[council] Administrative planning and coordination Council/Staff working sessions

Ross Wm. Rader ross at tucows.com
Thu Aug 11 08:41:42 UTC 2005


I concur with both Marilyn's original suggestion and Alick's suggestions.

On 8/11/2005 2:11 AM Alick Wilson noted that:
> Marilyn, Bruce and fellow Councillors
> 
> Further to Marilyn's posted suggestion that Council arrange for staff
> planning/administration calls every two weeks, I support this request, and
> in addition, have two related requests.
> 
> 1. A further contribution to Council would be a better understanding of who
> and what staff support we have available. This would be improved if each of
> those staff who actively participate in Council matters provide to Council a
> short description of their role in the ICANN organisation and how much of
> their role and time is available to support the GNSO Council. It would be
> useful to have this from at least Olof, Maria and now Liz. As an open and
> transparent organisation, this should not need discussion or resolution of
> Council. Bruce, please make this request to staff on my behalf as a Council
> member.
> 
> 2. I would like to see a prioritised project/task list for GNSO projects and
> tasks, kept up to date by staff so we can see ongoing progress and plans,
> not just a snapshot prior to calls. I am familiar with open source
> project/task management tools which may be suitable if ICANN does not
> already have such.
> 
> Bruce, please add these to Marilyn's agenda item for the next call.
> 
> Also, a note to say that I would like to contribute to the better governance
> of GNSO Council by participating in the proposed admin calls.
> 
> Regards,
> Alick
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-council at gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council at gnso.icann.org] On
> Behalf Of Marilyn Cade
> Sent: Monday, 8 August 2005 10:21 a.m.
> To: council at gnso.icann.org
> Subject: [council] Administrative planning and coordination Council/Staff
> working sessions
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dear fellow councilors
>  
> Council has a lot on its plate regarding policy work, and I am mindful of a
> recent posting by Ross Rader that reminds us that Council needs to set
> priorities that drives its work, and thus our supporting staff.
> 
> I think we will all probably agree that the monthly Council calls should
> ideally be left primarily to the task of policy management; yet there
> is a need for Council to be able to better organize itself and its
> policy-support needs, and for a constructive and ongoing interaction between
> Council and staff regarding Council's priorities; addressing administrative
> challenges they face in their policy support work, such as competing
> priorities, lack of clarity in a Council request, additional participation
> by councilors with background expertise to contribute, discussion of whether
> other external resources are needed, etc.
> 
> I am proposing a trial approach of "planning and coordination" sessions via
> conference call with the Council chair and any Council members who wished to
> participate and supported by the GNSO support staff : (Olaf, Maria, Glen,
> plus any temporary consultant such as Liz Williams). I suggest that we trial
> the approach of a 45 minute call every two weeks/fortnightly for the period
> between now and Vancouver. The outcome of these calls would be reported to
> the full Council in the usual monthly progress report we currently receive
> on the monthly Council calls.  The planning and coordination calls would not
> address policy development work, but administrative management and
> coordination.
> 
> Right now, we have a number of significant policy issues to work on as
> Council.  This approach would ensure that we can focus on the monthly
> Council calls on those issues, yet have an effective way to better manage
> ourselves and provide administrative input to the supporting staff.
> 
> 
> I welcome feedback on this idea. 
> 
> Marilyn Cade
> 
> 
> 


-- 
Regards,


	-rwr






"In the modern world the intelligence of public opinion is the one 
indispensable condition for social progress."
	- Charles W. Eliot (1834 - 1926)



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