Thank you Keith, Alan for these comments. I've attached some comments back on them. All very helpful.
I'm sorry for the confusion around the Public Accountability Forum idea. What I was trying to suggest was that that suggestion be incorporated in the ICA so two "things" aren't being created.
From memory, the notion of the Public Accountability Forum was to bring together board, staff and the SO/ACs in a public exchange of views and questions and comments about accountability issues - a sort of open round table, done at an ICANN meeting once a year. The point was to help build mutual accountability across the ICANN system, not just vertical accountability - helping to solve the "who watches the watchers" conundrum.
This could easily be done under the umbrella of the ICANN Community Assembly, perhaps with supplementary attendance or speaking rights e.g. for more of the Board, maybe the SO/AC leadership as well.
But creating it as a separate beast seems pointless....
cheers
Jordan