Peter Macaulay bio / election statement
I am standing for election both for Vice President and to council. The reason for standing for both is to allow the opportunity for continuity by having me voted onto council, even if you don’t want me as your VP. If you want me to be VP, I still need your votes for both roles. The voting software will ensure your votes are not wasted.
Since InternetNZ does not have an “Immediate Past President “ this is the only way to ensure that I can continue to work in my chosen areas.
Frank March is my preferred candidate for President.
It is the right time for Frank to be elected president of InternetNZ and he will deliver an inclusive style of leadership, focusing on the issues that are arising as InternetNZ’s advocacy role shifts, while strongly supporting our core operations. In addition, the title of President will give Frank (and therefore InternetNZ) even more clout in his growing international role.
The president must have the time available to invest more than a day a week to the job. Beyond this, there are several ex-officio components which add to the workload for the presidential role. At its busiest, the presidency is almost full time and the incumbent with a normal job will need to make arrangements for significant time away from their employment. Splitting parts of the role between the president and vice president does help.
The president interacts with staff frequently and intensively.
The staff find Frank easy to work with and he gets the best from them.
The big shift for council is a new emphasis on the societal impact of ubiquitous connectivity.
Council will need to keep abreast of many streams of information and many aspects of society if we are to succeed in this role. No other organisation can do it.
Our operational team will still need to closely monitor and maintain pressure to keep the oh so slow connectivity growth on track and accelerating. Council must be in step with this work and where possible thinking slightly ahead.
InternetNZ is at its most effective with the tactics of “submarine advocacy”. These tactics have staff and to a lesser degree, officers advising politicians, officials and other leaders with sound fact based guidance, generating little risk of public fallout. To do this we must be seen as politically neutral and not seeking personal publicity. We are very good at this.
Concurrently, InternetNZ must be as influential in the global internet community as we have been. Amongst the many issues of Internet governance, the changes in the domain name environment must be managed well so we don’t break our internet.
In addition to tackling the big external themes, I am standing for Vice President to ensure that Frank and I can complete the structural review we started two years ago. It will take just under one year more to reach a stable, effective and operationally sound model.
Other issues I am passionate about are strategic planning, business development and the evolution of our advocacy for the societal change caused by ubiquitous connectivity.
If elected I will serve one term as VP. At the end of that time InternetNZ must have a formal appointments and succession plan in place for officers and the smaller council. We have good balance at present, and it is important we maintain that while introducing new blood and developing our future office holders. To be successful, officers need to have at least one term as a councilor to ensure they have absorbed and understand the unique InternetNZ council culture.
My election as president was as a reluctant candidate. I had the right skills to direct the changes that the structural review proposed and since Frank was not standing, I stepped in, agreeing to serve as president for one term only. I have enjoyed the role far more than I expected.
Working almost full time on the structural changes, it became clear that the structure which had been approved by members had few but significant flaws. The majority of the proposed structure was rock solid, implemented smoothly and is delivering great outcomes.
For example the Shared Services Unit has taken the fragmented pieces of three separate operations (separate ICT and accounting for example) and merged them into a single operational unit. The shift to charitable status has gone smoothly, and has already delivered more than $1,000,000 in accessible money. The transition from the .nz Oversight Committee into the new company, DNC Ltd, has been flawless. The InternetNZ group is very strong financially.
Sadly, the concept of the Executive Board was not going to work. This is not the place to discuss the specific issues that led to the dissolution of that board and the appointment of the acting CEO.
We had hard choices to make and council responded well and delivered strong consensus decisions which have resolved the issues, won staff support and allowed operations to continue without a break.
As a result of this increased governance workload several strategic initiatives were put on the back burner. These include the business development initiative, with a goal of producing more than 30% of InternetNZ’s income from sources other than .nz.
We have not made enough progress on the charitable outreach (Foundation) programme. On the other hand, it has proved prudent not to move too quickly on that front as other issues have changed the parameters.
I am proud of the work the council has achieved in the last two years. I leave the presidency with a strong team of councilors and staff in place, and a sense that we are headed in the right direction, with a steadily maturing and sound model of governance.
With your votes, I look forward to a term as your vice president supporting the president, serving the members, staff and goals of InternetNZ.
I am happy to take your queries on 021 488485
Pete
