[Community-Discuss] Questions about transparency

Andrew Alston Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com
Fri Jul 14 09:08:14 UTC 2017 

This is a personal project, that's others may or may not choose to contribute to.  It is my belief that understanding the factionalism is key to solving it - and I feel this is beneficial, so I shall proceed.

I hope to have others join with me in the effort, but barring that I will still proceed in a solo effort, it will just take longer

Andrew

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________________________________
From: Badru Ntege <badru.ntege at nftconsult.com>
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2017 11:25:41 AM
To: Andrew Alston
Cc: Owen DeLong; community-discuss at afrinic.net
Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] Questions about transparency

So I'm curious how this will contribute to the achievement of AfriNICs mission statement. Or even the internet community in general.

I would rather prefer to see your energys directed in an additive activity

Sent from my iPhone

On 14 Jul 2017, at 10:22, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>> wrote:

Having read all of this,

I would like to start a bit of a research project in my spare (albeit limited) time – so here is what I plan to do.

I want to analyse every single email across the various lists going back 6 years – in an attempt to identify the factions that exists (as has been stated at all 3 of the last 3 meetings, there is a definite sense of factionalism within the AfriNIC community, and that observation has been made at the microphone by multiple people)
Then, let us identify


  1.  When these factions arose and why
  2.  Who are the people who are leading these factions

Then – once that information has been gathered in as objective fashion as possible, through looking at the emails and the responses, the substantiation behind those responses, looking at the videos of the PDP meeting and the questions at the microphone and the responses to follow-ups etc, we can then look at potentially finding a way to resolve the divides, potentially even by putting the leaders of said factions in the same room and getting them to work out the issues, so that we can get back to a point where we are discussing based on policy, based on content, and based on issues that are substantive, rather than from a geographic, linguistic or other perspective.

Now – such a complete research project if it is to be done properly, is immensely time consuming due to the volume of material to go through, and so, I’d like to invite volunteers who would like to assist in this project.  This also helps to mitigate the risk that the report that comes out of this will be in any way biased, since those working on it are volunteers from across the continent.

Please email me off list if you’d be willing to assist.

Thanks

Andrew


From: Badru Ntege [mailto:badru.ntege at nftconsult.com]
Sent: 14 July 2017 10:15
To: Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com<mailto:owen at delong.com>>
Cc: community-discuss at afrinic.net<mailto:community-discuss at afrinic.net>
Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] Questions about transparency



Sent from my iPhone

On 13 Jul 2017, at 08:10, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com<mailto:owen at delong.com>> wrote:

However, I am certain you are unlikely to share my perspective as you are almost certainly allied with this group of ill-behaved malcontents.

???
I'm allied with the Afrinic community whichever name one might choose to give the community and membership works well with me.



Owen

On Jun 5, 2017, at 19:13 , Badru Ntege <badru.ntege at nftconsult.com<mailto:badru.ntege at nftconsult.com>> wrote:

Ali

Thanks for highlighting the issues bellow.  Some board members have claimed championing transparency but I think we all need to have the same definition of the word.

The issue of publishing the minutes was a community mandate to the board not a board initiative.  I also like the issue on declaring interest.

However the community is not blind and eventually the truth comes out as we saw in Nairobi where the community spoke resoundingly in both ASO and board elections.

Regards

Sent from my iPhone

On 5 Jun 2017, at 12:39, Ali Hussein <ali at hussein.me.ke<mailto:ali at hussein.me.ke>> wrote:
Mark and all

Let's raise the bar on transparency and proper reporting is super critical.

For example a quick perusal of the Afrinic Website tells me that:-

1. The last minutes posted were in February this year. I see there was another Board meeting in April which has no minutes posted yet. Can we try and ensure that board minutes are available for circulation online within 2 weeks of the meeting being held?

2. It is common best practice for Board members to declare their interests (if any) before any board meeting and these to be duly recorded in the minutes. This will go a long way in enhancing the transparency conversation.

3.  I also note that in the February Board minutes that agenda Item No. 5 on Committees there are no committee reports for Audit and Remuneration. Also no other board committee reports have been presented.
Question:- why are there no reports on the Audit and Remuneration reports committees? Is this an oversight or were they simply not ready? Can the Board consider making the other committee reports available to the community?

