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Minutes of the GNSO Meeting on 3 September 2015 at 15:00 UTC

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Date

Agenda and Documents

The Meeting started at 15:01 UTC

List of attendees: NCA – Non Voting – Carlos Raúl Gutierrez
Contracted Parties House
Registrar Stakeholder Group: Volker Greimann, James Bladel, Yoav Keren
gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group: Jonathan Robinson, Donna Austin, Bret Fausett
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Thomas Rickert
Non-Contracted Parties House
Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG):Phil Corwin, Susan Kawaguchi, Osvaldo Novoa, Tony Holmes, Heather Forrest, Brian Winterfeldt
Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG): Amr Elsadr, Marilia Maciel, Edward Morris absent apologies proxy to Marilia Maciel, Stephanie Perrin, Avri Doria - absent apologies proxy to Stephanie Perrin
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Daniel Reed

GNSO Council Liaisons/Observers:
Olivier Crépin-Leblond– ALAC Liaison
Patrick Myles - ccNSO Observer - absent, apologies
Mason Cole – GNSO liaison to the GAC

ICANN Staff
David Olive - VP Policy Development
Marika Konings - Senior Policy Director
Rob Hoggarth - Senior Policy Director
Mary Wong – Senior Policy Director
Julie Hedlund – Senior Policy Director
Steve Chan – Policy Director
Lars Hoffmann – Policy Analyst
Berry Cobb- Consultant
Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat
Nathalie Peregrine - GNSO Secretariat

Guest:
Jonathan Zuck – Chair - Data & Metrics for Policy Making Working Group

MP3 Recording
Adobe Chat Transcript
Transcript

Item 1: Administrative matters

1.1 – Roll Call
1.2 – Updates to Statements of Interest

Donna Austin provided an update to her statement of interest.

1.3 – Review/amend agenda
1.4. – Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meeting per the GNSO Operating Procedures:

Minutes of the GNSO Council meetings of 24 June and 23 July 2015 and 3 September will be posted as approved on xxxxxx 2015.

Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List

2.1 – Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List and Action List

Action Items:

  • David Cake volunteered to keep a close on developments in the IETF particularly with regard to changes to the underlying technical and operational protocols of Whois, that might impact the launch of that PDP on Next Generation Directory Services.
  • Review of the GNSO Liaison to the GAC to be considered by the GAC / GNSO Consultation Group and a report back to the Council is requested.

Item 3: Consent agenda

3.1 – Adoption of timeline for election of the next GNSO Chair
All those present voted in favor of the consent agenda.

Action Items:

  • Publish the GNSO Council Chair election procedure and timeline.
  • Remind stakeholder groups and constituencies of the timeline.

3.2 – Approval of transmission of Recommendations Report to ICANN Board following public comments on the Council's recommendation that the Board adopt the Final Report from the Translation & Transliteration of gTLD Data Working Group

Withdrawn from the consent agenda.

Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION & DECISION – Public Comment Period for New gTLDs Subsequent Procedures Preliminary Issue Report

Steve Chan provided the Council with a summary of the different scenarios if the Public Comment period were to be extended:
40 day Public Comment -> 10 October Public Comments Close -> 9 November Final Report (9 November Document & Motion Deadline)

60 day Public Comment -> 30 October Public Comments Close (1 week after ICANN meeting) -> 29 November Final Report (7 December Document & Motion Deadline)

67 day Public Comment -> 6 November Public Comments Close (2 weeks after ICANN54 meeting) -> 6 December Final Report (7 December Document & Motion Deadline)

Discussion highlights:
The complexity and detail of the Issue Report may warrant a longer public comment period.
Council should not decide on whether more time is needed before different constituencies and the community has had the opportunity to provide feedback. A decision should be deferred to the next meeting.
Concern was expressed that timelines that fall during the ICANN meeting were not ideal and would not receive due attention from the community.
The ICANN meeting would afford an opportunity for discussion and for providing community feedback.

ACTION ITEM:

Submit a motion for the next Council meeting on 24 September 2015 whether or not the Council recommends extending the Public Comment timeline.

Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION – Letter from ICANN Board Chair on Exclusive Registry Access for gTLD Terms representing Generic Strings

Jonathan Robinson noted that this issue had been included in the recently published preliminary issue report and queried Councilors as to the appropriate next steps including the response to the ICANN Board and the nature of the letter from Steve Crocker in particular, whether it should be included as part of the public comment process in relation to the recently published issue report.

