[members-discuss] gm-may2009/presentations/voting-options.pdf

Bernard Dugas wrote:
> The original "democracy" was based on random selection in greece : 
> this was to avoid that economical powers would ridge the election 
> process through influences...
It is an intriguing idea. Of course the selection process in ancient 
Greece was limited to a fairly narrow range of candidates, roughly 10% 
of the total population (only full citizens, no women or slaves, for 
example)
>
> The current political election process is no democracy, this is beauty 
> contest and psychology warfare, where the most you ads and frighten 
> people, the most you win.
>
> I'm not telling that RIPE elections are like that :-) But don't take 
> current political process as a model...
I'm glad you aren't comparing the RIPE NCC Board with politicians. I 
would feel compelled to resign on the spot if you had.

In all seriousness though. If you wish to open a discussion on the 
election process, then this is the list to do it on. Note that the 
current board has taken the step of encouraging the NCC to make 
announcements on this list rather than just making them at general 
meetings. This is  in order to encourage open debate. I'm pleased to see 
that this is having some effect.

>
> I don't know personnally anybody in the current board, how can i 
> choose and judge their skills ?
This is a very valid point, but I'm not sure how we can work around it. 
We try and publish candidate biographies and platforms prior to 
elections, but I am aware that this is an imperfect process at the best. 
I for one am trying to get to regional meetings so that the membership 
can see that the board actually exists and doesn't have two heads or 
anything odd like that.
>
> The result is that i have not voted until now, because i don't know 
> anybody and the cost to go to the GM meeting is too high...
The proxy voting system allows you to vote remotely, but of course if 
you don't know us then, as you say, a vote is pointless.
>
> And currently, i am not sure the current board is representing the 
> members : how many boards members are from ExtraSmall and Small 
> categories ?
>
> This is why i ask to know which RIPE members are representing the 
> current boards members.
Well, I for one have worked for pretty well all sizes of category: 
national PTT, US corporate, European corporate, Global undersea cable, 
startup, IXP, small ecommerce. Pretty well the only type of member I 
haven't worked for is academic. I hope I understand and have sympathy 
for the problems of members of all types and sizes.

All the best

Nigel
RIPE NCC Board chairman