Fellow Councillors
Below is a draft agenda and other notes for those wishing to join the Council-Staff Admin call

Timing of Call
21.00 UTC Tuesday 6 September (Glen has sent out the meeting notice and please confirm your intention to join the call if you plan to do so).

Duration: 1.0 - 1.5 hours

Proposed agenda
1. General discussion and agreement as to more effective working relationship with staff

2. Staff reporting to, and papers for, monthly Council meeting.
- agenda (time boxed?)
- work plan (Maria's table)
- report from each task force/working group
- papers for each item on the agenda

3. Framework for the development and maintenance of a Council work plan- 4m 1 & 3yr (see Maria's contribution)

4 . Production of comprehensive  project reporting   [see Alick's contributions]

5 . Review of staff roles, relationships  and time availability
6 . Establishment of staff staff SLA  (Recommendation 10  from GNSO Council review)

7. Question of "posting protocol" to the Council list of information specific to a current task force work (see Marilyn's email discussion with Liz)

8. ??

Approach

My thinking for the first call is to agree the scope and make sure that people understand and agree the context within which pieces of work fit - eg a) the need for improved/comprehensive reporting/papers for Council call, b) the benefit of having a work plan (past, current (4m), immediate (1yr) and longer term (3yr)) - that also forms part of the regular reporting.

And then to identify some immediate improvements/deliverables that can be delivered and also some things (such as the workplan - working from Maria's recent contribution) that we should at least start (I talk about a framework) so that there is something for Council to reflect on and contribute to by and at Vancouver.

So - all over lightly, then a couple of quick wins, and others left to future calls to flesh out.

Contribution (5 & 6 on Agenda, from Olof)

The GNSO has a staff manager, Maria, and a secretary, Glen, as guaranteed support, in conformity with the Bylaws Art X sect 4. Depending on the foreseen workload, further staff resources can be allocated, as part of tasking agreed between ICANN management and the GNSO Chair. We certainly strive to accommodate the needs of the GNSO in a timely and flexible manner and to assign extra resources on a task by task basis, with clear responsibilities for each individual to act as owner of the respective issue from the staff side. Just to mention some examples, we have realized that more resources were needed for the preparation of the "GNSO Review", handled by Liz from the staff side, and for "registry services changes PDP" and "new TLDs", with me taking on those from the staff side. Furthermore, just to make it clear, both I, as acting head of the policy development team, and Liz, as contracted, do have other responsibilities to fulfil, outside the GNSO sphere.

 

Regarding the recommendation to establish an SLA - I take that in a figurative sense, as a way to synchronize expectations, rather than to establish an SLA in a strict sense, as frequently and formally used in contractual relationships. I suppose areas where such synchronization of expectations is desirable may cover staff attendance to meetings, conference call arrangements, drafting of minutes, responses to requests etc., and I suggest that we start by bringing up such expectations for discussion under item 6 (while also realizing that some may flow from item 1 and others).

I look forward to being joined by other Councillors on the call, and please feel free to post any contributions to Olof and I (rather than the Council list as this is becoming quite crowded) prior to the call.

Regards


Grant Forsyth
Manager Industry & Regulatory Affairs
TelstraClear
Cnr Taharoto & Northcote Roads
Private Bag 92143
AUCKLAND
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