Dear Councilors,

 

As noted in the recent message from GNSO Support Staff in reference to the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team, we are circulating a proposed draft Assignment Form for the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team for the Council’s review and feedback. 

 

Once finalised, this proposed Assignment Form, similar to previous Small Team Assignment Forms, would govern the work of the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team. It includes details and limitations on the scope of the work, the membership of the group, the timeline of the work, the transparency considerations of the group, et al. 

 

Based on some of the questions and concerns Leadership has received, we have tried to answer some of the questions and address some of the concerns below. 

 

Reminder of how we got here

 

The Council began discussing possible next steps for the SSAD recommendations beginning in November, following the delivery of the RDRS Standing Committee Final Finding Report. The Council continued to discuss the RDRS Standing Committee Report and next steps during the December meeting, the January meeting, the SPS (where we reached agreement on the path of Supplemental Recommendations), and the February meeting. 

 

In discussions with the Board, the Council agreed on this path, in part because this was also the recommendation of the RDRS Standing Committee.

 

Specifically, the Council discussed the ramifications of following the RDRS Standing Committee’s recommendations during the dialogue with the Board Data Privacy/Protection Caucus members and noted the following: 

 

• The RDRS Standing Committee was composed of members from across the ICANN Community and discussed the potential benefits and drawbacks of all available procedural paths before making the recommendation to not adopt the SSAD recommendations as a package; 
• Non-adoption and the subsequent steps in Annex A, Section 9 of the Bylaws would initiate a dialogue between the GNSO Council and the ICANN Board; 
• The GNSO Council would have an opportunity to provide Supplemental Recommendations, which would allow for important and necessary improvements to the existing SSAD recommendations; and, 
• This would provide a procedurally efficient path that recognizes the ICANN Community’s desire for this work to be completed in a timely manner.

 

Because we previously agreed on this Supplemental Recommendation path, and this has now been formally assigned to us by the recent Board resolution, my hope is that we can continue to refine the draft Assignment Form, in order to incorporate additional guardrails, if these are felt to be needed, and settle on a mutually-agreeable team composition in order to progress the task efficiently.   

 

Remit of the Council under the Bylaws 

 

Annex A, Section 9 of the ICANN Bylaws governs the process for Supplemental Recommendations. Specifically, if the Board determines GNSO policy recommendations are “not in the best interests of the ICANN community or ICANN (the Corporation), the Board shall (i) articulate the reasons for its determination in a report to the Council (the "Board Statement"); and (ii) submit the Board Statement to the Council.” Subsequently, “at the conclusion of the Council and Board discussions, the Council shall meet to affirm or modify its recommendation, and communicate that conclusion (the "Supplemental Recommendation") to the Board.”

 

The Bylaws do not dictate the method in which the Council produces Supplemental Recommendations. In the past, specifically for the Subsequent Procedures Supplemental Recommendations, the Council chose to use a Small Team Plus, which allowed the Council to advance its work with the inclusion of additional subject matter expertise from outside the GNSO Council. 

 

Here, the Council has previously noted the advantage of allowing for external expertise to be included in the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team; specifically, some Councilors have noted the importance of including expertise from the RDRS Standing Committee, for example. In addition, some Councilors have noted the importance of including members from outside the GNSO that actively participated in the original EPDP Team and the RDRS Standing Committee, e.g., ALAC, GAC, and SSAC.

 

Can the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team create new policy? 

 

The remit of the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team is to modify existing policy recommendations, not create new policy. The modification of existing recommendations (i.e., the eventual Supplemental Recommendations) will be expressly limited by the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team’s draft Assignment Form and its corresponding scope. In other words, the creation of Supplemental Recommendations is only an open opportunity for the Council to modify policy recommendations, grounded in previous work.

 

The RDRS Standing Committee, which was chartered by the GNSO Council, was tasked with, et al., providing the Council with “specific lessons learned that should be factored into the consideration of how to proceed with the SSAD (System for Standardized Access/Disclosure) Recommendations and suggestions to the Council for a proposed recommendation(s) to the ICANN Board in relation to the consideration of the SSAD recommendations.”

 

In providing its rationale for Recommendation 5, which advised the Council to consider asking the Board to non-adopt the 18 SSAD recommendations, the RDRS Standing Committee noted it “encourage[s] a willingness to consider modifying parts of the EPDP Phase 2 policy recommendations, if needed, as indicated in the below table. The SC considers it important to achieve a functional policy that adapts to the changed circumstances and benefits from the lessons learned of the RDRS pilot. [Accordingly,] the SC has developed the table below evaluating each of the 18 SSAD policy recommendations considering the RDRS pilot outcomes. It indicates whether each recommendation should be kept or modified along with rationale rooted in the pilot’s evidence and the Standing Committee’s considerations in [conducting its assignment from the Council.]”

 

In light of the above, the Standing Committee’s, ICANN Board’s, and the Council’s expectation would be that the EPDP recommendations would be modified, using the provided guidance, to allow for important and necessary improvements to the existing SSAD recommendations. For the avoidance of doubt, the SC’s guidance on the potential modifications is simply that.  It serves as a valuable starting point for the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team, given the substantial consideration that the SC has already given to this issue, but does not determine the outcome.  

 

Can all GNSO Councilors participate? 

 

Yes, any interested and committed GNSO Councilor is invited to participate in the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team. 

 

What is the expected time commitment? 

 

Because the Council has committed to complete the work on Supplemental Recommendations “in months, not years,” the group will be meeting regularly to progress on this work. At minimum, it is likely that the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team will meet once per week for up to 90 minutes, with a possibility of increasing the cadence if the need arises.

 

Additionally, we understand that ICANN Support Staff has been working on providing the group with dedicated face-to-face time at ICANN86. In light of this, ICANN org is currently working on organizing a one-day in-person workshop on Sunday, 7 June before ICANN86 officially begins on Monday. If you think you are interested in participating in the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team, please make note of this date. Councilors who choose to participate in the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team will be granted an early arrival date to allow for participation in this workshop. More information to follow soon.

 

While this task will require a time commitment from the participants, we hope that tight scoping and the limitations in place on the breadth of modification will assist in controlling this as much as possible.

 

Other than the time commitment, is there anything else I should know if I would like to participate?

 

Per the draft Assignment Form, the SSAD Supplemental Recommendations Team is expected to consider several inputs as it develops Supplemental Recommendations, as these inputs serve as important boundaries on the level of modifications to the recommendations, including:

 

• RDRS Standing Committee Final Findings Report and the recommendations therein; 
• SSAD Operational Design Assessment
• RDRS Policy Alignment Analysis and Public Comment Summary

 

Councilors interested in participating are expected to be familiar with the 18 original SSAD recommendations as well as the above documents. 

 

What is the Council’s role at this stage?

 

We understand the importance of scoping this work appropriately and mitigating concerns from across the Council and Community. Accordingly, we ask that Councilors closely review the draft Assignment Form and provide suggestions and edits before our Council meeting on 16 April so that we can have a fulsome discussion on any remaining questions or concerns with the Assignment Form, with the goal of kicking off this work shortly after the meeting. 

 

Thank you.

 

Susan