[ripe-chair-discuss] RIPE Chair appointment procedure, some ideas

Filiz and all,

At 2016-11-17 11:18:28 +0100
Filiz Yilmaz <koalafil at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think anyone should be allowed be a candidate if they are willing to
> serve as a RIPE Chair [Maybe it can be limited to non-RIPE NCC Staff
> and non-NCC Board at the best. ]
> This way we keep the candidacy pool rich.
> But of course experience will be a factor in their selection process
> as a RIPE Chair.
> For example former NCC Board members could also make very good RIPE
> Chairs in principle, who may or may not have been WG Chairs in the
> past, but will have heaps of experience in consensus building and
> leadership.
> [Side note: I would not like to see any current Board member being the
> RIPE Chair while they keep their Board position. Ideally RIPE Chair
> should be exclusively from community imo...)

I think this is a specific case of conflicts of interest avoidance,
right? In principle, we also need to worry about the general case. For
example, what about staff for other RIR? What about government
officials? What about ICANN board members? What about IP brokers? And
so on.

I'm actually not worried about RIPE NCC staff, since that organization 
seems frankly overly-cautious about staff participation (for full
disclosure, I used to work there and was given "the talk" on several
occasions because I can't keep my opinions to myself). ;) But of course
companies change and with a different regime maybe it would be a
potential problem.

I also think that RIPE PC and RIPE working group chairs should be
excluded, since the RIPE Chair also serves as oversight for both of
those bodies.

My own preference would be something like:

    Candidates should be aware and transparent about their conflicts of
    interest, or potential conflicts of interest. In particular serving
    RIPE PC members, serving RIPE working group chairs, current RIPE
    NCC board members, and current RIPE NCC staff may not serve as RIPE
    Chair. Anyone in one or more of these positions may put themselves
    forward as candidates, if they will step down from any conflicting
    position when selected as RIPE Chair. 

> Having said that utilising the collective knowledge and experience of
> the WG Chairs Group can be a good idea too.
> 
> What about the following, roughly speaking:
> 
> - Anybody can be a candidate, with the possible exception of RIPE NCC
> Staff and Board. Otherwise, they need to leave their positions at the
> RIPE NCC, if they get selected as the RIPE Chair at the end of the
> process to avoid conflict of interest or perception of it.

Basically agree, see text above.

> - WG Chairs Collective at the time evaluates all candidates and comes
> up with a list of eligible candidates.

Seems fairly reasonable. While a relatively large group, it is not that
unwieldy and saves making an Electoral College - which seems like a bad
idea to me at this point in history. ;)

It should be clear that the current RIPE Chair - while technically part
of the WG Chairs Collective - should not participate in this activity.

Presumably discussions are NOT public for the privacy of everyone
involved. 

> - RIPE Community runs an election among these eligible candidates
> (Like the ones we run for NRO NC reps or RIPE PC...).

Maybe with some tweaks. I'm not 100% happy with the NRO NC election
process, although I am of course thrilled with the actual outcome. ;)

> - Vice-Chair gets appointed by the elected-RIPE Chair.

Yup!

Cheers,

--
Shane
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