GNSO Council Teleconference Minutes

21 October 2004

Proposed agenda and related documents

List of attendees:
Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business users C. - absent, apologies, proxy to Grant Forsyth/Marilyn Cade
Marilyn Cade - Commercial & Business users C.
Grant Forsyth - Commercial & Business users C - if necessary proxy to Marilyn Cade.
Greg Ruth - ISCPC
Antonio Harris - ISCPC
Tony Holmes - ISCPC - absent - apologies - proxy to Tony Harris/Greg Ruth
Thomas Keller- Registrars
Ross Rader - Registrars
Bruce Tonkin - Registrars
Ken Stubbs - gTLD registries
Philip Colebrook - gTLD registries
Cary Karp - gTLD registries - if required - proxy to Philip Colebrook/Ken Stubbs
Lucy Nichols - Intellectual Property Interests C
Niklas Lagergren - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent - apologies - proxy to Lucy Nichols/Kiyoshi Tsuru
Kiyoshi Tsuru - Intellectual Property Interests C.
Jisuk Woo - Non Commercial users C. - absent - proxy to Carlos Afonso/ Marc Schneiders
Marc Schneiders - Non Commercial users C. - absent apologies - proxy to Carlos Afonso/ Jisuk Woo,/Ross Rader/ Bruce Tonkin
Carlos Afonso - Non Commercial users C. - absent - apologies - proxy to Marc Schneiders/Jisuk Woo
Alick Wilson - absent - apologies - proxy to Bruce Tonkin
Demi Getschko- absent - apologies - proxy to Amadeu Abril l Abril
Amadeu Abril I Abril - absent, apologies, proxy to Alick Wilson/Bruce Tonkin

16 Council Members

Paul Verhoef - Vice President, Policy Development Support - absent, apologies
Kurt Pritz - Vice President, Business Operations
Barbara Roseman - ICANN Staff Manager

Thomas Roessler - ALAC Liaison

Christopher Wilkinson - GAC Secretary
Suzanne Sene - GAC Liaison

Michael Palage - ICANN Board (GNSO seat 14) - observer
Maureen Cubberley - observer - Nominating Committee appointee to be seated after meeting in Cape Town

Glen de Saint G�ry - GNSO Secretariat

MP3 Recording
Quorum present at 12:10

Bruce Tonkin chaired this teleconference.

Bruce Tonkin welcomed Maureen Cubberley as an observer, the new Nominating Committee member, who will take office after the Cape Town meeting.

Item 1: Approval of the Agenda

Agenda approved
Lucy Nichols requested an update from the ICANN staff on the WIPO document

Item 2: Approval of the Minutes of 9 September 2004

Ken Stubbs moved the adoption of the Minutes of 9 September 2004

The motion carried.

Decision 1: The Minutes of 9 September 2004 were adopted

Item 3: Draft Initial Report on procedure for use by ICANN in considering requests for consent and related contractual amendments to allow changes in the architecture operation of a gTLD registry.
Bruce Tonkin reported that the reviewed document would be available mid November as ICANN General Counsel and staff were incorporating GNSO Council proposals and undertaking a legal review to ensure its implementability.


Item 4: New gTLD strategy implementation see:
http://www.icann.org/topics/gtld-strategy-area.html

Bruce Tonkin reported that on 30 September 2004, a paper was posted on the ICANN website "Strategy: Introduction of New Generic Top-Level Domains" which outlined a proposed strategy for the implementation of issues such as: International Domain Names at the top level, how names should be allocated, different types of business models, and whether sponsored or unsponsored. It was further intended to seek input from the Security committee, Root Server Committee and Internet Architecture Board, obtain papers from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). The ICANN staff will develop a report by 31 December 2004 that combines into a single document the issues identified by groups such as OECD, SSAC, RSSAC, IETF, and WIPO.
Kurt Pritz commented that the strategy recognized:
- the complexity of the issues,
- the difficulty of aligning timelines
- the rapidly changing environment and landscape for decisions and implementation
The best way to fashion the strategy was to develop a flexible process taking into consideration the changing environment.
A feature is to involve the GNSO at 2 places,
- review of the strategy document
- input into the implementation of a procedure for the designation of gTLDs during 2005.

Taking into account the narrow time lines and the possibility that the GNSO Council might not be able to provide input to the ICANN Board by January 2005, through a policy development process (pdp);
Bruce Tonkin proposed inviting a group of GNSO Council volunteers to study the process, determine where GNSO Council input should be provided, the timelines required, and the best way for the process to work post 31 December 2004.

Item 5: Update on WHOIS:

Marilyn Cade reported that Whois task force 1 & 2 were currently discussing 3 topics:
1. Progress was being made on conspicuous notice, and it was being debated whether it should be conspicuous notice and consent.
2. Procedure to deal with national conflicts
3. Tiered access.
Participation was reported to be fairly consistent in general with all the constituencies represented.

