Hello All, I have reviewed our process for developing the criteria for the selection of the .net registry operator with the ICANN General Counsel. The Council in its meeting of 1 April responded to ICANN's formal request for guidance concerning the criteria for designating a successor operator for .net, by forming a subcommittee of Council to develop recommendations regarding criteria. The subcommittee has already done significant work in developing a set of draft criteria for consideration by Council. As it is a requirement that the criteria be developed by a consensus process, it would be appropriate to ensure that we gain maximum input from the constituencies and wider community. This may take a little longer than first anticipated, but will still meet the timelines required by ICANN. With reference to Annex A of the bylaws, I suggest the following next steps in the process. (1) Request that ICANN formally notify the public on its website that the GNSO has commenced work on providing the Board with guidance on criteria for designating a successor operator for .net. The notification should reference the current draft of the work of the subcommittee (http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/dotnet/dotnet-draft-reportv51.pdf - 28 May 2004 (2) Open up a 20 day public comment period on the current draft of the report.

From 28 May 2004 to 18 June 2004

(3) Seek comment from each of the GNSO constituencies to the current draft during the public comment period. (4) Incorporate the public comment and any further constituency comments into a "Initial Report" Publish Initial report: 25 June 2004 (5) Commence a final 20 day public comment period on the "Initial Report" Public comment from 25 June 2004 to 15 July 2004 (6) Complete final report for consideration by the GNSO Council 16 July 2004 (7) Council to vote on final recommendations at its meeting in Kuala Lumpur 20 July 2004 Regards, Bruce Tonkin