[council] some issues related to the idea of all terms ending on 23 October.
Hi,
Prompted by the document sent by the Policy staff (I know it is from
Rob, but I am assuming that its contents have the imprimatur of the
Policy Staff leadership) I started thinking about the side effects of
ending all terms on the 23 of October. While I still maintain that it
is not what the Bylaws mandate - always assuming that (for the purpose
of this note) they still are as they were in the last draft - I could
be proven wrong. So it seemed worth looking at the possible wrinkle
we have been presented with.
1. So that I have said it and it is out of the way, under those
circumstances, I would no longer be a member of the council and
consequently no longer be council chair. While not having to travel
to Seoul and donating one last week of my life to the GNSO council
cause does have some side benefits, it also prevents me from doing
what I think is my job which is to assist the council in a smooth
transition and orderly hand over.
However, I believe that no one is ever indispensable and certainly
that applies to me. This could be dealt with by making sure that both
houses had elected their vice chairs on the Saturday (my suggestion in
any case), as the Bylaws provide for the vice-chairs to take the
chair role in the absence of a chair.
Since the new council won't be seated until the 23rd they would not be
able to elect a new chair until then. Another possibility would be to
schedule an actual voting meeting on the Saturday morning to either
elect a temporary chair or the actual ongoing chair. Chuck, who I
assume would be re-chosen as a Council member by his SG to finish out
his current time, would be able to chair that meeting until the new
chair was elected. Otherwise, the plan could proceed as I originally
suggested with having the vote on the new chair as well as the vote on
the new Council procedures as the first items of the Wednesday
meeting. If every council member is in attendance either in person on
remotely for at least this part of the meeting, the election can be
completed quickly - otherwise it can be continued as I originally
suggested with a 24 absentee ballet and completed in time for the
Thursday meeting.
There may also be other solutions to this consequent of terminating
all terms on the 23rd but it appears that replacing me as chair is
fairly easy to work around if I am not longer on the council in Seoul.
2. It exacerbates the plan of how the alternate year seating plan is
enacted. I think this is a bigger issue. If it is time zero for
every council member, then we need a plan in each of the SGs to elect
one for one year and another for two years (possibly complicated by
the Contracted parties having an odd number of council members, so
instead of 3 odd and 3 even in the house we might have 2 odd and 4
even). Whereas if some people are appointed to continue with their
last year while others are newly elected to full terms, it is most
likely that a natural alternation will occur that may only need to be
adjuste in a few cases in the non-contracted house.
3. In terms of the continuing NCA, if indeed Terry's term is
terminated, he needs to be reappointed for a one year term. Perhaps
this has already been dealt with and we will find out when the Nomcom
list is announced.
4. I know that as new NCA when I began, the first meeting I attended,
since we do not have retreats as the Board does for new members, was
an important learning time. Inserting a new NCA into the council and
requiring them to be functional on their first day of ICANN
participation (and I do not know whether we have one or two new NCA
council members) is a daunting prospect. Various constituency members
have talked about the need for them to go to the meeting in Seoul to
provide assistance for new council members, and these are people who
have been active in the constituencies. Imagine what it is like for a
new NCA for whom it may be their first ICANN meeting. while I now
feel that I understand every nook and cranny of ICANN's gothic
architecture, it can be frightening at first glance.
There may be other issues, but those are the first that occur to me.
a.