[rpd] Accountability assessment - PDP review?

Tue Nov 1 09:09:51 UTC 2016

One of the problems with the PDP Co-chair positions that makes it unattractive for potential 
candidates is that AFRNIC does not have clearly defined terms of reference for these 
poasitions other than what is in the PDP.

For example, when I was a Co-chair, there was not set rule on how or whether the co-chair is 
funded by AFRINIC to attend the Policy Meeting or any other AFRINIC meeting. The 
co-chairs have to make a request on a case by case basis, even then, there is no rule on 
how the co-chair makes the request, to whom and for what they qualify.

It seems very weird that the co-chair has to apply for a fellowship.

I am aware that this issue persisted to co-chairs that succeeded me and my co-chair 
colleague.

Can AFRINIC clarify if this unfortunate arrangement has now improved?

I am also aware that this is the case for AFRINIC Board members BUT Board members are 
"lucky" in the sense that they are able to determine as  a Board  at the begining of the 
financial year what the travel plan for each Board member is and there is a budget for the 
travel plan of the Board. It would be best if this was extended to the co-chairs so that they 
have a clear plan for each year.

Regards,

Paulos
======================
Dr Paulos B Nyirenda
NIC.MW & .mw ccTLD
http://www.registrar.mw

On 29 Oct 2016 at 14:22, Mark Elkins wrote:

> For the past few PDP Co-Chair elections - there has often not been
> enough candidates to actually have a meaningful election. For example,
> at one point recently, Sami Salih was the only volunteer - so it was a
> show of hands to affirm him to the position. (There is always the voting
> option of "no one"). This was him re-running - so he was already doing
> the job (had the experience).
> In this case - if "no one" was elected - he would probably have had the
> automatic option of staying in the role as default (if we followed what
> would happen in the BoD if no one stands for a seat).
> 
> Its the community in the room that votes for the PDP Co-Chair.
> 
> If there were signs of contention between multiple candidates, then we'd
> probably revert to a (secret) paper ballot. If a show of hands will
> suffice, rather keep things simple.
> 
> Unfortunately, PDP Co-Chair seems to be an unpopular job. We seem to be
> at the position of "Anyone volunteering" rather than "who's the best
> volunteer for the job"
> 
> From an experience point of view, I'd love volunteers to say that they
> had actually (co)authored a policy at some time.
> 
> On 29/10/2016 13:59, ALAIN AINA wrote:
> > 
> >> On Oct 29, 2016, at 2:36 PM, sm+afrinic at elandsys.com wrote:
> >> 
> >> Hi Alain, At 01:56 29-10-2016, ALAIN AINA wrote:
> >>> Under  a normal election process, i may have chance to google
> >>> for candidates background, but what  would i look for ?
> >>> experience with  AFRINIC PDP? experience with Working Group ?
> >>> experience with Internet Number ressources management ? As we
> >>> have multiple chairs, skills and expertises needed at some point,
> >>> may not always be the same.
> >> 
> >> The is a description of the responsibilities of the Chairs at 
> >> http://afrinic.net/en/community/elections/pdwg-election It does
> >> not list any of the above.  There is a video about the last
> >> selection of a Chair at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR6UNQnrqcs
> >> The video shows the Chair of Afrinic Ltd refreshing the memory of
> >> one of the candidates.
> >> 
> >> If the persons voting for or against a candidate believe that one 
> >> or more of the points which are listed above are required, I
> >> assume that they would use that for their decision.
> >> 
> >>> I also point to cases  of  co-chairs election of the fly where 
> >>> one did not have that chance
> >> .
> >> 
> >> Yes.
> >> 
> >>> And voting for co-chairs is by show of hands of  people
> >>> attending a particular public policy meeting.
> >> 
> >> Ernest commented that according to the PDP the voting is done by a 
> >> show of hands.  The election of the Chair used to be done by
> >> secret ballot.  In cases where there were last minute problems,
> >> the selection was done through a mechanism proposed by the Chair
> >> of Afrinic Ltd.  As those are recurring problems, I suggest 
> >> documenting how the election/selection is supposed to be done.
> > 
> > Ack. We must now  document and be explicit all times. But my main 
> > point here was that people voting in the room at a moment do not
> > have necessary have a clue of what is going on and just vote as
> > asked.
> > 
> > May be gauge the support to candidates on mailing list before the 
> > elections ?
> > 
> > 
> > -Alain
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >> 
> >> Regards, S. Moonesamy
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________ RPD mailing list 
> > RPD at afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo/rpd
> > 
> 
> -- 
> Mark James ELKINS  -  Posix Systems - (South) Africa
> mje at posix.co.za       Tel: +27.128070590  Cell: +27.826010496
> For fast, reliable, low cost Internet in ZA: https://ftth.posix.co.za
> 
> 