The following text is excerpted from an ongoing discussion on the IGF Advisory Group mailing list. The only changes made relate to an effort to anonymize the comments in respect of the Chatham House rule and separate issues related to logistics and internal procedures. The discussion took place between 1 - 31 January, 2009.
(Writer A)
Dear all,
First of all, let me extend to you all my best wishes for a rewarding,
happy and healthy 2009! I look forward to working with you as we
prepare for the evaluation of the IGF, and for the fourth meeting. It
is going to be a challenging year, I believe, but I'm sure we are up
to it.
I was checking the IGF web site yesterday as I returned from a couple
of weeks break over the year end holiday season, and noticed the
following posting. I don't think I had seen a note about this call,
but could possibly have missed it. In any event, I wanted to draw it
to your attention, in case you had not seen it either:
========================
Renewal of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group (MAG)
All relevant stakeholder groups representing governments, private
sector and civil society, including the academic and technical
communities are invited to make proposals for new MAG members in order
to allow for rotation among its members.
The principles and modalities of the MAG renewal are set out in the
Summary Record of the MAG meeting on 27-28 February 2008.
Please submit your proposals to the IGF Secretariat by 15 February
2009 to allow for a timely renewal of the MAG.
========================
Best regards
(Markus Kummer)
Dear Writer A, dear colleagues,
As we are slowly emerging from our New Year holidays, I would also like to extend my best wishes to you all for a good start into 2009. Indeed, it will be a challenging and interesting year!
I did mention the call for inputs on the MAG renewal in my last email before the holidays. As there was no further discussion and as we had a general agreement on the need for a timely renewal of the MAG, I assumed that there was a broad consensus to start the process asap. However, as there were the holidays in between, I am sure that not much has happened in this regard and Writer A's email is a welcome reminder to get started. I am grateful to you all if you can communicate the need for collecting names within your respective stakeholder groups. We will be able to discuss this issue at the MAG meeting in February.
Best regards
Markus
(Writer B)
Dear colleagues
It is not easy to write it, with all that is happening now as bloody or
regressive next to us or not so far from us. But I hope that this new
year will see women's daily burden better recognized and relieved, that
the world will be filled with a more balance, justice, efficient
governance, positive ingenuity, cooperation, success, for more joy for
all. This is the message of hope I read today in this work of art
created by generations of artists from [EDITED], the historical capital
city of [EDITED], and that I would like to share with you (see attachment),
to wish you a happy New Year 2009.
Best wishes.
(Markus Kummer)
Dear colleagues,
I managed to secure meeting facilities at the Palais for the May meetings. The dates are as follows:
13 May: Open Consultations
14-15 May: MAG Meeting.
As usual, thee meetings will be back-to-back with the WSIS cluster of events/CSTD meetings.
I hope that these dates are convenient.
Best regards
Markus
(Writer C)
Thanks, Markus, for trying to wake us up :) [EDITED] is now under a lethargic
40 C summer, making it harder to crawl to the keyboard and exude any
thoughts...
My initial response to the renewal call is that we could repeat past
year's formula (the 1/3 rule). The "howto" should certainly be discussed
in the upcoming Geneva meeting.
Should we keep the newcomers of last year and include only veterans in
the 1/3 to be replaced?
Should we let the respective constituencies decide on their own
replacement methods, but in keeping with the 1/3 rule?
And so on...
(Markus Kummer)
Dear colleagues,
We have not received much feedback to the questionnaire we posted on our Web site. We would be very grateful if you could reach out within your respective stakeholder group and encourage your friends and colleagues to fill in the form. You are of course more than welcome to do so yourself!
Plese find below the link to the questionnaire: http://www.intgovforum.org/Q2008.php
Originally we set 31 January 2009 as the deadline, so that we have sufficient time to prepare a paper summarizing the input. However, as always, we will be flexible in this regard.
Of course, we also welcome contributions in any other format.
Best regards
Markus