Regulations on Candidate Competencies and Suitability

Date of approval: 6 August 2024
Version: 2

The purpose of these regulations is to define the criteria under which candidates for LACNIC's bylaws-mandated bodies will be evaluated, as established in Article 26.2.9 of the LACNIC Bylaws.

This process seeks to ensure that the individuals who become members of LACNIC's bylaws-mandated elected bodies have the competencies and suitability required to fulfill their responsibilities in the performance of their duties.

These regulations were prepared by the LACNIC Board of Directors based on the powers and responsibilities set forth in Article 26 of the LACNIC Bylaws mentioned above.

Likewise, as established in Article 20.3, the Electoral Commission shall be responsible for “Verifying and checking the documentation presented by each candidate to certify compliance with the requirements established in the Regulations on Candidate Competencies and Suitability [of Candidates to Bylaws-Mandated Bodies.”

This document is a new version of these regulations, which may be modified and updated periodically by the Board of Directors, specifying the date on which each successive modification is approved. These regulations and any future modifications will take effect once they have been approved by the Board of Directors and published on the website of each election process and will apply only for election processes that begin after their publication.

Candidates to the Board of Directors

Relevant competencies for members of the Board of Directors

The LACNIC Board of Directors undertakes the administration of the organization and is responsible for defining strategic guidelines as well as for guaranteeing the proper execution of the resolutions emanating from the Assembly (Article 26 - Powers and responsibilities of the Board of Directors).

To comply with the above, members of this body must have the necessary competencies and qualifications that allow them to perform their functions and make appropriate decisions for the benefit of LACNIC.

The Board of Directors has identified key competencies essential for members of this body, which include demonstrating knowledge of the following topics:

1 - Institutional governance in non-profit organizations

  1. Legal status of LACNIC and its legal framework
  2. LACNIC's management and governing bodies
  3. Tax regime and other general obligations under Uruguayan law
  4. Collective responsibility of the Board of Directors
  5. Fiduciary duties of Directors
    1. Commitments of the LACNIC Board
    2. LACNIC Community Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics
    3. Transparency Guidelines
  6. Delegation of functions
  7. Functions of the Board of Directors
  8. Effective Board of Directors
    1. Managing the organizational culture
    2. Financial management
    3. Managing the business environment
    4. Cybersecurity management
    5. Stakeholder management
    6. Leadership succession 

2 - LACNIC and its processes

  1. Strategic process
  2. Realization processes
    1. Process map
    2. Policy development process (PDP)
    3. Registration service
    4. Events
    5. LACNIC and capacity building: most relevant programs and projects

3 - LACNIC’s environment

  1. The technical Internet community; origin and evolution.
  2. The Regional Internet Registries (RIR) system
  3. Organizations related to LACNIC
  4. Regional Technical Community organizations and their relationship with LACNIC
  5. Other organizations at Casa de Internet

Competency evaluation for candidates to the Board of Directors

To assess these competencies, commissioned by the Board of Directors, for the first edition, LACNIC contracted the services of the Catholic University of Uruguay (UCU) to create a training course on the topics listed above, as well as an evaluation to measure the level of knowledge of the individuals nominated as candidates to the Board of Directors. The comprehensive competency evaluation process may periodically be reviewed and modified if appropriate, or the external institution responsible for supporting the Board in its design and execution may be dispensed with.

Individuals nominated as candidates to the Board of Directors must:

  1. Successfully pass the evaluation of the competencies mentioned above. To do so, the result of their evaluation must be equal to or greater than 70%. This evaluation will be valid for 18 months.
  2. Accept the use, processing, and publication of their personal data and evaluation results, allowing those involved in the evaluation service, as well as the Electoral Commission, to know and validate these results.

    3. To this effect, individuals nominated as candidates for the Board of Directors may:

  3. Enroll in the course to receive training in the competencies listed above.
  4. Take the evaluation as many times as they deem necessary, with a limit of once per semester, to demonstrate their level of competence.

    5. The LACNIC Staff shall:

  5. Publish the list of topics to be evaluated, no later than the publication of the call for candidates for the corresponding election process.
  6. Facilitate access to the course for individuals nominated as candidates.
  7. Provide the Electoral Commission with a remote proctoring system that will allow them to validate the elements described in the sections below.

    8. As the authority charged with overseeing the election processes described in this document, the Electoral Commission is the authority responsible for:

  8. Verifying the clear and accurate identification of the individual taking the evaluation. This includes confirming the personal identification (document) presented at the start as well as throughout the evaluation process to ensure that the person completing the questionnaire is indeed who they claim to be.
  9. Ensuring the integrity of the evaluation. Its contents cannot be copied or distributed.
  10. Verifying the authenticity of the responses. The person taking the evaluation must rely solely on their knowledge to answer the questions, without any external aids. The physical and digital environment where the candidate is located must be free of any elements that might potentially assist them in responding to the questions.

To accomplish this, the Electoral Commission shall rely on reports generated for each candidate by the remote proctoring system and must decide which candidacies are valid. Accordingly, the Electoral Commission shall receive evaluation records for each individual who completes the evaluation, including the following information:

  1. Candidate details.
  2. Evaluation results.
  3. Incident reports concerning the candidate, with the corresponding analysis and conclusions.
  4. Link to the videos of any incidents that may have occurred during their evaluation for the purpose of validating their candidacy.

A person who submits information for their candidacy but has not passed the competency evaluation mentioned herein before the call for candidates closes will not be validated and will not be able to run in the corresponding election.

Candidates to the Electoral Commission

Relevant Competencies for Members of the Electoral Commission

Competency Evaluation for Candidates to the Electoral Commission

These competencies shall be defined in a future version of these regulations. Once defined and published, they will apply to the subsequent election process to appoint members of the Electoral Commission.

Candidates to the Fiscal Commission

Relevant Competencies for Members of the Fiscal Commission

Competency Evaluation for Candidates to the Fiscal Commission

These competencies shall be defined in a future version of these regulations. Once defined and published, they will apply to the subsequent election process to appoint members of the Fiscal Commission.

Review of a decision by the Electoral Commission

Those who have passed the evaluation (with a score equal to or above the established threshold) but whose candidacy is not validated by the Electoral Commission may request a review of their case. Such requests may only be submitted by a person whose candidacy was not validated and must be submitted during the period established for complaints in the call for candidates for each election process.

The Electoral Commission shall conduct this review with the elements provided by the interested party, as well as the evidence supplied by the provider of the evaluation. The result of this review shall be final.