Personally, I think that we should simply eliminate the geographic restrictions 
on board seats and have a single AfriNIC board elected from qualified 
candidates from within the region, regardless of where in the region they come 
from.

Owen


> On Jun 16, 2019, at 4:39 AM, Dewole Ajao <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Since we are on the topic of "reforming" NomCom, I wonder why our bylaws 
> state that candidates for appointment to NomCom shall *not* be domiciled in a 
> region where an open seat is being contested. I think a person resident 
> within a region is more likely to know and have access to suitably qualified 
> candidates and we should remove this restriction as we try to improve the 
> nomination.  
> 
> If the sole intention of this restriction was to prevent favoritism/bias, I 
> think adding transparency to the process will quite easily expose such. Or is 
> anyone aware of other justifications for having that restriction in place?
> 
> Dewole.
> 
> On 6/16/2019 11:54 AM, John Walu wrote:
>> On Sat, Jun 15, 2019 at 1:31 PM Owen DeLong <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> >>>
>> In general, I agree with you. I will, however, note that it is possible that 
>> there are situations where “why” should be redacted to protect the 
>> confidentiality and dignity of the applicant who was rejected. For example, 
>> if the nominating committee had rejected a  candidate because he is under 
>> indictment and under disciplinary review in his day job for misconduct, I 
>> don’t think that nomcom should be the ones to publicly disclose those 
>> details.
>> >>>
>> @Owen  
>> 
>> Its true, we must protect the applicant's privacy.  However, we must also 
>> enhance the Nomcom's transparency.  Imagine a situation where Nomcomm 
>> disqualifies candidates because they allegedly did not respond to some 
>> email. It is quite difficult really to really prove beyond reasonable it at 
>> all such an email was ever sent.  It is even harder to prove that it was 
>> successfully delivered to the intended recipient.
>> 
>> In such a case, Nomcom should publicly say Candidate X was disqualified 
>> because they did not respond to an email. (that in itself will discourage 
>> and expose a Nomcom that  is heavily biased towards knocking out, rather 
>> than recruiting board members;-)
>> 
>> Perhaps a middle ground that would protect the candidate's privacy while 
>> enhancing Nomcom Transparency and accountability would be to seek consent or 
>> objection from Candidates - at the point of application - if they would 
>> object to the reasons behind their rejection being publicly reported.
>> 
>> That way we avoid giving a blank cheque to Nomcom who may make decisions 
>> knowing very well that they need NOT explain themselves to anyone (lack of 
>> accountability). 
>> 
>> So lets design and give Nomcomm a  Standard Reporting Template to enhance 
>> their transparency.  They will remain independent and autonomous in the 
>> functionality, but they should owe the community an understanding on how 
>> they worked hard to raise good candidates for AfriNIC.  
>> 
>> The report from Nomcomm with respect to the PDWG election is a good start 
>> and can be refined and adapted for future Nomcomms.
>> 
>> walu.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Jun 15, 2019 at 1:31 PM Owen DeLong <[email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> > On Jun 4, 2019, at 11:34 PM, John Walu <[email protected] 
>> > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> > 
>> > I believe the deeper question is WHY is there an increasingly smaller 
>> > candidate slate of those volunteering to serve on Afrinic board, year in 
>> > year out.
>> > 
>> > Two possible answers:
>> > A) Good candidates are avoiding the perceived 'challenging' board 
>> > /management /community relationships that continue to persist. So nomcom 
>> > hands are tied and cannot manufacture candidates.
>> > 
>> > OR
>> > B) There are actually many good candidates applying  BUT the Nomcom 
>> > 'Black-box' processes is kicking them out and reducing them to 1 or 2 
>> > nominees.
>> > 
>> > To drill down to the correct answer, I think the Nomcom process needs to 
>> > be reformed. 
>> > 
>> > I still do not understand the benefit of having a black box process in the 
>> > nomination committee where the community has no clue about how many 
>> > candidates applied, how many got knocked out and why. IF national 
>> > Presidential election systems are so open about this, why is that it has 
>> > to remain hidden for Afrinic?
>> > 
>> > And I say this as someone who has once served on Nomcomm as well as 
>> > someone who has once been rejected by some previous Nomcomm (I want to 
>> > believe it is within my right to share personal information/experience as 
>> > this is not covered under NDA, but I stand to be corrected ;-)
>> > 
>> > At a minimum, we should request that as Nomcom publishes the candidate 
>> > slate, they should also show a tally (without the names) of how many 
>> > candidates applied, how many got kicked out, why they were kicked out and 
>> > how many successfully went thro. 
>> 
>> In general, I agree with you. I will, however, note that it is possible that 
>> there are situations where “why” should be redacted to protect the 
>> confidentiality and dignity of the applicant who was rejected. For example, 
>> if the nominating committee had rejected a  candidate because he is under 
>> indictment and under disciplinary review in his day job for misconduct, I 
>> don’t think that nomcom should be the ones to publicly disclose those 
>> details.
>> 
>> > I believe this information can shed some light on the deeper question 
>> > above of whether indeed we have fewer applicants or our black-box nommcom 
>> > process is simply kicking them out in order to eventually present a single 
>> > candidate.
>> 
>> My suspicion is that to some degree, both are occurring.
>> 
>> Owen
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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