All, Please see below for the submission discussed and agreed under Agenda Item 5 in today's GNSO Council meeting. Thank-you. Jonathan From: Jonathan Robinson [mailto:jonathan.robinson@ipracon.com] Sent: 08 May 2014 22:40 To: 'ianatransition@icann.org' Subject: Proposal for a Cross-Community Working Group Dear ICANN, Please find the following comments regarding an emerging plan for a Cross-Community Working Group (CWG) intended to make a substantive contribution to the the Principles and Mechanisms and the Process to Develop a Proposal to Transition NTIA's Stewardship of the IANA Functions. These comments are respectfully submitted for and on behalf of the GNSO Council. Since well prior to the "Call for Public Input: Draft Proposal, Based on Initial Community Feedback, of the Principles and Mechanisms and the Process to Develop a Proposal to Transition NTIA's Stewardship of the IANA Functions", there has been significant discussion on the substantial issues associated with the transition from NTIA. Some of this discussion has focussed on the prospect of the formation, chartering and working of a Cross-Community Working Group to deal with the key elements of this process. For the avoidance of doubt, the current CWG on Internet Governance has made it clear that its scope will not include detailed work on the NTIA transition. At the ICANN meeting in Singapore, an initial proposal for a charter of such a CWG was circulated in the community and this has received some iterations and developments since. It is far from the finished article and nor should it be, since the drafting of a such charter should be the first task of the CWG. Nevertheless, at its meeting today, the GNSO Council agreed to submit the early draft charter to this call for public input in order to commit to record both the early draft charter as a potential starting point and the intention to move forward with the bottom-up formation of a CWG in collaboration with others in the ICANN community. Accordingly, the draft charter is attached to this submission. An additional key point to note is that existing ICANN Community processes and relationships should be used to facilitate this effort as much as possible. This will minimise the need to create new processes and should generally enhance efficiency of the work. Notwithstanding this, modifications can be expected to be needed in order to facilitate and encourage participation by those from outside of the ICANN Community. The use of a CWG with a community defined scope, reflected in a well-defined charter provides the prospect of truly bottom-up, multi-stakeholder process to deal with this critical set of issues. Such a process may well integrate with the ICANN Draft Proposal (to be modified in response to this public comment) and we trust that the prospect of a CWG will be recognised by all for its potential value and legitimacy as a bottom-up, community led initiative proposed in good faith and which can be assisted and supported by ICANN as envisaged in the NTIA announcement. Yours sincerely, Jonathan Robinson Chair, ICANN GNSO Council