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]> On Behalf Of Johan Helsingius

Sent: Friday, September 2, 2022 5:45 AM

To: [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