Hello All, I have consulted with the ICANN General Counsel, in response to questions about who can vote and how votes are counted for the task forces.
From Annex A: section 5 (a): http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#AnnexA "Upon voting to appoint a task force, the Council shall invite each of the constituencies of the GNSO to appoint one individual to participate in the task force. Additionally, the Council may appoint up to three outside advisors to sit on the task force. (Each task force member is referred to in this Annex as a "Representative" and collectively, the "Representatives"). The Council may increase the number of Representatives per constituency that may sit on a task force in its discretion in circumstances that it deems necessary or appropriate."
With respect to voting on a task force, each of the constituencies and each of the appointed outside advisors may vote on any issue. Note that with respect to the WHOIS task forces, the Council decided: "That for the purpose of the WHOIS task forces, constituencies be allowed to appoint more than one person to listen in on teleconferences and to participate in the mailing list, but in any single teleconference or physical meeting, there is only one person from the constituency to represent the constituency's views." With respect to WHOIS task force 2, Amadeu Abril I Abril was appointed by Council in the meeting of 20 November 2002 as an outside advisor. See minutes: http://www.gnso.icann.org/meetings/minutes-gnso-20nov03.shtml Thus WHOIS task force 2 has a total of 7 votes. Amadeu has one vote, and each of the constituencies has one vote. With respect to the other task forces, there are a total of 6 votes (one per constituency). A task force may use discretion as to when to hold votes on an issue - and in many cases such votes can be used to indicate support for/against a particular proposal as part of the process of developing a consensus position. These votes are often called "straw" votes in other forums. The final task force report should contain a clear statement of any supermajority vote position of the task force on any issue. When a supermajority vote is not reached, a clear statement of all constituency positions espoused by task force members should be included. Note that with respect to advice from an outside advisor in a final report - the advice should be accompanied by a detailed statement of the advisors' qualifications and relevant experience and potential conflicts of interest. Liaisons from advisory committees such as ALAC, GAC, and Security and Stability, that may attend task force meetings and participate on mailing lists, do not have a vote. The liaisons may report on the work being undertaken within those committees that is relevant to the task force, and back to the committees on the work being undertaken in the task force (ie the role is liaising between the two independent groups) . The Advisory Committees report their feedback with respect to a new GNSO policy, directly to the Board (presumably as part of the public comment process prior to the ICANN Board meeting to consider the new policy). Regards, Bruce Tonkin