Since ICANNWatch, along with CDT and others, is touting ICANN's
At-large membership as a means for individuals and independant
Internet users to have a voice in ICANN's governance of the
Internet, you ought to inform your readers of the new ICANN bylaws
which virtually obviate such powers of the At-large membership and
its phantom directors:
"Beginning immediately following the conclusion of the Annual
Meeting of the Corporation in 2000, the Corporation shall initiate a
comprehensive study of the concept, structure and processes relating
to an "At-large" membership for the Corporation. {It] shall be a
"clean sheet" study -- meaning that previous decisions and
conclusions regarding an "At Large" membership will be informative
but not determinative, and that the study will start with no
preconceptions as to a preferred outcome. The study shall include...
whether the ICANN Board should include "At Large" Directors."
"The Corporation shall not have members
as defined in the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation
Law ("CNPBCL"), notwithstanding the use of the term "Member" in
these bylaws, in a selection plan adopted by Board resolution, or in
any other action of the Board. Instead, the Corporation shall allow
individuals (described in these bylaws as "Members") to participate
in the activities of the Corporation as described in this Article II
and in a selection plan adopted by Board resolution, and only to the
extent set forth in this Article II and in a selection plan adopted
Board resolution."
Likewise, you should inform your readers that ICANN's Nominating
Committee, unjustly chosen by the Board from non-At-large
representatives (as Bret Fausett has indicated), has just nominated
four of the seven permitted candidates for At-large directorships,
that is, the majority of them. Thus, a mere 11% of the ICANN Board
(3/7 X 5 [the # of At-large directors to be elected now] divided by
18) may be chosen by the At-large members, when the White Paper and
Congressional testimony by both the NTIA and ICANN assured Congress
that Internet users would share power in ICANN equally with
commercial interests.
Yours,
Michael Sondow
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"We need to be able to judge which is more important - the
images on the screen, the mechanisms that produce them, or
the world that they are striving to represent."
--Oscar Kenshur, 'The Allure of the Hybrid'
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INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF INDEPENDENT INTERNET USERS
http://www.iciiu.org (ICIIU) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Tel(718)846-7482 Fax(603)754-8927
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