👍 Bruna Martins dos Santos hat über Gmail <https://www.google.com/gmail/about/?utm_source=gmail-in-product&utm_medium=e...> reagiert
It has been the tradition of the Council to validate appointments made by the SCC with a consent vote. Which in all cases supports the outcome of SCC's proposal. I want to believe that the intent here by some of my council colleague's is not seeking to change this to a “Yes” or “No” vote - where this is the case, I am not aware of any known process/remediation leading to fill such vacancies should that route be adopted. I have not always agreed with the outcomes of the SCC in selecting candidates but have always aligned with the consent adoption of its nominees by Council. In this case, I believe a good choice has been made and a number of us look forward to the work ahead of this PDP. The Chair elect and staff have also done a great job of keeping the working group membership abreast of plans leading to ICANN 85 and i encourage all to provide them every support needed to run the meetings as scheduled. LOR. ----- [Image] [Image] Lawrence Olawale-Roberts Global President & Managing Director Mobile: +234 8070892705, (0)8056 3333 97 Lawrence@microboss.org<mailto:Lawrence@microboss.org> [Image] [Image] …collaboration to enhance communication. [Image] https://www.microboss.org<https://www.microboss.org/> | [Image]<https://www.facebook.com/microbosstech/> [Image]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/microbosstech/> [Image]<https://mobile.twitter.com/microbosstech> [Image]<https://www.instagram.com/microbosstech/?hl=en> [Image]<https://www.youtube.com/@microboss> This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and may be protected by legal, professional or other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not store it, copy it, re-transmit it, use it or disclose its contents, but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy from your system. The views expressed are those of the sender and his company MicroBoss. Kindly note that whilst we scan all e-mails for viruses, we cannot guarantee that any e-mail is virus-free. | Do consider the environment before printing this email. ________________________________ From: Bruna Martins dos Santos via council <council@icann.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 11:49:37 PM To: Volker Greimann <volker.greimann@centralnic.com> Cc: Anne ICANN via council <council@icann.org> Subject: [council] Re: DNS Abuse PDP Chair 👍 Bruna Martins dos Santos hat über Gmail<https://www.google.com/gmail/about/?utm_source=gmail-in-product&utm_medium=e...> reagiert
Just taking the chance to reshare Volker‘s email that seemed to have gotten lost: Hi Susan, even though I am a recent addition to the council, I have been "around the block" a few years back, and so I am new to the changed processes, but I do share some of the discomfort with the process. I do understand the SSC is a (relatively) new (at least to me) addition to the way candidates for roles are selected. Having reviewed the charter of the SSC, I note that its mission is to: *"where applicable, prepare and issue calls for applications related to the selection or nomination of candidates for ICANN structures such as ICANN review teams, 2) review and evaluate all relevant applicants/candidates, 3) rank candidates and make selection/appointment**recommendations **for review and approval by Council and 4) communicate selections to all interested parties."* From what I have seen so far, it sounds like the selection of the chair is a foregone conclusion now that Paul has already been selected by the SSC but that would be premature. If that were the case, its actual role would go beyond the stated mission of making a recommendation to the council and reduce our role to a mere rubber-stamping function. It used to be the basic assumption that the working group would select its leadership, not the council, but now the council seems to have abdicated this role to a committee. Instead of a choice between candidates, or letting the WG make their own choice, we are reduced to approving or denying an already determined result. Your response to Bruna seems to indicate that you assume that if we were not to elect a chair as the council, and especially the one chair candidate recommended by the SSC, the WG would be without leadership for the entirety of the Mumbai meeting, but I do not share this assumption. Instead, the PDP guidelines provide for an exact process that would be followed to allow the meetings to run smoothly and effectively. Staff would provide an interim chair and the first order of business would then be the selection of a chair by the WG. This could be achieved rather quickly in the first half hour of the meeting if managed effectively. Now, I do note that there is something to be said for the added efficiency that this process seems to bring, but efficiency is not always preferable over agency. Please note that none of this is in any way directed against Paul, whom I hold in very high regard and see as a highly qualified choice. This is entirely about the process and the way we seem to be conducting our business these days. Sincerely, *Volker Greimann* *General Counsel & Head of Policy and Compliance - Online Division* volker.greimann@centralnic.com Office: +49-172-6367025 Web: www.teaminternet.com Team Internet Group PLC (AIM:TIG). Registered Office: 4th Floor, Saddlers House, 44 Gutter Lane, London, United Kingdom, EC2V 6BR <https://www.google.com/maps/search/44+Gutter+Lane,+London,+United%0D%0A+King...>. Team Internet is a company registered in England and Wales with the company number 8576358. Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts <lawrence@microboss.org> schrieb am Mi. 25. Feb. 2026 um 01:13:
It has been the tradition of the Council to validate appointments made by the SCC with a consent vote. Which in all cases supports the outcome of SCC's proposal. I want to believe that the intent here by some of my council colleague's is not seeking to change this to a “Yes” or “No” vote - where this is the case, I am not aware of any known process/remediation leading to fill such vacancies should that route be adopted.
