The ICANN Board has requested Empowered Community approval for a change to an ICANN Fundamental Bylaw as documented at https://www.icann.org/public-comments/bylaws-bgc-2017-03-31-en. The change creates a new Board Committee (Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee - BAMC) and assigns responsibilities associated with ICANN Accountability Mechanisms to it. Following the Community Forum on the change held during the Johannesburg meeting, we have 21 day following the close of the meeting during which we may approve or reject the Bylaw change. For the change to take effect, at least three of the five Empowered Community Members (GNSO, ccNSO, ASO, ALAC, GAC) must approve the change and no more than one may reject the change. The ALAC comment said that we would have appreciated more detail in the charter (which is pointed to by the link above). The response was only that this would be done by the Board in due time. At the Community Forum, I made it clear that this answer was not an encouraging one. The Board member representing the Board, Chris Disspain agreed that the staff reply was not good. That being said, I beleive that the Charter that was provided does give sufficient information to allow me to feel comfortable in recommending that the ALAC approve the Bylaw change. During discussion in Johannesburg, Sebastien raised the issue of why it was essential to make this change now, and not to wait until the CCwG Accountability had completed. During the Community Forum in Johannesburg, the rational was described in some detail. The core of it being that the current committee had a lot on its plate, and the Accountability actions were diverting it from its core work. Moreover, there is little dependency on other CCWG activities, so there is not a lot of linkage. Moreover, although not the reason for acting now, but an added benefit is the ability to "test" the Empowered Community processes on an issue that is not as onerous as some of the powers. With this message, I am requesting that Staff initiate, a BigPulse vote of the ALAC on the motion below. The vote should start as soon as possible and must end no later that 12:00 UTC on 20 July 2017. To pass, in accordance with ALAC RoP 24.1, the motion must receive the support of at least 10 ALAC Members. Motion: Whereas: - The ICANN Board has proposed a revision to the ICANN Fundamental Bylaws; - As prescribed by the ICANN Bylaws on the Empowered Community, the revision was discussed at a Community Forum held in Johannesburg on 26 June 2017 Therefore: - The ALAC wishes to exercise its power as a Decisional Participant in the ICANN Empowered Community by supporting the Fundamental Bylaw revision creating the Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee.