At 18/02/2009 07:21 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Alan Greenberg wrote:
ICANN's "Consensus Policy" concept is that in the end, IF most people agree, then it can become a formal policy. But the process of getting there, IF you actually do get there, may be polite and civil (although perhaps not always) but there is no shortage of people publicly and loudly pointing out their disagreement. If there is public and loud disagreement from board members on a decided policy, then how is that result called a consensus? To me, that simply sounds like an informal vote in which the "winners" decline personal responsibility for their action, hiding behind the herd.
- Evan
As Karl points out, a Board may want to reach consensus, but ultimately, each Director has an obligation to vote their own conscience. Whether they always do or not may be another matter. The term "consensus" is sometime used to imply 100% agreement, and other times to imply general but not unanimous agreement. In most matters, ICANN uses the latter definition. In the specific case of a GNSO "Consensus Policy", the rules of the current GNSO say that 66% of the votes must approve (there is a weaker form, but that is not as binding on the Board). since the largest Constituency only had 22.2% of the votes, a policy can be classes as a GNSO Consensus policy without approval of all Constituencies. In creating the rules for the reformulated GNSO, some us fought very hard (and won) to ensure that this was maintained. We felt it was VERY important to be able to adopt a policy even if one group (the one that might be adversely affected by it) was kicking and screaming all the way. The registrar constituency did not agree with the Consensus Policy to limit the use of the AGP, but it passed, since more than 66% of the votes were for it. The Board approved the motion unanimously (as far as I can tell from the minutes). Whether that means all directors actually agreed with the policy, or none felt that it was sufficiently dangerous that the Board should overrule the GNSO, I cannot say. Alan