[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org] Dear Council Members, A. NOMINATIONS A formal nomination period, for the election of GNSO Council chair for the period 3 December 2006 until the end of the ICANN Annual General Meeting in 2007, is now open for two weeks from Monday 27 November to Monday 11 December 2006 ending at 11:59 UTC. All nominations should be seconded and only GNSO Council members are eligible to make nominations. Please send all nominations and seconds to: gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org Nominations and seconds will be acknowledged and posted to the council list. B. PROPOSED SCHEDULE FOR THE VOTING The voting period will be open for 14 days, starting midnight UTC Tuesday 19 December, and ending midnight, Tuesday 2 January 2007 UTC. C. VOTING PROCEDURE The voting will be by electronic ballot and the candidate receiving the majority of the votes will be elected as the chair. There will be a total of 27 votes cast and a majority is 14 or more. In case of a tie, there will be a second round of voting. The rules governing the process are located at http://www.gnso.icann.org/council/names-proceduresv7.shtml , Section 13. D. GNSO COUNCIL MEMBERS ARE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE: All GNSO Council members are eligible to vote, that is, 3 representatives from each constituency, Registrars, gTLD registries, Commercial and Business Users (CBUC), Non Commercial Users (NCUC), Intellectual Property (IPC), and Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers (ISPCP) and the 3 Nominating Committee appointees. Liaisons from the ALAC and the GAC do not vote. E. VOTING Voting will take place by secret e-mail ballot. 1. Ballots will be sent out individually to each GNSO Council members' e-mail address. 2. Ballots should be filled out and returned to the e-mail address stated in the ballot. They should not be copied to any e-mail list. 3. At the scheduled time, the Secretariat will announce the results of the vote by sending a message to the <council@gnso.icann.org> mailing list. This announcements will include: a. The number of votes received by each candidate; b. The names of the GNSO Council members from whom ballots were received; and c. The confidential code number of each ballot and the candidate for whom it was voted. Item 3(c) will allow each GNSO Council member to double-check that his or her ballot was properly understood, but will not allow others to determine how the member voted. 4. In exceptional cases where a GNSO Council member has no Internet access during the voting period, a voice vote may be registered with the GNSO Secretariat personally during the voting period, before the vote is closed. F. DISCLOSURE OF THE VOTING The Secretariat will announce the outcome of the voting at the close of the voting period. The GNSO Council will confirm the results of the voting at a Council meeting. Thank you Kind regards, Glen -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org