[rpd] AFRINIC Board Elections - 2014: Call for Nominations

Wed May 7 21:58:34 UTC 2014

My own $0.02 on term limits.

In general, term limits take choice away from voters rather than giving voters more choice. There can only be N incumbents of N*x candidates in any given race if the nominating committee is doing its job. The job of the nominating committee is to seek out qualified applicants to run for office and confirm the qualifications of those who wish to run so that the community is presented with a rich slate of qualified candidates. In most situations (I don't know what, if any rules apply in the specific case of AfriNIC), the nominating committee has to produce a slate where x is at least 2, and, ideally 3-5 (so if you have a vote-for-3 office, for example, you ideally have 9-15 candidates).

Therefore, the voters should always have non-incumbent alternatives if they wish. Incumbents are not inherently bad. As Mark has pointed out, an Incumbent has experience and knowledge which can make them better at the job than someone newly elected. If this was not true, telecommunications companies would fire all of their employees every year and get new ones. 

Term limits assume that voters don't know who to vote for and make stupid choices based on supporting incumbents because they recognize the name and for no other reasons. In my experience, the AfriNIC community does not deserve such an insult. I believe the community to be comprised of intelligent people who generally make reasonable decisions and consider available information in a reasonable manner prior to making a decisions. I do not believe that an incumbent who is doing a bad job is at all likely to get re-elected by the AfriNIC community.

Owen

On May 7, 2014, at 13:09 , Noah Maina <mainanoa at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Mark
> 
> Mmmmm am not convienced but I will give your response the benefit of the doubt imho ... otherwise one would argue that there is no point of new blood since old blood brings about stability given the observation that new blood takes a year or so to catch up...
> 
> This continent certainly have loads of competent folks I just think not so many are aware perhaps otherwise we would have lots of willing folks...
> 
> In anycade the community can certainly elect whoever ... old old or new.!
> 
> My 1 cent ...
> 
> Noah
> 
> On 7 May 2014 21:05, "Mark Elkins" <mje at posix.co.za> wrote:
> On Wed, 2014-05-07 at 20:05 +0300, Noah Maina wrote:
> > Me Just curious!
> >
> > Aren't some of the nominated folks already or were  members of the
> > board in the recent past....the names look familiar ....
> 
> Yes, Both Indian and Central Africa have Board members who are
> re-standing for a second term. This makes them immediately useful, no
> learning how things work. In my observations, "new blood" can take a
> year or so to become useful.
> 
> 
> Other RIR regions (for example, RIPE) allow multiple repetitive terms.
> This gives that community Board Stability, helps stops old mistakes from
> being repeated.
> 
> > Should some of us assume that there is no new blood in some of these
> > regions who can be nominated or there is less awareness in the
> > community thus we keep seeing the same names over and over most of the
> > time?
> 
> There is more new blood than old (7 out of 10 people) standing.
> Being an AFRINIC Board Member can be quite time consuming. There is also
> no "sitting" fee. Finding willing people who can bring appropriate
> Business Management and Leadership skills as well as their time is not
> as easy as one might think.
> Lastly - the community decides who is (re-)elected, old or new.
> 
> >
> > Noah
> >
> > Dear Colleagues,
> >
> > Consequent to the call for nominations and subsequent evaluation of
> > nominees by the Nominations Committee (NomCom), we are pleased to
> > announce the following final slate of candidates for the following
> > seats on the AFRINIC Board:
> >
> > Indian Ocean:
> >
> >     Andrinirina Joël RANDRIANASOLO
> >     Kris Seeburn
> >     Subramanian Moonesamy
> >
> >
> > Central Africa:
> >
> >     Antoine Joseph Junior Tonye
> >     Bope Domilongo Christian
> >     NGNOULAYE Janvier
> >
> >
> > NON-REGIONAL/GEOGRAPHICAL:
> >
> >     Andrew Kenningale Alston
> >     Boubakar Barry
> >     Hajanirina Ramboasalama
> >     Ilunga Kabwika Serge
> >
> >
> > Full candidate information has been published at:
> >
> > https://internetsummitafrica.org/en/ais14/bod-election
> >
> > The community (and especially members) are hereby invited to view
> > candidate details and express any objection or support about the
> > suitability of the candidates for the board position using the
> > comment section at the URL above.
> >
> > The public comment period will close on 26 May 2014 at 2000UTC.
> >
> > Members that will not be able to attend and/or vote physically at
> > the AGMM in Djibouti on 06 June 2014 are informed that there is now
> > an option for electronic voting, which will start on 27th May 2014
> > until 05 June 2014 and will be conducted through the MyAFRINIC
> > portal - https://my.afrinic.net
> >
> > More information is available at:
> > http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/elections/bod-election?showall=1
> >
> > For any queries or clarification, please contact the nominations
> > committee by email at:
> >
> > nomcom2014 at afrinic.net
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Mark J Elkins - AFRINIC 2014 Nominations Committee Chair
> mje at posix.co.za - nomcom2014 (at) afrinic.net
> Tel: +27.128070590  Cell: +27.826010496
> 
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