[ARIN-consult] Reminder: Consultation on Increasing the size of the ARIN Board of Trustees

[Susannah Gray]

Hi all,


On 02/06/2017 07:39, Jason Schiller wrote:
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 6:49 PM, Rob Seastrom <rs at seastrom.com 
> <mailto:rs at seastrom.com>> wrote:
> >
> > I am neither in favor of nor opposed to the restrictions/carve-outs 
> that Jason suggests,
> > but will observe that they may be one effective tool among many that 
> the Board or NomCom
> > may bring to bear.
>
> For the record,I am neither in favor nor opposed to the specific 
> restrictions/carve-outs that
> I suggested.  I am strongly in favor of adding new Board seats if they 
> have some sort of
> restrictions/carve-outs.  I gave some examples that came to mind to 
> spur discussion about
> the general need for some specific restrictions/carve-outs and hope 
> the discussion will shift
> to what restrictions would be desired prior to deciding to enlarge the 
> board.
>
> I thank RS for pointing out that there are other ways to address 
> diversity such as the fellowship.

As I understand it, the domicile restrictions for the Fellowship Program 
have been removed and the number of available places on the program have 
been increased in order to encourage more participation from typically 
under-represented regions.

Similarly, the Women's Lunches that now take place during the ARIN 
Meetings help female attendees learn more about the other women in the 
community as well as how to participate in ARIN in an informal environment.

Regarding the idea to increase the number of seats on the Board, I agree 
that we should strive for more diversity on the Board. I also agree, 
however, with several of the other responses that unless seats are 
specifically designated as a 'Caribbean Regional Seat' or 'Female 
Representative Seat', diversity cannot be guaranteed and most likely the 
status quo will prevail.

Further, as one of the few female voices to chime into this discussion, 
I would *personally* prefer to be elected to such a position on merit 
rather than because a seat had to be reserved for someone who identified 
as female - but that does not mean I don't support such a seat being 
designated.

For the Board to become more diverse, the community needs to become more 
diverse so that the NomCom can choose from a wider pool of qualified 
people who can be presented as candidates for open Board seats.

Hopefully, the expanded Fellowship Program and the Women's Lunches will 
help increase the participation and visibility of a more diverse set of 
people (in terms of gender and regional representation) over the next 
few meetings.

Finally, over in the RIPE region, the community has recently formed a 
RIPE Diversity Task Force to address the gender issue in the community. 
You can read about it here:
https://labs.ripe.net/Members/agowland/diversity-discussions-at-ripe-74

Cheers,

Susannah


> I had not considered the importance of encouraging greater diversity 
> in general participation,
> but now see it is at least as important for sake of diversity of 
> participation, and probably
> even more important as Bill points out.  (Also of note, it would 
> likely also support greater
> diversity of qualified board candidates).
>
> I strongly support efforts to increase diversity of participation.
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 6:54 PM, Bill Woodcock <woody at pch.net 
> <mailto:woody at pch.net>> wrote:
>
>
>     > On Jun 2, 2017, at 1:49 AM, Rob Seastrom <rs at seastrom.com
>     <mailto:rs at seastrom.com>> wrote:
>
>     > I am neither in favor of nor opposed to the
>     restrictions/carve-outs that Jason suggests, but will observe that
>     they may be one effective tool among many that the Board or NomCom
>     may bring to bear.
>
>     Yes.  But as I’ve explained before, regional representation is
>     done by categorizing _voters_, not _candidates_.
>
> One way to achieve regional representation by categorizing _voters_ is 
> to limit the voting
> for a particular seat to a geographical segment of the membership.
>
> Another way to achieve regional representation by categorizing 
> _voters_ is to limit the
> selection of the candidate slate for a particular seat to 
> a geographical segment of the
> community, and have the entire membership vote.
>
> You can of course also categorize the candidates and only permit a 
> certain type of
> candidate for a particular seat.
>
> I do not have strong preference for one approach over another, and 
> would prefer
> whichever approach provides the best mix of diversity and qualified Board
> members.
>
> As Bill points out categorizing _candidates_ may make sense in some cases
> such as gender diversity.
>
> __Jason
>
> -- 
> _______________________________________________________
> Jason Schiller|NetOps|jschiller at google.com 
> <mailto:jschiller at google.com>|571-266-0006
>
>
>
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-- 
Susannah Gray
Communications Consultant | Writer | Editor
www.susegray.com
-
President & Chair
San Francisco-Bay Area Internet Society Chapter
www.sfbayisoc.org

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