I have not always agreed with the outcomes of the SCC in selecting candidates but have always aligned with the consent adoption of its nominees by Council. In this case, I believe a good choice has been made and a number of us look forward to the work ahead of this PDP.
The Chair elect and staff have also done a great job of keeping the working group membership abreast of plans leading to ICANN 85 and i encourage all to provide them every support needed to run the meetings as scheduled.
LOR.
-----
[image: Image]
[image: Image]
*Lawrence* *Olawale-Roberts* Global President & Managing Director
Mobile: +234 8070892705, (0)8056 3333 97 Lawrence@microboss.org
[image: Image]
[image: Image]
*…collaboration to enhance communication*.
[image: Image]
[image: Image] <https://www.facebook.com/microbosstech/>
[image: Image] <https://www.linkedin.com/company/microbosstech/>
[image: Image] <https://mobile.twitter.com/microbosstech>
[image: Image] <https://www.instagram.com/microbosstech/?hl=en>
[image: Image] <https://www.youtube.com/@microboss>
This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and may be protected by legal, professional or other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not store it, copy it, re-transmit it,
use it or disclose its contents, but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy from your system. The views expressed are those of the sender and his company MicroBoss.
Kindly note that whilst we scan all e-mails for viruses, we cannot guarantee that any e-mail is virus-free. | Do consider the environment before printing this email. ------------------------------ *From:* Bruna Martins dos Santos via council <council@icann.org> *Sent:* Tuesday, February 24, 2026 11:49:37 PM *To:* Volker Greimann <volker.greimann@centralnic.com> *Cc:* Anne ICANN via council <council@icann.org> *Subject:* [council] Re: DNS Abuse PDP Chair
👍
Bruna Martins dos Santos hat über Gmail <https://www.google.com/gmail/about/?utm_source=gmail-in-product&utm_medium=e...> reagiert
Thanks for resharing Volker email, but my assumptions differ from his submission. Where for any good reason the decision of SCC is not confirmed by Council and the proposed candidate rejected, the working group would be without a Chair for the reason that according to the working group’s charter which was developed with inputs and reviews from many of us here in Council, it is the GNSO Council’s role to appoint a Chair for the Working group for which the mechanism of doing so is the SCC. It therefore infers that if there are good reasons presented to Council to invalidate the current selection made, then a new call for candidates would have to be opened and another selection process engaged to fill the vacancy by the SCC (except council makes an exception). Any other mechanism would go against the approved charter of the working group and i do not believe we have grounds to do so in this instance. The charter also guides as to how a vice-chair may be selected and that process is ongoing. LOR ----- [Image] [Image] Lawrence Olawale-Roberts Global President & Managing Director Mobile: +234 8070892705, (0)8056 3333 97 Lawrence@microboss.org<mailto:Lawrence@microboss.org> [Image] [Image] …collaboration to enhance communication. [Image] https://www.microboss.org<https://www.microboss.org/> | [Image]<https://www.facebook.com/microbosstech/> [Image]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/microbosstech/> [Image]<https://mobile.twitter.com/microbosstech> [Image]<https://www.instagram.com/microbosstech/?hl=en> [Image]<https://www.youtube.com/@microboss> This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and may be protected by legal, professional or other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not store it, copy it, re-transmit it, use it or disclose its contents, but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy from your system. The views expressed are those of the sender and his company MicroBoss. Kindly note that whilst we scan all e-mails for viruses, we cannot guarantee that any e-mail is virus-free. | Do consider the environment before printing this email. ________________________________ From: Bruna Martins dos Santos <bruna.mrtns@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2026 1:17:08 AM To: Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts <lawrence@microboss.org> Cc: Volker Greimann <volker.greimann@centralnic.com>; Anne ICANN via council <council@icann.org> Subject: Re: [council] Re: DNS Abuse PDP Chair Just taking the chance to reshare Volker‘s email that seemed to have gotten lost: Hi Susan, even though I am a recent addition to the council, I have been "around the block" a few years back, and so I am new to the changed processes, but I do share some of the discomfort with the process. I do understand the SSC is a (relatively) new (at least to me) addition to the way candidates for roles are selected. Having reviewed the charter of the SSC, I note that its mission is to: "where applicable, prepare and issue calls for applications related to the selection or nomination of candidates for ICANN structures such as ICANN review teams, 2) review and evaluate all relevant applicants/candidates, 3) rank candidates and make selection/appointmentrecommendations for review and approval by Council and 4) communicate selections to all interested parties." From what I have seen so far, it sounds