RE: [ga] Resignation of Alternate Chair

["Cade,Marilyn S - LGA" <mcade@att.com>]

Roeland, your post to Patrick really stated some of my thoughts.. about
appreciating your contribution, Patrick, and about lessons learned.... 

More on that later... for now, a word of appreciation:  

I regret that you are resigning, Patrick,but respect your decision.  But
want to say that I think that your efforts of leadership were significant
and that I regret that a combined set of factors will now deny the GA of
your interests and efforts.  I hope you will be able to return to
participation as your health improves.  In the meantime, my thoughts are
with you and your family. 

On a different point which Roeland made, and which may be a lesson learned
from Patrick's experiences, (I do not intend to speak for him/you, but to
offer an idea):

Ultimately, in my view, paid neutral staff, like associations have, would
help to offload the burden now borne by elected leaders, whether in
constituencies, or in the GA.   

Funding for such staffing could come through the fees collected from
registrants of names, and provided on a neutral basis to the "structural
support" of staff, web sites, communications costs, etc.  I know that we
have all struggled with this concept, but regardless of other differences,
perhaps we can begin to think that staffing to SOs would be a "good thing".
I hope we won't get caught up in arguing at this point about who chooses the
staff, whether they work for ICANN or for the SO, but perhaps just give a
little thought to how much better the content of our work could be if we
didn't have to also bootstrap process.  When people have to spend all their
time dealing with administration, scheduling, etc., it is hard to also focus
on consensus building; sufficient outreach, etc.  :-)

In any case, as we go forward, Patrick, I shall miss you, and have missed
you.  And will keep you in my thoughts.   And hope that you will rejoin us
at some point. 

Best regards, 

Marilyn
-----Original Message-----
From: Roeland Meyer [mailto:rmeyer@mhsc.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2001 3:53 PM
To: 'Patrick Corliss'; Roberto Gaetano
Cc: [ga]
Subject: RE: [ga] Resignation of Alternate Chair


Hello Patrick,

I've been rather busy and just caught this. I understand your position and I
regret the decision you feel is necessary to take. I find it regretable. I
find it even more regretable that the DNSO can't see fit to assist, with
resources, its own elected leadership. The onerous burden of leadership
results in about an order of magnitude more effort than simple participation
in these lists. Some will undoubtedly disagree with that assessment. Added
to that, the frustrations that put a strain on even the healthiest of us,
then the burden is much to bear.

IMHO, we need two different approaches to run simultaneously. We need an
advocate and liaison, which we have in Danny, and we need a
consensus-builder, which we have just lost. They are incompatible profiles
in the samer body because the work in completely different ways. I have yet
to see an advocate that can play the role of consensus-builder and I have
yet to see a consensus-builder that can be an effective advocate. The two
are not the same and they have to work in partnership. Ideally, we have two
that work together as a team. However, no one claims that it's easy <g>.

I, for one, thank you for your efforts, Patrick. It's a long and winding
road and the burden is heavy. Some of us recognise that, even if others do
not.

