All, The agenda for the joint meeting (Monday afternoon in Sydney) is below. I am seeing 3 or 4 volunteers with an interest in this topic to be on the panel. If you are interested please let me know asap. Cheers, Chris Disspain CEO - auDA au Domain Administration Ltd <mailto:ceo@auda.org.au> ceo@auda.org.au <http://www.auda.org.au/> www.auda.org.au Important Notice - This email may contain information which is confidential and/or subject to legal privilege, and is intended for the use of the named addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose or copy any part of this email. If you have received this email by mistake, please notify the sender and delete this message immediately. Please consider the environment before printing this email. The ACSO session will have as its focus the following topic: Institutional Improvements The roles and responsibilities of ACs, SOs, Policy Staff and Board in ICANN's processes: current situation and possible evolutions This topic will be explored within the current context of where ICANN is an organization, particularly: current practices and their contribution to transparency and accountability; ongoing independent reviews of the ACs and SOs and the subsequent reorganizations; the Improving Institutional Confidence (IIC) consultation that followed the midterm review of ICANN's Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the US government; and the current review of the JPA that is underway. The Chairs of each of the ACs and SOs would like to note that discussing the current systems in place does NOT imply any implicit criticism of either the community or the staff. The aim of the discussion it to identify areas of improvement. Instead, the Sydney meeting provides a unique opportunity to take at look at some of the practical aspects of ICANN's continuing internal effort to improve institution confidence. Current community topics that the conversation is expected to touch upon include: * The ongoing independent reviews of the different parts of the ICANN model * The Improving Institutional Confidence consultation and recommendations * The conclusion of the Joint Project Agreement with the US government in September Specific questions that will be explored include: 1. Roles and responsibilities of the ACs, SOs and Policy staff: a. What should these roles be? b. What is the right balance between volunteer activity and policy staff activity? c. Is the current balance correct or should it be altered? d. Does the current balance lead to volunteer exhaustion? e. Would shifting the balance diminish the degree of private bottom-up policy making? 2. Policy staff as Board intermediary: a. Should all communications between the SOs be moderated by Policy staff? b. Should there be direct communication between the Councils and the Board? 3. Board communication with Advisory Committees: a. Should all ACs have the same rights in terms of recommendations and response by the Board to their issues? 4. Transparency of communications: a. Should staff communications to the Board be confidential? b. Should communications regarding AC or SO activities be confidential? c. Which other communications need to remain confidential? d. What would be the effect of making most communications between staff and the Board open to community review?