Dear Councilors,

You will likely recall that during the Council’s last Strategic Planning Session (SPS), the Council came to general agreement on the approach for the ICANN Board to reverse its adoption of a GNSO recommendation. The action item from the SPS was to identify the proper place to document that generally agreed upon process. Your GNSO support staff has coordinated with ICANN legal to determine the most appropriate location to capture the process and in short, the recommendation is to update the EPDP, PDP, and GGP Manuals.

In the attached document, you will see a briefing document that contains about 2.5 pages of text that explains the thought process and rationale for the approach; if you’re able to recall the conversation at the SPS, this text should feel very familiar. What has been included on page 3 is a very brief analysis on which documentation is most appropriate for capturing the process, which specific section could be updated, and the nature of the changes.

Proposed next steps:

• Council to review the attached document and in particular, consider the suggestion of where to document the process, and provide any questions or concerns by 27 August.
• If there are no substantive concerns on how to capture the process, staff to develop proposed redlines to the EPDP, PDP, and GGP Manuals, in time for discussion by the Council during the September meeting.
• Again, if no substantive concerns, the ICANN Board and GNSO Council can discuss the proposed redlines during their bilateral at ICANN84.
• Once there is a set of mutually agreed upon (i.e., Board and Council) redlines, the amended GNSO Operating Procedures would be put out for public comment, as is required for such changes.

The proposed next steps assume that there are no major concerns that need to be addressed along the way; if that turns out to not be the case, then intervening discussion can and would of course take place, pushing out timelines as needed.

If you have any questions or concerns, about either the attached documentation or the proposed next steps, please do let us know.

Best,

Steve

Steven Chan


VP, Policy Development Support & GNSO Relations

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 

12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300

Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536


Email: steve.chan@icann.org

Skype: steve.chan55

Mobile: +1.310.339.4410

Find out more about the GNSO by visiting: https://learn.icann.org/

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Transcripts and recordings of GNSO Working Group and Council events are located on the GNSO Master Calendar