Dear all, Please find below the final proposed agenda for the GNSO Council Meeting on 18 November 2021 at 06:00 UTC. Draft GNSO Council Agenda 18 November 2021 Please note that all documents referenced in the agenda have been gathered on a Wiki page for convenience and easier access: https://community.icann.org/x/eQWlCg This agenda was established according to the GNSO Operating Procedures<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/op-procedu...> v3.5, updated on 24 October 2019 For convenience: * An excerpt of the ICANN Bylaws defining the voting thresholds is provided in Appendix 1 at the end of this agenda. * An excerpt from the Council Operating Procedures defining the absentee voting procedures is provided in Appendix 2 at the end of this agenda. GNSO Council meeting held 06:00 UTC Coordinated Universal Time: 06:00 UTC: https://tinyurl.com/36vkby2e (Wednesday) 22:00 Los Angeles; (Thursday) 01:00 Washington DC; 06:00 London; 07:00 Paris; 09:00 Moscow; 17:00 Melbourne GNSO Council Meeting Remote Participation: https://icann.zoom.us/j/92495986646?pwd=Tk5nQzNkUlBrUDBISkxkL2RUYzFXZz09 Councilors should notify the GNSO Secretariat in advance if they will not be able to attend and/or need a dial out call. ___________________________________ Item 1: Administrative Matters (10 mins) 1.1 - Roll Call 1.2 - Updates to Statements of Interest 1.3 - Review / Amend Agenda 1.4 - Note the status of minutes for the previous Council meetings per the GNSO Operating Procedures: Minutes<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/policy/2021/minutes/minutes-gnso-...> of the GNSO Council meeting on 23 September 2021 were posted on 09 October 2021. Minutes of the GNSO Council meetings part I [LINK TO BE ADDED] and part II [LINK TO BE ADDED] on 27 October 2021 were posted on 12 November 2021. Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List (15 minutes) 2.1 - Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List <https://gnso.icann.org/en/council/project> and Action Item List. <https://community.icann.org/x/RgZlAg> Item 3: Consent Agenda (10 minutes) * 3.1 - Confirmation of Tomslin Samme-Nlar to serve as the GNSO Council liaison to the Standing Selection Committee in an ex-officio capacity. * 3.2 - Motion<https://community.icann.org/x/fQWlCg> for the confirmation of Philippe Fouquart to serve as the GNSO representative to the Empowered Community Administration Item 4: COUNCIL VOTE - Revised GNSO Councilor Job Description for the Nominating Committee (20 minutes) The GNSO Council is invited on an annual basis to review the job description and criteria contained in order to better assure that the Nominating Committee selects appointees that match the Council’s expectations. The Council has made incremental revisions to the job description each time that it has been invited to do so. This cycle, Council leadership suggested revising the job description to reflect a preference for appointees that are not currently affiliated with any Stakeholder Group or Constituency, recognizing that this may not always be feasible. However, concerns were raised about the feasibility of identifying unaffiliated candidates that are also adequately knowledgeable about the ICANN environment and the GNSO more specifically. The Council discussed the proposed revisions during its October meeting where concerns were also expressed that the revised guidance may potentially serve as a chilling factor to otherwise qualified, but currently affiliated, candidates. Council leadership noted that the rationale for the proposed changes were to preserve the balance of the Council and to promote both independence and diversity in NomCom appointees to the Council. The Council established a small team to seek to reach agreement on a revised job description; the small team shared its proposed final draft [LINK TO BE ADDED WHEN AVAILABLE] on [date]. Here, the GNSO Council will vote to approve the revised job description. 4.1 - Presentation of motion (GNSO Council vice-chair, Tomslin Samme-Nlar) 4.2 – Council discussion 4.3 – Council vote (voting threshold: simple majority) Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Update From the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (20 minutes) The mission of the Universal Acceptance Steering Group (UASG) is to promote and work towards a future where all domain names and all email addresses work in all software applications. With the GNSO’s work on enabling the application for new gTLDs and developing policy recommendations related to internationalized domain names, universal acceptance is an important factor for the work of the GNSO. Here, Dr. Ajay Data, Chair of the UASG, will provide an update on the progress of the UASG and explore the role the GNSO might play in enhancing universal acceptance. 5.1 – Introduction of topic (Council leadership) 5.2 – Presentation (Dr. Ajay Data, Chair of the UASG) 5.3 – Council discussion 5.4 – Next steps Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - GNSO Council Strategic Planning Session (15 Minutes) Before the November Council meeting, the GNSO Council has held several meetings for this year’s Strategic Planning Session (SPS). There remains a wrap-up session after this Council meeting, which will be used in part to discuss conclusions from the SPS and potential action items. Here, the Council will discuss highlights from the discussions to date. 6.1 – Introduction of topic (Council leadership) 6.2 – Council discussion 6.3 – Next steps Item 7: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Thought Exercise Paper Modifying Consensus Policy (15 Minutes) On 25 October 2021, Philippe Fouquart shared a thought paper<https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/council/2021-October/025106.html> drafted by the ICANN org, which has been developed “considering what procedures are in place for modifying consensus policies, and where there may be gaps, ambiguities, or opportunities for additional collaboration.” The Council has since convened a small team, which will also seek volunteers from all SG/Cs, as the topic is of importance beyond just the Council. As this team is being convened, it is perhaps nevertheless helpful to seek impressions from Councilors that could feed into the small team’s deliberations. Here, the Council will discuss thoughts on the paper. 7.1 – Introduction of topic (Council leadership) 7.2 – Council discussion 7.3 – Next steps Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS (15 minutes) 7.1 - Update on the approach for the response to the ICANN Board’s letter<https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/botterman-...> regarding the IDN Implementation Guidelines v4.0 7.2 - Update on the GNSO Council response to the ICANN72 GAC Communique<https://gac.icann.org/contentMigrated/icann72-gac-communique> 7.3 - Acknowledgement of the Registration Data Accuracy - Scoping Team (RDA_ST) Project Plan [LINK TO BE ADDED WHEN AVAILABLE] _______________________________ Appendix 1: GNSO Council Voting Thresholds (ICANN Bylaws, Article 11, Section 11.3(i)) See https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article11. Appendix 2: GNSO Council Absentee Voting Procedures (GNSO Operating Procedures, Section 4.4) See https://gnso.icann.org/sites/default/files/file/field-file-attach/op-procedu... References for Coordinated Universal Time of 06:00 UTC Local time between November and March Winter in the NORTHERN hemisphere ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- California, USA (PST) UTC-8 22:00 (Wednesday) San José, Costa Rica (CST) UTC-6 00:00 New York/Washington DC, USA (EST) UTC-5 01:00 Buenos Aires, Argentina (ART) UTC-3 03:00 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (BRT) UTC-3 03:00 London, United Kingdom (GMT) UTC+0 06:00 Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (WAT) UTC+1 07:00 Paris, France (CET) UTC+1 07:00 Moscow, Russia (MSK) UTC+3 09:00 Singapore (SGT) UTC+8 14:00 Melbourne, Australia (AEDT) UTC+11 17:00 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- DST starts/ends on Sunday 31 October 2021, 2:00 or 3:00 local time (with exceptions) for EU countries and on Sunday 7 November 2021 for the US. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For other places see http://www.timeanddate.com<http://www.timeanddate.com/> and https://tinyurl.com/jw684set