Malcolm.

Believe me, I do not draw any inference of a practical necessity to simply accept what the Board tells us.  I just wanted to clarify the various concepts in play as we discuss the Board's obligation to pass on our proposal vs. the Board's potential decision not to support it.  I agree with your overall view of where this concept fits into the matrix.

Greg

On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 4:27 AM, Malcolm Hutty <malcolm@linx.net> wrote:
On 2015-10-13 03:29, Greg Shatan wrote:
Lurking behind all this (in my mind) is Larry Strickling apparently
saying that he does not want to receive a proposal that does not have
the support of the Board.

That would make any proposal sent with a lack of support from the
Board a non-starter.

I agree, but let's not overread that. We don't have a decision from
the Board yet, we have a negotiating position.

Before Larry get the proposal, it must be transmitted from us to
the chartering organisations, and thence to the Board. The Board will
then have to reconsider its position and take a final decision in
the light of the fact that the proposal is now finalised and has
the formal support of the community.

For the Board to torpedo a community consensus proposal in the way you
describe would be a huge step, with profound consequences for ICANN's
credibility in the political community. The Board won't do that lightly.

The Board might remain intransigent. But they might be willing,
in those circumstances, to endorse a widely-supported proposal that
is broadly aligned with their expectations even if it still contains
a few elements against which they previously expressed concerns. So
in that light, their claims that they are "95% in agreement" with our
proposal is encouraging.

So while I agree with your statement above in the abstract, I would avoid
drawing from it any inference of a practical necessity to simply accept what
the Board tells us to do. We are entitled to our own view, and insisting on
it is not fatal to this process.

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