Hello Chuck,
 
I can't speak on behalf of the ICANN Board, but would like to personally add my support to your note below, and acknowledge the hard work and willingness to compromise that resulted in the outcome today.
 
I would also like to comment that the new gTLD policy itself - was a result of a similar determined effort by the members of that committee, and is good to see the GNSO community continue to work together to reach a compromise and advance the work that started in 1999 (or earlier :-)).
 
 
Regards,
Bruce Tonkin
 

From: owner-council@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-council@gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Gomes, Chuck
Sent: Friday, 18 December 2009 9:07 AM
To: secretary@icann.org
Cc: GNSO Council
Subject: [council] GNSO Council Approval of STI Review Team Recommendations

Peter,
 
I know that Staff has already informed the Board that the GNSO Council approved a motion earlier today to forward the STI Review Team Recommendations to the Board, but I wanted to follow-up with some personal observations.
 
Over the last 10 years the DNSO/GNSO has often been criticized for its inability to get things done and those criticisms are accepted.  The very nature of a global, bottom-up policy development process requires great time and effort and developing processes for making it successful have been an ongoing challenge, one that is continuing now and will into the future.  At the same time, I personally believe that we have seen progressive improvements over the last several years and those improvements laid the foundation for the accomplishments of the STI Review Team.
 
I want to make sure that the Board and the broader ICANN community appreciate the significance of the STI Review Team work.  They were given a very difficult task with a nearly impossible deadline. Were it not for the scheduling of the GNSO Council meeting, the deadline would have been met.  As it stands, the Council missed the deadline by only three days. 
 
I cannot take any credit for this accomplishment.  The full credit goes to each member of the STI Review Team and the Staff members who supported them.  As you know, I have been around since the beginning of ICANN.  I have never been so impressed with the cooperative spirit of everyone on a team.  At the beginning, I don't think there were many who thought it was possible to reach any sort of reasonable agreement and especially in such a short timeframe.  But, without exception, every individual and the groups they represented constructively worked together to produce the product you received.  There are still points of disagreement that will be further vetted in the coming days and weeks, but the overall package of recommendations is one that the Council unanimously supported.
 
I know full Board will join me in acknowledging this accomplishment and thanking all those who made it happen.  I am not going to call out names because that would require naming everyone on the team.  It was a classic example of teamwork.
 
Sincerely,
 
Chuck Gomes
GNSO Council Chair