Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment:

Dear all,

Here's my candidate statement for the NCSG Chair election.



Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment:

   Tapani Tarvainen, Europe, male, chief engineer at Jyväskylä University,
   Finland.


Any conflicts of interest:

   None.


Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:

   NCSG has an important part to play in keeping the Internet free by
   influencing ICANN's policies. And we have several gifted and
   competent people working on those policies.

   But in order to get their work done they also need administrative
   support - bureacracy if you will.

   I see the role of Chair in NCSG as an administrative one:
   keeping the bureaucracy working and well-oiled so that the
   people working on substantive issues can get on with their
   work with minimal administrative hurdles.

   That also explains my approach to administration: I believe it
   should be mostly invisible, and the Chair and Executive Committee
   should generally do their job in the background, keeping away from
   the limelights.

   That's what I've been doing the past year and at least NCSG
   has not totally collapsed yet, so I guess I could've done worse.

   Although admittedly when I started as the Chair last year I was, in
   retrospect unsurprisingly, too optimistic about what I could get
   done and how fast. But that is the way of things: they always take
   longer than expected.

   A few things I've got on on the agenda, either going on or
   planned for the coming year:

   * New membership management system is well on the way, indeed
     I hope it to by up and running before the Hyderabad meeting.

   * An independent website for NCSG is also coming along as part
     of the same project.

   * The Finance Committee has been reactivated, although later than
     I'd hoped, so they haven't been able to do much yet, but
     I trust they'll do more in the coming year.

   * More NCUC-NPOC joint activities and continuing to improve
     the relations between our two constituencies.

   * Conducting a review of constituencies as our charter requires
     us to do every two years.

   * Establishing and documenting procedures for various things
     the Executive Committee needs to do, like member removal.


Qualifications for the position:

   Been there, done that. :-)

   I won't bore you with my resume: let it suffice to say that
   I have an extensive experience in dealing with and administering
   various civil society organizations. Now including the NCSG.


Statement of availability for the time the position requires:

   Yes: I have agreed with my employer, Jyväskylä university, that I
   can continue to use some working hours to Chair the NCSG. I have
   also decreased my activities in Effi, so I think I will have enough
   time to handle the duties of our stakeholder group's Chair.


-- 
Tapani Tarvainen