[UA-discuss] UASG Working Group Positions Renewal Status

[Jim DeLaHunt]

Huyen Le Khac:

On 2024-01-09 01:51, Huyen Le Khac wrote:
>
> Hi Jim
>
> I appreciate your engagement and the time you took to respond. 
> However, I would like to address some points to ensure clarity on 
> certain matters.
>
Likewise, I appreciate your engagement. Thank you.
> …In reference to the UASG working group charter, it is crucial to note 
> that the chair's role is designated for one calendar year. To avoid 
> any confusion, a calendar year is defined as the period between 
> January 1 and December 31. It has nothing to do with ICANN's fiscal 
> year, which concludes on June 30 as mentioned by you. The charter 
> explicitly specifies a calendar year, and I believe it is important to 
> adhere to the documented guidelines.…

You are correct. I found the wording you mention, for instance in the 
EAI Working Group charter[1], page 2:

> Chair of the Working Group… The chair role is for one calendar year. 
> He/she should be nominated one month prior to the end of the current 
> chair’s term to ensure a smooth transition. There is no limit on the 
> number of terms chair(s) may have.…
Given that clear statement of "calendar year", it is curious that the 
calls for nomination (e.g. [2]) went out in July, not the previous 
December. It looks like the people running the process silently slipped 
from calendar year to fiscal year, and from conducting the selection 
before the start of the term to just after the start of the term.

I agree with you that it is desirable for the leadership to address this 
difference.

You also say,

> …I believe it's crucial for all UASG to align with the documented 
> charters to maintain consistency and transparency within the UASG 
> framework until they are not updated again with community consensus.…

You said earlier[3],

> …I strongly advocate for a revision of the terms for working group 
> chairs and vice chairs, with a maximum term of 2 years. Following this 
> period, individuals should be encouraged to take a rest period, 
> allowing for the infusion of fresh perspectives and the involvement of 
> new contributors.…
My conclusion differs from yours. You appear to believe that there are 
new contributors clamouring to be involved, and the existing WG leaders 
are blocking them. That is not my experience, based on participating 
actively in three working groups.

I see that each of these working group has only 2-4 active members who 
are present for most meetings, plus maybe 10 more who appear and 
contribute for a fraction of the meetings, or who appear for most of the 
meetings but do not contribute actively. Thus we do not have many active 
contributors who have the experience and proven track record to take on 
the role of working group vice-chair, nor many vice-chairs ready for the 
role of chair. I suspect that some of the current working group chairs 
would love to take a rest period, but they stay because no qualified 
person offers to replace them.

More fundamentally, I think that the most important task of us in the 
UASG is to advance Universal Acceptance in the world. A secondary task 
is to behave within the UASG in the spirit of our charters and codes of 
conduct. Behaving within the letter of the charters only comes third.  
If I can have the first and second, I am willing to be understanding on 
the third. (And to be clear, I am not satisfied with our performance of 
the first task: we have less impact on Universal Acceptance in the world 
than we could.)

It seems to me that you propose making the letter of the charters the 
most important task. Are you willing for the group to have even less 
impact in promoting Universal Acceptance, just so that working group 
chairs step down on Dec 31st?

For anyone on this list who would like to see current Working Group 
chairs or Ambassadors step down, I have a challenge for you: become the 
strong candidate. Become visibly active advancing Universal Acceptance, 
within UASG or out in the world. Come work with us in the working 
groups. Set up a UA Day event[4], with or without UASG funding. 
Personally, if I see you establishing a record of contributing within 
UASG or in the world, I will be open to supporting you for a vice-chair 
role. And if I see you working effectively as a vice-chair, I will be 
open to supporting you for a WG chair role. And I would not be surprised 
if a current, rather exhausted, WG chair might support you also.

Best regards,
       —Jim DeLaHunt, (not a chair or a vice-chair of anything)


[1] UASG Technology Working Group Charter 
<https://uasg.tech/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/UASG-Tech-Working-Group-Charter-20190919.pdf>
[2] "[UA-Measurement] Nominations for UA Measurement WG Vice-Chair 
positions - Now Open" 
<https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/ua-measurement/2023-July/000783.html>
[3] "[UA-discuss] UASG Working Group Positions Renewal Status" 
<https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/ua-discuss/2024-January/004433.html>
[4] Call for Proposals<https://universalacceptance.day>

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