Concerns were expressed about defining public interest as well as the impact on current round new gTLD applicants whose applications have been put on hold pending future policy work on this issue.

Action Items:

Staff to reach out to Nora Abusitta-Ouri responsible for the development and implementation of a global public interest framework to provide an update either in writing ahead of the next council meeting or maybe join the next council meeting.

Jonathan Robinson to draft a short response and circulate on the Council mailing list.

Item 6: UPDATE & DISCUSSION – Protection for IGO Acronyms at the Second Level in All gTLDs

Phil Corwin updated the Council saying there has been no progress in the working group since the Buenos Aires meeting despite previous rapid progress with strong consensus. There are legal issues related to understanding the accepted scope of sovereign immunity for International Government Organisations that remain the sticking points on this topic.
Potential legal experts are being considered. It is anticipated it will take at least 30 days once an expert is appointed to develop a comprehensive report on sovereign immunity responding to the working group's questions.
In Buenos Aires the working group co-chairs liaised with the chair and some of the co-chairs of GAC and some progress has been made in opening channels of communication with the GAC but little has occurred since likely due to the August vacation period.
Certain IGO, GAC, ICANN Board members and Staff, attended a meeting in Paris in July 2015. However, concern is expressed about these Paris recommendations to the extent that they could be at odds with whatever the working group's final outcome may be and have been proposed outside of the normal Policy Development Process (PDP).

Work in progress to be followed.

Item 7: UPDATE ON EXPECTED COUNCIL ACTION – Final Report from the Data & Metrics for Policy Making Working Group

Jonathan Zuck, chair of the Data & Metrics for Policy Making working group, provided Council with an overview of the expected timeline for the delivery of the Working Group's Final Report which is anticipated shortly after the close of the public comment period on 7 September 2015.

Action Item:

Encourage everyone to share this information with their respective groups so as to be able to make an informed decision when the Final Report comes before the Council.

Item 8: UPDATE & DISCUSSION - Cross Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability – CCWG Accountability

Thomas Rickert provided a brief update to the Council stating that during the public comment period the CCWG continues working and holds regular weekly two-hour calls.
Work is ongoing on the human rights topic and it is premature to give trends stemming from the public comments that have been received.
Regular interaction with the ICANN Board and the CCWG ensures that both have the same level of information and are able to jointly work towards the common goal of making the transition happen. The ICANN Board has indicated support for most parts of the report.
There are questions surrounding the legal vehicle for community empowerment, which is the single membership model. The Board expressed concerns that this is an untested model with potential operational uncertainties that might cause instability.
It has been agreed that the Board would provide written information on their analysis and suggestions for an alternative vehicle which would maintain the CCWG requirements established on enforceability of the community powers.
In the Council's discussion, concerns were expressed about the perception that the Board is rejecting the single member model and proposing something different as well as concerns about the scope and effect of the IRP, which are the two pillars of the current proposal.
Procedural concerns were expressed about the ICANN Board calling for a two-day meeting, between itself and the CCWG in Los Angeles and how such a discussion and its outcome would be integrated with the normal consideration of comments, especially if it comes during a still open public comment period.

Action Item:

Encourage everyone to file comments during the public comment period which remains open till 12th of September 2015.
Thomas Rickert committed to update the Council when the ICANN Board has provided its input to the CCWG on Accountability.

Item 9: DISCUSSION - Preparation for ICANN54

In the interest of time it was suggested that this topic be discussed on the Council mailing list.

Action Item:

Discuss on the Council mailing list.

Item 10: Any Other Business

10.1 – Post-ICANN53 progress on Cross Community Working Group on Use of Country and Territory Names as TLDs

In the interest of time it was suggested that this topic be discussed on the Council mailing list and deferred to the next Council meeting.

Action Item:

Discuss on the Council mailing list.

10.2 – Brief update on the implementation of the new ICANN Meeting format particularly with regard to Meeting B.

In the interest of time it was suggested that this topic be deferred to the next Council meeting.

Jonathan Robinson, GNSO Council chair, adjourned the GNSO Council teleconference and thanked everyone for their participation.
The meeting was adjourned at 17:12 UTC.

The next GNSO Council Teleconference will take place on Thursday, 24 September 2015 at 18:00 UTC.
For other places see:
http://tinyurl.com/nujcmrc