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GNSO Council Minutes 28 October 2010

Last Updated:
Date

Agenda and documents

The meeting started at 20:04 UTC.

List of attendees:

Andrei Kolesnikov NCA – Non Voting

Contracted Parties House
Registrar Stakeholder Group: Stéphane van Gelder, Tim Ruiz, Adrian Kinderis
gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group: Chuck Gomes, Caroline Greer, Edmon Chung

Non-Contracted Parties House
Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG): Jaime Wagner, Wolf-Ulrich Knoben, Kristina Rosette, David Taylor; Mike Rodenbaugh;
Zahid Jamil - absent apologies
Non Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG): Rafik Dammak, William Drake, Debra Hughes, Wendy Seltzer
Mary Wong and Rosemary Sinclair - absent apologies
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Olga Cavalli

GNSO Council Liaisons/Observers
Alan Greenberg – ALAC Liaison
Han Chuan Lee – ccNSO Observer - absent apologies

ICANN Staff
Dan Halloran - Deputy General Counsel
Sam Eisner - Senior Counsel
David Olive - Vice President, Policy Development
Liz Gasster - Senior Policy Counselor
Julie Hedlund - Policy Director
Rob Hoggarth - Senior Policy Director
Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat
Margie Milam - Senior Policy Counselor
Marika Konings - Policy Director
Alexander Kulik - System Administrator

For a recording of the meeting, please refer to:

Item 1: Administrative Items

1.1 Roll call of Council members and polling for Disclosures of Interest

Per the GNSO Operating Procedures, Section 5.4, Councilors were polled regarding
disclosures of interest regarding the following meeting topics:

  • The main issues for this meeting are:
    • GNSO Prioritization
    • Election Procedures for Council Chair & Vice Chairs
    • Whois Studies
    • Voting Procedures when Councilors are absent &/or must abstain
    • Disclosure of Interest Procedures

1.2 Update any Statements of Interest
Updates of Interest statements were received from:

1 3 Review/amend the agenda

1.4.The GNSO Council 7 October 2010 meeting minutes were approved on 28 October 2010.

Item 2: GNSO Project Prioritization

Chuck Gomes provided a brief summary of the project ratings and the results of Adobe Connect Poll regarding possible next steps that was taken in July.
Liz Gasster provided an overview of the Staff Utilization Analysis

Council discussion highlighted the following points:

  • The Prioritisation exercise shows the overall workload, indicates the perceived value across the Council and provides a possible tool in choosing a project.
  • There is no definitive result from the prioritisation exercise, but it provides data for making a choice.
  • It is uncertain what the impact of the launching new gTLDs will have on the GNSO and the Policy staff workload.
  • Guidance is needed to prioritise the Registration Abuse Policies PDP recommendations currently being considered by the Implementation drafting team.
  • Current working groups and work teams are struggling with poor attendance due to the community resources being thinly spread.
  • Some councillors felt that it would be worth while updating the prioritisation exercise during the GNSO working sessions in Cartagena.
  • A suggested way of moving forward is not to start anything new until some of the currents projects are closed
  • Before deciding to prioritise and launch a new project, the main question should be: 'is there a core of people that is interested in the topic and willing to do the work?'
  • There does not seem to be strong support on the Council for going through another prioritisation exercise.

Action Item:

Assuming we dispense with the prioritization effort, Councillors are encouraged to communicate ideas on the Council ma iling list on how to make decisions on whether or not to proceed on a project; the aim would be to compile a list of factors that can be used to make choices, and over time develop criteria for choosing projects and work items.

Item 3: Election of Council Chair & Vice Chairs

The Council approved the election procedures as outlined in the document for the current 2010 elections with a modification that the voting period be shortened to end on Monday, 29 November 2010 instead of 2 December and the results will be announced on 30 November 2010 instead of 3 December 2010 and so give more time for the houses to discuss the vice chair elections.

Council agreed that the Election Procedures should be revisited by the GNSO Operations Work Team (GCOT) or a new Standing Committee and this should include the timing of assigning Nominating Committee appointees to each house.

Kristina Rosette requested that no substantive issues should be discussed during the GNSO weekend meetings.

Action Item

The Secretariat will send the revised Council Chair Election Procedures to the Contracted and Non Contracted Parties Houses to initiate the election procedures.

