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

[John Curran]

On 12 May 2017, at 12:13 PM, Adam Brenner <adam at solidnetwork.org<mailto:adam at solidnetwork.org>> wrote:

In general:
If you are NOT qualified to do the work you are either NOT hired for the position or you are fired from it. This is what happens around the world in every business. ARIN's board is and should not be any different.

Is it up to the community (everyone) to decide which candidate should represent them via the current ARIN voting process. Any person could choose vote on a candidate based on what ever factors they believe in: qualification, diversity, background, random guess, etc. ARIN simply needs to administer this process. This process is already fair -- we the community nominate/volunteer to run for the board AND elect the board -- and that process is setup today and has been for the past years.

Nothing needs to change and no additional board seats should be added.

Very clearly expressed - thank you.

What am I missing here? Is John and the board secretly tossing votes / candidates at the green monster in Fenway park?

Adam -

The conversation we’re presently having is not unique to ARIN; many organizations
are facing circumstances where the similarity of background of their board members
(for example, ones that are composed predominately of north american white males)
is raising a valid question about why this outcome occurs.   If it is truly because their
members choose the best candidates to represent them, then that’s reasonable, but
it is still worth examining closely the entire recruitment/nomination/election process
to make sure that we have not embedded factors that cause this result.

We have heard from the membership at multiple meetings that we should be carefully
considering diversity factors in our elections, and we take that very seriously.  The ARIN
Board went so far as to provide this guidance to the Nomination Committee for the last
several years -

“The ARIN Board of Trustees notes that diversity in the composition of the Board and the Advisory Council (including but not limited to gender, industry, and geographic diversity) is encouraged, and provides this guidance to the 2017 NomCom for its consideration in the development of the candidate slates.”
<https://www.arin.net/about_us/committeecharters.html#fellowship>

This was done to make sure that the Nomination Committee specifically be alert and
avoid actions that might reduce the diversity of the slates put before the membership.

We also specifically changed the bylaws to allow appointment of an additional Board
member to help improve diversity of background of the Board, and have used this
option to good effect for this year’s Board.

It is unclear if ARIN needs to take additional steps with regard to diversity of background
among its Board members – I do know that having a wide range of backgrounds present
helps with good decision making, but it ultimately is up to the membership to determine
the right balance.

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
ARIN


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