Once again, thanks Bruce. You have been busy today ;) It would be helpful from the rest of the Board to know if they think the same thing you do? I find it a little disconcerting that one Board member has to come out and describe how *they* interpreted a Board Resolution. Maybe the resolutions need to be clearer. I agree the Council should put together a view and push it back to the Board just to know that we are on the same page. It would also be helpful for us to know that the Board are interpreting it in the same way you have, otherwise how do we compare pages? Adrian Kinderis -----Original Message----- From: owner-council@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council@gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Bruce Tonkin Sent: Friday, October 08, 2010 4:17 PM To: Council GNSO Subject: [council] RE:Board action on recommendation 6 Hello All, Reading the various discussions on the Council list, it appears that the GNSO believes that the Board dismissed or disagreed with the work from the working group on recommendation 6. The Board resolution stated; "The Board acknowledges receipt of the Rec6CWG report. This is a difficult issue, and the work of the community in developing these recommendations is appreciated. The Board has discussed this important issue for the past three years. The Board agrees that ultimate responsibility for the new gTLD program rests with the Board. The Board, however, wishes to rely on the determinations of experts regarding these issues. The Board will accept the Rec6 CWG recommendations that are not inconsistent with the existing process, as this can be achieved before the opening of the first gTLD application round, and will work to resolve any inconsistencies. Staff will consult with the Board for further guidance as required." I interpreted that as saying that the Board broadly agreed with the direction of most of the recommendations from the working group. The outcomes of which will be seen in the next draft of the guidebook. e.g no longer using the term MAPO. The only clear disagreement was using the Board of 21 people to directly try to interpret international law and act as some form of dispute panel on matters relating to recommendation 6. Most of the Board, including me, has no such legal training that would be needed to do that. The Board is not the supreme court. Instead we prefer to use a panel of experts (e.g judges) that are familiar with international law to reach a judgement. Ultimately the Board can over-rule that judgement as a last resort (and there are various mechanisms of appeal available for this - such as reconsideration requests, IRP panels etc). Anyway I would be interested to hear how the GNSO has interpreted the Board resolution so that misunderstandings can be cleared up. In terms of any special papers - from my recollection we only had the GNSO paper to read. So you already have the document that we relied on. Regards, Bruce Tonkin