Ken Stubbs reported that Whois task force 3 draft recommendations needed further work to attain the necessary level of consensus.
Bruce Tonkin commented that Whois task force 3 mailing list traffic indicated areas where the Registrar and the Intellectual Property Constituency representatives disagreed, and that it would be particularly useful if the other constituencies would provide their input on the mailing list.
Barbara Roseman and Ross Rader reiterated the importance of all the constituencies contributing input.
Barbara Roseman added that the disagreeing parties might be able to reach agreement on language on a small issue, but on the much larger questions they did not reflect a consensus building process.
Marilyn Cade commented that consensus was determined by a vote at the Council level. The job of the task forces was to provide a report, and most task forces did vote to support the policy recommendations put forward.
Bruce Tonkin urged constituency representatives on the task forces give input on what they supported or did not support and encouraged the task force as a whole to identify where there was or was not agreement.

Bruce Tonkin recommended that for the Cape Town ICANN meeting, the Whois task forces 1/2 and 3:
- attempt to provide recommendations with a reasonable degree of finality and consensus which could be presented in a public forum to solicit public input.
- schedule task force meetings in Cape Town to focus on particular topics where ongoing work would be required.

Item 6: GNSO Council review by ICANN Board
- Council to do self-review as input to external consultant
Bruce Tonkin reported that the ICANN Board, on 18 October, considered and approved the Terms of Reference for the GNSO Council review
In summary:
1. Policy achievements.
Has the GNSO Council contributed to ICANN policy development?
� Analysis. List the policy achievements of the GNSO as administered by the Council indicating in a tabular form:
o what has been done
o what is work in progress
o how was this done (task force, committee of the whole etc)
o what has resulted in change to the contracts of registries or registrars.
o what has resulted in other types of change (guidelines etc.)
� Do these policies have relevance for ICANN?

2. Outreach, geographic diversity and transparency.
Has the GNSO Council contributed to other ICANN core values such as outreach, bottom-up consensus based policy development, geographical diversity and transparency?

3. PDP timelines. Are the timelines relevant?

4. Staff support for policy development.
Has there been effective ICANN staff support for policy development?

5. Policy implementation and compliance.
After the completion of policy development has policy implementation, compliance and outcome been effective?

6. Demand-based raising of policy issues.
Is the current mechanism of alerting the GNSO Council to new policy issues effective?

7. Voting pattern.
Does the Council vote as a consensual body?

8. Number of constituency representatives.
Has the presence of three rather than two representatives per constituency helped or hindered the GNSO Council?

9. Communication to the ICANN community.
Are the enabling mechanisms for GNSO Council outreach effective?

Bruce Tonkin commented that ICANN would appoint an external consultant to produce a report and suggested that Council do a review of the 9 topics and make recommendations as input to the consultants report.

Item 8: GNSO Council chair election
- Bruce Tonkin's term expires 20 November 2004
- recommend start two week nomination period
- hold election at next Council meeting

Bruce Tonkin responding to a comment by Ken Stubbs, referred to the ICANN bylaws Section 3. GNSO Council:
7. The GNSO Council shall select the GNSO Chair, for a term the GNSO Council specifies but not longer than one year, by written ballot or by action at a meeting. Any such selection must have affirmative votes comprising a majority of the votes of all the members of the GNSO Council.

Marilyn Cade, seconded by Cary Karp proposed a procedural motion:
To proceed with the election of chair for the GNSO Council and open nominations starting 21 October 2004 for a two week period, ending 4 November 2004 at 12 noon UTC.
At the next GNSO Council meeting a vote will be held for the election of the chair.
The term of office will be for one year.

The procedural motion carried. 21 votes in favour, 4 people did not vote, 2 abstentions

Decision 2:
To proceed with the election of chair for the GNSO Council and open nominations starting 21 October 2004 for a two week period, ending 4 November 2004 at 12 noon UTC.
At the next GNSO Council meeting a vote will be held for the election of the chair.
The term of office will be for one year.

Item 7: GNSO Council elections - terms of some Council members expire at end of 2004 annual general meeting

Bruce Tonkin commented that Council wished to stay with 3 representatives per constituency (see GNSO Council meeting, 14 August 2003) and that it would be considered as part of the review process.

Bruce Tonkin proposed that volunteers from the Council draft a self review of Council, write their own recommendations as an outcome of that review, and those recommendations would be conveyed to the Board.

Bruce Tonkin clarified that according to the ICANN bylaws, Section 4. Periodic Review of ICANN Structure and Operations, the GNSO Council review should be complete by the Cape Town meeting.
Kurt Pritz clarified that on 31 October 2003, in Tunisia the ICANN Board adopted the following resolution:
Response to GNSO Council Request to Maintain Three Representatives per Constituency
Whereas, the GNSO Council has requested on 14 August 2003, that the change to the number of constituency representatives on the GNSO Council remain unchanged at three (3) representatives per constituency instead of two (2) representatives per constituency as is scheduled to occur at the end of this 2003 Annual Meeting.
Whereas, the GNSO Council�s predecessor organization DNSO Names Council requested on 1 August 2002, that the GNSO Council be made up of three (3) representatives per constituency.
Whereas, Article I, Section 2 (4) sets out as a core value that: -"Seeking and supporting broad, informed participation reflecting the functional, geographic, and cultural diversity of the Internet at all levels of policy development and decision-making.�
Whereas, Article XX, Section 5 (8), in setting out the originally proposed transition that: "In the absence of further action on the topic by the New Board, each of the GNSO constituencies shall select two representatives to the GNSO Council�."
Whereas, the Board wishes to take action in support of the GNSO Council and in response to the GNSO Council�s request.
Resolved [03.164] to change the transition article (Article XX) to allow three representatives per constituency on the GNSO Council until the end of the ICANN annual meeting 2004;
Resolved [03.165] to perform a review of the GNSO Council in or around July 2004 which should include among other aspects of the review criteria, an analysis of the efficacy of having three representatives from each constituency on the GNSO Council.