|> -----Original Message-----
|> From: Patrick Corliss [mailto:patrick@quad.net.au]
|> Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2001 8:15 AM
|> To: Roberto Gaetano
|> Cc: [ga]
|> Subject: [ga] Resignation of Alternate Chair
|> 
|> 
|> On Wed, 03 Oct 2001 07:02:28 +0000, Roberto Gaetano wrote:
|> On Wed, 03 Oct 2001 15:39:48 +1200, Joop Ternstra wrote:
|> 
|> > >Our alt-Chair's absence, I believe, is due to illness. 
|> Therefore I keep
|> > >encouraging Danny to appoint Chairs to some of the 
|> sublists to help him
|> > >bringing order in the chaos.
|> >
|> > I am sorry to hear that.
|> > I apologise for having thought that there might have been 
|> other reasons.
|> > I hope Patrick will be healthy and participative soon.
|> 
|> Hi Roberto
|> 
|> Thank you for your kind comments about my health and this 
|> certainly requires
|> urgent attention.  However, you are partly right that there 
|> are "other
|> reasons".  One is the poor state of my personal finances.   
|> Nevertheless
|> my health problems are real and quite serious, I'm sorry to say.
|> 
|> More significantly, however, is the almost total inability 
|> of the GA to
|> function.  This has many reasons which I have spelled out on 
|> a number of
|> occasions.  Several of these factors have been raised in the 
|> two threads on
|> the
|> subject of the Chair's recall.  I really should not need to 
|> reiterate them
|> here.
|> 
|> One is the attitude of the NC (as indicated by Danny).  
|> Another is the
|> desire by some well-known agitators to divert the process.  
|> A third is the
|> ineffective approach taken by Danny to solving these problems and, in
|> particular, his lack of willingness to accept advice and input.
|> 
|> Where I have difficulty is in the inter-relationship of 
|> these factors.  The
|> NC seems to be stuffing up and this, with the added 
|> complication of internal
|> GA bickering, seems to drive Danny to a "leadership" role.  
|> This in turn
|> causes
|> justified criticism which is pounced on, and escalated, by 
|> the agitators.
|> 
|> My own efforts to raise awareness (e.g. my comments about 
|> "red herings",
|> diversionary tactics, the NC and mailing lists) just provides further
|> ammunition
|> leading to further diversions and biased commentary.  And so it goes.
|> 
|> In fact, it took a huge effort on my part to get the GA to 
|> agree, generally,
|> to move procedural debate to the [ga-rules] mailing list.  I 
|> saw this as a
|> sound attempt to solve the problem of diversionary tactics 
|> such as are still
|> occuring.  As well, the DNSO Secretariat proved recalcitrant 
|> in the extreme
|> and I have had no support from the GA Chair in overcoming 
|> this problem.
|> 
|> One result is that the motion has not been put to a vote <sigh>.
|> 
|> At least I worked to obtain consensus.  However none of 
|> Danny's unilateral
|> decisions have got of the ground.  I will not bore you with 
|> detailing them.
|> 
|> There is also a serious problem in the ability of the list 
|> monitors to
|> perform their work and this has led to several resignations. 
|>  You should be
|> aware that one of Danny's decisions was to sack me as list 
|> monitor because
|> of my comments about the lack of integrity shown by 
|> Elisabeth Porteneuve
|> and Philip Sheppard.  I saw that as quite unreal and pathetic.
|> 
|> Interestingly William X. Walsh argues that he can say what 
|> he likes about
|> the Chair or the Alt Chair but should we return the favour 
|> he will lodge a
|> formal complaint to [ga-abuse].  He will then complain 
|> bitterly about abuse
|> of power should the list monitors not uphold his one-eyed views.
|> 
|> None of this is designed to advance the process 
|> constructively.  I will
|> remind
|> participants of my post "They're Coming To Take Me Away.  Ha Ha."
|> 
|> Of course, even those who seemed to support my efforts have 
|> truly put little
|> effort into making them work.  One example is the Best 
|> Practices which its
|> proponents argued did not need to be adopted in a formal 
|> sense.  Hence the
|> recent comments on this list about a lack of process.
|> 
|> My view is clear.  Unless the members of the GA genuinely 
|> work towards a
|> co-operative approach then the whole framework is 
|> irrelevant.  Others have
|> expressed the view that I am wasting my time because the 
|> framework is a sham
|> anyway.  I appreciate that view but was determined to give 
|> it my best shot.
|> 
|> All I wanted to do was to develop just ONE single policy 
|> outcome which would
|> make its way though the formal process to the ICANN Board.  
|> That would be a
|> test of their goodwill @!!  I really was acting in the best 
|> interests of the
|> GA.
|> 
|> The truth is that I now realise that this is impossible 
|> particularly since I
|> do not have the support of several key participants in the 
|> official process.
|> I name these as Danny Younger, Philip Sheppard and Elisabeth 
|> Porteneuve.
|> 
|> It is with regret, therefore, that I hereby resign as 
|> Alternate Chair of the
|> General
|> Assembly.
|> 
|> Thank you for your trust.  I am truly sorry that I could not 
|> achieve the
|> impossible.
|> 
|> Best regards
|> Patrick Corliss
|> 
|> 
|> 
|> 
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