[NCSG-PC] [gnso-chairs] Initiating the Community Dialogue on "How We Meet": Initial Ideas & Meeting Request

[Tomslin Samme-Nlar]

Hi PC,

This is the response I have put together based on the conversation we had
last week and comments of the document. I wil be sending this to Greg:

Foundational questions:


   1.

   If you or your group could change one thing about how we meet that will
   facilitate efficiency in how we deliver ICANN’s mission while remaining
   sustainable into the future, what would that be? -

*NCSG Response:* One thing we could try to develop a bit more and think
thoroughly is to focus resources on groups/individuals within ICANN that
actually contribute substantially. I'm aware that creating criteria and
metrics for what "substantial participation" may mean, but the idea here
would be pushing the community towards a proper stimuli environment,
rewarding work effectively done and discouraging people from resting
passively on past laurels (and this should apply not only to individuals,
but to community bodies as a whole.)


Other NCSG Comments:


We think that reviewing the ICANN Meeting Strategy (
https://meetings.icann.org/en/future-meeting-strategy) after ten years
(considering how many important things happened in this period) is a good
idea, even if we end up concluding that we should maintain the status quo.


In addition, our members thought ICANN should genuinely explore reducing
sessions at each meeting and a qualitative evaluation of the benefits of
face-to-face meetings in general so that we fully understand what we are
potentially going to lose.


At the same time, we think session/travel reduction should not be done in a
blanket way across the board, since all community groups do not have access
to equal level of funding outside ICANN. However, our members think the
timing of the changes is poor, considering the upcoming new gTLD round and
WSIS concerns. The last time we went into a round of new gTLDs, it was a
London meeting where 6,000 people. It was apparently the biggest meeting
ICANN  had  ever,  ever  hosted  because  there  was  massive interest,
concern,  and questions  about  the  new gTLD program.  If  ICANN cut’s
back now, we will lose the very thing that we are trying to do, which is to
get many more people involved in and interested in new gTLDs. Newcomers
through  the  applicant  support  program,  through  the  outreach  and
marketing are going to come in and they will have a million questions
about  ICANN.  So  ICANN  needs  those education and outreach sessions and
we need them sometimes face to face so people can actually ask the dumb
question in the hallway.


In addition, NCSG members would like to know what is going on financially
with ICANN.




On Thu, 11 Jul 2024 at 08:59, Tomslin Samme-Nlar <mesumbeslin at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi team,
>
> In our SOAC leadership meeting with Sally in Kigali, she mentioned 2 areas
> where the community needs to have a dialogue on; (1) "How We Meet" and (2)
> "How We Work". Below and attached is a discussion paper from ICANN's Policy
> & Advice Development staff team to facilitate the discussion on dialogue #1
> "How We Meet.
>
> Things will move fast since we have to send our feedback (if any) to
> gnso-chairs at icann.org by 24 July 2024. As a result, I have added this
> topic as an agenda item to our monthly policy meeting which is on Monday 15
> July at 11:30 UTC (See Andrea's email/reminder for joining details and full
> agenda). Come with some ideas please. I have also created this Google Doc
> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rQ3_P-xlb48qcy4iY4prOis4Y4O1O2a_geBfrYMuQ4Y/edit?usp=sharing>
> to solicit feedback from everyone, even if you can't make the meeting.
>
> In the paper, you will notice a number of suggestions such as:
>
>    1. Evaluate the full cycle of in-person and hybrid community meetings,
>    including standalone SOAC Leadership and Strategic Planning meetings,
>    targeted group meetings (such as the Contracted Parties Summit, the At
>    Large Summit, and the High-Level Governmental Meeting) and similar,
>    cost-intensive, travel-dependent Meetings
>    2. Review the planning by ICANN Org and the community for all
>    in-person/hybrid meetings (including ICANN Public Meetings) by adopting an
>    annualized, regular approach of planning for a full meeting cycle (either
>    by a calendar year or a fiscal year)
>    3. Review of the current allocation of Funded Travelers to each ICANN
>    Public Meeting
>    4. Reduce the number of sessions at ICANN Public Meetings, which could
>    result in a reduction in the cost of travel (i.e., accommodation) and
>    venue-related costs (e.g., room and equipment rentals, contractors)
>    5. Reduce or eliminate informational and training sessions at ICANN
>    Public Meetings
>    6. Reduce or eliminate ICANN-hosted or ICANN-sponsored social and
>    outreach events at, or associated with, an ICANN Public Meeting
>    7. Move at least one (1) upcoming ICANN Public Meeting to a Virtual
>    Meeting
>    8. Review the current state of ICANN Public Meetings, with a view
>    toward updating the ten-year-old ICANN Meetings Strategy (dating from 2014)
>    to match current and expected future needs and budget constraints
>
> Talk to you all on Monday.
>
> Warmly,
> Tomslin
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Mary Wong via soac-chairs <soac-chairs at icann.org>
> *Sent:* Sunday, July 7, 2024 11:58 PM
> *To:* soac-chairs at icann.org
> *Cc:* team-leaders at icann.org
> *Subject:* [EXTERNAL] [soac-chairs] Initiating the Community Dialogue on
> "How We Meet": Initial Ideas & Meeting Request
>
>
>
> *CAUTION*: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
> click links or open attachments unless you can confirm the sender and know
> the content is safe.
>
>
>
> Dear SOAC leaders,
>
>
>
> An action item from your informal meeting with Sally in Kigali was for the
> Policy team to facilitate a dialogue with you about “How We Meet”, viz.,
> how our in-person and hybrid meetings can be optimized to ensure that
> resources (including financial, staff and community time) continue to be
> allocated appropriately to ensure the community can do its work effectively
> and efficiently, while staying within budgetary constraints. As a starting
> point for this dialogue, we have drafted the attached discussion paper with
> some initial ideas for your community’s consideration and to invite your
> suggestions for further discussion.
>
>
>
> To capitalize on the momentum of recent conversations and to facilitate a
> constructive and substantive dialogue, we’d like to suggest the following
> cadence of meetings, structured around a few foundational questions:
>
>    - Late/end-July: first call with SOAC Chairs and Vice-Chairs to share
>    feedback on agreed strategic questions
>    - Mid/late August (following collation of ideas and input): second
>    call to discuss and agree on concrete ideas for implementation or further
>    exploration
>    - End-August/early September (if agreed is needed): third call to
>    review agreed way forward, including any next steps for additional (longer
>    term) ideas to be discussed further
>
>
>
> The sort of strategic, foundational questions we were thinking might be
> helpful for focusing the dialogue include:
>
>    - If you or your group could change one thing about how we meet that
>       will facilitate efficiency in how we deliver ICANN’s mission while
>       remaining sustainable into the future, what would that be?
>       - What other key changes do we need to make to continue to ensure
>       we can meet these goals?
>
>
>
> Thank you for your support and willingness to collaborate with us in
> seeking to improve and optimize how we meet. Assuming you are comfortable
> with the proposed approach, I’ll make sure to come back to you with some
> suggested dates for the calls. Please let me know if your group have any
> questions or would like any additional information that can assist with
> your internal discussions about this topic. Thank you!
>
>
>
> Cheers
>
> Mary
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Gnso-chairs mailing list -- gnso-chairs at icann.org
> To unsubscribe send an email to gnso-chairs-leave at icann.org
> _______________________________________________
> By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your
> personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance
> with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and
> the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can
> visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or
> configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or
> disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ncsg.is/pipermail/ncsg-pc/attachments/20240724/b8a68f67/attachment.htm>