Re: [council] updated draft letter

[Mason Cole <mcole@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The RrSG is good with this letter as written.



>>>> From: Thomas Rickert <rickert@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> Subject: [council] updated draft letter 
>>>> Date: September 14, 2012 7:29:31 AM PDT
>>>> To: GNSO Council List <council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> 
>>>> Dear all,
>>>> 
>>>> as discussed during yesterday's call, please find below the draft letter 
>>>> regarding the impact of new gTLDs on ICANN's structure including the 
>>>> changes proposed by Stéphane. 
>>>> 
>>>> Please provide your comments and suggestions as soon as you can as the 
>>>> plan is to finalize the draft by the end of next week.
>>>> 
>>>> Kind regards and have a great weekend,
>>>> Thomas
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Dear Bertrand,
>>>> 
>>>> the GNSO Council would like to thank you for the opportunity to provide 
>>>> feedback to your request for input on the impact of new gTLDs on ICANN's 
>>>> structure.
>>>> 
>>>> As you know, the Council as well as individual SGs and Constituencies have 
>>>> been discussing this important subject for a long time now. It has also 
>>>> been a topic during face to face meetings between the GNSO Council and the 
>>>> Board and GAC as well as with the ccNSO. Some groups have already or will 
>>>> respond to the Board directly and our impression is that they are 
>>>> confident to have taken appropriate steps to address the upcoming 
>>>> challenges. 
>>>> 
>>>> As far as the Council is concerned, here will most likely be quantitative 
>>>> and qualitative challenges. What these will be and their size can hardly 
>>>> be predicted. 
>>>> 
>>>> In qualitative terms, there may be new requests to form constituencies and 
>>>> new stakeholder groups in both houses, some of which may be 
>>>> re-configurations or alignments of existing groups.
>>>> 
>>>> Since this is an unknown factor, the effects on the democratic and 
>>>> participatory process of the Council and the response to that are yet to 
>>>> be seen. However, we would like to highlight that ICANN is already 
>>>> publishing information on how to participate (see 
>>>> http://gnso.icann.org/en/about/participation.htm) including information on 
>>>> how to form a Constituency. Thus, the information and processes are 
>>>> available to be inclusive 
>>>> 
>>>> In quantitative terms, challenges are more predictable in some aspects. 
>>>> For sure, there will be 
>>>> 
>>>> - more attention by the general pubic and Governments;
>>>> 
>>>> - more attendants at meetings, which has an impact on sizing the venues; 
>>>> 
>>>> - more groups that need administrative and technical support;
>>>> 
>>>> - more telephone conferences with more participants and more remote 
>>>> participation;
>>>> 
>>>> - more documents to be produced and read; 
>>>> 
>>>> - more decisions to be made and operationalized;
>>>> 
>>>> - more contractors that need to be managed;
>>>> 
>>>> - the need for ever more stringent budget management and control; and
>>>> 
>>>> - more compliance issues that need to be taken care of.
>>>> 
>>>> These quantitative challenges require managerial responses that ICANN can 
>>>> prepare for. Such preparations should also encompass the increased burden 
>>>> on volunteers to deal with even more and potentially more complex material 
>>>> to work on. Processes and support schemes for volunteers should be 
>>>> designed to best possibly avoid volunteer fatigue.
>>>> 
>>>> The unknown is what new groups will be established and what their place 
>>>> and role in the ICANN eco system shall be. However, additions will only 
>>>> lead to marginal changes that can be dealt with once they are known.
>>>> 
>>>> In summary, the GNSO Council believes that the current structure is 
>>>> resilient to respond to the challenges to come as long as ICANN provides 
>>>> the resources required to accommodate an increasing number of participants 
>>>> / stakeholders and their respective needs.  
>>>> 
>>>> Thank you,
>>>> 
>>>> Stéphane van Gelder
>>>> 
>>>> Chair, GNSO Council
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> 
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