[Community-Discuss] AFRINIC Council of Elders

Tue Jul 12 21:17:30 UTC 2016

Having looked at this from several angles, I think I see the source of confusion…

Section 16 in its entirety reads:

16 THE COUNCIL OF ELDERS
There shall be a Council of Elders appointed by the Board comprising a maximum of six (6) former chairpersons of AFRINIC who have left the Board. Their advisory role is commensurate with their experience leading the organisation as former Chairs.
16.1 Membership to the Council shall be opened to such former chairpersons who served at least one full term in that capacity.
16.2 First in first out principle will be used to ensure that the number of members of the council does not exceed six (6).
16.3 On the completion of their tenure of office, members of this Council shall retire and not be eligible for re-appointment.
16.4 This Council shall have an advisory role and shall provide help and assistance to the Chair or the entire Board.

The shall in the first paragraph does not make appointment automatic, but serves to limit the membership on the CoE. I agree this sentence could have been written better, but in essence, it states that to be eligible for appointment by the board, you must be a former chair that served at least one full term in that capacity. It’s not clear whether this means a 1-year term of chairman or a 3-year term on the board where you spent that entire term as chair. However, this particular minutiae may not be relevant to the question at hand.

Nonetheless, taken out of context, I can understand how some would read 16.1 to imply automatic appointment.

However, in the context of the opening paragraph to which 16.1 is subordinate, it is quite clear that it is a limit on eligibility and not a call for automatic appointment.

The board cannot appoint me to the CoE at this time, as I have never been chairman of the AfriNIC board. They may, at their discretion, choose to appoint (or not) Badru.

As to the criteria they use, I would say that each member of the board probably uses their own sound judgment and that there is no set criteria on which this is based other than the very limited set of constraints set out in section 16 of the bylaws.

Personally, I have enough trust and faith in the AfriNIC board to believe that they are quite capable of deciding whether or not to appoint any given former chair to the CoE. Sunday has stated that the matter will be decided by the board at their next meeting.

At this point, I’d say there’s nothing more to see here until the board makes their decision. I would also like to encourage people to accept the decision of the board, whatever it is, whether or not they agree with it. If you don’t like the way the board decides the issue, you can always vote for different board members in the next election.

Owen

> On Jul 12, 2016, at 13:21 , Evelyn Namara <evelyngeek at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> ./All,
> 
> Just out of curiosity, have all former chairpersons served on the CoE with Badru being the exception? (This is regardless of whether it is automatic or otherwise)
> If the answer is yes - 
> What criteria does the board use to deem a former chair worthy of a sit on the CoE?
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Jul 12, 2016 at 11:03 PM, Mike Silber <silber.mike at gmail.com <mailto:silber.mike at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Nishal +1
> 
> Maybe a hypothetical if I may: what if a former Chairperson were to pass, or to be unable or unwilling to serve on the CoE, or even if they were to be convicted of an offense after their term that would disqualify them as a director.
> 
> I don't think the community would want an unable or unwilling CoE member, or a convict.
> 
> So I cannot see how automatic appointment could be implied.
> 
> > On 12 Jul 2016, at 21:45, Nishal Goburdhan <nishal at controlfreak.co.za <mailto:nishal at controlfreak.co.za>> wrote:
> >
> >> On 12 Jul 2016, at 13:26, Omo Oaiya wrote:
> >>
> >> Let's get off this micromanagement train.
> >
> > yes indeed, let’s!
> >
> >
> >> "There shall be a Council of Elders appointed by the Board comprising a
> >> maximum of six (6) former chairpersons of AFRINIC who have left the Board.
> >> Their advisory role is commensurate with their experience leading the
> >> organisation as former Chairs."
> >
> > ok, so, let’s break it down, shall we?
> >
> > “there shall be a council”
> > —> and indeed, there is one.
> >
> > “..appointed by the board..”
> > —> it’s clear to me, that the decision to appoint (or not) is left to the board, since, those are the words, verbatim, from the bylaws.
> >
> > “..comprising a maximum of six former chairpersons..“
> > —> so, no more than six.
> >
> > t’mam?
> >
> > what’s unclear is probably the following:
> > * there is an _implied assumption_ (the original message in this thread) that the appointment is automatic.  there is no text to support that, so i would call that assumption incorrect.  (should there be text to this effect is a different question)
> > * there is an _implied assumption_ that *every* ex-chair should be on the CoE.  there is no text to support that either.
> > * there is an _implied assumption_ that there is a term limit (in number of years).  it’s true that there is one term limit, but there is no
> >
> >
> >> It goes further in 16.2 to describe how this is managed.
> >> Shall is authoritative.
> >
> > and indeed there is a committee;  there’s no debate over that.
> > but “shall” does not imply “automatic”, as you’re suggesting below.
> >
> >
> >> Any other interpretation is disingenuous.
> >
> > really omo?   that’s hardly sporting of you.  because an interpretation does not match your own, does *not* make that interpretation incorrect.
> > i’m simply giving you (this public list) my interpretation.  which, to me, seems correct from *my* reading of the text.
> >
> >
> >> In 16.3, the bylaws restricts the tenure of members to one term and forbids
> >> re-appointment.  If it were not automatic, how is the board expected to
> >> comply?
> >
> > i read this as (and *my* mostly monosyllabical explanation follows)
> > * there is a council
> > * it can have up to six ex-chairs
> > * the council members are appointed by the board
> > * when it gets to six, the first to join the council has to drop off to keep this at six
> >
> > i count a current council of 4.  which means, to me, that the bylaws are respected.
> > i don’t know why badru didn’t make the council.  (i might even like to, but that’s besides the point).
> > but the decision to appoint or not, seems squarely to be the prerogative of the board.  and not an automatic process.
> >
> > —n.
> >
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> Evelyn Namara | T: +256 754 440893 | E: enamara at riseup.net <mailto:enamara at riseup.net> | Twitter: @enamara <http://www.twitter.com/enamara> | Skype: enamara
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