Re: [council] Regarding improvements in Board processes

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

Thanks Bruce. Very useful.

Stéphane Van Gelder
Directeur Général / General manager
INDOM Group NBT France
----------------
Head of Domain Operations
Group NBT

Le 6 mai 2012 à 20:05, Bruce Tonkin a écrit :

> 
> Hello All,
> 
> I have been reading the various comments about the announcement on 30 April 
> 2012 that there will not be a public board meeting on Friday 29 June in 
> Prague.
> 
> I thought I would set out various improvements being made in Board processes 
> to set this in context.
> 
> (1) In the past, the Board has typically worked with staff until midnight, 
> and in some cases 2am, on the Thursday before the public session to prepare 
> resolutions for voting.    This is after a busy week listening to feedback 
> from the community, and the end result is often Board resolutions that are 
> poorly crafted and create problems in future.
> 
> (2) For Prague, the intent is that the Board will focus on listening to the 
> community, and then give the community some idea of what future resolutions 
> will be voted on in response to feedback.  A board meeting will then be held 
> shortly after Prague to approve those resolutions.
> 
> (3) An example of this approach was on the topic of Conflicts of interest in 
> Dakar in October 2011.   The Board listened to the community during the week, 
> and then in the public session on conflicts Board members gave some feedback 
> to the community on specific measures that would be taken with respect to new 
> gTLDs.   After careful review by the legal team, and review by Board members, 
> the Board held a meeting on 8 Dec 2011 - where a resolution was passed on 
> managing conflicts for new gTLDs, along with other resolutions that resulted 
> from the discussions in Dakar.
> 
> (4)  The Board has also been working to ensure that most resolutions at the 
> Board level are relatively routine.   This means that bodies like the GNSO 
> have already reached consensus on a topic (e.g the recent work on the 
> transfers policy), or staff have managed a public comment process on a topic 
> - and there are no controversies associated with the matter.    For such 
> routine resolutions - we either have a short teleconference or we take 
> advantage of face-to-face time at a Board workshop to pass these resolutions. 
>  For example, at the Board workshop just concluded in Amsterdam we had a 
> short Board meeting to pass mostly consent resolutions.    It is likely that 
> in Prague we will pass resolutions on routine matters in the Board workshop 
> on the weekend of 23/24 June - if there are matters submitted by staff for 
> approval - and can report on them during the public meetings.   If there are 
> controversies on a matter, the general approach would be to seek to return 
> the matter to th!
> e relevant body or bodies to reach a stronger consensus.    Thus you will see 
> fewer matters that are not on the consent agenda at Board meetings.
> 
> 
> (5) Where there is a major policy vote, or where there are differing views on 
> a major policy, the Board will continue to schedule such discussions for the 
> public meetings.   Past examples of such matters include the .xxx decision 
> and the approval of the new gTLD program in Singapore in June 2011.  
> 
> (6) With respect to transparency. the Board has been publishing rationales 
> for each of its decisions - including those on the consent agenda.  There are 
> also detailed minutes of meetings, where contributions from Board members 
> made during a Board meeting are captured.
> For example, from the minutes of the meeting on 8 Dec 2011 
> (http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/minutes-08dec11-en.htm) there 
> is a detailed record of the discussion on conflicts as well as on batching.
> 
> (7) We are still refining improvements and certainly welcome feedback from 
> the community.
> 
> Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions or concerns, and 
> certainly feel free to provide feedback to the Board in the Board/GNSO 
> meeting in Prague.
> 
> Also be aware that I continue to read emails on this list, and I pass on 
> examples of emails that raise concerns about Board processes to the Board 
> list to keep the Board aware as well.
> 
> Regards,
> Bruce Tonkin
> 
>