like the selection of the chair is a foregone conclusion now that Paul has already been selected by the SSC but that would be premature. If that were the case, its actual role would go beyond the stated mission of making a recommendation to the council and reduce our role to a mere rubber-stamping function. It used to be the basic assumption that the working group would select its leadership, not the council, but now the council seems to have abdicated this role to a committee. Instead of a choice between candidates, or letting the WG make their own choice, we are reduced to approving or denying an already determined result. Your response to Bruna seems to indicate that you assume that if we were not to elect a chair as the council, and especially the one chair candidate recommended by the SSC, the WG would be without leadership for the entirety of the Mumbai meeting, but I do not share this assumption. Instead, the PDP guidelines provide for an exact process that would be followed to allow the meetings to run smoothly and effectively. Staff would provide an interim chair and the first order of business would then be the selection of a chair by the WG. This could be achieved rather quickly in the first half hour of the meeting if managed effectively. Now, I do note that there is something to be said for the added efficiency that this process seems to bring, but efficiency is not always preferable over agency. Please note that none of this is in any way directed against Paul, whom I hold in very high regard and see as a highly qualified choice. This is entirely about the process and the way we seem to be conducting our business these days. Sincerely, Volker Greimann General Counsel & Head of Policy and Compliance - Online Division volker.greimann@centralnic.com<mailto:volker.greimann@centralnic.com> Office: +49-172-6367025 Web: www.teaminternet.com<http://www.teaminternet.com> Team Internet Group PLC (AIM:TIG). Registered Office: 4th Floor, Saddlers House, 44 Gutter Lane, London, United Kingdom, EC2V 6BR<https://www.google.com/maps/search/44+Gutter+Lane,+London,+United%0D%0A+King...>. Team Internet is a company registered in England and Wales with the company number 8576358. Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts <lawrence@microboss.org<mailto:lawrence@microboss.org>> schrieb am Mi. 25. Feb. 2026 um 01:13: It has been the tradition of the Council to validate appointments made by the SCC with a consent vote. Which in all cases supports the outcome of SCC's proposal. I want to believe that the intent here by some of my council colleague's is not seeking to change this to a “Yes” or “No” vote - where this is the case, I am not aware of any known process/remediation leading to fill such vacancies should that route be adopted. I have not always agreed with the outcomes of the SCC in selecting candidates but have always aligned with the consent adoption of its nominees by Council. In this case, I believe a good choice has been made and a number of us look forward to the work ahead of this PDP. The Chair elect and staff have also done a great job of keeping the working group membership abreast of plans leading to ICANN 85 and i encourage all to provide them every support needed to run the meetings as scheduled. LOR. ----- [Image] [Image] Lawrence Olawale-Roberts Global President & Managing Director Mobile: +234 8070892705, (0)8056 3333 97 Lawrence@microboss.org<mailto:Lawrence@microboss.org> [Image] [Image] …collaboration to enhance communication. [Image] https://www.microboss.org<https://www.microboss.org/> | [Image]<https://www.facebook.com/microbosstech/> [Image]<https://www.linkedin.com/company/microbosstech/> [Image]<https://mobile.twitter.com/microbosstech> [Image]<https://www.instagram.com/microbosstech/?hl=en> [Image]<https://www.youtube.com/@microboss> This e-mail and any attachments are confidential and may be protected by legal, professional or other privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not store it, copy it, re-transmit it, use it or disclose its contents, but should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy from your system. The views expressed are those of the sender and his company MicroBoss. Kindly note that whilst we scan all e-mails for viruses, we cannot guarantee that any e-mail is virus-free. | Do consider the environment before printing this email. ________________________________ From: Bruna Martins dos Santos via council <council@icann.org<mailto:council@icann.org>> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 11:49:37 PM To: Volker Greimann <volker.greimann@centralnic.com<mailto:volker.greimann@centralnic.com>> Cc: Anne ICANN via council <council@icann.org<mailto:council@icann.org>> Subject: [council] Re: DNS Abuse PDP Chair 👍 Bruna Martins dos Santos hat über Gmail<https://www.google.com/gmail/about/?utm_source=gmail-in-product&utm_medium=e...> reagiert
On 25/02/2026 2:38 am, Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts via council wrote:
Where for any good reason the decision of SCC is not confirmed by Council and the proposed candidate rejected, the working group would be without a Chair for the reason that according to the working group’s charter which was developed with inputs and reviews from many of us here in Council, it is the GNSO Council’s role to appoint a Chair for the Working group for which the mechanism of doing so is the SCC.
