At its 31 July 2008 meeting, the ICANN Board accepted the report of the Working Group on GNSO Council Restructuring. The Board was highly appreciative of the Working Group's efforts and instructed ICANN Staff to (1) perform an analysis of the potential consequences and implementation issues presented by the proposals in the report and (2) report back to the Board by 21 August 2008 with an analysis of the potential consequences, an implementation review, and recommendations regarding those issues. In an effort to provide a comprehensive analysis for the Board, Staff would welcome input from the GNSO Council, its constituencies and individual members of the GNSO community, as well as from the Governmental Advisory Committee and the At-Large Advisory Committee and their members, regarding the proposals set forth in the Working Group's report. A number of areas in particular have been noted in the Board's considerations and are being addressed by Staff, including: • Implications regarding the selection of Board seats; • Implications of new voting thresholds for policy development and other Council operating matters and how they compare with current voting thresholds; • Consideration of implications regarding the future roles of Nominating Committee appointees, which may create pivot points because of the "simple majorities" in the proposed new thresholds; • Consideration of the potential effects of various stakeholder representation options proposed by the working group; • Evaluation of whether the proposed Council structure will be understandable to the outside community and open enough to encourage formation and participation of new constituency groups; and • Consideration of transition issues and how transition could occur in an orderly and predictable manner. Staff welcomes input on these and other issues related to the Working Group's report. It would be helpful to receive any input you may have by COB (PDT) on Thursday, 14 August 2008 via email to policy-staff@icann.org. Regards, Denise -------------- Denise Michel ICANN VP, Policy denise.michel@icann.org