[rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS

[Andrew Alston]

Alain,

> Board members are also bind by some fiduciary, structural and cultural restrictions. One accepts to follow them by joining a board.  Otherwise, remain an active community member and keep all your abilities.

I agree on Fiduciary – as defined by the companies act
I agree on structural – as defined by the bylaws

Cultural?  There I have questions.  Which culture? Franco? Anglo? Arab? Portuguese? Or do you refer to the “AfriNIC culture”, in which case, who defines this culture? What are its strictures and rules? Is it defined by you? Me? The combined membership base, which would have a majority impact?

Pray tell, what is this mystery culture and who is responsible for its definitions and the restrictions it places?  Are we not a multi-cultural entity that celebrates its differences to be unique and not bound by such a definition? Do we not welcome members from all faiths, creeds, backgrounds, languages and ethnicities?  And as such should our culture not be constantly evolving as our membership base grows and evolves? Or do we need a culture committee to define this for us?

Andrew


As regards to the rest of the board and statements to this effect.  As stated, the chair of the board and the vice chair I believe and it is my opinion require institutional memory beyond the length that most of the members of the board currently have (I advocate for a position where any person who is chairing the board should have at least 2 years on the board for this reason).

Does this mean we have a weak board? Not at all, on the contrary, and again I state this as an opinion, is a very strong board, with diversity and an ability to work together.  I have nothing but respect for my current fellow board members.

Strength is found in diversity, and in knowing ones strengths, but more in knowing ones weaknesses, and working within those confines to create the best possible outcome.  My advocacy states what I believe is the best possible outcome, this is my opinion, and I make no apologies for it.

This is the last email I will be responding to on this topic on the RPD list however, since it is the members who elect, let the discussion move to the members list where it belongs.

Andrew

From: ALAIN AINA <aalain at trstech.net<mailto:aalain at trstech.net>>
Date: Wednesday, 4 May 2016 at 11:45 AM
To: AfriNIC List <rpd at afrinic.net<mailto:rpd at afrinic.net>>
Subject: Re: [rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS


Andrew,

On May 4, 2016, at 12:08 AM, Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>> wrote:

Jean-Robert,

One last question before I head to bed.


Hope you had a good sleep.

How should the community ask anyone to act in the best interests of anything, while telling them to remain neutral and silent when they believe that one course of action will strengthen the organisation and another could potentially weaken it?


How can a board put itself  in the scenario described in the email [1] ? The Chair and vice-chair seats are due for election this year.
And should both lose can one conclude that no one is capable of being chair ?

They were elected in the chairmanship positions  despite the community warning in Tunis. That goes against board good governance...

Are we saying that other board members are not qualified including yourself ? Shall we interpret this to mean that we have a weak board ?

Thanks

—Alain

[1]
I need to also point out, in the event of the board losing both Sunday
and Hytham, and the independent seat going to a weak candidate,
AfriNIC will be in serious trouble.  Firstly, I personally do not
believe that the board has anyone who is anywhere close to as capable
as Sunday or Hytham for the positions of chair and vice chair
respectively, and whoever comes in could not take those positions no
matter how strong, since those positions require institutional
knowledge that comes from time served on the board.  My reasoning for
endorsing Mike is made plain above.






And finally, to end this email with a quote:

“Why should we cherish “objectivity”, as if ideas were innocent, as if they don’t serve one interest or another? Surely, we want to be objective if that means telling the truth as we see it, not concealing information that may be embarrassing to our point of view. But we don’t want to be objective if it means pretending that ideas don’t play a part in the social struggles of our time, that we don’t take sides in those struggles.

Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral. In a world already moving in certain directions, where wealth and power are already distributed in certain ways, neutrality means accepting the way things are now. It is a world of clashing interests – war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism – and it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts.”

  *   Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology

Andrew

From: Hountomey Jean Robert <jrhountomey at gmail.com<mailto:jrhountomey at gmail.com>>
Date: Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 9:56 PM
To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>>
Cc: Badru Ntege <badru.ntege at nftconsult.com<mailto:badru.ntege at nftconsult.com>>, abel ELITCHA <kmw.elitcha at gmail.com<mailto:kmw.elitcha at gmail.com>>, "AfriNIC RPD MList." <rpd at afrinic.net<mailto:rpd at afrinic.net>>
Subject: Re: [rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS

A board member endorsing a candidate like this is a concern.
How should the community trust board members'  objectivity and commitment to put the interest of the Global public interest as a whole in front of any particular interests.
Thanks.
Regards.
Jean-Robert

2016-05-03 13:08 GMT-05:00 Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>>:
Let me quote from the below email which you seem not to have read, so I will bold it, and italic it:

I state openly that I do NOT yet know the entire slate, however, due
to time limitations and knowing what I know about the candidates I
refer to below, as well as at least some of the candidates running
against them (which I have heard from those candidates running
directly)

So, pray tell, what privileged information Badru?

Andrew


From: Badru Ntege <badru.ntege at nftconsult.com<mailto:badru.ntege at nftconsult.com>>
Date: Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 9:04 PM
To: Andrew Alston <Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>>, abel ELITCHA <kmw.elitcha at gmail.com<mailto:kmw.elitcha at gmail.com>>, "AfriNIC RPD MList." <rpd at afrinic.net<mailto:rpd at afrinic.net>>
Subject: RE: [rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS

Andrew

we may not see eye to eye on every other issue but as hard as it may be lets show a touch of humility and respect for the community.  As board member you have access to privileged information that one can clearly see you used wrongly here.

