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No more free ride for ICANN Fellows?

Kevin Murphy, August 29, 2018, 19:56:13 (UTC), Domain Policy

Newcomers who get free travel to ICANN meetings will have to show they’re serious about participating in the community, under new rules.
ICANN is revamping its Fellowship program to ensure that it’s actually meetings its goals of increasing the pool of mugs knowledgeable volunteers that the community can draw on.
The program, designed to bring in people unable to afford their own in-person meeting attendance, had come in for criticism for not being sufficiently accountable, and perhaps a poor use of money in a time of budget pressure.
It’s not been easy to measure the ratio of valuable ICANN citizens it was creating versus freeloaders who abuse the system for a free busman’s holiday.
Among the key changes being introduced now are requirements for Fellows to attend a minimum number of session-hours per meeting, casually policed by seven “mentors” — selected from and appointed by each supporting organization and advisory committee.
The number of hours required doesn’t appear to be set in stone as yet, with ICANN saying it will work with mentors to arrive at a figure.
While ICANN admits it obviously can’t force Fellows to participate after their first meeting, it plans to make sure returning Fellows can provide documentary evidence that they have engaged on subsequent applications for the program.
The three-meetings-only rule will remain.
The request for post-meeting reports from Fellows will be piloted at the Barcelona meeting in October.
More information of program revamps can be found here.

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Comments (1)

  1. rami schwartz says:
    August 30, 2018 at 12:32 pm

    How many millions wasted over the years?
    In every ICANN meeting there were at least 5 Cubans getting free tickets, hotel accommodations, meals and pocket money and we cannot even sell names in Cuba. All in the name of “inclusion” and “political correctness”.
    It’s a shame this changes came after so much wasted money. Who is accountable in ICANN?
    No free lunch for representatives or countries like Cuba or China, where registries and registrar’s cannot even sell names.

    Reply

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