Dear Council Members, As we discussed over the weekend sessions, I have taken helpful suggestions from John Berard, Steve DelBianco and Avri Doria and revised the motion as follows. The additions are the 4th and 5th Whereas clauses, which are new, and Sections 3(b) and (d) of the Resolution section, which also are new. I also have taken Avri’s suggestion that we not obligate the Council as a whole to discuss this, and I have changed "new committee of the whole” in Section 1 to simply “new committee of the Council.” We can certainly all opt in to that Committee if we wish, but it won’t be obligatory. I look forward to discussing this issue in our meeting on Wednesday. Bret — START MOTION — Whereas, in 2005, this Council of the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) began a policy development process to consider the introduction of new gTLDs, which resulted in the creation of certain policy recommendations for the launch of a new gTLD application process; and, Whereas, in September 2007, this Council adopted the policy recommendations from the GNSO policy development process and forwarded them to the ICANN Board of Directors; and, Whereas, in June 2008, the ICANN Board adopted the GNSO's policy recommendations for the introduction of new gTLDs and directed staff to develop an implementation plan for a new gTLD introduction process; and Whereas, in September 2009, ICANN and the U.S. National Telecommunications Information Administration entered into an Affirmation of Commitments (“AOC”) in which ICANN committed to organize a review of certain aspects of the introduction and expansion of gTLDs (AOC, at Section 9.3); and, Whereas, in its April, 2011 Communique, ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee (“GAC”) asked (at p.6) for a "comprehensive post-launch independent review of the [Trademark] Clearinghouse [to] be conducted one year after the launch of the 75th new gTLD in the round;” and, Whereas, in June 2011, the ICANN Board approved an Application Guidebook ("AGB") for new gTLDs and authorized the launch of the New gTLD Program; and, Whereas, the AGB provided that it was intended to govern "the first round of what is to be an ongoing process for the introduction of new TLDs" (Application, Module 2); and, Whereas, Section 1.1.6 of the AGB ("Subsequent Application Rounds") provided that "ICANN’s goal [was] to launch subsequent gTLD application rounds as quickly as possible" and promised to base the timing of subsequent rounds on "experiences gained and changes required after this round is completed" with a "goal...for the next application round to begin within one year of the close of the application submission period for the initial round.;" and Whereas, the first round application submission period closed in June, 2012; and, Whereas, the Council believes that it has a continuing interest and role to play in evaluating the experiences of the first found and proposing policy recommendations, if necessary, for changes to subsequent rounds; Now therefore, it is resolved: 1. The GNSO Council creates a new committee of the Council to discuss the experiences gained by the first round of new gTLD applications and identify subjects for future issue reports, if any, that might lead to changes or adjustments for subsequent application rounds; and, 2. ICANN invites the New gTLD Program Committee of the ICANN Board to provide input into the GNSO Council discussion to identify areas that it believes may be appropriate for discussion for an evaluation of the current gTLD application round and/or for possible adjustments for subsequent application rounds; and, 3. The GNSO Council requests a status report from ICANN Staff on the current progress of (a) the New gTLD program generally; (b) ICANN's anticipated timeline and work plan for the review specified in Section 9.3 of the Affirmation of Commitments; (c) ICANN's work to date on any evaluation of the first round; (d) the work to date on the post-launch independent review of the Trademark Clearinghouse; and (e) ICANN's current projection for a timetable for subsequent rounds. — END MOTION —