Please give the community some respect and offer an apology.  NOMCOM has not yet released the slate you of all people should not be sending this out to your lists.  Unless you also know the outcome of NOMCOM.

Lets not continue to defend the indefensible.

this is tantamount to abuse of office but then again someone will ask under which bylaw.  My answer is under the un written rule of common sense and mutual respect, and fairness for all candidates.

Admit that you errored  its only human to do so.

regards

bn


________________________________
From: Andrew Alston [Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com<mailto:Andrew.Alston at liquidtelecom.com>]
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2016 8:38 PM
To: abel ELITCHA; AfriNIC RPD MList.
Subject: Re: [rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS

Hi Abel,

Yes, I advocated for candidates.  If you notice I clearly stated, I do not know who is on the slate.  I do not have a final slate.  However, I know who the candidates are that I support.  I have every right to lobby for those candidates at any point.  Just as any candidate or any other person has the right to lobby for their candidates.

I did not send that email as a board member, I sent it as a personal individual.  I stand by what I said, and I stand by those endorsements.

As for the allegations about people being paid.  That is completely false and a libellous allegation that was investigated and found to have no merit, as resolutions published will attest to.

I stand by every word I said in the below email, and I will not, and would not retract a single word of it.

Andrew


From: abel ELITCHA <kmw.elitcha at gmail.com<mailto:kmw.elitcha at gmail.com>>
Date: Tuesday, 3 May 2016 at 8:33 PM
To: "AfriNIC RPD MList." <rpd at afrinic.net<mailto:rpd at afrinic.net>>
Subject: [rpd] AFRINIC ELECTIONS

Hi

I got to see the mail below from a board member. It concerned me as i raised some importants points:

1- While according to the election timeline (http://www.afrinic.net/en/community/elections/bod-election/process), the NOMCOM is evaluating the candidates and has not yet announced the slates, the  board member started the campaign to

influence the process and the vote

2- He is pushing for a candidate from his company

3- He issued an arbitrary judgment on the ability of the community to decide

4- I recalled that it  is the same board member who admitted in 2014  that he influenced the elections by paying for people to come and vote for him. The disclosure of which caused two board members to resign for breaching NDA.



Begin forwarded message:


Hi All,

I’m going to take a bit of an unusual step for me here, as promised in
earlier emails, and I am now ready to officially endorse certain
candidates for the AfriNIC elections.

I state openly that I do NOT yet know the entire slate, however, due
to time limitations and knowing what I know about the candidates I
refer to below, as well as at least some of the candidates running
against them (which I have heard from those candidates running
directly), I feel I’m in a position to take a strong and unequivocal
stance here and am ready to state to the community at large my views
on this.

Hence, in the next AfriNIC election, there are three seats open, one
independent seat, one north african seat and one west african seat.

On the West African seat, I am endorsing Sunday Folayan.  Sunday is
the current chair of the AfriNIC board, and despite many trying
circumstances in the year and half since he has taken the chair,
AfriNIC has made tremendous progress.  Indeed, in Pointe Noir we were
credited with giving the community transparent information and
financials for the first time in 10 years.  Sunday and his leadership
played a huge part in this and his institutional knowledge and the way
he has run the board have been critical to the improved situation we
are starting to find ourselves in.

On the North African seat, I am endorsing Hytham Ek-Nakhal.  Hytham is
currently the deputy chair of the board, and again, in the year since
he took that position, he has proved very capable and also carries
deep institutional knowledge from a prolonged tenure on the board.  I
have found him to be fair, reasonable and willing to both have his
views and debate the views of others in the search for a consensus
approach.  Hence, I strongly believe that his tenure on the board
should continue.

On the Independent seat, here I am endorsing Mike Silber, who many of
you know.  I do not know if the current board member for this seat is
going to be running again, but irrespective of that my endorsement
will stand, due to specific skills I believe the AfriNIC board
requires.  Mike has many many years in the industry, and his work with
ICANN and within the addressing space is well documented and well
respected.  In addition to that, Mike is legally trained and that is
something we desperately need within AfriNIC as we look at the bylaws,
as we move into an era where there is a governance committee, there
are bids of control and various other issues.  It is that legal skill
set that we are missing directly on the board (yes, we have legal
council, but it is a very different thing to have someone who has that
kind of legal knowledge actually sitting on the board).

I need to also point out, in the event of the board losing both Sunday
and Hytham, and the independent seat going to a weak candidate,
AfriNIC will be in serious trouble.  Firstly, I personally do not
believe that the board has anyone who is anywhere close to as capable
as Sunday or Hytham for the positions of chair and vice chair
respectively, and whoever comes in could not take those positions no
matter how strong, since those positions require institutional
knowledge that comes from time served on the board.  My reasoning for
endorsing Mike is made plain above.

As such, for those of you who are opting to issue proxies and wish to
issue proxies to myself or via myself, this is how I will be voting.
Those of you who are voting electronically, I encourage you when the
slate comes out to study each and every candidate – but I am confident
that what I have said above will ring true, and I ask every member of
this list to get out there and use your vote, either for one of these
candidates or otherwise one of the others when the slate comes out –
but please, make sure you vote, either via proxy or via online or in
person.  I cannot stress how many critical issues are going to come up
in the next year or two, and without a strong and independent board we
could face serious issues.

Please feel free  to address any questions to me.  As stated in
previous emails, as soon as the proxy generation system is open, for
those that wish to use that route, I will supply details on how to use
it.

Thanks

Andrew "


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