Hi everyone, 

Please find below my candidate statement,

  • Name, declared region of residence, gender and employment;
Rafik Dammak
Asia(Tunisian citizen)
Male
Computer engineer
  • Any conflicts of interest:
none
  • Reasons for willingness to take on the tasks of the particular position:    
I am willing to volunteer for NCSG again and serve in policy position this time representing non-commercial interests:
  1. To advocate for NCSG positions within GNSO council regarding policy development. For that purpose, I will liaise with the wider NCSG membership to keep them informed about GNSO council activities, decisions, updates,  regularly consult with them and explaining rationale behind any vote. I want also to emphasize about working and cooperating with other NCSG councillors to make us more  effective, coordinated.   
  2. For years, I worked on engaging NCSG members and doing regular outreach. As councillor, I will focus on helping newcomers and those interested by policy to grasp more about ICANN and in particular GNSO functioning with regard to working group and policy development processes. I will also continue the work on the membership engagement from another level: currently, we have our monthly policy confcall but more need to be done to make it more accessible and understandable.   I will be glad to work on preparing new leadership to volunteers in next year's' positions, via mentorship, advices with help of other veterans
  3. Liaise with other groups in  GNSO and cooperate with them for common positions, to increase NCSG influence and make us more vocal and visible.
 •  Qualifications for the position:
I served NCSG interests in several roles and became aware about  our members needs, expectations, the challenges facing us and our own limits. I chose such position because I do believe we have to strengthen our policy work  and prepare for next levels set by the context of IANA stewardship transition, ICANN reform and forthcoming GNSO changes. I do think that I bring different experiences:

  1. I participated in several working groups within ICANN on behalf of NCSG. I was co-chair of  new applicant support working group , a cross working group between GNSO and ALAC aimed to give support for new gTLD applicants from developing countries, and I am also the co-chair  the cross-community working group on Internet Governance. 
  2. I was GNSO councilor in 2009 for 3 years representing NCSG and non-commercial interests. I am pretty familiar with GNSO policies, processes and procedures, kept updated of latest changes happening there  in addition to the awareness about the dynamic of the groups we have to work with.
  3. I was NCSG and NCUC chair for 3 years now, doing the admin and organizational work at stakeholder group and constituency level, liaising with ICANN staff and leadership,  with other groups officers. I also kept following policy development and supported councillors work, acknowledging the challenges and difficulties
 • Statement of availability for the time the position requires:
Yes, I am available and committing as GNSO councillor
 
 • The nominee’s statement may also include any other information that the candidate believes is relevant: 
I learned a lot with my involvement within NCSG in last years and saw different aspect of our challenges as group and as structure. We are a volunteer-based structure and we get to prepare for the future, while I can help for policy as I did for the organizational side, I would like to spend also the time to prepare for those will lead in coming years. nobody lasts forever and everyone should be easily replaced to keep NCSG sustainable.