Hello All, I see that the latest bylaw suggestions deal with voting on major issues by those absent from a meeting. This is a good improvement. Has any consideration been given to situations of conflicts of interest? I can recall in the past several instances where a Council member handed over a proxy to another Council member without voting instructions where they felt there was a conflict of interest. For example, at one point the GNSO Council (or it might have been the DNSO Names Council at the time) voted to recommend a set of criteria for the rebid of .net. Most of the Council members that could be involved in a potential bid for .net abstained (including myself at the time) and handed their proxies to vote as he saw fit to Alick Wilson at the time (who was a nominating committee appointee). I haven't seen an example recently where a Council member has abstained from voting due to conflict of interest - but I think it is worth considering the process around that. Otherwise a Council member may feel obligated to vote on instructions from their constituency even where they may have a personal conflict of interest. Regards, Bruce Tonkin