CIRA Board Elections On Now, Please Vote

During my 3-year tenure on the CIRA Board, I got the opportunity to travel across the country. Whenever we held a public forum anywhere in Canada, the turnout was usually quite high and the participants informed and enthusiastic.

Then near the end of every open forum I made it a habit to ask the attendees the following question: "How many people here voted in the last election?" and the silence was usually deafening. Less than 10 hands would go up every time, guaranteed.

So why the disconnect between getting live bodies out to an actual event and getting stakeholders to click a few buttons through their web browser?

Given the discontent I've seen among netizens over some gTLD issues with .COM (remember sitefinder?) and ICANN oversight, CIRA has set the standard for accessibility and stakeholder guidance for .CA. People should be seizing these opportunities and making their views known and voting.

Running country code top level domain registries carry unique challenges and require industry experience balanced with a sense of stewardship. .CA is after all a "key public resource" and the kind of people I want on the Board are those that take that stewardship capacity seriously.

This year I'm voting for the following member nominees:

• Paul Andersen https://elections.cira.ca/2006/finalslate/show/44/en
  
• Clyde Beattie https://elections.cira.ca/2006/finalslate/show/22/en
  
• Ross Rader https://elections.cira.ca/2006/finalslate/show/35/en
  

And from nomination committee I'm voting for:

• Raymond Benoit https://elections.cira.ca/2006/finalslate/show/13/en
  
• Bill Reid https://elections.cira.ca/2006/finalslate/show/12/en
  
• Jeff Ryback https://elections.cira.ca/2006/finalslate/show/10/en
  

I encourage all .CA domain holders who are CIRA members to vote now.