Item 4: Whois Studies

Liz Gasster provided a status update on the four Whois Studies.

It was clarified that the Council did not request, but was granted at least $ 400.000 USD for the Whois studies, and that there would be money left over after Study One is completed, however, the Council and the community should make their expectations known for the next fiscal year and not assume that money will be carried over.

If there is interest in pursuing Whois Studies 2 and /or 3, a motion is needed.

Item 5: Voting Procedures when Councilors are absent &/or must abstain

Chuck Gomes mentioned that Philip Sheppard, the Operations Steering Committee (OSC) chair could not join the meetings and submitted the following message
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg09837.html

Ray Fassett, the GNSO Operating Procedures Work Team (GCOT) chair emphasised that the underlying principle of the voting procedures is the presence of Council members and although absences will occur, these should be the exception rather than the rule. The alternate remedies were not designed for last minute absence situations.

Dan Halloran briefly explained that the absentee voting provisions arose because of concern that stakeholder groups or constituencies were being denied their representation on an important vote if a Council member was absent.

Highlights of the discussion:

  • Under the existing procedures the NCSG may not be able to have a proxy vote.
  • It was suggested that the proxy vote be transferred to one of the Councilors.
  • Legal issues referred to are those within ICANN bylaws.

Action Item:

The Voting Procedures regarding when Councilors are absent and /or must abstain are referred back to the Operations Steering Committee (OSC)
(See item 8.2 below)

Item 6: Disclosure of Interest Procedures

Ray Fassett noted that the GCOT work team had made several revisions with regard to statements and disclosures of interest. The disclosure of interest statement had been revised to be a verbal statement.

Chuck Gomes proposed that motions, either to discard the disclosure of interest statement and /or to accept all the changes the GCOT has recommended to the GNSO Operating Procedures - Chapter 5 be submitted to Council before the next meeting on 18 November 2010.

Ray Fassett reminded council members that the GCOT work team was open to all interested and would welcome new participants.

Item 7: Planning for Cartagena Meetings

7.1 Stéphane Van Gelder reported that Kurt Pritz has confirmed that he will address the GNSO community on new gTLDs on Sunday, 5 December and requests the Council and the community to submit in advance a list of topics and questions they would like him to discuss.

High level agendas should be submitted to the Council mailing list by 15 November.
Wiki pages have been posted for the GNSO Working Sessions and other GNSO related meetings which can be filled in as the agendas develop.

Kristina Rosette was requested to submit to the mailing list the topic raised by some IPC and community members about the weekend sessions where some non Council members feel they cannot meaningfully participate in the sessions.

Action Item:

Request for Stakeholder Groups and constituencies to submit topics and questions on New gTLDs to the Council mailing list for Kurt Pritz to discuss at the GNSO Working Session on Sunday 5 December in Cartagena.

Item 8: Status of Continued Action Items

8.1 Chuck Gomes reported that the drafting team for a SSR (DNS-CERT) Working Group (WG) charter is well under way and will produce a draft to meet the 15 November 2010 deadline which will be discussed in Cartagena.

8.2 Standing committee to monitor GNSO Improvements implementation

There were different views expressed on whether to send the voting procedures and the declaration of interest statements back to the Operating Steering Committee (OSC) and the GNSO Operating Procedures Work Team (GCOT) or to the newly created Standing Committee to monitor GNSO Improvements implementation.

Chuck Gomes proposed that for the sake of expediency, the voting procedures and declaration of interest statements be referred back to the Operations Steering Committee (OSC) for revision.

8.3 Progress of House/SG Elections

Action Item:

The Houses need to provide nominees for GNSO Council chair by 10 November 2010.
The Houses need to make recommendations for Nominating Committee Appointee assignment to each house in the next two weeks.

Item 9: Other Business

9.1 Final Report on Proposals for Improvements to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement

Chuck Gomes reminded the Council that the report has been posted.

Planned for the next meeting on 18 November 2010.

There was no further business.

Chuck Gomes adjourned the GNSO Council meeting and thanked everyone for their participation.
The meeting was adjourned at 22:20 UTC.

Next GNSO Council teleconference will be on Thursday, 18 November 2010 at 11:00 UTC.
See: Calendar