[Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] Resolution requesting the boards resignation

Mon Apr 23 07:37:51 UTC 2018

I think that this raises and answers other questions.

The board hides behind “redacted” minutes of meetings. Minutes should be 
able to be published within a week. With nothing to hide, there should not 
be a problem. The wonderful thing about a fact is that it is just that: the 
truth and it will always be that and one doesn’t need to remember different 
stories!

The way board members vote is important to know. They are representing us, 
the voters, the community. They need to know that they are beholden to us. I 
elect a board member based on what he stands for, if he no longer does that 
after his election, he/she needs to know that I’ll be beating on his door 
and he won’t be getting my vote again!

A vote of no confidence was tabled and accepted. It has now been rejected. I 
am not going to repeat the words of others, I agree with all that has been 
said, but to add, we deserve the right to know who voted how to remove this 
item from the agenda.

I think that is why we don’t have a choice and sufficient candidates to 
elect.

No-one worth voting for is prepared to tarnish their name by association 
with the current board. (this is not hearsay, I have heard that there are 
those that are prepared to stand on a clean board)

Saul

Saul

From: Owen DeLong [mailto:owen at delong.com]
Sent: 22 April 2018 07:33 PM
To: Sander Steffann <sander at steffann.nl>
Cc: General Discussions of AFRINIC <community-discuss at afrinic.net>; AFRINIC 
Board of Directors' List <board at afrinic.net>; members-discuss at afrinic.net
Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] Resolution requesting the 
boards resignation

+1

I must condemn this action by the AfriNIC board in the strongest possible 
terms.

Choosing to sweep aside the community’s desire to hold a vote by resolution, 
offering to discuss at open mic as if it were a viable alternative is as 
insulting to the community as it is inappropriate for the board.

I urge the board to reconsider this action and restore the resolution to the 
agenda.

The board has now placed itself in a lose-lose position with regard to this 
matter.

If they refuse to restore the item to the agenda, both the AfriNIC community 
and global observers can only assume that the board is cowering in fear 
because they know such a vote would pass, thus the board has lost the 
confidence of the membership and should resign.

If they restore the item to the agenda, this action will surely have 
encouraged some who may have previously planned on voting against it to 
change their minds, making the vote even more likely to pass.

Nonetheless, since the board has, in all likelihood lost the confidence of 
the membership, the board should either permit the vote to proceed as 
planned and act in accordance with the outcome, or, the board should begin 
planning for a special election which will replace the entire board as soon 
as practicable.

Cowering behind procedure in an effort to limit the ability of the 
membership to manage the bottom up process within the organization is 
contrary to the spirit and intent of virtually every document in existence 
related to the creation, operation, and purpose of an RIR.

While documents such as ICP-2 did not consider the prospect of an RIR acting 
in bad faith or the need to de-certify an RIR, and while as I understand it, 
the NRO documents virtually all require the unanimity of all member RIRs in 
order to act, I believe the following are true:

            1.         The current election cycle may well be tainted.

            2.         The next election cycle the membership will almost 
certainly insist on each board

                        position having at least one candidate who is not 
affiliated with the current board.

            3.         The following election cycle will likely be the same.

So the board can, by this action, effectively hang on to power for 2 more 
years, but that’s about all it can accomplish.

Now, on the current path, perhaps the board can completely destroy the 
organization within that time, but let’s all hope it doesn’t come to that.

Again, for the sake of the entire RIR system, I urge the board to either 
allow this resolution to be noticed and considered by the AfriNIC members at 
the AGMM, or, to put in place an orderly process for election of replacement 
directors at the earliest practical time and immediately tender their 
resignations to be effective upon the completion of such election.

While I’m not a member of AfriNIC, the potential consequences if the AfriNIC 
board fails to allow this resolution to proceed stretch well beyond the 
AfriNIC service region and therefore cannot be ignored by the global 
community.

Owen

On Apr 22, 2018, at 09:50 , Sander Steffann <sander at steffann.nl 
<mailto:sander at steffann.nl> > wrote:

Hello,

Dear Mark,

The Board at a special meeting held on the 18th of April 2018 had the 
opportunity to reconsider your request  to include a standard resolution in 
the upcoming AGMM agenda. The Board has decided not to include it in the 
agenda inline with section 12.14(ix) of the bylaw.

When I first read this my response was WTF. Since then my wording has only 
gotten stronger so I will not write it on this list.

However, the Board suggests that the item can be discussed during the Open 
Mic session should members be interested.

This is no substitution for a vote...

I am not a member of afrinic, so I have no vote in this. But as a member of 
the global internet community I am appalled by the behaviour of our sister 
RIR. A board that uses a top-down attitude to silence bottom-up complaints 
from its constituency has no place in this community.

Cheers,

Sander

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