[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org] Dear Councillors, The terms for the GNSO Council Chair and Vice-chair run concurrently and expire on 31 January 2008. Pursuant to the ICANN bylaws http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#X-3.7 Section 3.7 The GNSO Council shall select the GNSO Chair, for a term the GNSO Council specifies but not longer than one year, by written ballot or by action at a meeting. Any such selection must have affirmative votes comprising a majority of the votes of all the members of the GNSO Council. There will be a total of 27 votes cast. The winning candidate must receive at least 14 affirmative votes. In case of a tie, there will be a second round of voting. The process followed in the past for the election of the GNSO Council Chair and Vice-chair, has been a call for nominations open for a period of two weeks for each position separately, Chair followed by Vice-chair. All nominations should be seconded by the end of this period, and only GNSO Council members are eligible to make nominations and second them. The voting period, is usually open for 14 days for the position of GNSO Council chair. Voting will take place by secret e-mail ballot. Ballots will be sent out individually to each GNSO Council members' e-mail address. The same procedure that has taken place for the ICANN Board seat #13 elections. 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. When the e-mail vote is closed, the results will be announced for each council member to check that her/his vote was correctly registered and the results of the e-mail vote will be confirmed at a GNSO Council meeting. Given the approaching holiday season a proposed election schedule could look like this: GNSO Council chair: Call for nominations: Thursday 22 November to 6 December 2007. Voting period: Thursday 13 December 2007 to Monday 7 January 2008. (extended voting period due to holiday season) Announce the results Wednesday 9 January 2008 Confirm the vote at the scheduled GNSO Council meeting on 17 January 2008. Vice-chair : Call for nominations 9 January to 23 January 2008 Vote: by roll call vote at GNSO Council meeting 31 January 2008. Please let me have your comments. Thank you. kind regards, Glen Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org