Hi
> In HOT US, there are precedents leading to the resignation of former
Board members Robert Soden and John Crowley (World Bank) and Mikel
Maron (Presidential
Innovation Fellow at the White House)
This is not a precedent. I resigned from the Board due to Conflict of
Issues raised by my employer in the fellow. Same situation with Robert and
John. I definitely would have continued to serve on the HOT Board if my
outside interests allowed, and we would have worked strongly. We have more
than adequate processes to manage Conflict of Interest within HOT,
especially when Board members have demonstrated real dedication to the
cause of HOT.
-Mikel
* Mikel Maron * +14152835207 @mikel s:mikelmaron
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On Thursday, March 12, 2015 11:42 AM, nicolas chavent <
nicolas.chav...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Dale
Thanks for your email and to bring upfront the question of your vision
about the handling of conflict of interest in the Board of HOT US tied to
partnership and your call for candidates to the Board of HOT US to publish
their statements.
Speaking about conflict of interests and partnerships, here are a couple of
points
- We need to ensure the autonomy and neutrality of HOT US vis a vis all
actors of the humanitarian system. This may be a reason good enough to
preclude a partner and a funding partner to serve as a Board Member of HOT
US the way other humanitarian organizations did. This is specifically true
when speaking of a small organization like HOT US and a large major
humanitarian actor such as the American Red Cross (ARC).
- In HOT US, there are precedents leading to the resignation of former
Board members Robert Soden and John Crowley (World Bank) and Mikel
Maron (Presidential
Innovation Fellow at the White House)
- Since its early times, HOT US has been working through partnerships
and it’s good that you highlighted this dimension and how it helped
strengthening the HOT Project. Amongst numerous partners, ARC has been a
great partner since the Summer of 2013. But some of the projects you
mentioned like the Tasking Manager, the HOT Export would have not been
possible with ARC only and owed a lot to Australia-Indonesia Facility for
Disaster Risk Reduction (AIFDR) and the Office Of Transition (OTI) of
USAID.
- Working in partnership does not require to have staffs representing
those partners in the Board of HOT US. As a matter of fact, there are other
ways for partners to participate efficiently in the organization than as a
Board member, as individuals (member or not) they can advise individually
or through a Working Group, they can also be consulted as individuals or
possibly as a college of experts by the Board.
- HOT has been working so far without representatives from its partner/
funder organizations in its Board with successes growing into a mature
organization. The projects you mentioned are an example of this. The added
value of a change in that matter is not clear when the risks of losses
are/could be real on the front of the autonomy (real and perceived) vis
a vis the humanitarian and development actors and balance in managing
partnerships.
- Balance in partnerships is an aspect to take carefully into
consideration when thinking about allowing representant of
partner/funderorganizations
to serve as Board members in HOT US. Given the number of partners and the
solid and rich relationships built over time with them, why and how
choosing only one? How to avoid being dragged into the relationships
between the various actors of the humanitarian and development worlds.
I appreciate your call to other candidates to publish their election
statements but this is not a requirement within HOT US in Board Election.
This is left up to the candidates to choose their own pace, timeline and
their documents : some chose their profiles, their wiki pages, their social
media account and a statement, like you and I [1].
Regardless of those choices, discussion has always happened in any HOT
Board election. This already started for this one and will continue
throughout the vote period (with 2 weeks left) for the very best of HOT US.
I look forward to continuing these discussions.
Best,
Nicolas
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