Hi Bruna,
Yes, 'volunteer burnout' has been on our agenda with them for quite
a while, but things like the board-driven Policy Transition Program
Pilot shows that they have listened, so I think we owe it to them
to discuss it, and give them input and feedback.
The NomCom rebalancing, on the other hand, now seems to be primarily
a GNSO Council issue.
The recycling of veterans is definitely an issue (just look at the
most recent NomCom appointments).
Julf
On 14/09/2022 11:24, Bruna Martins dos Santos wrote:
> Hello, all,
>
> Thank you all so much for your contributions. The following questions
> are the ones we submitted to Board-ops team:
>
> 1. /What is the Board’s take on the phenomenon of ICANN recycling
> veterans for leadership positions. Does the Board think it’s
> beneficial for the community to have the usual suspects rotating
> between leadership roles of different stakeholder groups? How do we
> fix this if we agree this is a problem? How does the Board imagine
> its role in assisting the community to recruit more new blood?____/
> 2. /Is there a possibility of rebalancing the NomCom?____/
> 3. /What efforts are channeled to keep the people in the community from
> volunteer fatigue?/
>
>
> To be honest, I am a little unsatisfied with the final set of questions
> because these are either a. questions that cant necessarily be solved by
> the board or b. things we have addressed with them before. Topics like
> 'volunteer burnout' have been on our agenda with them for more than just
> one meeting and I really wouldn't like for NCSG to sound like a broken
> radio repeating the same problems over and over again; added to that I
> think its a real shame no one managed to suggest at least one policy
> topic for our discussion and trust that the debate as its proposed
> sounds a little empty.
>
> In case anyone would like to suggest at least one policy topic I can
> still try to see with board-ops whether theres a chance of changing one
> of our topics. But in order to do so we need yall to suggest something.
>
> Best,
> Bruna
>
> On Sat, Sep 3, 2022 at 12:13 PM Tomslin Samme-Nlar
> <[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> Hi Sam,
>
> Good observations. I can understand why you put the focus on career
> progression but I think significant focus needs to also be put on
> the category where participation is heavily motivated by simply
> doing good and personal satisfaction. Which like you suggest, this
> category will neither build career capital nor will it provide any
> resources for ICANN participation.
>
> Those in this category may have active careers, but their careers
> are parallel to their volunteering in ICANN. Their career does not
> benefit in any way from their participation in ICANN. The employers
> of those in this category are often not interested in ICANN's work
> and do not support them in any way, even with leave off work to
> travel to an ICANN meeting.
>
> Therefore, those in this category will certainly benefit and can
> only be in a position to volunteer if "NCSG resources were based on
> participation and ICANN knowledge". I think this makes the
> "difficult challenge" and proposed solution a bit more complex. Not
> recognising that this category of volunteers also heavily depend on
> ICANN resources risk eliminating them from the pool as well.
>
> Warmly,
> Tomslin
>
> On Fri, 2 Sept 2022, 22:53 Sam Lanfranco, <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> I would like to add a couple of comments here. For years I ran
> the listserv for the International Society for Third Sector
> Research (ISTR). There is more and more research on volunteerism
> and on volunteer burnout. It is a serious problem, and several
> patterns and trends are clear. Older volunteers are dwindling
> through exhaustion or simply dying. Younger volunteers are less
> forthcoming, for reasons less well understood. Is that due to a
> generational behavioral shift or the changing demands of careers
> and volunteer work?
>
> Of relevance to ICANN is that volunteers are motivated by three
> drivers: (1) doing good; (2) personal satisfaction; (3) career
> advancement. Within ICANN’s multistakeholder model, outside
> NCSG, a good number of ICANN participants are engaged as part of
> their paid job (a form of career advancement). Inside NCSG young
> participants join for all three reasons, with many seeing
> participation to (hopefully) build career capital. This can be
> particularly true for participants from areas where career
> opportunities are limited. Outside NCSG most ICANN participants
> have support for participation, either as an expense account or
> an ability to cost ICANN participation against professional
> income. Inside NCSG resource constraints are more binding and
> ICANN support is usually essential, and more than just a “perk”.
>
> If one thinks of the elected and appointed positions within
> ICANN as “leadership roles” my view is that the NCSG volunteer
> participation challenge boils down to two things, one difficult
> and one relatively easy. The difficult one is resources.
> Resources from where (ICANN?) and to whom do they go? Looking
> over the past decade of NCSG activity suggests that many of
> those who are active have careers (lawyers, academics,
> consultants) where ICANN participation builds career capital,
> and where careers provide some resources for ICANN
> participation. The challenge here becomes that allocating NCSG
> resources (travel) based on participation and ICANN knowledge
> favors those already best positioned to participate. The “old
> guard” gets the perks. This may become more complicated as ICANN
> seems to drift toward a narrower Technical Internet Governance
> (TIG) scope of policy.
>
> The easier part, again in my view, would be a major expansion of
> mentorship within ICANN. That could proceed in several ways and
> build on what is there in ICANN already. One idea would be to
> make elected positions include a mentorship responsibility, and
> a process for selecting appropriate mentees. Mentee positions
> would come with the additional resources to make participation
> possible and meaningful. Mentee positions could also result in
> greater career capital benefits, and increase the probability of
> continued ICANN participation. One step in that direction might
> be ICANN funding an in depth study of the experiences of ICANN
> Fellowship participants (and others), both in terms of their
> continued ICANN engagement, in terms of how ICANN work has fit
> into their career progress, and in terms of the hard choices
> they must make about volunteering.
>
> Lastly, I have put the focus on career progress here because we
> can assume all participants are intent on “doing good” and that
> “personal satisfaction” is a blend of what one does inside ICANN
> and how that relates to one’s work life. I look forward to the
> ideas and observations of others.
>
> Sam Lanfranco
>
> ----Original Message-----
> From: NCSG-Discuss <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> On Behalf Of Johan
> Helsingius
> Sent: Friday, September 2, 2022 5:45 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: ICANN75: NCSG Meeting with the ICANN Board
>
> > What level of effort is channeled to keep the people in the
> community
> > not to get tired. Same for those that have indepth culture
> and ICANN
> > experience that are exhausted and not actively participating
> in PDP.
>
> Good point, Peter, I think volunteer burnout is a very serious
> issue that needs to be addressed.
>
> Julf
>
>
>
> --
> */Bruna Martins dos Santos
> /*
>
> German Chancellor Fellow 21' (Bundeskanzler-Stipendiatin) | Alexander
> von Humboldt Foundation <https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/>
>
> Visiting Researcher (Gastwissenschaftlerin) | Wissenschaftszentrum
> Berlin für Sozialforschung (WZB) <https://wzb.eu/en>
>
> Member | Coalizão Direitos na Rede <https://direitosnarede.org.br/>
> Chair | Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group at ICANN
> <https://gnso.icann.org/en/about/stakeholders-constituencies/ncsg>
> Co-Coordinator | Internet Governance Caucus <https://igcaucus.org/>
>
> Twitter: @boomartins <https://twitter.com/boomartins> // Skype:
> bruna.martinsantos
> [log in to unmask]
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