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All, As you may know, in November
2006, the GNSO Council passed a resolution endorsing term limits, wherein a
council member could serve no more than two consecutive terms (http://gnso.icann.org/resolutions/#200611
). The resolution also stated that a former council member must remain
off the GNSO Council for one full term prior to serving any subsequent term.
The ICANN Board Governance
Committee subsequently included term limits as a recommendation in the
GNSO Improvements Report (http://www.icann.org/en/topics/gnso-improvements/gnso-improvements-report-03feb08.pdf,
see Sec. 5.1, p. 28) The Report recommends that the preferred limit be two
2-year terms, in order to enhance inclusiveness and enable more people to
become involved in Council activities. Following
is a link to the announcement and public comment notice for a forum that has
just opened on this proposed change, prior to final Board action, which
includes proposed new bylaws text: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-13oct08-en.htm,
and http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#gnso-bylaw-revision
. The draft bylaws change also creates an exception, as recommended previously
by the GNSO Council and the Board Governance Committee, in a “special
circumstance,” such as geographic diversity requirements, where no
alternative representative is available to serve. Please note also that because
the GNSO Council, constituencies and ICANN staff are working to implement a new
structure for constituency representation and voting for the GNSO Council,
comments are particularly invited on whether the pending reorganization
presents issues for the implementation of term limits that should be considered
before term limits are adopted, including any other aspects of the new
structure, such as the creation of stakeholder groups or the formation of new
constituencies. ICANN also invites comments on when term limits should go into
effect. The comment period is open until 3 November. Thanks,
Liz |