[rpd] Recruitment of AfriNIC CEO

[Bill Woodcock]

On Nov 21, 2014, at 8:24 PM, Walubengo J <jwalu at yahoo.com> wrote:
> @Bill, You might be the recruitment agency we are talking about :-)

We ALL are!

I’ve been on a lot of nomination committees, and that’s the only way we’ll get a good result: if we all think hard about who could do a good job, and then try to convince them to apply for it!

The following may not be entirely welcome, since I’m sure the board is already well along the path of thinking through how they want to handle it, but there seems to be a desire to discuss the process publicly, which seems healthy to me, so I’m going to just make a straw-man proposal regarding the recruitment and hiring process, aimed largely at transparency…  I don’t expect it to be sufficient, just a starting-point for conversation, or perhaps input to the board’s process-definition process.  :-)

                                -Bill




0) Unless noted otherwise, each of these steps is publicly logged and timestamped, for the purpose of transparency.

1) Public call for nominees to the position.  Nominators remain anonymous, their identity isn’t relevant to the process.  A nomination must consist of the full name of the candidate and valid contact information for the candidate.

2) Public call for relevant questionnaire questions to be publicly put to candidates.  Likewise, proposers remain anonymous.

3) All nominated candidate names are posted publicly, within  24 hours of receipt of each one, and candidates are notified as their nominations are received.

4) All received questionnaire questions are posted publicly, within 24 hours of receipt of each one.

5) AfriNIC members select the questionnaire questions they think most applicable, and the four that receive the most votes, plus two composed or chosen by the Board, constitute a candidate questionnaire, which is finalized and posted publicly.

6) The posted candidate list is divided into four categories: “accepted nomination,” “declined nomination,” “no response,” and “pending."  All names start in the latter category.  Any decline is permanent, nobody changes their mind after having declined.  Anyone who fails to respond for two weeks, or by the final deadline, is moved from “pending” to “no response,” and that’s also permanent, they may not change their mind later.

7) Any nominee that wishes to move their name into the “accepted nomination” category supplies:

    a) A statement to the effect that, if the job is offered to them, they agree to accept it and serve.
    b) A biographical statement containing, at a minimum, their CV and photo.
    c) A salary and compensation package range within which they’d accept the position.
    d) Answers to each of the selected questionnaire questions.
    e) A resignation from the AfriNIC board, effective immediately, if they’re currently serving, to avoid conflict of interest.
    f) A disclosure of any other conflicts of interest, and a commitment to resign from them if selected as CEO.

8) Within 24 hours of receipt by the staff of all of these pieces of information, the candidate’s name is moved from the “pending” to the “accepted nomination” category, and all of these pieces of information are published in a link from the candidate’s name.

9) Staff or an external agency attempt to verify factual information from the CV of each candidate, and will publicly verify or contest the truth of each item.  Likewise, any assertions of fact within the answers to the questionnaire questions will be fact-checked publicly.

10) Public call for statements-of-support for any candidates in the “accepted nomination” category.  Only AfriNIC members (or resource recipients) may make statements-of-support.  They aren’t published yet.

11) Wait for at least five candidates to move into the “accepted nomination” category, and then start a three-week timer.  When that timer expires, no more candidates will be moved into “accepted nomination” and anyone remaining in “pending” will be moved to “no response."

12) All statements of support published, along with the name and organization of the person who submitted them.

13) Wait two weeks, then close the list of statements of support.

14) The five highest statement-of-support recipients are forwarded to the board for an interview and negotiation process.

15) The board selects a new CEO from among the five final candidates, with a compensation package which is public, and within the range originally proposed by the candidate.  Alternatively, the board may reject all five candidates, and start the process over, after a public explanation of why the process failed or the candidates were collectively insufficient.

-end-
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