GNSO Council Meeting Minutes - 3 September 2009 | Generic Names Supporting Organization

Date

03 September 2009

GNSO Council Meeting Minutes 3 September 2009

List of attendees:

Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business Users C
Mike Rodenbaugh - Commercial & Business Users C
Zahid Jamil - Commercial & Business Users C - absent, apologies
Maggie Mansourkia - ISCPC
Antonio Harris - ISCPC
Tony Holmes - ISCPC absent - apologies
Stéphane van Gelder - Registrar C.
Tim Ruiz - Registrar C.
Adrian Kinderis - Registrars C.
Chuck Gomes - gTLD registries C.
Edmon Chung - gTLD registries C.
Jordi Iparraguirre - gTLD registries C.
Kristina Rosette - Intellectual Property Interests C
Ute Decker - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent
Cyril Chua - Intellectual Property Interests C - joined call just before closing
Mary Wong - NCUC - absent, apologies
William Drake - NCUC
Carlos Souza - NCUC - absent - apologies
Olga Cavalli- Nominating Committee appointee
Terry Davis - Nominating Committee appointee - absent, apologies
Avri Doria - Nominating Committee appointee

14 Council Members
( 20 Votes - quorum)

ICANN Staff

Denise Michel - Vice President Policy Development
Kurt Pritz - Senior Vice President, Services
Robert Hoggarth - Senior Policy Director
Liz Gasster - Senior Policy Counselor
Marika Konings - Policy Director
Margie Milam - Policy Director
Julie Hedlund - Policy Staff
Glen de Saint Gry - GNSO Secretariat

GNSO Council Liaisons/Observers

Alan Greenberg - ALAC Liaison
Mr Han Chun Lee - ccNSO observer - absent, aoplogies
Rita Rodin - ICANN Board member - absent - apologies
Bruce Tonkin - ICANN Board member - absent apologies

MP3 Recording

Roll Call.

Item 1: Update any Statements of Interest

Maggie Mansourkia provided a brief summary of her statement of interest.

Item 2: Review/amend the agenda

Added section on 10.4.3 ACSO Meeting Topic

Item 11 AOB :
- Discussion re Registrar suggestion for an added activity on the weekend in Seoul
- Prioritisation of work

Item 3: Approve GNSO Council minutes 13 August 2009

Chuck Gomes, seconded by Stéphane van Gelder, moved the adoption of the GNSO Council minutes of 13 August 2009.

The motion passed unanimously.

Philip Sheppard called for a point of order.

Philip Sheppard had been mandated by the leadership of the three constituencies in the CSG (Commercial Stakeholder Group) to read the following statement:

POINT OF ORDER FOR THE START OF THE COUNCIL MEETING 3 SEPTEMBER 2009 ON BEHALF OF THE COMMERCIAL STAKEHOLDER GROUP

The Constituencies of the Commercial Stakeholder Group would like to express their concern when they learned from Avri Doria's statement of interest that she joined the NCUC on 4 August 2009.

Our concern reflects both timing and ethics.
On timing.
The timing is misguided as the term of GNSO Chair does not end until October.
Additionally, the timing is misguided at this period of structural change and associated tensions.

On ethics.
Ms. Doria stated that she had “joined the NCUC in solidarity due to the mistreatment she believed the Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group received" from the ICANN Board.

Ms. Doria said she intended to continue to function as previously and would not speak for the NCUC. However, NomCom appointees are required under the Nom Com code of ethics to be “individuals of the highest integrity who place the broad public interest ahead of any particular interests”. Council is now in a position where a Nom Com appointee is the Council Chair yet has publicly declared an alignment with one particular interest.

This situation therefore questions the level of confidence in the GNSO chair and in one of the GNSO’s Nom Com appointees.

Looking to the future.
In order to prevent a future lapse in ethical behaviour and to maintain the integrity of the Nom Com process the Commercial Stakeholders Group have written to the Board Governance Committee asking them to consider one of two options.

Option 1
Converting all NCAs to non-voting status on the GNSO Council.

Option 2
A prohibition in the by-laws for an NCA being a member of a constituency or Stakeholder Group.

This point of order ends.

The chair was handed to the vice-chair, Chuck Gomes, as the statement applied to Avri Doria as Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA) and Chair.

