Council Restructure - Restructure Working Groups

This section relates to Working Groups commissioned by the Board to address aspects of the GNSO Improvement process.

On 26 June 2008 the ICANN Board of Directors endorsed the recommendations of the Board Governance Committee Working Group (BGC WG), with the exception of their recommendations regarding GNSO Council restructuring. The Board asked the GNSO to convene a special Working Group on Council Restructuring (WG-GCR) to provide a consensus recommendation on Council restructuring within 30 days (see ICANN Board Resolution 2008.06.26.13). The Working Group convened on 4 July 2008 and deliberated exhaustively through 25 July in an effort to develop consensus recommendations for Board consideration. The Board formally accepted the WG-GCR Report at its 31 July 2008 meeting.

The Board devoted significant time to reviewing and discussing the WG-GCR recommendations during its 28 August 2008 meeting and its 1 October 2008 meeting. At the August meeting the Board made several important decisions regarding the new GNSO Council's structure, composition, and implementation timing. Those decisions included the formation of four new Stakeholder Groups that comprise a new bicameral (two-house) voting structure as recommended by the WG-GCR. In the WG-GCR Report itself and prior to each recent Board meeting, the ICANN Staff solicited additional input on various restructuring matters from the GNSO constituencies and relevant ICANN advisory committees.

The Board has now approved the bulk of the WG-GCR consensus recommendations with few modifications, and has been highly appreciative of the Working Group's efforts.

Working Group on GNSO Council Restructure (WG-GCR)

Report To ICANN Board of Directors From Working Group On GNSO Council Restructuring, 25 July 2008