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

Mon Apr 23 14:37:49 UTC 2018

+1 Saul – I happen to know of several people in both East and South that have said they are not prepared to tarnish their names and are not prepared to sit on a board where they are in the minority and the board is prone to doing things that violate the bottom up principles and act without a care for their members.

I think though the most scary comment I had today was from a *massive* global content provider – who unfortunately I cannot name – who said – and I quote “I hope this gets resolved and you end up with a trustworthy board.  I understand the need for these actions, but this is unsettling for business in the region”

Basically – this is now beginning to show signs of potentially affecting investment on the continent – thanks to the boards callous attitude.  This has to be sorted out – and fast

Andrew

From: Saul Stein <saul at enetworks.co.za>
Date: Monday, 23 April 2018 at 09:40
To: Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com>, 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" <members-discuss at afrinic.net>
Subject: Re: [Community-Discuss] [members-discuss] Resolution requesting the boards resignation

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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