones, but there seems to be a long term shift towards legal depth. 

David

> On 11 Nov 2020, at 5:18 am, Bruna Martins dos Santos <bruna.mrtns at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear PC, 
> 
> Raphael has worked on this excellent summary of the Threats and Opportunities call last week and I would also like to share this with you/on the PC List. 
> 
> Besides what's already highlighted by him, I would also add that it's interesting that other parts of the community shared the concerns about working closer with the GNSO leadership and that the council also agrees with that. 
> 
> Feel free to add anything that we might have missed! 
> 
> Best, 
> Bruna 
> 
> -------
> 
> GNSO Session on Threats and Opportunities
> 
> The usual suspects showed up as far as threats are concerned: workload, EDPD eating up all resources, having a small group of volunteers, at the SG/C level, do all the work, etc.
> 
> A few worthwhile points as far as we are concerned:
> 
> IPC mentioned the difficulty of obtaining consensus and working with colleagues who have different points of view.   
> The GNSO review was also mentioned as both a threat and an opportunity, along the following pattern: a challenge that can be used as an opportunity, in order to make the GNSO better... Now that doesn't mean we all agree on what "better" means, and that's where the rubber hits the road, I guess. IPC, BC, and ISPCP mentioned it. 
> Bruna highlighted the fact that NCSG managed to put together an EPDP team composed of newcomers and veterans alike, but that we otherwise have already reached our (NCSG) limits in terms of workload/active volunteers ratio. In this case, what goes for NCSG goes for NCUC, as we can all attest...
> There was a lot of discussion about scoping of work, prioritizing of resources, and what could/should the council and councillors do about that. 
> There was mention of having an internal page which would list the various skills (e.g. web development, project management, languages) of the councillors. I think that's a good idea, that could be replicated internally for us, at the C and eventually at SG level too. 
> Julf highlighted how Org and Board are more carefully listening to the GAC, and he related that to the general global climate of internet governance. 
> 
> There seems to be a general interest by the Council to further engage with SG/Cs, which in turn should prompt us to think about how we want/should engage with the council and the councillors - although that's most likely a reflection that should be held at the SG level for us, with an eventual distribution of labor among members and leaderships.
> 
> Rafik stressed the importance, for the council and councillors, of saying no to some projects, imposing delays, postponing, etc., in order to better manage the workload. Hence, on our side, one thing we should think about, as a C (and then SG), is what do we want to see prioritized. Then, when the day comes and the council takes decisions, we can, through the SG, work with our councillors to make sure our priorities are the ones that get prioritized. 
> 
> Finally, much like it will be the case for our councillors, we all need to become familiar with PDP 3.0, and that should probably be an integral part of our capacity building efforts. Additionally and more generally, knowledge of procedures for a given WG (and for the GNSO, if one is aiming at a Council position) is an important and appreciated skill - which may explain why we have so many lawyers at ICANN. That being said, even for non-lawyers, it is still a perfectly approachable topic. 
> 
> I was thinking of sharing a slightly trimmed down/fleshed out version of the summary above to the whole NCUC list - let me know what you would think of that and which parts appear to you to be the most relevant in that sense. I'll add that as a topic for our meeting tomorrow.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Bruna Martins dos Santos 
> 
> Skype ID: bruna.martinsantos
> @boomartins
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