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...> [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>