Participants: Cheryl Langdon-Orr, Tijani Ben Jemaa, Olivier Crepin-Leblond, Hong Xue, Evan Leibovitch, Carlton Samuels, Dave Kissoondoyal
Apolgies: Patrick Vande Walle, Vanda Scartezini
Staff: Matthias Langenegger, Gisella Gruber-White,
The members of the call reviewed the current time-line for the Board Director selection.
CLO: Is there anyone in this group who thinks that the intention should not be to have the candidate be seated in Cartagena?
Hong: We are in a dilemma in APRALO. We need to give sufficient time to our ALSes to discuss possible additions to final slate of candidates but need to make sure that all candidates have time to campaign. I do think that the candidate should be seated in Cartagena.
Carlton: we should not delay the process. Some requests can be accomodated but the overall process should remain the same.
Dave: The candidate should be seated in Cartagena.
Evan: I consulted with the NARALO region and the overall sentiment is that the candidate needs to be seated at the AGM.
Tijani: The candidate should be seated in Cartagena but we can adjust the time-line to give ALSes more time to deliberate and discuss about petition candidates.
CLO: We need to make sure all candidates (including petition candidates) have sufficient time to campaign.
Olivier: With regards to your first question, Cheryl, should the process be delayed, there seem to be some people in EURALO who think so, yes. However, the overall consensus was that the candidate should be seated in Cartagena. There needs to be sufficient time for petitions and campaigning. There is no specific number of days for EURALO deliberations in the EURALO Bylaws but 10 days seem to be required for any vote (petition AND regional election). This is the reason for our letter. It is good news that the starting day has moved to the 28th of October and the weekend has already been used for petitioning. However, the community calls with the candidates needs to be after the end of the petition period.
CLO: If we have the community call of November 8th, we have enough time to consult the ALSes. It is up to the candidates how they want to campaign.
Olivier: We suggest that the end of campaigning be moved back a couple of days.
CLO: The earlier the community call takes place in the week of the 8th, the more time for the ALSes to review candidates.
Olivier: We originally wanted to move the entire process, e.g. to the 25th of November. With regards to Visas, which seems to be one of the reasons not to push back the deadline, many of the candiates do not require Visas and those who do could already apply for them.
CLO: Visas was not the only issue, but also to arrange for travel and to give the candidates some time to prepare. The succesful candidate does not necessarily need to be physically in Cartagena but it would be a good opportunity for At-Large and would make our success more visible.
Olivier: EURALO agrees that it would be ideal to have the succesful candidate seated and physically present in Cartagena.
Tijani: I'd like to raise two points: 1) I have no concerns about campaigning, it has already started and can continue after the start of the election, even possible petition candidates can campaign. Community calls are open to all candidates, even those who are not on the current slate. 2) I would like to know from the BCEC why the unsuccesful candidate were not chosen, in case there were reasons the electorate needs to know about.
Hong: I hear the concerns from Olivier. However, it is good news that possible candidates can participate in the community call.
CLO: The community call will be lenghtened in case there are additional candidates. We need to make sure all candidates have equal time to make their case.
Hong: with regards to the actual election from 15 - 19 November, there seem to be two things going on: RALO deliberations and the actual voting. How can they both be going on at the same time?
CLO: the instructed (or "guided") members of the electorate could be asked to hold off from voting until the very last day of of voting on 19 November to allow for further RALO discussions. This is up to the regions.
Evan: I disagree with Tijani on the possibility to request the BCEC to comment on the candidates who have not been selected. This would undermine the process. Also, with three RALO necessary for succesful petition candidates, we set the bar sufficiently high.
Olivier: I am concerned about candidates who have not been selected by the BCEC being able to formally participate in the community call. This will lead to a waste of some of our calling time.
Evan suggested on the chat space to add a set of written questions that may be submitted to all candidates.
CLO: The 30th of November is the last day for us to announce the succesful candidate to ICANN.
Carlton: I am generally against petitioning because if the regional members of the BCEC could not make the case for a specific candidate in the BCEC, I doubt that this candidate will stand a chance to win the election.
CLO: The petition process was one of the most important pushbacks I received from the Board with regards to the whitepaper. The fact that we might now set a precedent with petition candidates will make it more difficult to remove it from the process in the future.
Olivier: Is the possibility to move the end of the process to 30 November still on the table?
CLO: Yes it is. We could also move the date to 25 November.
Dave: African candidates need several days to get Visas since this usually includes travelling to a Third country to get their Visas.
CLO: The community call will not happen before the 8th. Since petitioning started on the 29th of October we have ten days if we stop it on the 7th. How about we have the community call take place between the 8th and the 15th and if vote between the 15th and the 25th of November?
Hong: I am more concerned about campaigning. In our region we will have a vote on whether we support possible petition candidates ending on the 12th.
CLO: Campaigning is scheduled from the 8th to the 15th. Petitioning should be finished before the 7th.
Tijani: I agreed that we move the 19th deadline to the 25th of November.
Olivier: We usually have 10 day votes in Europe. It could work if we had the call on the 12th of November in the afternoon UTC time.
CLO: We would need to have a call between the 12th afternoon and the 15th. If candidates can't make it, then that's that. Would this work for you, Hong?
Hong: As you noted, petitioning is not obligatory. We also had several members who have already indicated their support for a petition candidate.
Following some further deliberations, the following time-line has been adopted:
28 October: BCEC to announce slate of 3-7 candidates and SOI details;
28 October - 15 November: Campaigning period for candidates;
On or before 7 November: RALO petition processes to be completed;
12 - 15 November (early UTC time on ): A community call with the final slate of candidates will be held;
15 - 22 November (RALOs can extend this until 25 November if desired) : RALO discussions on candidates
22 - 25 November: First round of online voting on final slate of candidates;
26 – 28 November: Second round of online voting on final slate of candidates (only if necessary)
AI: Staff will set up an online APRALO vote to support the addition of Avri Doria to the final slate of candidates.
AI: Olivier Crepin-Leblond will inform EURALO about the decisions taken at this meeting.
AI: Staff will change the Board Selection time-lines on the relevant wiki pages and make an annotation that petition by RALOs now has a closing date of 7th of November.
AI: Staff will announce the modifications to the Board Selection time-line on the announce-lists on behalf of Cheryl.
