RE: [council] ICANN Board meeting agenda - 9 Dec 2009 - Item on Constituencies

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

Hello Rosemary,

> 
> Is there anything of significance in item 6 - there is some 
> thought that
> this might relate to a Consumer Constituency - something we 
> are working
> on but are not ready for just yet.....

The agenda item relates to the four formal petitions received by ICANN
to form new constituencies.

These are:

- Consumers Constituency

- CyberSafety Constituency

- City TLD Constituency

- IDNgTLD Constituency

The staff have provided recommendations with respect to whether to
approve these proposals or not.

The Board has the option to follow staff advice or decide to postpone
any decision.

I also expect that the Board's Structural Improvements Committee (SIC)
(http://www.icann.org/en/committees/improvements/) will also advise the
Board on this matter.


Speaking personally - my understanding of feedback provided by the ICANN
community - is that of the four above - there is support for some form
of Consumers Constituency to increase participation by individual users
of domain names in the policy development process - but this needs to be
taken in the context of the new structure of the Non-commercial
Stakeholder Group (NCSG).    The overall aim of any structural
improvement is to increase user participation and the effectiveness of
that participation in the GNSO.

Any feedback you can provide from the perspective of the GNSO would be
useful.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin