The purpose of constituencies seemed clear enough to me when 
I joined NCUC- they were primarily what I would have described as a 
caucus, a place for people with shared goals to come together and try 
to achieve their goals within the context of ICANN.

	NCSG charter has changed that. Much as the board/SIC made a 
big song and dance about deviating from the traditional constituency 
model for NCUCs preferred Interest Group model, we have non-exclusive 
constituencies, which is a significant change from the old model. 
That kind of changes things. I suspect that any new constituencies 
that spring out of NCUC will effectively be interest groups. I'm not 
quite sure what purpose 'soft' constituencies, not directly tied to 
any resources (except perhaps a Non-com rep) serve. I guess we will 
all discover it.
	I don't really see much point to an academic constituency in 
the old model - NCUC has academic members, there seems no need for a 
separate group for their concerns. In the new model, in which it is 
possible to participate in more than one constituency? Who knows. 
Perhaps an academic constituency which consists mostly of academics 
who also participate in other constituencies could have other roles.
	Cheers
		David