Re: [council] Regarding working group membership

[Mawaki Chango <ki_chango@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Bruce & Council,

The following step may be a useful one to have in addition to 

> (2) If a participant is ineligible to join a constituency, then
> direct the participant to a process to determine if they are
> suitable as an "expert".  

However, it may be desirable, useful and healthy to have the GNSO
Council involved one way or the other in the Constituency membership
formation. This is to avoid that a constituency becomes a like-minded
clique that would tend to refuse membership to parties on the ground
of fantasist reasons, or even worse, with the intent to exclude
differences from their worldview and particular interests. This leads
to a de facto privatization of the principe and function of the
Constituency, instead of it being the Home for the whole global
community of interest and practice (relevant to each constituency
identity) from where they could meaningfully participate in the ICANN
policy processes.

The involvement of the Council needs not to be at the whole level of
its own membership, or to supersede the Constituency role of
evaluating membership applications. It may be done at the level of a
Council's sub-Committee, for example, that will check if the
objective membership criteria in a constituency's bylaws are met or
not by the applicants, examine further the disputed decisions on the
motivated request of the applicant, and provide final
recommendations. If deemed necessary, the process could go as far as
calling for public comments including some sort of reputation check
from the community, etc. After all this doesn't need to be kept
secret, and it might even be a good outreach policy for the GNSO and
its constituencies.

Those are just initial ideas. The Council may of course change/adapt
the implementation details after discussion.

Regards,

Mawaki
 

--- Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello All,
> 
> Following the GNSO Public Forum in Sao Paulo I have heard of
> instances
> where interested parties that wish to join the IDN working group
> have
> been unable to join a constituency in order to participate.
> 
> The ICANN bylaws do provide the ability for a group of interested
> stakeholders to form a new constituency:
> 
> "4. Any group of individuals or entities may petition the Board for
> recognition as a new or separate Constituency. Any such petition
> shall
> contain a detailed explanation of:
> 
> a. Why the addition of such a Constituency will improve the ability
> of
> the GNSO to carry out its policy-development responsibilities; and 
> 
> b. Why the proposed new Constituency would adequately represent, on
> a
> global basis, the stakeholders it seeks to represent.
> 
> Any petition for the recognition of a new Constituency shall be
> posted
> for public comment. 
> 
> 5. The Board may create new Constituencies in response to such a
> petition, or on its own motion, if it determines that such action
> would
> serve the purposes of ICANN. In the event the Board is considering
> acting on its own motion it shall post a detailed explanation of
> why
> such action is necessary or desirable, set a reasonable time for
> public
> comment, and not make a final decision on whether to create such
> new
> Constituency until after reviewing all comments received. Whenever
> the
> Board posts a petition or recommendation for a new Constituency for
> public comment, it shall notify the GNSO Council and shall consider
> any
> response to that notification prior to taking action."
> 
> I am not aware of a group that has chosen to try to form a new
> constituency.
> 
> To get the best policy outcomes however I feel with should be as
> inclusive as possible, whilst ensuring that members of working
> groups
> are contributing in a positive way.
> 
> It seems to me that we need a process to handle requests for
> participation:
> 
> (1) Determine if the participant would be eligible to join a GNSO
> constituency.  If they are eligible - require them first to join
> and
> then allow participation.
> 
> (2) If a participant is ineligible to join a constituency, then
> direct
> the participant to a process to determine if they are suitable as
> an
> "expert".  The applicant would need to provide a detailed statement
> of
> (i) qualifications and relevant experience; and (ii) potential
> conflicts
> of interest.   The ICANN staff would need to verify the statement
> of
> qualifications and experience, and perhaps we have a process where
> the
> experts are appointed by majority vote of the GNSO Council.   The
> experts would be non-voting members of the working group.
> 
> I would be interested in hearing from other Council members on an
> appropriate process that could apply to all working groups.
> 
> Regards,
> Bruce Tonkin
> 
>