Just to clarify, the SSC does not usually select WG chairs. It is normally done either by the council/council leadership or by the WG itself. In this case the council leadership decided to use the SCC process, but in a heavily modified (and exceptional) form. After discussions the process was then changed to be more in line with normal SSC practice, but the use of the SSC in selecting a WG chair is still unusual, and purely a council leadership decision, not normal practice. Julf
Hi Julf. My recollection is that in this particular case, it was not Council Leadership that determined that the Chair of the PDP would be selected by the Standing Selection Committee, but rather the Charter Drafting Team for the PDP. The reason for this was in part the fact that I raised the issue that every single member of this PDP is representing particular interests and is not really empowered to act in a neutral manner because the PDP is Representative only and has no open model element.. So I think it's not accurate to say that Council Leadership made this determination re the SSC's role in selecting a Chair. I have also served on the SSC and very much appreciate the fact that the mode of decision-maknig is to come to a unanimous decision, which is apparently what happened here. I think there is a difference between the point Bruna is raising and the completely orderly and proper selection of the Chair by the SSC as contemplated by the Charter drafting team. I understood Bruna's point to be about communication on the PDP list and also about the order of Chair approval by the Council before installing that selection to the Chair position. So it strikes me the issue is about communication and not about the fact that it was determined the Chair should be recommended to Council by the SSC. So at this point I would ask Council members if (1)anyone plans to request this item be moved off of the Council's Consent Agenda and (2) anyone objects to the SSC Recommendation to Council (3) anyone objects to Paul chairing the meetings in Mumbai before the Council vote (4) anyone believes that Vice Chair selection should be delayed until the Council vote on the Chair occurs. Thank you, Anne Anne Aikman-Scalese GNSO Councilor NomCom Non-Voting 2022-2026 anneicanngnso@gmail.com On Wed, Feb 25, 2026 at 12:38 AM Johan Helsingius via council < council@icann.org> wrote:
On 25/02/2026 2:38 am, Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts via council wrote:
Where for any good reason the decision of SCC is not confirmed by Council and the proposed candidate rejected, the working group would be without a Chair for the reason that according to the working group’s charter which was developed with inputs and reviews from many of us here in Council, it is the GNSO Council’s role to appoint a Chair for the Working group for which the mechanism of doing so is the SCC.
Just to clarify, the SSC does not usually select WG chairs. It is normally done either by the council/council leadership or by the WG itself. In this case the council leadership decided to use the SCC process, but in a heavily modified (and exceptional) form. After discussions the process was then changed to be more in line with normal SSC practice, but the use of the SSC in selecting a WG chair is still unusual, and purely a council leadership decision, not normal practice.
Julf
_______________________________________________ council mailing list -- council@icann.org To unsubscribe send an email to council-leave@icann.org
_______________________________________________ By submitting your personal data, you consent to the processing of your personal data for purposes of subscribing to this mailing list accordance with the ICANN Privacy Policy (https://www.icann.org/privacy/policy) and the website Terms of Service (https://www.icann.org/privacy/tos). You can visit the Mailman link above to change your membership status or configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.
Hi Anne,
My recollection is that in this particular case, it was not Council Leadership that determined that the Chair of the PDP would be selected by the Standing Selection Committee, but rather the Charter Drafting Team for the PDP. That is quite possible, but we were not aware of that. All we had was what staff relayed to us from the council leadership.
Julf
On 25/02/2026 1:13 am, Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts via council wrote:
It has been the tradition of the Council to validate appointments made by the SCC with a consent vote. While it is true that the council has tended to approve the recommendation from the SSC, we start every SSC meeting by reminding everybody that the SSC selection is only a recommendation and that the final decision is with the council.
There is also always the very real possibility that the SSC can't come to a consensus, and that the Council has to make the choice without a SSC recommendation, so there are existing procedures and precedents for that. Julf (in his role as SSC chair)
participants (4)
-
Anne ICANN -
Bruna Martins dos Santos -
Johan Helsingius -
Lawrence O. Olawale-Roberts