[ARIN-consult] Community Consultation on Increasing the Size of the ARIN Board of Trustees

[William Herrin]

Howdy,

I oppose increasing the size of the board.

Firstly, the larger the board, the less control each member has over ARIN's
direction. The bigger the committee the worse in functions. As a practical
matter, this will result in an increased concentration of power in the
hands of ARIN's President and CEO whose day to day decisions are more
strongly represented in ARIN's activity than most actions of the full
board. Even if John could flourish with more power, there's no guarantee
the next individual in his position will have as good a grasp of or care as
deeply about the technicalities surrounding number policy.

Secondly, the board is selected by the voting membership. It's diversity
(or lack) correctly reflects both the candidates who ran for election and
the selections of the members. There is no reason to believe that
increasing the number of board members would in any way change the board's
social diversity. Unless the selection process was weighted to favor social
diversity over voter preference.

Thirdly, social diversity is not ARIN's mission. Internet number management
is a weird and narrow technical specialty with few really smart individuals
of any nationality, race, creed or gender. Getting those few individuals to
serve is vastly more important than serving the politics of social justice.

Finally, diversity of background and opinion is supposed to be introduced
to ARIN's behavior via the public policy development process. If ARIN is
failing to reflect diversity of backgrounds then the error surely lies in
the ways in which the past decade's change in the policy development
processes has concentrated activity in the board and advisory council,
minimizing the role of the public at large. If the diversity of background
problem has become large enough to be recognized as a problem, please fix
it where the problem was created.

For these reasons I OPPOSE increasing the size of the ARIN Board of
Trustees.

Regards,
Bill Herrin



On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 1:18 PM, ARIN <info at arin.net> wrote:

> After receiving community feedback during the ARIN 38 meeting in Jamaica
> regarding the need for more background diversity on the ARIN Board of
> Trustees, the ARIN Bylaws were changed to allow for the appointment of
> an eighth voting Board member for a 1-year term, and this option was
> used after the 2016 ARIN Election.
>
> At their meeting on 8 May 2017, the ARIN Board discussed and agreed to
> propose for community consultation an additional change to expand the
> number of elected Board members from six to nine, as this will increase
> opportunities for diversity in the background of Board members. While
> this change would require an update to the Bylaws, the update would not
> affect the member-protected portion of the Bylaws.   However, the ARIN
> Board of Trustees determined it would be best to consult with the
> community for their input prior to the adoption of this proposed change
> of expanding the Board.
> Board proposal:
>
> ARIN will add three more elected voting seats to the Board of Trustees,
> raising the current six (elected two per year) to nine (elected three
> per year).
>
> * There would be no change to the appointed voting seat (it would remain
> available for appointment as deemed desirable by the Board)
> * There would be no change to the non-elected voting seat (held by the
> President/CEO)
>   * New Board seats are to be added to the Board in a phased manner –
> one per year in the 2017 thru 2019 elections
>
>          *  October 2017: 3 Board members will be elected for 2018;
>          8 Trustee board (9 if appointed seat is used)
>          *  October 2018: 3 Board members will be elected for 2019;
>          Trustee board (10 if appointed seat is used)
>          *  October 2019: 3 Board members will be elected for 2020;
>          10 Trustee board (11 if appointed seat is used)
>
> We are seeking community feedback on this proposed change to the size of
> the ARIN Board of Trustees. This consultation will remain open for at
> least 30 days. Please provide comments to arin-consult at arin.net.
>
> Discussion on arin-consult at arin.net will close on 12 June 2017.
>
> If you have any questions, please contact us at info at arin.net.
>
> Regards,
>
> John Curran
> President and CEO
> American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)
>
>
>
>
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>



-- 
William Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/>
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