[council] Concerns over JAS Working Group and Violations of its Charter

["Neuman, Jeff" <Jeff.Neuman@xxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

I wanted to bring to the Council's attention a discussion on the JAS Working 
Group list which is concerning to me because the conversation by both the 
Working Group and ICANN staff, and the planned action items, are in direct 
contravention to the approved JAS Working Group Charter.  Bottom line is that 
the JAS Working Group is not only providing direct input to the ICANN Board 
without consultations with the GNSO (or even the ALAC), but the JAS Working 
Group is also planning on delivering its final report in May directly to the 
ICANN Board without "the input and consideration by the respective supporting 
organizations (GNSO and ALAC)."  I believe the Council must take immediate 
action in order to enforce the Charter we have all approved.  To fail to do so 
would be an abdication of our responsibilities and more importantly, would 
constitute a complete failure of the bottom-up policy process.

On January 13, 2011, the GNSO Council approved a "Joint SO/AC Working Group on 
support for new gTLD applicants (JAS)" that included the following provisions:
"3. The Working group shall report its results and present a final report 
directly to the GNSO Council and the ALAC for discussion and adoption, as 
appropriate, according to their own rules and procedures.
4. All communication to the ICANN Board regarding the work of this Working 
Group shall be through the respective SO/AC unless expressly approved by the 
respective SO/AC."  See 
https://community.icann.org/display/jaswg/Charter+as+approved+by+the+GNSO+Council.

Despite the clear words of the Charter to "report its results and present a 
final report to the GNSO Council" and to ensure that "All communication to the 
ICANN Board regarding the work of this Working Group shall be through the 
respective SO/AC", the JAS working group on its own initiative (and with some 
help from ICANN staff) is going in the complete opposite direction.

On the JAS mailing list on April 12th, in a post from Avri Doria to the  JAS 
Group, in referring to criteria for a fee waiver program, the following was 
stated:


"We have a requirement to give the Board a draft on Friday, and the work 
currently being done is not close to being ready on this issue."  See  
http://forum.icann.org/lists/soac-newgtldapsup-wg/msg01378.html.  More 
discussion took place between the working group about this report to be 
delivered not to the GNSO (or ALAC), but directly to the ICANN Board.



In a subsequent post from Karla Valente (ICANN staff) to the Working Group 
entitled "call today and summary for the Board", the following was stated:



"Please know that I conveyed to Peter and Kurt that there will be a summary for 
the Board by Friday AND that the work done by Friday will not be the actual 
"Final Report", which is scheduled to be ready

for end of May. I also added that this summary, due to time constrains [sp.], 
will not have the input and consideration by the respective supporting 
organizations (GNSO and ALAC).  
http://forum.icann.org/lists/soac-newgtldapsup-wg/msg01381.html";


I am requesting that this formally be added to our agenda for April 28th and 
request that until that time no summary of work be provided by the JAS working 
group to the Board without review by the GNSO.  This again shows the failure of 
the cross working group model and the lack of recognition that persons 
participating in working groups are there in their own individual capacities 
and not on behalf of their constituency, stakeholder group, advisory committee 
or even the GNSO.

Best regards,

Jeffrey J. Neuman
Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Law & Policy
21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166
Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: +1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / 
jeff.neuman@xxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:jeff.neuman@xxxxxxxxxxx>  / 
www.neustar.biz<http://www.neustar.biz/>
Please note new address starting March 21, 2011:  21575 Ridgetop Circle, 
Sterling VA 20166
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