Page History

Barriers/Problems

Solutions/Opportunities

Generally Across ICANN

(all SOACSGC)

• ICANN’s value proposition is hard to state and to convert into an exchangeable asset.  i.e. “I understand ICANN is important, and I am glad it exists, but what do I (or my organization) personally get out of participating actively?” (CM)

• There is no accreditation or level/grading program to identify a volunteer’s experience or capabilities (CM)
• Determining people's specific skills and where they fit/can fit within ICANN. (TH)
• Volunteer bandwidth challenges. (BD)
• Volunteer frustration.
• Some people seem to be involved simply for travel support.

• Expand the limited public acknowledgment of tenure, leadership awards, etc. (CM)

• Invest in and provide training on enabling tools and platforms:  Language Services, remote participation, Wiki’s etc. (CM) )

• Buddy scale/system at constituency level. (TH)
• Identify existing issue leaders as point people to answer newcomer questions. (TH)
• Make better use of ICANN meeting registration data - share with stakeholder groups.
• Paid staff for volunteer engagement. (BD)
• Call-out or sanction non-contributors.

Specific to SOACSGC group(s)

(if referring to specific group please identify)

• Constituency leaders lack time for outreach or mentoring and are not trained in these disciplines (CM)
•  Civil society members usually have less financial "skin in the game" to motivate deepened and sustained engagement. If your drivers are normative commitments and intellectual/political interest, sticking with iterative and often glacial and procedure-laden work programs that yield small if any gains may seem less compelling than other possible uses of your time. If for example you're an advocate for freedom of expression, privacy, human rights, etc., other forums and processes may seem comparatively more "high yield," especially insofar as your issues are not officially recognized and institutionalized as salient, even if ICANN policies impact these arenas. (BD)
• Civil society members usually have fewer financial resources to physically attend meeting. While ICANN has some of the best remote participation support in the business, people who actually get to meetings tend to "get the bug" and feel connected to the community and its issues and willing to keep at it more than those for whom ICANN is a remote abstraction. (BD)
• High number of administrative tasks. (BD)

• Programs such as CROPP and special budget requests could be expanded to fund inreach activities (CM)
•  NCUC has launched a travel support program from its own piggy bank offering up to two active member $2,000 each to attend a given meeting, applications on a competitive CFP basis. If members can supplement this via other sources, they can come and maybe "get the bug." ICANN's piggy bank being a bit bigger, it could experiment with a similar micro-grants program geared toward participants lacking the resources to fully self-finance that would cover some but not all the costs of meeting attendance. (BD)