[council] Proposed bylaws change on term limits for GNSO Council members - open for public comment

[Liz Gasster <liz.gasster@xxxxxxxxx>]

All,

As you may know, in November 2006, the GNSO Council passed a resolution 
endorsing term limits, wherein a council member could serve no more than two 
consecutive terms (http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/#200611 ).  The resolution 
also stated that a former council member must remain off the GNSO Council for 
one full term prior to serving any subsequent term.

The ICANN Board Governance Committee  subsequently included term limits as a 
recommendation in the GNSO Improvements Report 
(http://www.icann.org/en/topics/gnso-improvements/gnso-improvements-report-03feb08.pdf,
 see Sec. 5.1, p. 28) The Report recommends that the preferred limit be two 
2-year terms, in order to enhance inclusiveness and enable more people to 
become involved in Council activities.

Following is a link to the announcement and public comment notice for a forum 
that has just opened on this proposed change, prior to final Board action, 
which includes proposed new bylaws text:  
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-13oct08-en.htm, and 
http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#gnso-bylaw-revision .  The draft bylaws 
change also creates an exception, as recommended previously by the GNSO Council 
and the Board Governance Committee, in a "special circumstance," such as 
geographic diversity requirements, where no alternative representative is 
available to serve.  Please note also that because the GNSO Council, 
constituencies and ICANN staff are working to implement a new structure for 
constituency representation and voting for the GNSO Council, comments are 
particularly invited on whether the pending reorganization presents issues for 
the implementation of term limits that should be considered before term limits 
are adopted, including any other aspects of the new structure, such as the 
creation of stakeholder groups or the formation of new constituencies. ICANN 
also invites comments on when term limits should go into effect. The comment 
period is open until 3 November.

Thanks, Liz