4. It is now also standard for organizations to publish a Sustainability Report. Most public for profit companies in Kenya now publish a sustainability report. This is even more critical in an Organisation like Afrinic. To give us a sample of what this may look like please see Safaricom's 2016 Sustainability Report below:-

https://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Resources_Downloads/sustainabilityreport_2016.pdf<https://www.safaricom.co.ke/images/Downloads/Resources_Downloads/sustainabilityreport_2016.pdf>

Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle


Sent from my iPad

On 5 Jun 2017, at 11:37 AM, Mark Elkins <mje at posix.co.za<mailto:mje at posix.co.za>> wrote:
I agree with you Ali. When Andrew first campaigned to be a Board member, one of his goals was increased transparency. I believe that he has helped, with the rest of the Board, achieve this. Transparency though is an ongoing process and its a pity that Andrew was not re-elected to continue assisting in that process.
Regarding Andrews points:
a) Travel in Africa is not cheap. Rather than just a single line for travel, I'd like to see it a bit more broken up though, categorised something like;
     i) Training sessions 10, people 20, cost $10,000
     ii) Meetings 2, people 40, cost $20,000
     iii) Board Travel 8, trips 32, cost $20,000
(or something like that)
b - d) Again, I'd like to see a bit more break down, especially in the case of unaudited organisations. On d), the ASO/NRO fees are proportionally paid by RIRs. AfriNIC does pay the lowest proportion.
e) I think the moratorium on Business class travel should be maintained, but have the option to upgrade their flights at their expense. When flying for AfriNIC, I was given a Priority Pass card. That privilege should stay to give people access to lounges.  I'm happy the CEO flies business (at his discretion). If it was a long flight (ARIN, USA) and overnight and that Board member is the only AfriNIC representative and was presenting the "AfriNIC" slides, let them fly business. I did that once (but travelled economy).

On 05/06/2017 08:21, Ali Hussein wrote:
Andrew

You raise pertinent and important issues.

The rule of thumb for any public organization is that Transparency trumps (no pun intended) everything else.

If I were asked and was a member of the Board, I'd advocate for FULL disclosure on financial and operational matters. How money was spent, how much, what was the impact, who received it etc. That in my humble opinion is the best policy. Let us err on the side of too much information as opposed to too little information.
Ali Hussein
Principal
Hussein & Associates
+254 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim
Skype: abu-jomo
LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim<http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim>

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit."  ~ Aristotle


Sent from my iPad

On 5 Jun 2017, at 8:42 AM, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>> wrote:
Hi All,

So – I want to open a bit of a discussion about transparency, specifically, financial transparency.

In order to get this started – let me ask a few questions of all of you –

While we talk about transparency and how it is required – can we analyze for a moment as to the level of transparency we want.   So, to kick this discussion off, let me start by asking some basic questions that we can use as the starting point for this discussion.

a.)     How much detail should the board and AfriNIC be supplying us as regards how the money we pay towards IP resources is spent.  Is it sufficient to show an aggregated line item that refers to travel expenses for example, or do we want to see some kind of a breakdown on what that money is being spent on (considering that travel makes up 10% of the total revenue)
b.)    How much detail should the board and AfriNIC be supplying us as members as regards other large scale line items – specifically – we spend hundreds of thousands each year on meeting expenses – should we be asking for a breakdown on what those meeting expenses are – or are we happy with the organization spending that kind of money under a single large line item.
c.)     When AfriNIC is giving money to other organizations for sponsorship – what level of transparency and accountability should be required from those organizations.  Is it acceptable that AFRINIC makes a decision to give money to organizations that have no formal incorporation, no audited financial statements and no board of their own, or should AFRINIC be scrutinizing those that they give money to far more closely, and asking for the same level of transparency from those that they give money to that we require from them.
d.)    When AFRINIC is funding organizations such as the ASO/NRO – how much transparency should be supplied back to the members about how that money is being spent and what that funding is actually being used for.
e.)    When AFRINIC is funding board travel to meetings around the world – should board members be able to attend these conferences without ever supplying reports about what was accomplished at said meetings and what the purpose of the expenditure was, or are we prepared to accept that these meetings must be useful without further questions.

Remember, every cent spent by AfriNIC can have an impact on our fees, and impacts the bottom line of the company.  Over the last 3 years, we have come a long way to stabilizing the company and its financial position, but in order to maintain that, we probably need to discuss openly as a community about the level of transparency we want into those finances and then once we as a community come to consensus, we can request the board supply the transparency we agree is necessary.  But let us have an open and cordial discussion so that we get to the right point.

Thanks

Andrew



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