In the Council discussion it was made clear that the statement did not call for a vote of no confidence in the chair nor any change in terms of Avri Doria as the chair of the meeting going forward, other than for this particular agenda item.
It is noted that Avri Doria in the role of chair has always acted ethically and in a neutral manner regardless of joining the Non Commercial Users Constituency ( NCUC).

The concern expressed by the three constituencies is based on a legal interpretation of whether or not the principles of the Nominating Committee have been violated and the General Counsel’s office needs to decide. The reason given for going to the Board Governance Committee, rather than first raising the issue in Council, was a forward looking approach to the integrity of the Nominating Committee process for the future.

Avri Doria made two statements:

"One is I did check with legal counsel before doing this to make sure that in no way was I breaching any of the rules and received clearance that I was not doing so."

"And two, as I stated in my intentions, since my intentions were brought in, that the only role in which I will participate with the NCUC has to do with the restructuring which is specifically not a Council activity but a constituency activity."

"In all things to do with the council and with any of the Council issues, I will continue to behave as I always have as an NCA (Nominating Committee Appointee) which very much means I could end up going against an NCUC position."

"It’s only with regard to the restructuring activities that I will participate with the NCUC until such time as my term as an NCA has ended. Thank you."

Chuck Gomes handed the chair back to Avri Doria to chair the meeting going forward.

Item 4: Confirmation of chair for Inter-Registrar Transfer Policies (IRTP) Part B Working Group (WG)

Council confirmed Michele Neylon's appointment as the Chair of the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policies Part B Working Group (IRTP Part B WG)

Item 5: Joint ccNSO-GNSO IDN Working Group (JIG)

The ccNSO Council has approved the JIG Charter.

Council confirmed the following GNSO co-chair and volunteers for the Joint ccNSO-GNSO IDN Working Group (JIG)

Edmon Chung - gTLD Registries (co-chair), Terry Davis - Nominating Committee Appointee, Stéphane van Gelder - Registrar,

Avri Doria - GNSO Council chair (Observer ex-officio), Chuck Gomes - GNSO Council vice-chair (Observer ex-officio).

Staff committed to supporting the group.

Item 6: Fast Flux Hosting Motion

The motion, being at the conclusion of a policy development process, qualifies for absentee voting within a period of two days.

Mike Rodenbaugh, seconded by Tim Ruiz proposed the motion on Fast Flux Hosting and accepted amendments from the Registries Constituency as friendly.

Whereas:

On 30 May 2008, the GNSO Council initiated a PDP and chartered a Working Group, comprised of interested stakeholders and Constituency representatives, in collaboration with knowledgeable individuals and organizations, to develop potential policy options to curtail the criminal use fast flux hosting;

Whereas the Working Group was asked to consider ten questions, specifically:

Who benefits from fast flux, and who is harmed?
Who would benefit from the cessation of the practice, and who would be harmed?
Are registry operators involved, or could they be, in fast flux hosting activities? If so, how?
Are registrars involved in fast flux hosting activities? If so, how?
How are registrants affected by fast flux hosting?
How are Internet users affected by fast flux hosting?
What technical, e.g. changes to the way in which DNS updates operate, and policy, e.g. changes to registry / registrar agreements or rules governing permissible registrant behavior measures could be implemented by registries and registrars to mitigate the negative effects of fast flux?
What would be the impact (positive or negative) of establishing limitations, guidelines, or restrictions on registrants, registrars and/or registries with respect to practices that enable or facilitate fast flux hosting? What would be the impact of these limitations, guidelines, or restrictions to product and service innovation?
What are some of the best practices with regard to protection from fast flux?
Obtain expert opinion, as appropriate, on which areas of fast flux are in scope and out of scope for GNSO policy making;

Whereas the Working Group has faithfully executed the PDP, as stated in the By-laws, resulting in a Final Report delivered to the GNSO Council on 13 Aug 2009;

Whereas the Working Group did not make recommendations for new consensus policy, or changes to existing policy;

Whereas the Working Group has developed and broadly supports several recommendations, and outlined possible next steps;

Whereas the GNSO Council has reviewed and discussed these recommendations and the Final Report;

The GNSO Council RESOLVES:

To extend our sincere thanks to the Working Group members, to the Chair James Bladel, to the Council Liaison Mike Rodenbaugh, and to two members of the ICANN Policy Staff, Marika Konings and Glen de Saint Géry, for their efforts in bringing this Working Group to a successful conclusion;
To encourage ongoing discussions within the community regarding the development of best practices and / or Internet industry solutions to identify and mitigate the illicit uses of Fast Flux; and
The Registration Abuse Policy Working Group (RAPWG) should examine whether existing policy may empower Registries and Registrars, including consideration for adequate indemnification, to mitigate illicit uses of Fast Flux; and
To encourage interested stakeholders and subject matter experts to analyze the feasibility of a Fast Flux Data Reporting System to collect data on the prevalence of illicit use, as a tool to inform future discussions; and
To encourage staff to examine the role that ICANN can play as a "best practices facilitator" within the community; and
To consider the inclusion of other stakeholders from both within and outside the ICANN community for any future Fast Flux policy development efforts; and
To ensure that successor PDPs on this subject, if any, address the charter definition issues identified in the Fast Flux Final Report.
To form a Drafting Team to work with support staff on developing a plan with set of priorities and schedule that can be reviewed and considered by the new Council as part of its work in developing the Council Policy Plan and Priorities for 2010.
The moton passed with 21 Votes in favour, One abstention and five councillors did not vote.
For the record: Final results as posted to the GNSO Council

Councillors present at the time of the vote:

19 Votes in favour
Philip Sheppard, Mike Rodenbaugh, Kristina Rosette, Tony Holmes, Maggie Mansourkia, William Drake, Olga Cavalli (one vote each)
Adrian Kinderis, Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder, Jordi Iparraguirre, Edmon Chung, Chuck Gomes (two votes each)

One Abstention - Avri Doria, Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA) Avri Doria stated the following reasons for abstaining

"Due to Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) concerns about the ethics of my decision to join the NCUC and about the propriety of my continuing to vote as an NCA, I abstain from all votes in the council until such time as the Board Structural Improvements Committee decides on the disposition of the CSG letter of concern."

Councillors absent:
Zahid Jamil, Ute Decker, Cyril Chua, Tony Holmes, Mary Wong, Carlos Souza, Terry Davis (one vote each)

Item 7: Charter for joint ALAC/GNSO Drafting Team on Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) issues

Avri Doria, seconded by Mike Rodenbaugh proposed the motion on the joint ALAC/GNSO Drafting team

Whereas

On March 4 2009 (Resolution 20090304-2)the GNSO council committed to "drafting a registrant rights charter" in cooperation the ALAC and
As part of the same resolution (20090304-2) the GNSO council committed to creating a "drafting Team to discuss further amendments to the RAA and to identify those on which further action may be desirable"

Resolved

The GNSO accepts the charter defined in
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/raa-drafting-team-charter-03sep09-en.pdf
with the deliverables and milestones as set out in that charter and invites the ALAC to participate as a partner in this effort.
The drafting team, at its next meeting, will pick a pair of coordinators, one each from the At-Large Community and the GNSO.
With charter amended as: Replace under Charter (B) item 3 - replace 'amendments' with 'topics.'
to read "Propose next steps for considering such topics"

The motion passed by voice vote.

Councillors present at the time of the vote.
Philip Sheppard, Mike Rodenbaugh, Kristina Rosette, Tony Holmes, Maggie Mansourkia, William Drake, Adrian Kinderis, Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder, Jordi Iparraguirre, Edmon Chung, Chuck Gomes, Olga Cavalli.

Two Abstentions:

Avri Doria - Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA), reason for abstaining

Maggie Mansourkia - ISP, reason for abstaining " I have not studied or know really anything about the topic."

Action Item:

Avri Doria to send notification to the ALAC chair that the charter was approved by the GNSO Council.

Item 8: Motion on Vertical Separation

Stéphane van Gelder requested that the motion calling for an Issues Report on Vertical Integration and Registry/Registrar cross-ownership submitted by Mary Wong be deferred until the next Council meeting on 24 September 2009.

Item 9: Schedule/Actions leading up to and for Seoul

Chuck Gomes proposed a Draft Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition and noted that the key issue is to seat the new Council in Seoul for it to carry on business. The plan is designed to offer the Stakeholder Groups as much flexibility as possible in the process for selecting their representatives.

