RE: [council] GNSO Council Approval of STI Review Team Recommendations

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

Hello Chuck,
 
I can't speak on behalf of the ICANN Board, but would like to personally
add my support to your note below, and acknowledge the hard work and
willingness to compromise that resulted in the outcome today.
 
I would also like to comment that the new gTLD policy itself - was a
result of a similar determined effort by the members of that committee,
and is good to see the GNSO community continue to work together to reach
a compromise and advance the work that started in 1999 (or earlier :-)).
 
 
Regards,
Bruce Tonkin
 


________________________________

        From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Gomes, Chuck
        Sent: Friday, 18 December 2009 9:07 AM
        To: secretary@xxxxxxxxx
        Cc: GNSO Council
        Subject: [council] GNSO Council Approval of STI Review Team
Recommendations
        
        
        Peter,
         
        I know that Staff has already informed the Board that the GNSO
Council approved a motion earlier today to forward the STI Review Team
Recommendations to the Board, but I wanted to follow-up with some
personal observations.
         
        Over the last 10 years the DNSO/GNSO has often been criticized
for its inability to get things done and those criticisms are accepted.
The very nature of a global, bottom-up policy development process
requires great time and effort and developing processes for making it
successful have been an ongoing challenge, one that is continuing now
and will into the future.  At the same time, I personally believe that
we have seen progressive improvements over the last several years and
those improvements laid the foundation for the accomplishments of the
STI Review Team.
         
        I want to make sure that the Board and the broader ICANN
community appreciate the significance of the STI Review Team work.  They
were given a very difficult task with a nearly impossible deadline. Were
it not for the scheduling of the GNSO Council meeting, the deadline
would have been met.  As it stands, the Council missed the deadline by
only three days.  
         
        I cannot take any credit for this accomplishment.  The full
credit goes to each member of the STI Review Team and the Staff members
who supported them.  As you know, I have been around since the beginning
of ICANN.  I have never been so impressed with the cooperative spirit of
everyone on a team.  At the beginning, I don't think there were many who
thought it was possible to reach any sort of reasonable agreement and
especially in such a short timeframe.  But, without exception, every
individual and the groups they represented constructively worked
together to produce the product you received.  There are still points of
disagreement that will be further vetted in the coming days and weeks,
but the overall package of recommendations is one that the Council
unanimously supported.
         
        I know full Board will join me in acknowledging this
accomplishment and thanking all those who made it happen.  I am not
going to call out names because that would require naming everyone on
the team.  It was a classic example of teamwork.
         
        Sincerely,
         
        Chuck Gomes
        GNSO Council Chair