[registrars] Focussing on the real issues

[Tim Ruiz]

Bhavin,

Resolving the ballot issue was important in order to reduce the likelihood
that the results would be called into question later, as has happened
before.

And I disagree with a lot of your analysis. A number of registrars work hard
at the *important* issues, especially given the time they also need to spend
running their businesses. I don't think you're giving enough credit to them
for that. We are not always going to agree on what the *important* issues
are. That is certainly going to vary given the range of business models.
Hopefully the new Chair will take that into consideration.

Regarding the budget, it was unfortunate that some attempted to turn it into
a small registrar versus large registrar issue. I also hope the new Chair
will be able to be *non-partisan* in that regard or nothing of any substance
will ever be accomplished.

I'd also be interested in hearing what concessions your group was able to
get from ICANN regarding the budget.

Thanks,
Tim
 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org
[mailto:owner-registrars at gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Bhavin Turakhia
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 3:48 AM
To: 'Registrars Mail List'
Cc: 'Jordyn Buchanan'; 'Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine'
Subject: [registrars] Focussing on the real issues


Hi all,

As of last count over 45 emails have been exchanged on the registrars list
about how the ballot should have been differently held and how the election
was not 100% proper.

Has the ballot been improperly conducted? Maybe
Does it justify SO MUCH discussion - NO WAYS

I have spoken to several Registrars during my budget negotiations with
ICANN. We ran a successful alliance of 76 Registrars and managed to obtain
several concessions as all of you are aware. During this time a common
thread of thought amongst every participant was exasperation at how the
Registrars Constituency simply delves on issues that are totally useless and
gets lost in political jargon and buereaucracy, and eventually every issue
that has affected us Registrars since the last several years has not seen
much progress or modification. To the extent that some Registrars I speak to
openly call "the Registrars constituency as nothing but a vehicle to justify
and approve ICANN and Verisign's injustice upon Registrars". Please don't
get me wrong here. I am not criticising ICANN or Verisign. Life is difficult
for everyone when trying to achieve consensus. But as of now clearly almost
all Registrars have lost faith in the constituency simply because the
constituency just sits idle when it comes to issues that potentially affect
Registrars, while many have a lot to say about total non-issues

Here we have two issues that can threaten the existence of several
Registrars and substantially change the market (the Verisign mail and the
NSI issue) and I can count the number of mails sent about these issues on
the fingers of my ONE hand. Does the Registrars constituency have any
official position on these issues? NO. Has the Registrars constituency tried
to accumulate opinion or contact Registrars and ask them what they think
about this? NO. Yet 47 long mails have been exchanged to and fro about a
tiny oversight in the ballot which does not really matter.

Even during the ICANN Budget, the constituency supposedly tried some
outreach, held two phone calls (one of which was hardly attended) and was
supposed to come up with a proposed official position document which never
happened. I tried to steer the budget issue both from within the
constituency and from outside and realized that I was actually facing
resistance when trying to work on it from within.

During the ICANN budget alliance process that I was steering - we probably
did not do everything in the perfect way. We did not hold the perfect
ballots, we did not have large task forces, we did not organize conference
calls, we did not have resources to spend, we did not have an expensive
boardrooms.org software. Yet things worked. Things worked because we were a
bunch of Registrars, focussing on a common issue, and not getting involved
in tiny road blocks along the way.

Given that the constituency does not have the same luxury of using
half-baked processes. Given that the constituency has by-laws that must be
followed. But lets cut some slack here. So the ballot did not start with an
open result. However at this point in time it is open since the last 24
hours (or greater) and people have the ability to change their votes across
the next 3 days. How does it make ANY difference as to whether the ballot
was not open from Monday onwards. It is precisely this kind of bureaucracy
that WE as Registrars try to fight with ICANN and with other organizations -
and we ourselves end up falling prey to it in our own backyard? It is
precisely this sort of a discussion and time wastage that convinces most
Registrars that the constituency is a waste of time.

Lets just get on with our lives and get this over with, for whoever gets
elected - Bhavin, Jordynn or Eric, we have BUSY weeks ahead of us.

This is my FIRST and LAST mail about the ballot issue - my next mail, either
in official capacity, or in an unofficial one, will be with regards to
rallying support and consensus and opinion and discussion on the REAL ISSUES
WE HAVE AT HAND.

PS: Sorry Bob, for saying anything about my name being spelt incorrectly in
the ballot - I should have lived with that, it makes no damn difference to
the registrar community whether my name is correctly spelt or not .....


Best Regards
Bhavin Turakhia
Founder, CEO and Chairman
DirectI
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