ARIN BoT

On Sun, 2 Feb 1997, Dave McClure wrote:

> The issue is that they have been proposed without input from the people
> within the Internet community they would seek to serve, and without
> building support from within that community. 

This is so ridiculous I can't understand how you could make such a
statement. If I ask a bunch of friends "What do you say we go out bowling
tonight?" would I expect to be attacked for not consulting them before
proposing such a thing? Of course not. The act of making the proposal
public is, in itself, an act of consultation.

The proposal was placed on a web (a service that all Internet providers
have access to) and a mailing list was created for discussion (again, a
service that all Internet providers have access to). The website and
mailing list were announced on ISP mailing lists on which well over half
of North America's ISP's participate. This is consultation.

As far as building support goes, this is not a product marketing issue
here. We want to see Internet providers participate in the planning and
design of ARIN and not merely passively voting aye or nay for some ivory
tower proposal. That's what *IS* happening on this mailing list and yes,
it does get messy sometimes, but that's the real world. The secret is that
on the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. If your ideas are good, say
them on the list or mail them privately to one of the board members and
there is a good chance they will consider them seriously. At the end of
that process, the support will come naturally.

> Solution:  Have the initial BoT serve for only one year to get the
> organization up and running, and then resign.

I don't think that the term of office for most BoT members is in question
as long as a reasonable mechanism is in place for choosing their
successors.

  This initial BoT would
> not be "grandfathered", but would have the right to run for BoT
> positions (with the advantage that they will have proven their abilities
> as trustees).  This simple change could eliminate the entire "who are
> these people and who picked them" discussion. 

Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-250-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael at memra.com