Hello All, Given we have some new council members, and some new participants from the ICANN staff and GAC, I would like to state some of the "unwritten" protocol rules that have been built up over time on the GNSO Council that make it easy to participate on a call with a large number of participants. My basic approach to a call is for each agenda item: - introduce the agenda item - provide some brief background to the issue, or ask a person to present a report or motion - form a queue of speakers to talk on agenda item If you wish to comment on a topic, please say: "It's <your name>. Please add me to the queue." I will normally collect a list of names for the queue and announce the queue order. E.g " I have Ken Stubbs, Marilyn Cade, and Jordyn in the queue - anyone else like to join?". This helps you know when it is your turn to speak. It is often polite for frequent speakers, to allow less frequent speakers to speak first. E.g "It's <your name>. Please put me at the end of the queue, as I would like to hear the views of the other speakers first". Please don't assume that I or other participants can determine who you are based on the sound of your voice. This may work for calls with a small amount of people that know each other well, but it does not scale to calls involving a wide range of people that often sound similar based on their particular regional "version" of English :-) Ie don't just say "Add ME to the queue", as often it is hard to hear who "me" is. If you wish to comment immediately on a statement made by a speaker while a queue is in place please say: "Its <your name>, may I comment?" or "<your name>. May I respond?" At this point I will either say "Yes, go ahead <name>." or "I will add you to the queue, after <name of another council member>". I am more likely to give the option to speak immediately to those that are infrequent speakers. If you are expecting to give a long response to an individual's statement, I would prefer that you join the queue rather than immediately respond, to ensure that everyone gets a fair chance to speak, and we don't end up forming a back-and-forth dialog between two individuals on the call. Please do not just jump in and speak. This means that some that have been waiting patiently to speak don't get a chance, and it is also hard to determine who you are purely on the basis of your voice (particularly if you do not speak regularly). This may sound cumbersome, but it is surprisingly efficient and ensures that at any point in time the council knows who is speaking and who gets to speak next. It is also a standing unwritten rule that everyone is entitled to a particular view, and if you want to change their view, this should be done by addressing the particular view and not the credibility or motivation of the person expressing the view. Ie personal insults or criticisms such as "I am more intelligent than you, so how would you know?", or "You are only saying that because you are a secret agent for company x" are not appropriate. As chair, I always welcome suggestions for improving the running of meetings either on the list or by private communication. I hope you all have an enjoyable end of year celebration/holiday. Regards, Bruce Tonkin Chair, GNSO Council.