I would like to make the motion copied below and attached for Council consideration in our meeting on 24 September 2009. Note that it is also posted on the Council wiki at https://st.icann.org/gnso-council/index.cgi?24_sept_motions. Please note the following: * To deal with concerns about the short time constraints and inability for constituencies to get appropriate input from their members, please note that the motion only approves the plan as a draft that will be distributed for public comment; the final plan as possibly modified by any input during the public comment period or further Council discussion would be voted on on 28 October in Seoul. * A very brief (7-day) public comment period is proposed for the draft Council Operating Procedures that will be distributed not later than tomorrow. The reason for the short comment period is that our next Council meeting is scheduled for 8 October with just a two-week interval in between meetings and we will need time in the second week to finalize the assignment of NCAs to Council seats. * I used the comments received from Olga, Alan, Kristina, Stephan and Mike to develop a plan for assigning the NCAs to seats. I think I accommodated suggestions from each of them in the proposed approach. Please distribute this motion to your constituencies and stakeholder groups ASAP for their review and input before our meeting on 24 September. Proposed amendments are welcome. Thanks, Chuck Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition 15 September 2009 Whereas: * On 27 August 2009 the ICANN Board approved Bylaws Amendments Related to GNSO Restructuring ( http://www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws-amendments-27aug09.pdf <http://www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws-amendments-27aug09.pdf> ) in support of the transition to a new GNSO Council to be seated during the ICANN meetings in Seoul in October 2009. * Article XX (Transition Article), Section 5, item 5.e of the Bylaws Amendments reads, "The three seats currently selected by the Nominating Committee shall be assigned by the Nominating Committee as follows: one voting member to the Contracted Party House, one voting member to the Non-Contracted Party House, and one non-voting member assigned to the GNSO Council at large." * The Bylaws Amendments were approved too late in the 2009 Nominating Committee process to allow the three Nominating Committee seats to be assigned by the Nominating Committee. * Article XX (Transition Article), Section 5, item 6 of the Bylaws Amendments reads, "The GNSO Council, as part of its Restructure Implementation Plan, will document: (a) how vacancies, if any, will be handled during the transition period; (b) for each Stakeholder Group, how each assigned Council seat to take effect at the 2009 ICANN annual meeting will be filled, whether through a continuation of an existing term or a new election or appointment; (c) how it plans to address staggered terms such that the new GNSO Council preserves as much continuity as reasonably possible; (d) the effect of Bylaws term limits on each Council member." * Article XX (Transition Article), Section 5, item 11 of the Bylaws Amendments reads, "As soon as practical after the commencement of the ICANN meeting in October 2009, or another date the Board may designate by resolution, the GNSO Council shall, in accordance with Article X, Section 3(7) and its GNSO Operating Procedures, elect officers and give the ICANN Secretary written notice of its selections." * The GNSO Council desires to: i) Maximize continuity in the transition from the old to the new Council; ii) minimize the complexity for Stakeholder Groups in selecting Councilors; and iii) respect the rights of GNSO Stakeholder Groups to elect their Council representatives in ways that best meet their needs while complying with the ICANN Bylaws. * The GNSO Council Operations work team prepared draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures and the Operations Steering Committee forwarded those for Council consideration on 16 September 2009. The GNSO Council approves the following plan: 1. Not later than 30 September 2009 if possible, all Councilors who will be seated in the 28 October public GNSO Council meeting should be selected and the GNSO Secretariat provided with their contact information. 2. Each Stakeholder Group may determine the term dates for its respective Councilors provided those dates are compliant with the ICANN Bylaws and their respective charters; any terms that are changed from the previously defined dates strictly for the purpose of seating the bicameral Council shall not be considered partial terms with regard to complying with Bylaws term limit requirements. 3. Each House will elect a vice chair for the new bicameral Council not later than Tuesday, 27 October 2009. (Ideally, this should happen during the weekend working sessions on 24-25 October 2009.) 4. The new bicameral Council will be seated in the public GNSO Council meeting on 28 October 2009. 5. Avri Doria, current GNSO Council chair, will serve as chair of the bicameral Council meeting on 28 October until such time as a new chair is elected, at which time the new chair will assume the chair responsibilities. If an absentee ballot is required to complete the chair's election, this will be a 24 hour ballot scheduled to end on 29 October. If no chair has been elected by the end of the Annual meeting on 30 October, the vice-chairs will assume the chair responsibilities as defined in the Bylaws 6. Not later than 24 September 2009, the existing GNSO Council will approve a draft of the GNSO Council Operating Procedures (previously called the Rules of Procedure of the GNSO Council) and submit them for a 7-day public comment period starting not later than 24 September 2009; such draft will include a revision of those areas of the existing Rules necessary for seating the bicameral Council. 7. As much in advance of the meeting as possible, the agenda for the 28 October 2009 Council meeting will be prepared by the existing Council under the leadership of Avri Doria as chair and shall include but not be limited to the following two action items: 1) Approval of the Council Operations Procedures necessary for seating the bicameral Council; 2) Election of chair. 8. The Council requests that the Nominating Committee be tasked with assigning all three Nominating Committee Appointees (NCAs) to Council seats beginning after the 2010 ICANN Annual Meeting. For the period starting on 28 October 2009 and continuing only through the 2010 ICANN Annual Meeting, the following procedure will be used to assign NCAs to Council seats: a. ICANN Staff should ensure that a Statement of Interest is received from Andrey Kolesnikov and sent to the Council not later than 30 September 2009. b. Not later than 30 September 2009, new and existing NCAs will make best efforts to collaborate and provide their input to the GNSO Council regarding their recommendations for assigning Council seats. Such input should include any seating assignments that any of the NCAs would individually be uncomfortable taking along with their reasons. c. Taking into consideration the input from the NCAs, if any, both GNSO Council Houses and/or their respective Stakeholder Groups should attempt to reach agreement on the seating for each of the three NCAs for the first year of the new bicameral Council and communicate the results to the Council not later than 7 October 2009. d. If the GNSO Council Houses and/or their respective Stakeholder Groups are unable to reach agreement, then the new, inexperienced NCA will take the non-voting Council seat and random selection will be used to assign the other two NCAs to Houses before the Council meeting on 8 October 2009. e. In the meeting scheduled for 8 October 2009, the Council will acknowledge the results of this process and confirm that it was properly conducted. 9. The Council requests ICANN Staff support to fulfill this plan, including but not limited to scheduling and arranging for any needed teleconference calls.