All, I wanted to bring to the Council's attention a discussion on the JAS Working Group list which is concerning to me because the conversation by both the Working Group and ICANN staff, and the planned action items, are in direct contravention to the approved JAS Working Group Charter. Bottom line is that the JAS Working Group is not only providing direct input to the ICANN Board without consultations with the GNSO (or even the ALAC), but the JAS Working Group is also planning on delivering its final report in May directly to the ICANN Board without "the input and consideration by the respective supporting organizations (GNSO and ALAC)." I believe the Council must take immediate action in order to enforce the Charter we have all approved. To fail to do so would be an abdication of our responsibilities and more importantly, would constitute a complete failure of the bottom-up policy process. On January 13, 2011, the GNSO Council approved a "Joint SO/AC Working Group on support for new gTLD applicants (JAS)" that included the following provisions: "3. The Working group shall report its results and present a final report directly to the GNSO Council and the ALAC for discussion and adoption, as appropriate, according to their own rules and procedures. 4. All communication to the ICANN Board regarding the work of this Working Group shall be through the respective SO/AC unless expressly approved by the respective SO/AC." See https://community.icann.org/display/jaswg/Charter+as+approved+by+the+GNSO+Co.... Despite the clear words of the Charter to "report its results and present a final report to the GNSO Council" and to ensure that "All communication to the ICANN Board regarding the work of this Working Group shall be through the respective SO/AC", the JAS working group on its own initiative (and with some help from ICANN staff) is going in the complete opposite direction. On the JAS mailing list on April 12th, in a post from Avri Doria to the JAS Group, in referring to criteria for a fee waiver program, the following was stated: "We have a requirement to give the Board a draft on Friday, and the work currently being done is not close to being ready on this issue." See http://forum.icann.org/lists/soac-newgtldapsup-wg/msg01378.html. More discussion took place between the working group about this report to be delivered not to the GNSO (or ALAC), but directly to the ICANN Board. In a subsequent post from Karla Valente (ICANN staff) to the Working Group entitled "call today and summary for the Board", the following was stated: "Please know that I conveyed to Peter and Kurt that there will be a summary for the Board by Friday AND that the work done by Friday will not be the actual "Final Report", which is scheduled to be ready for end of May. I also added that this summary, due to time constrains [sp.], will not have the input and consideration by the respective supporting organizations (GNSO and ALAC). http://forum.icann.org/lists/soac-newgtldapsup-wg/msg01381.html" I am requesting that this formally be added to our agenda for April 28th and request that until that time no summary of work be provided by the JAS working group to the Board without review by the GNSO. This again shows the failure of the cross working group model and the lack of recognition that persons participating in working groups are there in their own individual capacities and not on behalf of their constituency, stakeholder group, advisory committee or even the GNSO. Best regards, Jeffrey J. Neuman Neustar, Inc. / Vice President, Law & Policy 21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling, VA 20166 Office: +1.571.434.5772 Mobile: +1.202.549.5079 Fax: +1.703.738.7965 / jeff.neuman@neustar.biz<mailto:jeff.neuman@neustar.biz> / www.neustar.biz<http://www.neustar.biz/> Please note new address starting March 21, 2011: 21575 Ridgetop Circle, Sterling VA 20166 ________________________________ The information contained in this e-mail message is intended only for the use of the recipient(s) named above and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient you have received this e-mail message in error and any review, dissemination, distribution, or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately and delete the original message.