[Community-Discuss] NRS Accountability and Transparency (was: Re: Call for a Special General Member’s Meeting)

[Noah]

On Fri, 3 Jun 2022, 16:01 John Curran, <jcurran at arin.net> wrote:

>
> On 3 Jun 2022, at 5:57 AM, Paul Hjul <hjul.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> A petition has reached critical mass to call an SGMM, hopefully the Board
> won't play pokey on this one.
>
> Dear Members,
>
> For your information, the members who signed the petitions have already
> discussed and thereafter informed the Board to call for the Special General
> Member’s Meeting as it is representing not less than 5% of the Resource
> Members as required by the bylaws. All related documents that were shared
> herein are sent to the Board and Chair as well for their reference and
> review.
>
> Please see the attached link below for the content of the petition ;
> https://www.nrs.help/petition
>
> Regards,
> Paul Hjul
> Member
>
>
> Paul -
>
> As this petition appears to be organized by the “Number Resource Society”
> (NRS) – a body which purports to hold core beliefs and values that include
> an Internet "that relies on a global free market and enterprise with
> excellent transparency and accountability” – and further appears (if I
> understand the associated video on the NRS website promoting the petition)
> to be claiming the petition is necessary to improve accountability and
> transparency of the RIR system, it would probably be good if the NRS itself
> would provide a modicum of transparency in this process.
>
> To this end, could you explain the Governing Body and procedures of the
> NRS?   I note that NRS Membership "Terms and Conditions” <
> https://www.nrs.help/terms-conditions> notes that admission is not open
> to all, but is subject to "acceptance of the Admission Committee”, but can
> find no reference to the process for seating or present composition of said
> Committee.
>
> From the Terms and Conditions it is also clear that the obligations of
> membership bind one to acting & voting "in line with the objective,
> mission, guide, instructions, and/or  mandate of NRS and which include but
> are not limited to policy internet making and/or voting in line with the
>  objectives of NRS with regard to freedom in accessing internet,
> internet stability, fair distribution of internet.”, but it is less so who
> exactly in the NRS make the determination of what particular votes (whether
> policy or election) would be in compliance with the “objective, mission,
> guide, instructions, and/or  mandate of NRS” – this appears to be very
> important for one to have before signing away the ability to make
> independent judgement in such matters.
>
> It is strange that the NRS "shall have the absolute discretion to
> terminate the membership of a Member at any time with prior notice to the
> member without assigning any reason.” – there seems to be a lack of due
> process here, and hence the governance provisions of the NRS would seem
> woefully lacking for a body that intends aid community representation.
>
> If you could elaborate on the above issues, that might allow others to
> understand how a body that purports to want to improve accountability can
> do so while lacking in community accountability itself.   It is possible
> that I misunderstand its governance structures, so any insight that you (or
> others at the NRS) can provide might clarify things a bit…   as it is, the
> NRS operates rather opaquely despite its purported lofty goals of excellent
> transparency and accountability.
>
> Thanks!
> /John
>
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> American Registry for Internet Numbers
>


Attention Paul Hjul....

Just in case you missed the above email, your response would come in handy
to the questions Mr.John Curran asked you?

Noah
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