Kurt Pritz commented on two points:
if something were presented to the Board to consider before Cape Town it should be done with reference to the resolution taken on 31 October 2003
Board papers were generally due two weeks before the Board meeting, so the due date would be the first week in November

Bruce Tonkin proposed that the GNSO create its own set of recommendations, which would include the 3 versus 2 representatives per constituency in accordance with Council's wish, and present those to the Board for the Cape Town meeting.

Item 9: Update on planning for ICANN meeting in Cape Town

Kurt Pritz and Bruce Tonkin outlined the program:

Tuesday 30 November 2004
Board and ICANN staff meetings

Tuesday 30 November 2004 - afternoon
- GNSO Review

Wednesday 1 December 2004
WSIS
Welcome
- to define the projected outcome of the meetings
-introductory remarks by ministers

IDN workshop on African languages

GNSO task forces:
WHOIS Task Forces
Council group to consider the approval of new registry services

Thursday 2 December 2004
7:30 - 9:00 GNSO breakfast
Constituency Day
Official reception

Friday 3 December 2004

8:30 10:30 GNSO public forum to raise recommendations from Whois task forces and Council group to solicit public feed back
10:30 12:30 GNSO Council meeting

Afternoon session: ICANN public forum

Saturday 4 December 2004
Public Forum continuation

Sunday 5 December 2004
ICANN Board meeting


Suzanne Sene suggested that the GAC working group meet with the GNSO Council and Whois task force chairs on Wednesday 1 December for a lunch meeting.

Item 10: AOB

1. Update regarding WIPO II Report
Lucy Nichols who requested an update regarding the WIPO ll report articulated her concern that WIPO had recommended to ICANN that certain changes be made to the UDRP as set out in WIPO ll. The ICANN Board directed the General Counsel to investigate and analyze the legalities on the relationship between WIPO and ICANN. The working group issued a report indicating that there was no consensus on the recommendations made by WIPO and sent it to the President. Concern was expressed that according to a Board resolution the President and the staff are supposed to give a recommendation to the Board before the Cape Town meeting.

Discussion indicated that the GNSO Council should make it clear that there had been no consensus on the WIPO ll recommendations and it would be difficult to make any recommendation to the Board.

Bruce Tonkin proposed sending a request from Council to the ICANN staff, Kurt Pritz and John Jeffrey to respond to issue.

2. Staff Update Report
Bruce Tonkin referred to the report Paul Verhoef communicated in response to questions raised during the GNSO Council meeting on September 9, 2004:

a. Staff recruitment

The recruitment of the staff position relevant to the GNSO is progressing well. To date some one hundred applications have been received and the process of initial screening has started with the aim to create a shortlist for subsequent interviews. The goal is to try and finalize the recruitment during the first weeks of November and depending on the availability of the chosen candidates, they should be able to commence early in 2005. The request for applications will be withdrawn from the ICANN website and the various job boards during these days.
Bruce Tonkin reiterated that some Council members would like to be involved in the selection process.

b. Strategic Plan

ICANN's first ever strategic plan is nearing internal completion. The ICANN staff fully realizes the importance of releasing a credible, well though-out, and comprehensive plan which responds to the requests from the community to obtain a better insight in the planning of how ICANN's mission and mandate will be implemented on a longer-term basis, in order to set a proper bench-mark for future plans. The strategic plan is foreseen to be introduced shortly to the Board and then be posted within the next few weeks.

c. GNSO Review
At its meeting on 18 October, the ICANN Board has approved the Terms of Reference concerning the Review of the GNSO Council that were jointly developed between a number of Council members and the staff. ICANN staff will now proceed swiftly with the search for an external consultant for the role specified in the Terms of Reference.
Bruce Tonkin requested Council members to come forward with names of of potential candidates for such an external consultancy role.

d. Performance of the GNSO Council
As regards the report on the performance of the GNSO Council that Dr. Paul Twomey had retained a consultant, Dr. Liz Williams to prepare earlier this year, a public version of the report will be posted by the end of October.

Bruce Tonkin declared the GNSO meeting closed and thanked everybody for participating.
The meeting ended: 14:03 UTC.

• Next GNSO Council teleconference will be held on Thursday 18 November 2004 at 19:00 UTC
  see: Calendar