[council] Regarding voting rules at the Council

["Bruce Tonkin" <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello All,


> While I certainly agree in principle in the 'one council 
> member - one vote' principle, I am curious how it fits in 
> with the rules the GNSO council operates under.  Do the rules 
> actually bifurcate between policy votes and other votes?  I 
> did not think so, but perhaps I am missing a critical passage 
> or bit of hermeneutics.
> 


This topic comes up from time to time.

The bylaws don't currently make a distinction.

See Article X, Section 3 (8):

"8. Except as provided by paragraph 6 of this Section, the GNSO Council
shall act at meetings. Members of the GNSO Council may participate in a
meeting of the GNSO Council through use of (i) conference telephone or
similar communications equipment, provided that all members
participating in such a meeting can speak to and hear one another or
(ii) electronic video screen communication or other communication
equipment; provided that (a) all members participating in such a meeting
can speak to and hear one another, (b) all members are provided the
means of fully participating in all matters before the GNSO Council, and
(c) ICANN adopts and implements means of verifying that (x) a person
participating in such a meeting is a member of the GNSO Council or other
person entitled to participate in the meeting and (y) all actions of, or
votes by, the GNSO Council are taken or cast only by the members of the
GNSO Council and not persons who are not members. Members entitled to
cast a majority of the total number of votes of GNSO Council members
then in office shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of
business, and acts by a majority vote of the GNSO Council members
present at any meeting at which there is a quorum shall be acts of the
GNSO Council, unless otherwise provided herein. (See Section 5(2) of
this Article concerning the number of votes that GNSO Council members
may cast.) Advance notice of such meetings shall be posted on the
Website, if reasonably practicable, at least 7 days in advance of the
meeting. Except where determined by a majority vote (see Section 5(2) of
this Article) of members of the GNSO Council present that a closed
session is appropriate, meetings shall be open to physical or electronic
attendance by all interested persons. The GNSO Council shall transmit
minutes of its meetings to the ICANN Secretary, who shall cause those
minutes to be posted to the Website as soon as practicable following the
meeting, and no later than 21 days following the meeting.

And 

Article X, section 5 (2):
"The number of votes that members of the GNSO Council may cast shall be
equalized so that the aggregate number of votes of representatives
selected by the Constituencies (currently the gTLD Registries and
Registrars) that are under contract with ICANN obligating them to
implement ICANN-adopted policies is equal to the number of votes of
representatives selected by other Constituencies. Initially, each member
of the GNSO Council selected by the gTLD Registries Constituency or the
Registrars Constituency shall be entitled to cast two votes and all
other members (including those selected by the Nominating Committee)
shall be entitled to cast one vote. In the event that there is a change
in the Constituencies that are entitled to select voting members of the
GNSO Council, the Board shall review the change in circumstances and by
resolution revise the procedure for equalization of votes in a manner
consistent with this paragraph 2."

At various times it has been stated that the original intent was to only
have weighted voting for policy matters, however we are operating under
the current bylaws.   I would assume a review of this issue would be
part of the process for making changes to the bylaws following the GNSO
review.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin