RE: [council] Meeting Protocol for Brussels and beyond...

["Caroline Greer" <cgreer@xxxxxxxxx>]

Adrian / all,

To chime in with the Registries' perspective on this issue, we feel
strongly that the weekend sessions should be open to everyone - after
all, these are 'GNSO sessions' and not 'GNSO Council sessions'. New TLDs
are very much a community issue and everyone should have a chance to
participate. If it's simply a matter of organization around fielding
comments, that's fine, but asking for some sort of exclusivity for
Councilors is a dangerous path. If that's the route we want to go down,
we'd want to be very sure that comments made by Councilors are a
reflection of their SG's views only and not personal views. 

Asking members of the public to convey their questions and thoughts via
Councilors is neither practical nor justified. 

Thanks,

Caroline.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Adrian Kinderis
Sent: 02 June 2010 01:25
To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Council
Subject: [council] Meeting Protocol for Brussels and beyond...


Councilors,

I have been increasingly frustrated at the GNSO Sessions (Saturday and
Sunday) of the ICANN Meetings at how they have often been used as a
public forum session.

Often, these sessions are our only direct access to staff and it is
imperative that we, as elected representatives of our Stakeholder
Groups, have appropriate time to ask questions and seek clarifications
to the many issues before us.

I would like to suggest that there be no questions from the floor during
these sessions. The GNSO, by definition, is representative of the
Community. I would suggest that, should a member of the audience wish to
ask a question that they do it through their elected representative or,
perhaps, through the Chair (not so sure about this though). This would
allow a more structured approach to the questions and also fair
allocation and management of time on each topic.

I also suggest that each Councilor have placards placed in front of them
(doublesided so they can be ) that details both name and representative
Stakeholder Group. An audience member could then simply approach the
appropriate Councilor and request that a question be asked on their
behalf. This would also allow for remote participants to send questions
and have their voices heard (albeit through Councilors). 

I would also like to potentially have allocated seating for the
meetings, as seats are often taken up by "members of the public" and
Councilors are relegated to the bleachers. It is an official GNSO
Council meeting and should be treated as such.

Please don't misinterpret the intention here, I am supportive of
audience participation. I am just trying to get structure and efficiency
to our meetings.

I would be happy to hear thoughts on this.

Thanks and see you all in Brussels.

Adrian Kinderis