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Re: [council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public Board Meetings


Thanks Margie, much appreciated.

In the meantime, let me add some more context for the benefit of the Council.

In CR, Steve asked me what I would think of the idea of shortening the ICANN 
meeting week by doing away with the Friday. This was floated to me as just an 
idea. I was given no indication that it would be implemented one day, let alone 
in Prague. And I was given no details on its possible implementation.

When Steve discussed this with me, I did not get the sense that he meant to do 
a public consultation on this decision. This was a private conversation and not 
one where it was at any time made clear to me that I should break Steve's 
confidence and discuss this publicly. That is why I did not discuss this here.

This week's announcement has, as Jeff says, generated some negative comments. 
Those that I have seen are that this decision was taken without any 
consultation and that doing away with the Friday Board meeting is detrimental 
to transparency.

My own personal view is otherwise. I believe that cutting the Friday out of the 
ICANN week is a step in the right direction towards reducing costs and time 
challenges for meeting participants, including the Board. Over the past year, I 
have seen the Board work hard to improve its transparency. We now have detailed 
rationale on votes at every meeting and explanations of the issues being 
considered. So I am comfortable with giving the Board a little of the benefit 
of the doubt in trying out new ideas such as this one.

Stéphane



Le 2 mai 2012 à 22:10, Margie Milam a écrit :

> Hi Stéphane,
> I’ll follow up internally to provide the requested information.
>  
> Best regards,
> Margie
>  
> From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On 
> Behalf Of Stéphane Van Gelder
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2012 2:08 PM
> To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Council
> Subject: Re: [council] Proposed Agenda Item - Elimination of Friday Public 
> Board Meetings
>  
> Is someone from Staff able to provide the requested information, whether it 
> be on the list or during the next Council meeting?
>  
> Stéphane
>  
>  
>  
> Le 2 mai 2012 à 20:38, Neuman, Jeff a écrit :
> 
> 
> All,
>  
> Given the announcement yesterday of the elimination of the public Board 
> meetings at ICANN, I would like to put this on the Council agenda as a 
> discussion item.  I would like it if someone from ICANN that is familiar with 
> the rationale behind this decision could give us an explanation of how and 
> why that decision was made. 
>  
> Also, if the ICANN Board can unilaterally declare that all of its meetings 
> will be private, does this set a precedent for its Supporting Organizations 
> to do the same thing?  I have not reviewed the bylaws with respect to the 
> Council in a little bit, but does the Council have the discretion to declare 
> that it will no longer hold a public GNSO Council meeting at ICANN?
> 
> I think there has been enough disapproval expressed within the community in 
> the last day or so that at least merits a discussion of this decision at the 
> Council level.
> 
> Thanks.
>  
> Jeffrey J. Neuman 
> Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Business Affairs
> 21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166
> Office: +1.571.434.5772  Mobile: +1.202.549.5079  Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / 
> jeff.neuman@xxxxxxxxxxx  / www.neustar.biz



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