[council] Chairs roundtable

[Stéphane Van Gelder <stephane.vangelder@xxxxxxxxx>]

Councillors,

Just a short summary of the informal meeting of SO and AC chairs that happened 
today. It was a 2-hour informal discussion, in the room were: Rod Beckstrom, 
David Olive, Akram Atallah, Olivier Crepin Leblond (ALAC Chair), Heather Dryden 
(GAC Chair), Patrick Falstrom (SSAC Chair), Matt Larson (RSSAC Vice Chair), 
Lesley Cowley (new ccNSO Chair), Chris Disspain (outgoing ccNSO Chair).

We started off discussing the DOC's NOI on the IANA function and associated 
contract. Main points of the discussion were:
- Although the GAC will probably not submit a response, a handful of national 
govts may.
- This is the 1st time the DOC has put out an NOI on the IANA function.
- There's an option for a 6-month extension of the current contract and 
expectations in the room were that the DOC would probably exercise this option.

We then discussed technical issues around the root, and the probability of 
seeing the root forked by one or several countries. There was a feeling in the 
room that one important aspect is perception, i.e. if people are happy enough 
with the current model, then the temptation to adopt another one lessens.

The last area of discussion we went to is current workload and prioritization 
within ICANN. Main points of the discussion were:
- Is the current workload caused by new gTLDs and will it lessen once the 
program starts?
- There is a need to better define the roles within the organisation that is 
ICANN. Who is supposed to do what? What is the Board's role? What is the role 
of each SO and AC? There needs to be a clearly defined roadmap and flowchart so 
that people know what they're supposed to do.
- Training might help, so that staff and those volunteers that work hard on the 
SO and ACs might be able to put their meaning across in a more concise way, 
write shorter reports and emails, etc.

As a conclusion, there was a general feeling that a meeting like this is useful 
for the various leaders of the SOs and ACs to get to know each other better and 
to understand the differences between each group more.

I hope this short summary is useful for you.

Thanks,

Stéphane