History lesson:
Some time (maybe two years) after UASG was chartered, leadership noticed that some WG activities were unaligned with each other. An ad hoc coordination group was suggested, solely for the purpose of coordinating cross-WG activities.
As a very lazy WG chair, I found it easier to just ask the ICANN staff person assigned to EAI to manage any coordination tasks we identified. That’s why I never noticed or commented on the fact that it had somehow mutated from an ad hoc
thing to a large recurring group, meeting regularly and acting without charter.
From: Jim DeLaHunt via UA-discuss <ua-discuss@icann.org>
Sent: Monday, October 28, 2024 3:19 PM
To: ua-discuss@icann.org
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [UA-discuss] Transparency of Coordination WG and process [was: Re: UASG working at a glance]
Anil Jain:
I appreciate the recent updates on UASG management activity. It is better to get these reports than to hear nothing.
It does lead to two questions, however:
On 2024-10-28 14:26, anil Jain via UA-discuss wrote:
UASG Oct 2024
…In continuation with my earlier emails to community, let me remind that We have taken special steps In following areas.…
…
5. Several Governance Issuse were reported to us. We had long discussions on all Governance issues which were being discusssed since 2017, decided and submitted. We will re submit these outcomes with Coordination WG once we finalised “ Decision Making process” for Coordination Working Group.…
6. It was reported to us that we have to frame norms for UASG members to strictly follow ICANN Standard Behaviour. We discussed and finalised the same. Submitted to ICANN Org to get legal wetting before final implementations.
7. As coordination WG is expected to take major decisions as per provisions under UASG Charter,We decided to draft “ Decison Making Process” within Coordination Working Group. We discusssed all aspects of decision making , consensus, raising concerns, reporting not consideration of points raised etc,finalised the same and submitted to ICANN org for legal wetting and also to ensure that it meet expectations of ICANN at large.
On 7th Oct,2024, Coordination WG had discussions with Ms Theresa, Sr VP ICANN, …
Clearly the Coordination WG is becoming more and more dominant in the actions of the UASG. I think it is time for some transparency on what the Coordination WG is, who participates in it, and what they do. Is the name "Coordination Working Group" even appropriate
still, since the scope seems more like a "Management Committee"?
On the UASG's website, under UASG Structure and Groups
<https://uasg.tech/about/who-we-are/>, there is no mention of the Coordination WG. That page does say, "For detailed description of the UASG Working Groups, please refer to:
UASG Structure and Groups." But the page linked to is
<https://uasg.tech/working-groups/>. The scope of that page is limited to genuine working groups.
Could we please have the Coordination WG publish its structure, charter, and minutes of meetings at least as transparently as those of the genuine working groups?
Also, in your comments, you frequently use the term "we" as if it is separate from the Coordination WG, and separate from the regular participants of UASG. Who is this "we"? Is it just the UASG chair? Or the UASG chair and the lead ICANN staff person supporting
UASG? It would be good to be transparent about that also, because that "we" seems to be playing an increasingly active role also. Or, am I misreading the message, and in fact "we" consistently refers to the Coordination WG?
Best regards,
—Jim DeLaHunt, Vancouver, Canada (participant in UA-EAI, UA-Tech, and UA-Measurement WGs)
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--Jim DeLaHunt, jdlh@jdlh.com http://blog.jdlh.com/ (http://jdlh.com/)
multilingual websites consultant, Vancouver, Canada