A new Independent Director has been appointed to the auDA Board to replace the The Hon. Tony Staley AO. Not that auDA members were informed by email – we just had to have a 6th sense to read the auDA website!
Update 11:14am – just received an email from auDA announcing this appointment. 😉
In case you missed the announcement of Mr Staley’s resignation / retirement, it was contained in a little snippet at the bottom of this auDA website announcement on the 27th February 2017.
“The Hon. Tony Staley AO has retired from the auDA Board and, the process to appoint a replacement is underway. Further announcements will be made soon.”
The new Director is Sandra Hook – and on the face of it, she seems a great appointment. I wish her well given the challenging times ahead.
Ned O’Meara – 27th April 2017
It appears auDA and the auDA Board remain intent on not advertising roles publicly or on the auDA website. Why not.. is it a case of putting people in someone knows again?
No auDA staff or auDA Board members should be hired or added unless they have real Domain Name Experience.
It is not good governance or transparent to do things behind closed doors and not follow now standard practice for companies and government.
All auDA related jobs, contracts, tenders, Board positions, minutes of meetings should be public and on the auDA website in full.
We recently saw Melbourne IT leave the auDA Board and Crazy Domains take their place without proper due process bu auDA or the auDA Board. That seemed very odd considering the many issues auDA has promoted widely even making announcements on the behaviour of Crazy Domains. Surely auDA jobs and auDA Board positions need to be considered and more proper processes followed?
https://www.auda.org.au/news/breach-of-registrar-agreement-by-crazy-domains/
https://www.auda.org.au/news/further-breaches-of-registrar-agreement-by-crazy-domains/
https://www.auda.org.au/news/information-about-crazy-domains-pty-ltds-breach-of-registrar-agreement/
The other issue still remains of stacking of auDA memberships. It is obvious supply related entities have actively stacked the demand side membership also to push their supply agendas.. What has auDA done… how can it do anything if some of those entities are in powerful roles?
The auDA membership process, jobs, tendering, contracting, board positions remains heavily flawed even under new CEO.
It is also crucial to have board members who have the time be actively involved daily. People with a lot of corporate roles or other board positions on the go at the same time may not be the people needed at all to fix the auDA mess. They may also not devote the time to thoroughly read domain name related background materials, research etc. This seemed to be the case when few if any board members knew the facts around the failed .uk and .nz extension official statistics which are all easily to find and read online… How can they vote on such crucial policy changes and issues if they do not do the research and spend the time required to read such important material?
Attending the auDA board meeting and hearing the often promoted propaganda presentation by someone pushing an agenda is not enough to make such decisions. The Wholesale Register who is also an auDA Board Member has made repeated presentations at the auDA board meeting pushing for the additional .au extension of which they could have made considerable extra profits from… this seems to be highly improper.
I question the real domain name experience several auDA staff and auDA board members had before they took on their roles. Many people note the apparent personal links between people and how they got the roles. This may be ok if the role was also advertised and all candidates fairly considered with real domain name industry supply or demand experience taken into priority account.
https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/au_domain_administration_ltd_aud
Canada CIRA domain name administration has a more transparent public process for jobs, board roles, membership and meeting minutes. Why does auDA and the auDA Board continue to ignore such process they are aware of?
Jobs https://cira.ca/grow-your-career-cira
Board Positions https://cira.ca/about-cira/board-and-governance
FREE Membership https://cira.ca/membership
Meeting minutes https://cira.ca/about-cira/board-and-governance/meeting-agendas-and-minutes