The Council learned that the Nominating Committee would likely not be able to make the assignments of the three Nominating Committee Appointees to their separate slots on the Council. Council members discussed a number of alternative assignment approaches during the Council meeting and a final process will be determined after further discussion on the Council’s email list.

Rob Hoggarth proposed adding item 8, The assignment of the Nominating Committee Appointees (NCA) to the Draft Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition

Action Item:

Olga Cavalli volunteered to drive list discussion with support from Avri Doria and Chuck Gomes of planning for the Bicameral Council Seat Transition on the Council mailing list in preparation for making a decision at the next Council meeting on 24 September 2009.
All GNSO Councilors and community leaders are encouraged to forward the draft plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition to the groups they represent and, in turn, encourage them to provide timely input/feedback for the Council discussions.

Avri Doria proposed deferring the vote on the draft plan for the Bicameral Council seat transition until the next Council meeting on 24 September 2009 and in the mean time, proposed reporting the Council's progress to the Board.

Item 10: Status Updates

10. 1. Board Update - Denise Michel

Preliminary Board Report 27 August 2009
http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-27aug09.htm

A question arose with regard to the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) appointed board member and it was confirmed that the Board approved in principle for implementation, adding one voting director appointed from the At Large Community to the ICANN Board of Directors and removing the present ALAC Liaison to the Board.

Item 10: Status Updates
10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7

10. 4. 3. Possible ACSO topic - Avri Doria

Action Item
Avri Doria will convey to the committee that there is a preference for Thursday, a strong interest in the accountability topic and that discussion will continue on the Council mailing list.

A request was made to modify the sequence of the agenda due the late hour in Europe and some members leaving the call.

The Travel Funding motion, deferred from the Council meeting on 13 August, 2009 was withdrawn; any GNSO participants not covered by the travel policy should work through their constituency or stakeholder group to request funding as directed by Kevin Wilson.

Item 11: Any Other Business

11.1 - The Registrars are of the view that there is an ever-widening gap in the understanding between the different stakeholders in the council and suggested a formal and informal gathering on Saturday, 24 October in Seoul where new and old Council members can introduce themselves and discuss openly any areas of concern.

Action Item:

The Secretariat should arrange for the events in Seoul.

11. 2 - Emphasis was placed on the need to prioritise Council work.

10.8 Restructuring Efforts

Rob Hoggarth noted that the proposed GNSO Council Restructure Implementation Timetable is at the end of the Pending Action list - GNSO Council

http://gnso.icann.org/files/gnso/meetings/pending-action-list.pdf

10. 8. 2. Status of By-Law amendments

Rob Hoggarth noted that with the Bylaw amendments approved by the Board

(see – http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-27aug09.htm)

the Stakeholder Group structures approved by the Board are now in effect. Members of the four new Stakeholder Groups are encouraged to move forward with selecting their Council representatives and existing Constituencies are encouraged to bring their charter documents into conformity with the new GNSO Framework as provided for in the Bylaws.

The final versions of the Stakeholder Group Charters are linked to the Board’s 30 July meeting report
(see - http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-30jul09.htm).
The target date for providing names of selected Council representatives to the GNSO Secretariat is 30 September 2009.

Avri Doria adjourned the GNSO Council meeting and thanked everyone for their participation.

The meeting ended at 23:15 UTC.
Next GNSO Council teleconference will on 24 September 2009 at 13:00 UTC.
see: Calendar

Action Items arising from the meeting

Item 7: Charter for joint ALAC/GNSO Drafting Team on Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) issues

Action Item:
Avri Doria to send notification to the ALAC chair that the charter was approved by the GNSO Council.

Item 9: Schedule/Actions leading up to and for Seoul

Action Item:
Olga Cavalli volunteered to drive list discussion with support from Avri Doria and Chuck Gomes, of planning for the Bicameral Council Seat Transition on the mailing list in preparation for making a decision at the next Council meeting on 24 September 2009.
All GNSO Councilors and community leaders are encouraged to forward the draft plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition to the groups they represent and, in turn, encourage them to provide timely input/feedback for the Council discussions.

Item 11: Any Other Business
Action Item:

The Secretariat should arrange for the events in Seoul.