[liaison6c] Re: Draft Revisions to the ICANN Bylaws Relating to GNSO Restructure

Dear Denise,

We appreciate your attempt to elaborate on the position you've taken, but in doing so you reinforce the view that you are no longer operating as a facilitator of the GNSO reform process, but rather as a dedicated advocate of a particular position. I really don't understand why you are involved in this discussion at this level. It is not your job to make policy decisions for the Board and it is not our task to convince you personally of the desirability of a particular GNSO structure. It is rather an issue to be settled among the stakeholders themselves and by the Board. The Board has proposals before it. Let the Board decide whether it likes them or not.

Despite the length of your response, its substance can be boiled down into two simple points:

1) The GNSO Improvements Report indicates that constituencies should remain an important part of the reformed GNSO;
2) The Board has not given you specific instructions to change the assignment of Council seats to constituencies.

Both of those points are true, yet neither justifies the position you are taking.

1) Constituencies can be an important and even central part of the GNSO process without being guaranteed a specific number of Council seats. Please note that the NCSG charter we submitted actually makes it easier to form constituencies - precisely because it detaches them from Council seat assignments. So in that respect, our proposal is more in line with the GNSO Improvement Report's references to "expanding Constituency involvement" and to "evening the playing field" among constituencies.
2) The absence of specific instructions applies in both directions. We recognize that the Board has not told you to do what we are proposing. But we also know that the position we are advocating is not ruled out by the GNSO Improvements Report, either. This means is it is an open issue. We should debate it and discuss it among ourselves, on the merits. We have had many discussions with Board members and none of them have suggested that what we are proposing is inconsistent with the GNSO Improvements principles.

It is interesting that your responses keep ignoring the many, obvious problems that are posed by hardwiring Council seats to Constituencies. These include: the difficulty of achieving balanced geographic representation; the problem that occurs when the number of constituencies exceeds the number of seats; the fact that forming new constituencies becomes a zero-sum game that obstructs consensus. That is not an exhaustive list. Also, you seem not to understand a critical part of the BGC's recommendations, which is that working groups - not the Council - will formulate policy. It is the development of consensus in WGs - not the representation of votes in a legislative process - that is the objective of the Board's reforms.

We hope you will be able to recognize these problems, and allow the stakeholder groups and the board the opportunity to work through the issues in the "bottom up" process we read about in so many ICANN press releases.. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Robin Gross, NCUC Chair on behalf of NCUC Executive Committee and GNSO Council:
Norbert Klein
Carlos Affonso Pereira de Souza
Mary Wong
William Drake
Carlos Afonso
Horacio Cadiz
Georg Greve
Robert Guerra
Dave Kissoondoyal

Begin forwarded message:

From: owner-liaison6c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-liaison6c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Margie Milam
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2009 7:35 PM
To: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; liaison6c@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [liaison6c] Draft Revisions to the ICANN Bylaws Relating to GNSO Restructure

Dear All,

As discussed in today’s GNSO call,   ICANN Staff has prepared Draft Bylaws Revisions (attached) that contain Staff recommendations for changes relating to the GNSO restructure.   They are intended to serve as a starting point for the GNSO Council’s discussions.

General Observations

·     These Bylaws were drafted to be consistent with Board recommendations as to structure and principles.
·     Staff also attempted to build in flexibility to accommodate changes in the future without requiring Bylaws amendments. For example, Staff recommends that some issues be moved from the Bylaws to GNSO Council Operating Rules and Procedures that would be approved by the Board.
·     Since the Board approved improvements did not provide specific details with respect to all topics, ICANN staff developed recommendations to address these gaps, which are contained in footnotes throughout the document.
·     The Draft Bylaws Revisions are subject to review by the ICANN Office of the General Counsel for legal form as well as consistency.
·     A few additional decisions will be needed to finalize these Bylaws, for example, Board approval of the unresolved open issue concerning Board seats 13 and 14, and further Council work on certain of the transition procedures (e.g. staggered terms, elections).

Format of Revisions

·     To facilitate reviewing these changes, the Draft Bylaws is organized as a side-by-side comparison of the current language and the proposed language.
·     The yellow highlighted text refers to new or substantially revised language compared to the current Bylaws.
·     The footnotes include rationale statements where Staff thought an explanation might be helpful.

Next Steps and Timing

·     The GNSO Council will need to decide how it would like to review the Draft Bylaws to develop its recommendations.
·     ICANN Staff will be working with the GNSO Operations Work Team in developing the GNSO Operating Rules and Procedures to incorporate those improvements that were omitted from the Bylaws in order to provide flexibility.
·     In order to seat the new Council by June, the Board would need to approve of the revisions by no later than its May 21^st meeting.
·     A public comment period would need to take place before the May 21^st meeting.
·     The Council would need to complete its review/analysis by the next GNSO council meeting on April 16^th in order to accommodate the public comment period.
·     Due to this short time period, the GNSO Council is currently evaluating the most effective way to proceed.

Finally, ICANN Staff is available to provide background and additional information on the Draft Bylaws Revisions if it would be helpful for your review.

Regards,

Margie Milam
Senior Policy Counselor
ICANN